Three Steps Forward and Two Steps Back Progress on the Road to a Software Engineering Profession

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Three Steps Forward and Two Steps Back(Progress
on the Road to a Software Engineering Profession)
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Three Steps Forward and Two Steps Back(Progress
on the Road to a Software Engineering Profession)

• Presentation Content
• 1.    Background and details on the progress
  being made towards establishing SE as a
  profession or otherwise.
• 2. Software Engineering Code of Ethics and
  Professional Practice
• 3. The Guide to the Software Engineering Body of
  Knowledge (SWEBOK) Project
• 4. Professional Standards Initiative by IFIP
• 5. Conclusions and Recommendations

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Three Steps Forward and Two Steps Back(Progress
on the Road to a Software Engineering Profession)

• 1. Background
• The convergence of computing, media and
  technologies means that people have become more
  and more dependant on technology at work, at
  home, in travel, in learning and in communicating
  and that systems based on computing are powerful
  agents for change.
• Yet the production of such systems by the
  computing sector too frequently appears to be
  carried out in an immature and undisciplined way.
  It is apparent that the world of
  Computing/Information Technology/Informatics has
  not even reached a level of maturity where there
  is an agreed terminology and understanding
  between one geographical/special interest group
  and another

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Three Steps Forward and Two Steps Back(Progress
on the Road to a Software Engineering Profession)

• To support the SE discipline there needs to be
  both educational and professional infrastructures
  which reflect a true engineering ethos and
  there needs to be agreed a base line body of
  knowledge so that disparate flavours of SE are
  avoided.
• Also, as has been discussed by Ford and Gibbs in
  1996 SE education and training must be linked to
•   Professional practice and professional
  development
•   Skills development
•   Certification and licensing
•   Codes of Ethics
•   Professional societies and accreditation

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Three Steps Forward and Two Steps Back(Progress
on the Road to a Software Engineering Profession)

• Progress?
• Until recently it appeared that substantial
  progress was being made towards establishing SE
  as a profession
• The IEEE Computer Society and the Association for
  Computer Machinery were working on establishing
  Software Engineering as a profession. In 1998
  they set up the IEEE-CS/ACM Software Engineering
  Coordinating Committee (SWECC) which was made
  responsible for coordinating, sponsoring and
  fostering all the various activities regarding SE
  within the IEEE-CS and ACMs sphere of operation.
  These included areas such as standards of
  practice and ethics, a body of knowledge,
  curriculum guidelines, and exam guidelines.

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Three Steps Forward and Two Steps Back(Progress
on the Road to a Software Engineering Profession)

• At least two of SWEECs projects were making
  significant progress within a world-wide
  dimension. The SWEBOK project concerned with
  defining a Software Engineering Body of
  Knowledge, and the project concerned with
  defining a Software Engineering Code of Ethics
  and Professional Practice.
• In 1998 the Texas Board of Professional Engineers
  enacted rules that recognised Software
  Engineering as a distinct engineering discipline.
  The legislation enables engineering licenses to
  be issued to Software Engineers so that they
  could, within the State of Texas, legally
  represent themselves to the general public as an
  engineer, offer consulting engineering services
  to private and public entities, and perform
  engineering design or construction on public
  works.

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Three Steps Forward and Two Steps Back(Progress
on the Road to a Software Engineering Profession)

• In 1999 and early 2000 a significant number of
  academic papers promoting areas related to SE
  professionalism started to appear in major
  computing journals indicating that there was
  indeed a groundswell of positive opinion in this
  area.
• Then, in the summer of 2000 ACM decided to
  withdraw from the IEEE-CS/ACM Software
  Engineering Coordinating Committee (SWECC) and,
  with this, much of the progress that had been
  made was thrown into question.
•  It is clear that some members of the ACM
  believed that the initial work done within the
  SWEBOK project had serious limitations and that
  there was too close a relationship between the
  SWEBOK project and the issue of licensing
  Software Engineers. These problems do appear to
  have been at least partly instrumental in the ACM
  withdrawal.

