1. Professionalism

Professionalism

Professional

A professional can be described as a person competent or skilled in a particular activity.

Typically professionals have a few things in common:

• Have substanatial education and training to practice their profession.
• Are tied into one or more professional bodies.
• Members of the profession are expected to conduct their activities in accordance with codes of conduct provided by these bodies.
• The professional bodies decide the nature of training and control entry to the profession.

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Benefits of having a framework around professions include:

• Safer supply of service to the public
• Improved confidence for the public
• Greater impact
• Receive recognition through titles

UK Professional Bodies for IT

• British computer society (BCS) Founded 1957 Approx. 100,000 members
• Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) Founded 2006 Approx. 150,000 members
• Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Founded 1947 Approx. 100,000 members
• Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) Founded in 1946 Over 100,000 members

What defines a professional body?

• Has professional examinations.
• Support for Continuing Professional Development through opportunities and tools for recording / planning.
• Publish professional journals or magazines.
• Professional networks to meet and discuss the field.
• Issue a Code of Conduct / ethics to guide behaviour.
• Deal with complaints against professionals and implement disciplinary action.
• Advise goverments and regulatory bodies.
• Enabling fairer access to the professions.
• Provide careers support and opportunities.

BCS Code of Conduct

BCS Code of Conduct

The BCS Code of Conduct:

• Sets the professional standards required as condition of membership.
• Applies to all members.
• Governs the conduct of individuals.

It covers 4 main topics:

• Matters of Public Interest You shall:
  • have due regard for public health, privacy, security and wellbeing of others and the environment.
  • have due regard for the legitimate rights of Third Parties.
  • conduct your professional activities without discrimination on the grounds of sex, sexual orientation, marital status, nationality, colour, race, ethnic origin, religion, are or disability, or of any other condition or requirement.
  • promote equal access to the benefits of IT and seek to promote the inclusion of all sectors in society wherever opportunities arise.
• Professional Competence and Integrity You shall:
  • only undertake work that is within your professional competence.
  • NOT claim any level of competence that you do not possess.
  • develop your professional knowledge, skills and competence on a continuing basis, maintaining awareness of technological developments, procedures, and standards that are relevant to your field.
  • ensure that you have the knowledge and understanding of Legislation and that you comply with such Legislation, in carrying out your professional responsibilites.
  • respect and value alternative viewpoints and, seek, accept and offer honest criticisms of work.
  • avoid injuring others, their property, reputation, or employment by false or malicious or negligent action or inaction.
  • reject and will not make any offer of bribery or unethical inducement.
• Duty to Relevant Authority You shall:
  • carry out your professional responsibilities with due care and diligence whilst excerising your professional judgement at all times.
  • seek to avoid any situation that may give rise to a conflict of interest between you and your Authority.
  • accept professional responsibility for your work.
  • NOT disclose, or use for personal gain, confidential information except with the permission of your Authority, or as required by Legislation.
  • NOT misrepresent or withhold information on the performance of products, systems or services (unless lawfully bound by a duty of confidentiality to not disclose such information), or take advantage of the lack of relevant knowledge or inexperience of others.
• Duty to the Profession You shall:
  • accept your personal duty to uphold the reputation of the profession and not take any action which could bring the profession into disrepute.
  • seek to improve professional standards through participation in their development, use and enforcement.
  • uphold the reputation and good standing of BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT.
  • act with integrity and respect in your professional relationships with all members of BCS and with members of other professions with whomy ou work in a professional capacity.

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ACM Code of Ethics

ACM Code of Conduct

These are ACM’s general ethical principles:

• Contribute to soceity and to human well-being, acknowledging that all people are stakeholders in computing.
• Avoid harm.
• Be honest and trustworthy.
• Be fair and take action not to discriminate.
• Respect the work required to produce new ideas, inventions, creative works, and computing artefact.
• Respect privacy.
• Honour confidentiality.

They also provide professional responsibilities:

• strive to achieve high quality in both the processes and products of professional work.
• maintain high standards of professional competence, codnuct and ethical practice.
• know and respect existing rules pertaining to professional work.
• accept and provide appropriate professional review.
• give comprehensive and thorough evaluations of computer systems and their impacts, including analysis of possible risks.
• perform work only in areas of competence.
• foster public awareness and understand of computing, related technologies, and their consequences.
• access computing and communication resources only when authorized or when compelled by the public good.
• design and implement systems that are robustly and useably secure.

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