Professional Practice Chapter II

The Nature of a Profession

Kamran Dahri
 The Nature of a Profession -
Introduction
• Professional
– Professional employees are employees of a
certain status.
• Real Professional
– To carry out work competently and
conscientiously regardless of the
circumstances.
• A professional piece of work
– means a piece of work that meets established
standards of quality.
 The Nature of a Profession -
Introduction
• The term pro
– is colloquial shorthand of professional.
• The term profession
– who is using it and what the context is.
• Examples of common professions are
– lawyers, doctors, dentists, accountants,
veterinary surgeons, architects, and so on
 PROFESSIONAL BODIES
• A professional body
– a group of people coming together because of a
shared interest in a particular type of activity.
– For example BCS was established in 1957, for the
exchange of data.
• List of functions performed by professional
bodies
1. Establishing code of conduct to regulate the
way members of the body behave.
2. Establishing mechanisms for disseminating
knowledge of good practice and new
developments to its members
PROFESSIONAL BODIES (Cont.)
• 3. Setting standards of education and
experience for people to become
members
• 4. Advising government and regulatory
bodies about matters within its area of
expertise.
 SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT AS
ENGINEERING
• The development of software and
information systems in general is now usually
regarded as a branch of engineering and the
people who practice it are considered to be
engineers.
– engineering involves designing and building
things according to pre-defined requirements.
– the process of designing and building the object
must be completed within specified constraints
of time and budget.
 THE STATUS OF ENGINEERS
• The legal status of the engineering profession
varies a lot from one country to another.
– Both the title of engineer and the function of
engineering are reserved.
1. it is illegal to call yourself an engineer in a
given state unless you are registered with the
State Engineers Registration Board;
2. it is illegal for a company to use the word
‘engineering’ in its name unless it employs at
least one registered engineer;
 THE STATUS OF ENGINEERS
3. Academic programs including the term
engineering in their title must be taught
mostly by registered engineers;
4. It is illegal to carry out engineering work
except under the supervision of a
registered engineer.
 THE STATUS OF ENGINEERS
• Companies like Sun Microsystems and
Microsoft award titles such as ‘certified
systems engineer’ and ‘network engineer’
to those who can demonstrate skills and
knowledge in these area using the
companies’ products, with no action being
taken.
INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION OF
ENGINEERING QUALIFICATIONS
• Recognition within Europe
– (European Federation of National Engineering
Associations
• Washington Accord
• International Register of Professional
Engineers by Washington Accord
– Engineers’ Mobility Forum (2002)
 COMPULSORY REGISTRATION OF
SOFTWARE ENGINEERS
• Danger to the public arising from professional
incompetence was one of the driving forces
that led to American legislation reserving the
engineering function to those who were
properly registered and hence appropriately
qualified.

• Following are examples of disasters caused by

software engineers’ incompetence
– Therac-25 in the USA (self study)
– The London Ambulance Service (LAS) Computer
Aided Despatch (CAD) (self study)
 COMPULSORY REGISTRATION OF
SOFTWARE ENGINEERS
• In Texas, software must be written by
registered software engineers, or at least
under their supervision.
• In the UK, a Chartered Engineer whose
experience and qualifications are in software
engineering are only allowed to work on
critical systems.
– air traffic control system
– medical records system