Why Should I Care?

By Graham Jones

The other day I was driving down the highway and came across a sign indicating that there would be road closures due to construction of a pedestrian overpass. Unlike the majority of people driving by, who were likely mostly interested in any inconvenience that it might cause, I have some appreciation as to what it took to get to that point and what will happen before the public are permitted to use it. We don’t typically drive by thinking “I wonder if it will fall down”. In other words, as of today, we take it for granted that it will be designed and constructed appropriately. Was that always the case? Go back far enough in time and the procedures, processes and standards that now give us some measure of confidence didn’t exist. Back then there were no highways but people still needed to build bridges. So what happened over time to make it different? Well, first of all some of the bridges did fall down and I am sure that people weren’t very happy about it. Then local authorities formed to govern and they decided if you were allowed to build a bridge or not. Did that stop all of the bridges from falling down? No! It just meant that when they did there was somebody to try and apportion responsibility. Then local authorities decided to either create their own “standards” or follow established or establishing national/international “standards” which defined how you should build a bridge. Did that stop all of the bridges from falling down? No! Setting “standards” with no means of ensuring that they are followed is no better than no “standard” at all. People design and build bridges and unfortunately unless there are ways to ensure “standards” compliance there will always be a few who will find a reason to ignore them. Local authorities/governments are not ideal for “policing” the situation since their major interest is that bridges don’t fall down “on their watch”. The next logical step was for people to “police” themselves. If I am an honest practitioner and also want to improve “standards”, I don’t want to be affected by those who are less scrupulous. This was often the beginning of Professional Associations many of which operate today under a legal Act. Why am I referring to the engineering industry? First of all “bad” engineering tends to be rather obvious to the general public when something fails and I spent a large part of my career as an engineer in the process industries, and thus feel qualified to use engineering for illustrative purposes.

Do we now have a perfect engineering industry? No far from it; witness what is happening in the Gulf of Mexico right now. But it is considerably better than it used to be. It has taken many disasters with considerable loss of life and livelihood over 150+ years to get to today. Without that progress there wouldn’t be deep sea oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, for good or bad. Understandably the current focus is on fixing the oil leak but there will come a time when the cause is the focus. At that time some standards, processes and procedures may be found lacking but I absolutely guarantee that somewhere people will definitely be found lacking! Unfortunately, we cannot always make people follow the preferred route of good “practice” but we can try and make them accountable. This may be punitive but there is a positive purpose. At the very least we must try and prevent people from acting out of ignorance. How can we attempt that? We set “standards” of conduct and technical competence to which people are held accountable and we don’t permit them to “practice” unless they demonstrate and maintain those “standards”. That is called Professional Practice and reflects “responsibility with accountability”. I was a practicing Professional Engineer for over 25 years starting in the UK and then in Canada. That included being an Engineering Manager with the “responsibility” for the “quality” of ALL engineering that was under my direct or indirect control. There was a time when somebody other than a Professional Engineer would have been permitted to do that job. That is not very likely anymore in “developed” countries. Were those people incompetent? Very likely not but how do we know? In fact I know some very competent people who didn’t achieve “Professional” status and their careers stalled. Does being a Professional Engineer guarantee that all will be well? No, but those who don’t continue to maintain and upgrade their skills and knowledge may lose the “license” to practice, and hence their livelihood, or suffer some form of disciplinary action. The public has the right to expect the highest standards.

By now I am quite sure that as someone probably working in the ICT industry you are wondering “Why Should I Care?”. That is very simple. Yesterday’s bridges that fell down are just like the ubiquitous presence of the use of computers today. For example, design calculations are now done using software for the flexibility and speed that offers. How do I, as a design engineer, know that the software correctly reflects the right computations. There can be an unfortunate tendency to implicitly “trust” data manipulation done by computer. Computers only do what “people” engineer and “people” are definitely flawed. A software vendor will refer to the contractual “small print” if things go wrong and hide behind a lawyer. We need the same assurance about the “tools” that are used as we do about the people using them, and the assurance about the tools can only come from some assurance about the people generating them. Computers affect all aspects of our lives and as a member of the general public it is unnerving to have so much of MY life in somebody else’s hands and have little surety that it is being well managed.

ICT Professional Associations do exist in some countries and are mostly well established, respected and long standing. Tell somebody who cares, you say. Nobody is insisting that I get Professional Certification, you say. Well that is beginning to change, especially for those who will find themselves in clear positions of responsibility. You won’t feel it next month, probably not next year but five to ten years from now it could be very different. It took a long time to get to today’s Professional Practice in engineering. Today, engineering graduates fix their objectives firmly on “Professional Status” without which their career ambitions WILL not be fulfilled. The typical ICT graduate fixes their objectives on specific technical certifications. That might work for now but one day an employer will decide between apparently equal candidates on the basis of a Professional Certification or not. That has happened very obviously in Project Management over the past 10 years with the PMP. Try getting and keeping a more senior PM job today without the PMP designation! Why did that happen? Employers wanted better guarantees about the “quality” of who they were employing [every new employee with decision making responsibility is a costly investment] and they saw competitive advantage in being able to tell clients that their PM’s had their PMP.

You have been warned! It is a question of when and not if. The ICT industry must move towards a greater measure of Professional Certification to be trusted and respected by all. Those who are already there made a smart choice and have a head start. At the very least do yourself a favour and find out what is involved. Don’t limit your career options and expectations by thinking “I am OK and will continue to be OK!”. Be proactive and take care of tomorrow, starting today.

Add Comment

Name

Email (will not be published)

Personal Web site/Blog URL

Subject

Comment

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Enter the letters you see in the image.

Click to get a new image.