The Profession of Software Engineering

There is a titanic shift underway, unnoticed by most participants and observers in the field, where software development is rapidly moving from a trade to a profession.

Whereas in the past it has been acceptable for anybody who can put together a rudimentary program to call themselves a programmer the days where the whole community can accept this have almost passed. For most of the history of the computing field the only way to join the club of programmers was to be initiated in a sort-of apprenticeship (*) or to be almost-entirely self taught.

Today such an approach is no longer acceptable in some jurisdictions and it is to be expected the standards and registration will be required to undertake unsupervised, professional practice in the same way as the other professions are organised.

Witness accounting and the legal profession, for example, where there are several paths to entry however each culminates in a professional registration and has the requirement for continuing professsional development in order to retain this registration and hence right to practice. The Guide to the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge has some discussion as to the rationale for this approach, as do professional bodies like the IEEE Computing Society.

(*) More in another post about my own apprenticeship into software engineering and where my professional standing and ethics lies in this debate.

The Art of Writing

The Art of Writing is not something that comes naturally to me but over the years I have come to enjoying writing more and more. All sorts of writing. From writing creatively in school, technical writing during my undergraduate and postgraduate years, and during my years of working. More often I find that I need to express myself in the written word for formal documentation, preparation for oral and written presentation to a variety of audiences. And on a variety of subjects.

My background is in science and engineering. A decade and a half of working on software and systems engineering has led me towards strategy and leadership. Today I am more involved in team building, strategy development and change management. As well as software architecture. Business development. Coaching and mentoring in software design. Strategic alignment. Professional ethics. Intellectual Integrity. The consideration of facts, what-ifs and beyond all else the people involved in every organisation. I think I have something to say and having procrastinated to this point, now is the time for me to get started.