As someone whose background is in computer engineering, it does seem like I’ve lived through this before. In the mid-90s there was a considerable amount of hand-wringing in computer science and engineering departments of a similar nature, though not nearly of the same magnitude. Enrollments were soaring, and colleges frequently had multiple degrees under different schools that taught the same thing (Computer Engineering vs Computer Science versus Information Sciences). Meanwhile large software projects everywhere were failing, and it was known in the field, if not in the general press, that this was something of a crisis. In the schools, on one hand there was consternation that much of the curriculum looked like nothing more than job training, and on the other hand, that the curriculum did nothing to prepare students for the sorts of challenges that actually met them once they were on the job.

I’m not hearing as much about massive software failures as I used to. Unfortunately, none of this can be traced back to any changes in education curriculum or philosophy. It seems that at this point, companies simply don’t *do* those big ugly software projects any more. The emphasis has shifted hard to smaller projects where there is an explicit focus on manageability, quality and transparency at all levels. I’m sure the big ugly failures are still happening (you may have one running as your operating system). In any case…

Financial Engineering may be in a crisis. Fortunately, it seems people can change the way they do business without waiting for education curriculum to keep up with them.

http://www.creditspectrum.com/content/JH_quantitative_finance.pdf

The post has also been edited to contain this link.

“This failure of the economists to guide policy more successfully is closely connected with their propensity to imitate as closely as possible the procedures of the brilliantly successful physical sciences.”