06 Aug 2009
Employers in government and industry should put a greater importance on qualified IT professionals to lead and manage major IT projects, according to a significant report by three of the UK’s most influential IT membership bodies.
The number of public sector IT projects that fail or generate huge overspends is an issue not just for government, but for the UK IT industry and private sector IT has also had its share of disasters.
Solving these high-profile problems could save the taxpayer billions of pounds. According to Engineering Values in IT, a new study from the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAE), the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), and the British Computer Society (BCS), such failings could be avoided by making sure that qualified Chartered Engineers (CEng) and Chartered IT Professionals (CITP) are employed to lead and manage major IT projects.
The 40-page report recommends that IT professionals aim to attain chartered status and that those achieving such accreditation should be given preference for leading IT programmes.
The RAE said the report was of critical importance to UK IT. “My biggest disappointment is that we know what should be done, but it’s still not being done,” said IET board member and RAE Fellow Suzanne Flynn.
“IT is still treated as something you do in a back office instead of a discipline.” Nick Masterson-Jones, IT director at banking payments firm Vocalink , said it was ridiculous that so many IT projects still go so badly wrong.
“The resistance to the adoption of good [software] engineering techniques seems to be cost,” he said. “The costs of making mistakes is far higher than doing it right first time and it’s less stressful for everybody involved.”
The major recommendation of the study was the advice to IT professionals to achieve chartered status “and thereby commit to the professional and ethical code of an institution”.
An important aspect of that is maintaining professional knowledge and competency through continuing professional development. “Procurers of large IT systems in government and industry should employ chartered professionals to lead and manage these projects,” says the report.
“Appropriate chartered status should be a requirement on leading engineers engaged in development of systems with implications for safety or national security.”
But one of the main challenges is how to encourage IT professionals to achieve chartered status, said RAE Fellow Dr Allan Fox. “We’re arguing the case for the take-up of CEng and CITP by employers, which would have an immediate impact,” he said.
Andrew Ramsay, chief executive of the Engineering Council UK, said strong foundations also need to be put in place among IT students. “What they learn at university is only part of what they need to deploy to behave professionally. They should look for opportunities that would allow them to develop a professional career,” he said, while recognising that the “pay off” for such endeavours “takes many years of investment”.
But BCS deputy president Elizabeth Sparrow said that persuading IT professionals to seek chartered status will not work unless employers feel it makes a significant difference.
Professor Jim Norton, chairman of the BCS professionalism board, said that achieving the aims of the report requires a “willing audience” on the part of business when there is already a lack of professional qualifications in UK boardrooms.
“We need to make sure people are currently competent, rather than just historically competent that’s a key issue for all the institutions,” he said.
That's all it is worth.
Get these letters after your name and off you go to the pushy & cosseted world of a local council or other public sector "rest-posts".
My experience suggests that It was the chosen exit for third-raters from the real world into the Public Sector.
Please, please understand that membership of the BCS is not nearly as worthy as access to the serious engineering disciplines such as MICE.
After all, the Civils have had a long time to work out what matters from the days of Telford until today. They know why bridges fall down and structures fail.
That's why they mandate good honours or a masters even to start the path to consideration for membership! The BCS couldn't dare to do this. (Yes there is an experienced route to MICE but it's very very tough. .
Then after their degrees the CEs expect lots of documented experience. But and it's a big but, the folks getting good academic qualification and membership in CE have gained what they know from people in companies who have some knowledge/skills in the real world.
Sorry, the BCS is a joke.
Get what the industry needs. Cisco/Microsoft/Oracle paperwork and then work for good Co. that has a track record of success and excellent methods.
Posted by: James 08 Aug 2009
My FTSE 100 employer won't even consider paying £80 for BCS membership let alone anything more like supporting getting chartered status.
There isn't sufficient perceived benefit.
There won't be a wide uptake until there are real career benefits in becoming chartered and until employers see this benefit there won't be.
Where chartered status is effective it's because you can't get a middle ranking/senior job without it e.g. for librarians
Posted by: Anon 06 Aug 2009
Hi
Amazed that the article actually quoted the BCS. A totally useless charlatan organisation that serves no other purpose than itself. It's only point is to increase memebership so it can make more subcription. It pretends membership offers some sort of xudo's - but whjat xudo's is there in having bought a subscription that anyone could have? Someone with NO qualification or computer experience can be a member and use their letters after your name.
Rip off. You should know better Computing. You are only adding to their image of credibility.
Posted by: Harry Balfour 06 Aug 2009
This is a re-hash of the paper produced in 2003 by a group of worthies, few of whom had ever worked near a major project. It's the same, "get chartered, preferably with the BCS and all will be well". Well it won't. After nearly 40 years in IT I know how little the BCS matters.
When the BCS started offering Chartered Status, very lowly qualified or competent people where I worked quickly realised that it's very lax standards allowed them to get C Eng after their names. Dozens were so "chartered" with little more than years of service as service technicians, swapping cards in mainframes! The experienced, competent people saw it as a joke.
When I saw that this new report was out, I assumed that the pundits had spotted what was missing from their earlier effort - any mention of formal methods for managing projects. This omission was quickly identified by the senior project people where I was working and they were incredulous at the gap in knowledge being demonstrated by the report's authors.
This one is marginally better but still shows the lack of real appreciation of how things must be done in large IT projects.
Not all that surprising really when the credentials of its authors are examined.
Posted by: Anon 06 Aug 2009
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