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Three Steps Forward and Two Steps Back(Progress
on the Road to a Software Engineering Profession)

• 2. Software Engineering Code of Ethics and
  Professional Practice
• The IEEE-CS/ACM Co-ordinating Committee (SWECC)
  has also been responsible for the creation of a
  joint task force on Software Engineering Ethics
  and Professional Practice (SEEPP). This task
  force, under the chairmanship of Donald
  Gotterbarn of East Tennessee State University,
  has developed the Software Engineering Code of
  Ethics and Professional Practice.
• The code is available in two forms a short
  version which summarises aspirations at a high
  level of abstraction and a full version which
  includes additional clauses. The latter provide
  examples and details of how the aspirations of
  the code should change the way persons act as SE
  professionals.

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Three Steps Forward and Two Steps Back(Progress
on the Road to a Software Engineering Profession)

• The code is available for public comment on the
  web. Currently the eight principles laid out in
  the short code are
• 1. PUBLIC - Software engineers shall act
  consistently with the public interest.
• 2. CLIENT AND EMPLOYER - Software engineers shall
  act in a manner that is in the best interests of
  their client and employer consistent with the
  public interest.
• 3. PRODUCT - Software engineers shall ensure that
  their products and related modifications meet the
  highest professional standards possible.
• 4. JUDGMENT - Software engineers shall maintain
  integrity and independence in their professional
  judgement.

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Three Steps Forward and Two Steps Back(Progress
on the Road to a Software Engineering Profession)

• The code is available for public comment on the
  web. Currently the eight principles laid out in
  the short code are
• 5. MANAGEMENT - Software engineering managers and
  leaders shall subscribe to and promote an ethical
  approach to the management of software
  development and maintenance.
• 6. PROFESSION - Software engineers shall advance
  the integrity and reputation of the profession
  consistent with the public interest.
• 7. COLLEAGUES - Software engineers shall be fair
  to and supportive of their colleagues.
• 8. SELF - Software engineers shall participate in
  lifelong learning regarding the practice of their
  profession and shall promote an ethical approach
  to the practice of the profession.

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Three Steps Forward and Two Steps Back(Progress
on the Road to a Software Engineering Profession)

• Positives 
• The code has been accepted by both the IEEE-CS
  and the ACM and other national professional
  bodies for computing have reacted positively to
  it.
• There is currently more recognition, within
  certain quarters, that ethical issues are
  becoming more important within computing.
• The membership of the task force which produced
  the code, and which consisted of a three-person
  Executive Committee and a general membership of
  22 members, had a truly international
  composition. I know that many of them are active
  members in computer ethics organisations within
  their own countries and are also actively
  involved with international conferences concerned
  with computer ethics such as the Ethicomp Series.
  It could be that such an international
  composition is one of the reasons that the code
  has been so well received.

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Three Steps Forward and Two Steps Back(Progress
on the Road to a Software Engineering Profession)

• Negatives 
• The code has of late received some publicity both
  at conferences and in International Journals.
  However, the whole area of professionalism tends
  to be neglected by major parts of the software
  industry, which appears to be mesmerised with
  technological aspects to the detriment of human
  related areas and issues.
• There are also problems on how ethics education
  should be incorporated into the curriculum and
  how it should be taught. Many believe that it
  needs to be fully integrated into all subjects
  and that positive guides to ethical behaviour
  need to be in place in current SE courses
  starting in the early stages and running through
  the entire program. .

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Three Steps Forward and Two Steps Back(Progress
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• Negatives 
• A significant section of SE academia also appears
  to be less than positive towards professional
  issues.
• In 1999 I attended both the Conference on
  Software Engineering Education and Training
  (CSEET) in Austin, Texas and The International
  Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE) in
  Limerick, Eire. At the former, relevant
  professional issues received clear prominence,
  whilst, at the latter the opposite was the case.
• Of particular note was that in a sister
  publication to the ICSE conference proceedings
  which was entitled The Future of Software
  Engineering 2000 professional issues were
  totally omitted.
• As the editor of the sister publication admitted
  in the conference newsletter I forgot to have a
  section on professionalism which seems to be
  getting a lot of attention recently .
  Unfortunately such omissions tend to be common in
  much that is published on the SE discipline.

