Within software engineering, programming (the implementation) is regarded as one phase in a software development process.

There is an on-going debate on the extent to which the writing of programs is an art form, a craft, or an engineeringdiscipline.[3] n general, good programming is considered to be the meas!red application of all three, with the goal of prod!cing an efficient and evolvable software sol!tion (the criteria for "efficient" and "evolvable" var# considerabl#). The discipline differs from man# other technical professions in that programmers, in general, do not need to be licensed or pass an# standardi$ed (or governmentall# reg!lated) certification tests in order to call themselves "programmers" or even "software engineers." %eca!se the discipline covers man# areas, which ma# or ma# not incl!de critical applications, it is debatable whether licensing is re&!ired for the profession as a whole. n most cases, the discipline is self-governed b# the entities which re&!ire the programming, and sometimes ver# strict environments are defined (e.g. 'nited (tates )ir *orce!se of )da+ore and sec!rit# clearance). ,owever, representing oneself as a "professional software engineer" witho!t a license from an accredited instit!tion is illegal in man# parts of the world. )nother on-going debate is the extent to which the programming lang!age !sed in writing comp!ter programs affects the form that the final program ta-es.[citation needed] This debate is analogo!s to that s!rro!nding the (apir. Whorf h#pothesis[/]in ling!istics and cognitive science, which post!lates that a partic!lar spo-en lang!age0s nat!re infl!ences the habit!al tho!ght of its spea-ers. 1ifferent lang!age patterns #ield different patterns of tho!ght. This idea challenges the possibilit# of representing the world perfectl# with lang!age, beca!se it ac-nowledges that the mechanisms of an# lang!age condition the tho!ghts of its spea-er comm!nit#.