Who sets standards? Determines what is right? What is wrong?

website@infoadvisors.com — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 21:56:00 GMT

Peter de Jager writes in his recent article about what is a profession:

That’s part of what belonging to a profession means... a group of people who speak the same language, have access to a common body of knowledge and understanding, and have the ability to communicate this joint understanding to others outside of that circle of expertise.

Further in, he says:

While I'd hesitate to suggest that we have ‘officially sanctioned’ definitions of buzz words (who would decide?), but it should be obvious that we at least agree to stop using buzzwords as if they had an agreed upon definition.

Good question, who would decide. Right now we professionals sit back and wait for vendors to decide what terms will be used, what they mean, and how they should be used. Think about what your definition of domain is. I'd bet we all have different meanings.

But the answer to who would decide is us.

My response to his column was:

> who would decide

Well, if we followed other established professions, a professional body, constituted by legislation, would decided. This body would determine the Common Body of Knowledge (CBOK) and Standards of Practice (SOP). The latter would be the process and application of the CBOK.

This body would also set ethical standards in context of the profession, and would convene hearings when the ethical or professional standards were violated. It would publish these failures, often with names, to ensure public confidence in the profession. The body would have its first priority to the protection of the public, not to its members.

And we are anywhere near that state. We let vendors set de facto standards (because we certainly aren't), we let anyone declare a practices as a standard (because we aren't) and we do everything possible to hide our failures (except for Robert Glass).

I recommend finding and reading the IEEE document "A Mature Profession of Software Engineering" http://www.sei.cmu.edu/publications/documents/96.reports/96.tr.004.html for the work they did in comparing the IT industry with established professions.

Karen Lopez: Musings on Data, Process, and Architecture

Who sets standards? Determines what is right? What is wrong?