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Three Steps Forward and Two Steps Back(Progress
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• 3. The Guide to the Software Engineering Body of
  Knowledge (SWEBOK) Project
• The SWEBOK project, which resulted from the
  co-operation between the IEEE-CS and ACM on SE,
  is aimed at achieving a consensus view by the SE
  community on a core body of knowledge (BoK) for
  the SE discipline. The project is being run from
  the University of Quebec in Montreal and it is
  taking a three phased approach similar to that
  adopted for the development of the Ada
  programming language, consisting of Straw Man,
  Stone Man, and Iron Man phases.
• During April 2000 a more or less finalised
  edition of the Stone Man Version of the Guide
  (version 0.7 ) was released on the projects web
  site. This has now been further refined and
  renamed as the Trial Version (version 0.9) which
  is being promoted for public use (the name has
  been amended so that users will not incorrectly
  assume that the contents have been set in
  stone). The results of public use will
  subsequently feed into the Iron Man phase of the
  project which is expected to be completed within
  two years of the end of the Stone Man phase.

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Three Steps Forward and Two Steps Back(Progress
on the Road to a Software Engineering Profession)

• Positives 
• The SWEBOK project represents a very systematic
  piece of work that has attempted a broad and
  international approach in its reviewing process.
  Although the production timescales are rather
  long it should finally produce an authoritative
  and accepted BoK for the discipline. 
• Of particular note is that the whole of the
  reviewing process has been visible and is
  available on the projects web site. Although the
  BoK not yet in its final form the work
  accomplished so far be can used to support
  teaching. Also, the reviews themselves can be
  used to demonstrate to students the disparate
  views that exist across the community.

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Three Steps Forward and Two Steps Back(Progress
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• Negatives 
• Clear difficulties with SWEBOK arise because of
  it being an extremely large and complex project
  with a rather long timetable.  
• It is also likely that it suffered from
  insufficient publicity on an international level
  during the earlier stages, though that does
  appear to have improved over the last two years
  where there has been a clear effort to publicise
  it at relevant international conferences and in
  journals. 
• A close inspection of the contents of the trial
  version of the guide shows what could be regarded
  as a USA or at least a North American continental
  bias within many parts.

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Three Steps Forward and Two Steps Back(Progress
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• Negatives 
• The demographics presented on the project web
  site cast doubt as to whether the reviewers of
  the project represented a reasonably balanced
  international population across all the various
  designated sectors. 
• The disparate views of some reviewers no doubt
  gave rise to significant problems for the
  organisers of the project when they were
  producing the final Stone Man view of each KAD.
  It is thus likely that in some areas there is
  much more work to be done and that some very
  interesting reactions may be encountered when the
  SWEBOK is reviewed and used by a wider public.
• The SWEBOK project is regarded by some as being
  partly instrumental in ACMs withdrawal from
  SWEEC. Thus the project may be already viewed as
  tainted by many people and hence it may be
  difficult for the SWEBOK Guide to receive a
  totally fair set of public trails.

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Three Steps Forward and Two Steps Back(Progress
on the Road to a Software Engineering Profession)

• 4. Professional Standards Initiative by IFIP
• IFIP is a non-governmental, non-profit umbrella
  organisation for national societies working in
  the field of information processing. Technical
  work, which is the heart of IFIP's activity, is
  managed by a series of Technical Committees
  (TCs). Each of these Technical Committees in turn
  is responsible for a number of Working Groups
  (WGs). 
• In 1998 a working party within TC3 produced a
  draft document concerned with the Harmonisation
  of Professional Standards

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Three Steps Forward and Two Steps Back(Progress
on the Road to a Software Engineering Profession)

• The draft standard was presented in August 1999
  at the overall TC3 committee meeting in Irvine,
  USA and at the TC3 WG3.4 seminar held in
  Baltimore, USA. In the draft, introductory
  sections explain the overall purpose of the work,
  why professional standards are needed, to whom
  the standard will apply and clarifications
  concerning the terminology used. The main part of
  the standard then addresses the following areas 
•   Ethics of professional practice,
•   Established body of knowledge,
•   Education and training,
•   Professional experience,
•   Best practice and proven methodologies and
•   Maintenance of competence.

