Kind of a big dealWhy IT professionalism is critical for IT service providers

and consumers

This summit is about creating and advancing a digital

strategy for Saskatchewan…

…this session is about how those individuals, upon whom the “digital strategy” will rely, figuring out a means to work together

I am

• Sr. Programmer Analyst• Graduate Student• CIPS Board Member• ISP• IT Professional

outside of IT…

What my friends think I do

What my mom thinks I do

What I think I do

What I actually do

IT as a profession is poorly understood…

…even by IT practitioners

IT Defined (formal)[1]:

Information technology (IT) is concerned with technology to treat information.

The acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications

IT Defined (simplified) :

Working with computers and /or networks

IT encompasses an amazingly broad set of activities and disciplines

And

is still viewed by many as being a particularly uninteresting variation of Voodoo

Ambiguity about what IT is creates uncertainty about what practitioners must/should/can do

Uncertainty erodes the trust of consumers of IT services and introduces risk into operating environments

In order to advance a positive, digitally based, agenda for our province (…country …world) we need to agree on a framework for IT practitioners and IT consumers to use to work together

! This is not an IT-specific problem

! This is a SOLVED problem

Professionalism provides a framework for interactions between practitioners and non-practitioners

Let’s define these terms…

the development of formal qualifications based upon education, apprenticeship, and examinations, the emergence of regulatory bodies with powers to admit and discipline members, and some degree of monopoly rights[2]

A Profession Requires:

• Possesses specialized knowledge from which they derive their living

• Is bound by a code of ethics• Is accepted by their peers as being part of

the profession

A Professional is one who:

A Professional Association Exists:

• To affirm a practitioners qualifications to belong

• To mediate conflicts between practitioners and the public

• To promote the value of the profession• To facilitate ongoing professional

development

Fantastic!

But…

Why isn’t there a greater emphasis put on professionalism?

Why don’t we demand professionalism of ourselves and our peers?

Why isn’t it demanded of us?

The Prescription

Value professionalism– Seek out professionals to work with– Commit to professionalism

If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea [Antoine de saint

Exupery (sort of)].

CIPS:

Canada has had a formal infrastructure to support IT professionalism since 1958[3]…

…that’s only 12 years[4] after the advent of ENIAC!

Why CIPS is (part of) the answer

• The only Canadian IT Professional Association with standing in law

• Canadian solution– Sask. solution

• Long history / broad knowledge base

So… What did I get wrong?

What did I miss?What else would you like to know?

References1. Longley, Dennis; Shain, Michael (2012), Dictionary of Information Technology (2 ed.), Macmillan Press, p. 1642. Alan Bullock & Stephen Trombley, The New Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought, London: Harper-Collins, 1999,

p.689.3. http://www.cips.ca/about 4. Shurkin, Joel, Engines of the Mind: The Evolution of the Computer from Mainframes to Microprocessors, 1996,ISBN

0-393-31471-5