It is widely recognized that a professional engineer needs to be aware of a range of issues
much wider than the mere technical knowledge necessary to practice the chosen
engineering discipline. The Engineering Council, for example, requires that the formation
of a professional engineer should include, amongst other things,
Technical decision making and its commercial and economic implementation;
…knowledge of government legislation affecting work, e.g. safety, health,
environmental requirements; an understanding of the principles of management
and industrial relations; some knowledge of trade unions and their organization;
an understanding of the engineer’s responsibility to the profession, to the
community and to the environment.
This book addresses topics such as these in the context of software engineering. When
the first edition was written, there was little published about them that was aimed at the
practising engineer, although, of course, they were all the subject of much specialized
writing. Furthermore, it was only in a very few areas, such as data protection, that there
was material aimed at the software engineer; such material as was aimed at the practising
engineer was typically aimed at the very different fields of production and
manufacturing.