I read at least one quote a week like this one from the July 2005 issue of Software Development:
Finding precise and repeatable ways to make design decisions is the Holy Grail or software development productivity. Most tedious taks, such as converting high-level instructions into low-level byte code, are already automated through compilers. What haunt us today are the softer design decisions. If we could only encode those in a tool, we’d save enormous amount of time and debate.
Are software engineers the only professionals continually trying to put themselves out of business? Talk like this undermines the value that software engineers provide. It is precisely these “softer design decisions” that you should be paying software engineers for. It takes years of skill to make these decisions and there is no way to automate them.
We recently hired an architect to draw up some designs for some changes and additions to our home. Never once do you hear architects talk about making house design decisions repeatable and automated. These decisions are exactly what you pay the architect for.