The main difference is that software engineering is extremely tolerant of poor engineering standards and practices, relative to "traditional" engineering disciplines.
This allows many organizations to utilize software engineering skills without having any particular mentality towards engineering itself. Some businesses can be arranged such that the software development practice is much like an assembly line, reducing developers to assembly line workers. Some businesses actually use engineering skills and have an engineering mindset.
The fact that businesses can find success while having terrible or no engineering practice is an example of where software engineering differs from any sort of engineering of physical things. Mechanical, electrical, chemical, etc engineering does not have such a tolerance, they simply exhibit failure if so.
This allows many organizations to utilize software engineering skills without having any particular mentality towards engineering itself. Some businesses can be arranged such that the software development practice is much like an assembly line, reducing developers to assembly line workers. Some businesses actually use engineering skills and have an engineering mindset.
The fact that businesses can find success while having terrible or no engineering practice is an example of where software engineering differs from any sort of engineering of physical things. Mechanical, electrical, chemical, etc engineering does not have such a tolerance, they simply exhibit failure if so.