The standard in building is: “install this type of power outlet here”. Or “install power cables between a and x, capable of carrying a”.
We have somewhat similar standards in software development. Like, “build this type of API here, capable of handling this type of data model”.
The issue comes when I can buy that API from IBM and then can’t transfer it to Netcompany next year because they don’t agree on how to implement a REST API or how to handle the data model beyond the API. I don’t have that issue on construction. I can have a supplier hired to hand the electric installations on 300 buildings at a hospital, who go bankrupt half way through, and then I can painless hire a new contractor to finish up.
As long as software doesn’t have anything that comes near to this, it’s “just” art. I’m not saying this as a negative thing, but when two “engineers” who have gone through the same education and follow the same international “best practices” build the same thing, so differently that they can’t understand what the other build, then it’s just not worthy of the engineering description.
> I can have a supplier hired to hand the electric installations on 300 buildings at a hospital, who go bankrupt half way through, and then I can painless hire a new contractor to finish up.
You can hire different people to work on code too. There's no one person per repo rule.
In construction a standard isn't "use this make of hammer". It's "achieve this effect".