The Routinizing of Computer Programming

Abstract

Computer programming was the accidental and largely unloved offspring of electrical engineering. This origin played a critical role in the development of programming as an occupation. The routinization of computer programming, while patterned after its parent field, is also facilitated by recent developments such as "high-level" languages, canned programs, and structured programming. The subsequent deskilling of programmers as a group calls into question arguments that increasingly sophisticated technology in the workplace creates work which is more complex and challenging than the work it displaces.