A major initiative to build an IT profession recognised
by employers as looking beyond technical issues to the broader
skills needed for successful IT has been launched by the
BCS.
The Professionalism in IT programme aims to increase organisations'
ability to exploit the potential of IT. It will target both IT
specialists and senior business managers.
Despite membership growth of more than 25%since the BCS
restructured a year ago, only a minority of IT specialists belong
to a professional body, and few employers look for job applicants
with professional qualifications, said BCS deputy chief executive
Colin Thompson.
"A new vision is required if we are to build a profession that
commands fully the respect and commitment of its stakeholders," he
said. "The existing vision, built around a fairly narrow image of
an activity which is essentially technical and engineering-based,
will not provide a base for securing the necessary
commitment.
"If the IT profession is to be seen by government, business
leaders, employers, users and customers as a key element in the
more successful exploitation of IT, it needs to be a profession
which:
- Is defined in terms of its ability to play a full part in all
stages of that exploitation
- Is seen as - and sees itself as - an integral part of the
business
- Has appropriate non-technical skills alongside, rather than as
add-ons to, relevant technical skills
- Demands greater personal responsibility from practitioners
- Is attractive to a wider group of entrants, including women and
people with ambitions to reach senior positions, currently
alienated by the techie image."
Thompson continued, "This is not to suggest that technical and
engineering aspects are unimportant, but a high proportion of the
problems in failed projects have their roots outside the technical
area.
"If the IT profession is to make a real impact on overall
capability, IT professionals must have a significant role in the
whole process of IT-enabled change and, most importantly, the
necessary skills to enable them to do so."
Against this background the programme has two strands. First, the
BCS is aiming to improve the ability of organisations and their
senior executives to structure, lead and implement IT-driven
business change. It will work on this with other professional and
management bodies.
"This reflects the recognition that IT professionalism cannot be
achieved simply by increasing the professionalism of IT staff,"
Thompson said. "Doing the right things and doing things right
require professionalism at all levels and across all organisation
functions.
"If we are to embed professional standards and professional
qualifications in IT practice - just as, for example, personnel
management standards and qualifications are now embedded in human
resources practice - we need to take a top-down approach, working
with the key stakeholders to develop a profession which reflects
the needs of business and other organisations.
"The real task is not to convince thousands of individual
practitioners of the need for an IT profession, but to convince a
relatively small number of key employers and their
customers."
The second strand of the programme aims to redefine the vision of
the IT profession of the future.
"The intention is that the end product will be a new definition of
roles, relationships, skills and qualifications for the IT
profession and the IT professional of the future," said
Thompson.