Real engineers can face personal liability and even jail time for negligence.

How much of modern software practices would exist today if the senior engineer needed to sign off on a project?

> Real engineers can face personal liability and even jail time for negligence.

To be fair, software engineers can face similar liabilities in highly-regulated fields. When you're dealing with software regulated as a medical device for example, senior engineers do sign off on releases. You also see more processes associated with engineering carried out, particularly with respect to testing and documentation.