Alastair Revell - Blog - IT Profession

IT Professionals must be Assertive!

Alastair Revell — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 17:46:49 GMT

I’ve been mulling over Michael Cross’ article of 23rd September 2009 for the Guardian web site for a while now, which was written in response to The British Computer Society rebranding itself as BCS The Chartered Institute for IT and announcing that it was revising its process for Chartered IT Professional (CITP) registration.

The article sported the contentious title: “IT can have its professionals, if they don’t get stroppy” with a subtitle of “Government and employers will not recognise IT ‘professionals’ if they are demanding as doctors and lawyers.”

Mr Cross’ article highlights the tight rope that the Chartered Institute for IT walks as it tries to raise the level of professionalism in IT. The government is currently very supportive of the Institute’s moves to raise the bar in the IT profession, but Mr Cross rightly points out that “the trend could swiftly go into reverse if a new government finds IT professionals to be as stroppy and independent-minded as they find doctors and lawyers today.”

He continues: “Governments like taking expert advice – but only if it’s ‘Yes, minister’”, which certainly seems to be true with the recent resignations from various expert advisory panels because they apparently didn’t say what the current government wanted to hear.

The problem, of course, is that so called “stroppiness” is an important aspect of professionalism. A professional has a duty to their client to advise them when their actions are contrary to their professional advice and to point out the probable consequences.

It is precisely this lack of professional ethics that causes much of the damage to the public purse and, no doubt, many private purses too. As Cross chides in his article, “the IT industry isn’t shy about talking up its abilities” and he rams the point home with the anecdote that he has a corporate t-shirt that boasts a company slogan of “Mission impossible achieved”.

A major problem with the IT industry is that it is too heavily driven by sales hype that plays on the naivety of easily persuaded customers. Professionalism, on the other hand, is about telling the truth, whether the client likes the message, or not.

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BCS Rebranded: The Future isn't just Green!

Alastair Revell — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 20:29:48 GMT

The British Computer Society (BCS) launched its new branding over the weekend and it is clearly setting an ambitious course.

The changes clearly run far deeper than just the corporate colour change from blue to green.

Firstly, it is obvious from the web site that it wants to fulfil a more global role rather than just one confined to the United Kingdom. It has conspicuously stopped calling itself The British Computer Society in favour of referring to itself simply as the BCS.

It has obviously seen the globalising trends within information technology and realised that the IT profession is not only rapidly starting to mature, but also rapidly becoming global itself. Many more practitioners are working on projects across the globe and there certainly needs to be some sort of international standard. The BCS clearly intends to provide that standard.

The BCS has also added the strap-line “The Chartered Institute for IT” to its logo, which makes it very clear that it is a chartered body on a par with other chartered bodies, such as accountancy and surveying.

This is certainly a very important move. I believe, as I recently blogged, that Chartered IT Professional (CITP) status is a qualification whose time is coming. The IT profession is maturing and many people realise that IT touches almost every aspect of modern life. People also now know that when IT professionals do not act professionally that their actions can actually harm society.

Our profession is growing up and we need to take on the responsibilities that come with that maturity.

The CITP assessment process itself has been revised with two further hurdles being added. Candidates must now sit a formal examination and undergo a mandatory interview and presentation.

The motivation is clearly not to deter candidates, but to make sure that the qualification is “aspirational and demanding to achieve”. The new BCS literature goes further and says that the qualification should “show that holders understand the business they are working in and add value through the use of technology” and that CITP status should “tell employers something about the holder that they cannot find out easily for themselves.”

There have been a number of voices calling for some form of “practice certificate” for IT professionals to show that they are competent and up-to-date; and the BCS seems to have recognised this with the new Certificate of Current Competence, which Chartered IT Professionals will need to revalidate every five years.

I think this move may well put various manufacturer accreditations into context. They prove competence in a particular product from the manufacturer’s perspective, but they don’t necessarily show any understanding of business or a commitment to professional ethics.

People may be cynical about these changes. The rhetoric is certainly easily rehearsed, but I do believe that the BCS is determined to see this through. Also, I believe that there has been a recent ground swell from grass-root professionals in IT feed up with seeing poor work passed of as the product of “professionals”. At a number of lunches and other such events, I’ve noticed that whenever the “Professionalism in IT” agenda is raised that there are a number of ardent supporters who feel that this really needs to be moved forward. These changes are a vehicle for this and they deserve support.

Detractors of the BCS have often claimed that it is a rather irrelevant ivory tower that just appeals to academics. This may have once been true, but it has travelled an awfully long way since then. It now knows what it must strive to become and what it may lose if it doesn’t.

Indeed, the BCS is taking steps to right the imbalance that has long seen it portrayed as just a learned society reserved for academics and researchers. It genuinely seems to be embracing the requirements of its other important stakeholders (such as practitioners, government and the wider public).

