The British Computer Society (BCS) has launched a new scheme involving Whitehall and industry figures which aims to boost the status of the IT profession.
The Managed Awareness Programme aims to put IT on a par with the regulated professions by enforcing an adherence to integrity and best practice, the BCS said on 11 May, 2005. The programme follows work already done by the organisation to set up a new qualification, the Chartered IT Practitioner.
Whitehall figures such as Bob Assirati, executive director of the Office of Government Commerce (OGC), and Katie Davies from the Cabinet Office's IT team are on a steering group for the programme. The group, which also includes John Higgins, director general of public sector IT supplier body Intellect, is due to meet in June.
BCS chief executive David Clarke said that the BCS is working closely with central government bodies including the eGovernment Unit and the OGC.
"Following recent high-profile IT project failures, there has been a rapid understanding of the need to improve the quality of product and service in IT if business and society is to secure the real benefits which the technology has to offer. The BCS has already played its part in championing the new IT profession through a high profile membership recruitment campaign and a raft of new professional qualifications to reflect the rapid evolutionary process that is the nature of the IT profession today," he said.
But according to Clarke, there is much more work to be done.
"There is still only a small minority of practitioners in membership of any professional body and few, if any, employers require professional qualifications as part of their recruitment practice. If we are to embed professional standards and professional qualifications in IT practice — in the way in which for example personnel management standards and qualifications are now embedded in HR practice — we need to work with the key stakeholders. All the indications are that the IT world is now ready for that move if given the right leadership."
Talkback
In my experiance most IT Outsourcing companies seam to think professionalism is wearing a suit and tie. Despite what it may say on thier website.
If they want to improve professionalism in the industry, perhaps they should start with treating IT staff and workers in a professional manner.
A lot is demanded of IT staff, we surrender our evenings, we surrender our weekends, we constantly train and we do not get thanked for it.
Our private lives are interefered with, I'm on call 7 days a week 24 hours a day and I don't get overtime when I work my 16 hr days.
Professionalism ends at standards, and begins with treating your staff in a manner that is professional. We match only the medical profession in terms of our workloads, but at least they are publicly respected.
This initiative looked really interesting -- until I realised that it was centered around the BCS.
That makes it all a bit of a sad joke.