software engineering unlike other engineering
software engineering is not like other engineering
the only kind of software we ever build is unproven, experimental software
When you build a bridge, road, or house, for example, you can safely study hundreds of very similar examples.
The only new software development projects undertaken are those that havent been done before or those whose predecessors are not publicly available. This business reality, more than any other factor, is what makes software development so hard and risky, which makes attention to process so important.
-- Jeff Atwood, It's Never Been Built Before (Coding Horror)