However, I am pleased that it is not just throwing the baby out with the bath water and intends to remain a learned society with the formation of the BCS Academy of Computing. I think being learned is an important aspect to a professional body that wants to be at the heart of a profession that changes so rapidly that we joke about “internet years” being but just a few months.

The BCS has certainly taken a momentous step in the right direction this month, albeit the first step in many. I am particularly encouraged that the BCS itself recognises this. The new web site itself has a lot about the necessity for further change and transformation, going as far as to say: “BCS doesn't just need to be changed, but completely transformed.”

It is time for experienced IT practitioners to become chartered professionals and to shape the future of our profession.

This weblog is produced by Revell Research Systems.

Chartered IT Professional (CITP): The Qualification Whose Time is Coming?

Alastair Revell — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 09:29:16 GMT

I welcome the joint report produced by fellows of The Royal Academy of Engineering (RAE), The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) and The British Computer Society (BCS) entitled: "Engineering Values in IT", which was published on 3rd August 2009 and is available from the academy's web site.

The report recommends that "appropriately qualified Chartered Engineers (CE) and Chartered IT Professionals (CITP) should be employed to lead and manage major IT projects within both government and industry."

I sense that, in particular, Chartered IT Professional (CITP) status is a qualification whose time is now rapidly approaching. I’ve noted over recent months that many IT professionals in senior positions have recently been awarded chartered status.

It is a necessarily hard qualification to achieve and is certainly on a par with those in other chartered professions, such as Chartered Accountants or Chartered Surveyors.

The motivation for the report was the critical importance of IT at a national level.

The report notes that the take up of chartered status within information technology remains a problem. I certainly think that those who have attained the CITP qualification should make it clear that they are "Chartered IT Professionals", since I believe that this will accelerate its adoption.

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Do Young IT Professionals Deserve a Career Track?

Alastair Revell — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 17:46:13 GMT

I think one of the long term problems that faces the IT profession is how we train new entrants to our profession. Established professions, such as law and surveying, have long had well-defined routes that graduates can take to become qualified.

For instance, in England and Wales, aspirant solicitors have a formal route in to the legal profession by first studying an appropriate degree, then completing a legal practice course followed by a two-year training contract with a legal practice before becoming fully qualified. Law is a completely regulated profession in England and Wales, which cannot be practiced unless you have a current practice certificate. Surveying is not totally regulated in the United Kingdom, but there is still a fairly well-defined route into that profession. Budding chartered surveyors usually must complete an appropriate degree, which is often followed by a training contract with an established practice while working towards the Assessment of Professional Competence (APC), which usually takes two years.

In stark contrast, there is little established guidance on how to become an IT professional. For most graduates, they are left to forge their own routes with arguably the profession loosing out because of poor initial formation of skills. I believe that IT employers need to start working towards building something similar to that which exists in the more established professions. We need to establish a framework that aspirant IT professionals can follow by initially completing an appropriate IT degree at university before being offered training contracts that cover appropriate ground for the various specialisms within our profession.

I believe that the qualification that they should work towards is the Chartered IT Professional (CITP) status that is offered by The British Computer Society under its Royal Charter. Although awareness of Chartered IT Professional (CITP) status is low, it is growing and The British Computer Society (BCS) is working hard to raise its profile. In fact, the BCS is currently engaged in a process that will allow (if successful) other IT bodies to offer CITP status as an attempt to accelerate the adoption of the CITP standard, without compromising the high standards of the qualification.

The advantage for employers (and the public at large) is that it then becomes easier to separate the wheat from the chaff. Most people would rather use a Chartered Surveyor than an unqualified one. Over time, I fully expect that employers and those contracting IT services will demand that the work is done under the supervision of a Chartered IT Professional (CITP).

The IT industry has a long history of complaining that formal graduate education does not measure up to what it needs. The reality, in my opinion, is that IT employers must come to terms with the fact that we also have a role to play in the formation of our young professionals. I don’t believe we can abdicate this responsibility to the universities alone. We need to be prepared to invest in the entrants into our profession by providing them with a clear route to gaining experience in the work-place through training contracts and so rounding out their formal education into something that is much more employable.

The advantage of the CITP qualification is that it already fits inside the national professional qualification framework alongside other chartered professions, such as Chartered Accountants and Chartered Surveyors. The qualification is considered to be equivalent to other chartered qualifications by HM Government. The Chartered IT Professional (CITP) qualification also places an obligation on the holder to annually complete continuing professional development (CPD) to ensure that they keep abreast of changes and developments themselves as professionals.

The underpinning concepts are in place, but what is needed is consensus to make it happen. We must answer the question as to whether our young IT professionals deserve a career track.

This weblog is produced by Revell Research Systems.