The pioneers of software engineering have already blazed the trails and surveyed the land. Now the software engineering settlers need to get to work, turning the trails into roads and developing the rest of the education and accreditation infrastructure. Some people think that treating software development as engineering means we'll all have to use formal methods, which both common sense and experience tell us are overkill for many projects. Others say that commercial software is too dependent on changing market conditions to permit careful, time-consuming engineering. These objections are based upon narrow, and I think, mistaken, ideas of engineering.
Engineering is the application of scientific principles toward practical ends.
If the engineering isn't practical, it isn't good engineering. Treating software as engineering makes clearer the idea that different development goals are appropriate for different projects. When a building is designed, the construction materials must suit the building's purpose. I can build a large equipment shed to store farming vehicles from thin, uninsulated sheet metal. I wouldn't build a house the same way.