Engineering versus Science, Anecdote versus Evidence ... [Was: Designing an experiment to gather evidence on approaches to designing web services]

> I'd suggest software design is closer to engineering than science

But isn't the goal of every engineer to move steadily away from engineering-as-an-art to engineering-as-a science? 

Stated differently, shouldn't we endeavor to approach engineering problems as scientists?

/Roger 

P.S. Fascinating discussion!