Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.3/3818

Title

The profession of IT and software engineering

Author(s)

Grant, Doug

Abstract

The respected Computer Scientist Peter Denning has recently inaugurated a new column in the Communications of the ACM, entitled 'The Profession of IT'. Denning advocates that we should define 'Information Technology' broadly as a profession, rather than as a discipline, that we need to consider this as quite distinct from the many disciplines that relate to it, and that for the coherence of the profession, appropriate bridges need to be built between these various disciplines. What does this mean for 'Software Engineering', one of Denning's 'IT-Specific Disciplines'? In this address we will consider the priorities for research, professional practice and education in the Software Engineering discipline, in the context of Denning's advocacy, the pressures of the contemporary global market, and developments in other engineering disciplines. In our view it is a particularly apt time for us to switch our thinking to a forward direction, imagining what our discipline can be, rather than the historically backward direction, when we sought legitimacy through comparison with traditional engineering disciplines. Since those disciplines themselves are undergoing transformation, we argue that their historical manifestations can no longer serve as templates for Software Engineering. Our aim in the address will be to challenge, to confront and to stimulate thinking.

Abstract

2002

Publication type

Conference abstract

Research centre

Swinburne University of Technology. School of Information Technology

Source

Second Argentine Symposium on Software Engineering (ASSE 2001), Buenos Aires, Argentina, September 10-12, 2001, pp. 1

Publication year

2001

Publisher

Reprografias JMA

Publisher URL

Second Argentine Symposium on Software Engineering (ASSE 2001), Buenos Aires, Argentina, September 10-12, 2001

Publisher URL

http://www.cs.rmit.edu.au/asse2001/keynote.html