In actual engineering, that is the entrenched model.

In civil engineering and other, individual engineers can face consequences for disasters like collapses.

And other disciplines; a surgeon can face consequences for a surgery that was done by a team, and so on.

If the world starts coming after corporations for these kinds of very-real safety issues caused by software, they're going to "do a pro move," and come after the programming profession.

'going'?

The first person to get jail time during the 'DieselGate' scandal was James Liang, surprise surprise an Enginnering Head at VW. An army of Execs and C-levels were in the know but the first guy to go is a low-rank Engineer.

I'm confused by this post. First you wrote: <<Enginnering Head at VW>>, then you wrote: <<low-rank Engineer>>. Which one is it? Engineering Head at VW probably makes huge money has has 10,000 well-paid staff under them.

compared to a CTO, the enginnering head is low-rank. According to the prosecution he was making 270k in the US so not exactly mega bucks.

My point is execs and C-levels always claim that their pay is justified by the risk and liability of their decisions but when the wheels hit the tarmac things change very quickly.

Hat tip to your reply. This: <<According to the prosecution he was making 270k in the US so not exactly mega bucks.>> I agree 100%.

Maybe we need professional certification for CEOs.

For better or worse, we do, and It's called an MBA

Somehow it seems that an MBA doesn't certify someone a whole lot more than a sociopath certification would...

Hence the "for worse" option

Agreed. We know issues at the design stage can be avoided by improving systems, making that the personal problem of someone with a PE is a bandaid solution.

Improve regulation, fund regulators, incentivize companies to fund quality processes.