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Three Steps Forward and Two Steps Back(Progress
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• The IFIP harmonisation document does represents a
  very high level view of what is needed,
  nevertheless, it is very sensitive to the many
  complex issues that exist in the area of
  professionalism. My own belief is that it could
  provide a useful framework for further work
  regarding SE professionalism and that it has
  positive attributes in that it was developed with
  international use as a major goal.
• Therefore a number of actions have been made to
  raise its profile and publicise its possible
  application to the field of SE professionalism.

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Three Steps Forward and Two Steps Back(Progress
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• Actions
• A paper detailing it along with a copy of the
  document itself was presented in a compsac2000
  paper in October 2000.
• It was also used as the focus for a panel session
  at the same conference.
• It was outlined in a paper presented at the
  British Computer Society supported conference
  Quality and Software Development Teaching and
  Training Issues held in London in September 2000.

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Three Steps Forward and Two Steps Back(Progress
on the Road to a Software Engineering Profession)

• Actions
• A half day workshop was held at the 2001
  Conference on Software Engineering Education and
  Training (CSEET) in Charlotte, North Carolina in
  February 2001, the detailed results of which are
  awaiting publication.
• A full day workshop was held during the 2001
  International Conference on Software Engineering
  (ICSE) in Toronto in May 2001.
• A paper was presented at the conference ETHICOMP
  2001 held in Gdansk, Poland in June 2001.
• This presentation.

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Three Steps Forward and Two Steps Back(Progress
on the Road to a Software Engineering Profession)

• 5. Conclusions and Recommendations
• Much of the work that has been done under the
  auspices of SWECC has been of a very high
  standard and it would be a disaster if it were
  not carried on. However, SE is a discipline that
  must operate at a global level. Other engineering
  disciplines such as Mechanical Engineering (which
  shaped the 19th century) or Electrical
  Engineering (which shaped the 20th century) to a
  great extent developed and operated within
  domains defined by nation states or, at least,
  continental boundaries. SE is different to these
  older disciplines in that it must be viewed in a
  wider context. Already we have situations where,
  for example, software can be specified in the
  USA, developed in India, and then used globally
  on the Internet. It is thus of paramount
  importance that the SE discipline is viewed at a
  global level rather than at just at the
  continental or national level.

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Three Steps Forward and Two Steps Back(Progress
on the Road to a Software Engineering Profession)

• 5. Conclusions and Recommendations
• The IFIP report on the Harmonisation of
  Professional Standards should encourage
  international co-operation within all computing
  disciplines including SE. Also the very nature of
  the IFIP committees ensures that it has, and will
  be, considered at an international level and
  hence can not be judged to represent the view of
  only one sector or country. The harmonisation
  document essentially defines framework, which
  should truly assist advancing Professional
  Standards if it is used in a sensitive and
  appropriate manner. In particular, the overall
  findings from the Charlotte workshop referred to
  above, are that it could be extended and adapted
  to provide a useful framework for developing
  Professional Standards in SE.

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Three Steps Forward and Two Steps Back(Progress
on the Road to a Software Engineering Profession)

• 5. Conclusions and Recommendations
• There are still significant barriers that need to
  be overcome with regard to SE professionalism. In
  my opinion these are
• The lack of a common international view,
• What appears to be a lack of will or even
  interest in professionalism within a significant
  element of the community itself, and
• Incompatibilities in academic and professional
  standards that act against global harmonisation
  within the discipline.
• That turf wars and tensions within the US are
  acting as major constraints in the development of
  the SE discipline and profession. In particular
  these relate to issues associated with SE and
  Computer Science faculty (staff) in academic
  institutions, and standards and processes for
  accreditation/regulation/licensing.