On the bright side, calling themselves &quot;engineers&quot; only creates even more drama, so given that extremely likely alternative, &quot;developer&quot; is the less evil.<p>Some of it comes from various state &#x2F; federal labor law and relates to compensation.  Someone who, lets face it, is the online equivalent of a sign spinner, has certain legal obligations WRT overtime compensation that isn&#x27;t an issue for a &quot;professional engineer&quot; or &quot;software developer&quot;...  A lot of overtime pay is saved by calling data entry clerks &quot;developers&quot;.