Comments on: Software Development as profession? Not Yet, Probably Never

By: David White

David White — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

I trained first as a mechanical engineer, working in the field for 16 years as a research engineer. At one stage I even managed to qualify as a Registered Engineer, which in NZ was the qualification to prove that I was worthy of joining the Institute of Professional Engineers here (though I never joined — I regard myself as an “uncivil engineer”).

That experience left me with the view that “professionals” in that sense were overly elitist. Of course, it is financially self-centred for them to make entry into their “club” as difficult as possible, to minimise competition.

In contrast, the software industry seems to be far more open, with a greater encouragement to continuing education (perhaps because software technologies change more rapidly). I don’t think that “professionalism” would necessarily calcify the development process.

In fact, I’d credit the Agile community for raising the standards of software, by the emphasis on unit testing, and the better designs that result from coding for testability.

My view is that your development “portfolio” is the principle measure of your professionalism — the projects that you were a part of, and the contribution that you made to them and their success (or otherwise).

By: Eric Wendelin

Eric Wendelin — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Not sure how things should go for “professional” software development. I would very much like quality of software projects to go up, but I agree that subscribing to one set of standards must not happen. If we are to move forward with this we would need to redefine how a profession works.

By: Software Development

Software Development — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Really It was an Interesting conversation! about the software. I was wondering here, is the software is the professional activity ? Hmm…..

By: antonio

antonio — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

I was discussing this with a good friend at work just the other day… software development has neither a code of ethics, really, nor a set of professional standards and practices. My friend blamed Microsoft (as the 800 pound gorilla that shaped the industry in the last 25 years) for lowering expectations. I think he’s right but for a complicated reason: the hurdles developers have to go over have gone down, so it becomes much easier than it would otherwise be for someone to deliver enough value to earn a paycheck. It’s much easier now than it was, say, 20 years ago to produce a program that more or less works and does something useful most of the time.

When I think about professionalization I think perhaps the way to come at it would be certification in different methodologies and technologies as they emerge, not an overall certification of “Software Engineer”. Perhaps getting and keeping a ‘developer license’ would require some combination of certs from a minimum number of methodologies and technologies, continuing education credits each year, etc.. “You must do at least one dev technology course plus one architectural methods course plus one QA methodology course each three years to keep your license, but they can be focused on any of the following (long) list of technology vendors…”

Not a perfect answer but one that at least makes possible the emergence of new methods and their integration into the world of “acceptable” practices.