Software Engineering is the discipline that, in 1968, looked at the smoldering wreckage of every software project ever attempted and concluded that what it really needed was not better practices, better tools, or better understanding, but a better name. Specifically, someone else’s name. Specifically, the name of people who build bridges.

It has spent the subsequent fifty-eight years proving the metaphor wrong in every measurable way, while simultaneously insisting on keeping it....