A long and winding road (Progress on the road to a software engineering profession)

Abstract

An evaluation of the current state of developments in the field of software engineering (SE) professionalism is presented including the effect of ACM withdrawing from the IEEE-CS/ACM Software Engineering Coordinating Committee (SWECC). An examination is made of two of the projects initiated by SWECC: that defining the Software Engineering Code of Ethics and Professional Practice and that providing a Guide to a Software Engineering Body of Knowledge. The successes and problems associated with each are highlighted. Details are presented of a project supported by the International Federation of Information Processing, concerned with the harmonisation of professional standards, which could now be very relevant to re-establishing progress on the road to a SE profession. Efforts undertaken to promote this work to the SE community are also reported. Finally overall conclusions and recommendations are given that could improve the situation in the future.