Professionalism

What is a professional? How can we, or should we turn IT practice and management into a profession?A profession requires a professional body, gatekeepers, entrance examinations, codes of conduct and ethics, a means of excluding or striking off.There are professional societies such as the BCS and ACM, but membership is not compulsory.

Question: Define a profession using an example from outside information system management. Produce a set of criteria for a profession.Match those criteria against information system managers. Identify where IT can be described as a profession and recommend improvements.Describe in summary the codes of ethics of the ACM and the BCS. Suggest whether IT practice should be formalised as a profession.

Davison, Robert M. (2000) "Professional Ethics in Information Systems: A Personal Perspective,"Communications of the Association for Information Systems: Vol. 3, Article 8.