IT Professionals

Who is a professional?

In ICT & Our Society 3rd Edition, by Yeh and Oh, the author mentioned that a professional is expected to

-Have received training in a recognised field & mastered a specialised body of knowledge
-Have a considerable level of autonomy in performing his work
-Is a member of a recognised professional association
-Have an important social function and committed to social good

Well, let's just take the author's 3rd point. A professional is a member of a recognised professional association.

In Singapore, the Lawyers are recognised and is part of the Singapore Law Society. They have a code of conduct to adhere to. Doctors have a code of conduct to adhere to and they are professionals and they are in the Singapore Medical Association.

What about IT Professionals?

IT Professionals can be part of Singapore Computer Society (SCS).

There are a few types of IT Professionals
- Programmers
- Software engineers
- Network administrators
- Chief Information Officer (CIO)

Unlike doctors and lawyers, IT Professionals do not have a licence. The reason being is that there is

- No universally accepted core body of knowledge.
- It is unclear who should manage the content and administration of licensing exams.
- No admin body to do accreditation of professional education programs.
- No admin body to assess and assure competence of individual professionals

However, IT Professionals are still involved in different types of professional relationships and SCS came up with a recommended code of conduct for IT Professionals. Besides that, there is a need for IT Professionals to have ethics and we will talk more about the ethical issues which challenges our IT Professionals.