1. IT – a 21st Century Profession
Date: Autumn 2012

2. Perception
The suggestion is the IT is not a profession that sits alongside other career choices such as Law or Accountancy.
IT has a very different image in the minds of the public.
©Channel 4
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3. Transformational Change Failure
Business failure is often blamed on IT
Is this fair?
No – this graph shows failure is often the result of poor business practices.
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4. Scope of the IT profession
IT at biology’s frontiers
In less than 10 years IT has gone from being a valuable tool for life sciences to being at the heart of some of the most important research projects ever undertaken.
Mining data from the human genome requires massive computing power
Chemical equivalent of the genome project is producing another data mountain
Go green with software
Organisations are looking to software to help them meet their environmental commitments
These are headlines demonstrate the wide variety of industries where IT professionals are essential parts of the workforce.
Use examples of things many people take for granted:
Online shopping – Amazon, eBay, groceries from Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Waitrose….
Financial services – payments and transfers
Health – key hole surgery, design of prosthetic limbs/equipment
Mobile communication
Travel – planes, trains and automobiles
IT (Information and Technology) doesn’t just support business it powers business
Computers to harness speed of light
Scientists aim to speed information processing by using light waves
Future optical computers will provide more processing power and higher speed
IT helps restore Lehman UK
If separating the IT systems is successful, Nomura will be able to run Lehman Brothers UK as a standalone entity at a significantly lower cost than when it was Lehman Brothers’ UK entity
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5. Scope of the IT Profession
Moving on from the previous slide this illustrates where IT practitioners may be employed:
Public and Private organisations including Government, service and manufacturing industries
The Charity sector
Academia and other types of Training provision
Research and Development
IT specialists in other professions such as Accountancy and Law
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6. Past Technical solution provider
The IT Profession
Past Technical solution provider
Present IT (Information and Technology) doesn’t just support business it powers business
Future A business focussed profession, with a base of both technical and business competencies; a transformation partner with business
Past, Present and Future
Future:
The future is about developing a business focused profession with “IT business partners” in the same way as accountants are integrated as “Finance business partners” in many organisations
IT professionals need to be strategic partners in IT enabled change programmes and projects involved from the outset of any project
IT must become recognised as part of the team that contributes and delivers business objectives.
IT professionals at senior levels need to be able to take their place alongside their colleagues in the more traditional professions in the strategic, decision making structure of organisations.
IT professionals will need technical and business competencies to play a full part at all stages of IT enabled business change programmes and projects.  
BCS ambition
To build a profession that will take its place alongside established professions such as law or Accountancy, Architecture……………….
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7. Focus for BCS Championing the global IT profession
BCS Professionalism programme
The professionalism programmes objectives are:
the recognition of the strategic role for IT
acceptance of the equivalence of the IT profession
that employers should recognise and reward the capability qualified IT professionals
The Institute has a strategic objectives to “Championing the global IT profession”
To realise this objective it is:
equipping IT professionals to be leaders by offering professional certifications,
providing opportunities for IT professionals to share information (member networks),
raising its voice on topical issues (responding to consultations, providing policy statements)
The Institute works with stakeholders in every sector of the profession to:
Promote the profession to and its positive value to industry
Establish career paths for individuals entering the profession
Develop standards for IT professionals
These are long term projects and the ‘traffic lights’ demonstrate the Institute’s ambitions over time.
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8. The challenge for IT professionals
The challenge is to:
Maximise the dividends of successful IT enabled innovation
Exploit the potential of the technology to increase the ability to compete and meet customer expectations
Use the power of the technology to help drive business growth
The challenge has to be taken up by everyone who is a stakeholder in the IT profession
There is a collective responsibility to advance knowledge, develop innovative solutions and exploit information technology for the benefit of all society.
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9. The challenge for IT professionals
IT professionals are central to business success
those in leadership positions must capitalise on new technologies and ways of working
organisations rely on the skills and competence of their IT workforce
The skills of IT professionals are key to:
Maximising the dividends of successful IT enabled innovation
Exploiting the potential of the technology to meet customer expectations
Using the power of the technology to help drive business growth
To be a great IT leader an individual needs to understand that:
IT success is based upon organisational outcomes
the blend of skills is required - IT craft, ability and knowledge added to a true understanding of what the organisation is trying to achieve and the context within which it sits
IT leaders must address the reality
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10. What makes a Professional?
A professional needs to demonstrate professionalism.
Professionalism is demonstrated by:
Competence
Personal integrity
Responsibility
Accountability
Public duty
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11. What does Professionalism look like?
Member of a professional body
Signed up to a code of conduct
Committed to continuous professional development
Qualified
Demonstrates trusted competence
Conditions of membership of a professional body include agreeing to:
abide by a code of conduct that is enforceable by disciplinary sanctions
undertake continuous professional development – CPD; summarised as keeping your knowledge/capabilities up to date
Membership of a professional body tells others something about you as a professional. It demonstrates your commitment to your profession.
Membership gives you:
Professional recognition
A package of member benefits
A pathway to Chartered IT Professional status (CITP) and other registrations (CEng/IEng and CSci)
BCS membership starts with Student membership - the level for those on a course of IT related study and progresses to Associate membership (AMBCS) and then to Professional grades. Professional membership (MBCS) is available to those who have 5+ years’ experience of working in IT roles that are judged as equivalent to SFIA level 3. SFIA is the Skills for the Information Age framework that is regarded as defining the scope of the IT profession ( If you hold a BCS accredited university degree or certain other qualifications remission may be given for some or all the experiential requirement for Professional membership.(
Many professional members will aspire to Chartered status. Chartered status represents independent verification of your skills and experience and is highly valued by employers.
BCS awards Chartered IT professional status. The Institute can also Chartered Engineer and Chartered Scientist status under license from the Engineering Council and Science Council respectively.
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12. Standards for IT Professionals
Chartered IT Professional for those who exploit IT to deliver (CITP) business (or equivalent) advantage
Chartered IT Professional (CITP) is for those who exploit IT to deliver business, public or third sector advantage. CEng and CSci have different roles although there are areas of overlap in some specialist areas.
Chartered Engineer (CEng) for those who apply IT to the solution of engineering problems
Chartered Scientist (CSci) for those who advance knowledge and understanding of computer science
Which Chartered status you may want to achieve depends on your experience and your career aspirations.
Full descriptions are available on the BCS website at:
The CITP standard is based on the needs of industry. Employers, academics and Government told us they wanted the standard that:
is rigorous and demanding to achieve
shows that holders understand the business they are working in and add business value through the use of technology
tells an employer something about the holder which they cannot find out easily themselves
is underpinned by periodic revalidation
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13. Working together
Outcomes that are achievable when the profession is recognised and given the respect and value it deserves include improvements in:
Exploitation of I and T
Reliability of project and programme delivery
Reliability of critical systems
Enterprise security & governance
Returns on investment
By working in partnership IT Professionals and BCS can achieve recognition and respect for IT as a profession and raise the levels of profession in the IT industry.
Together we can achieve the BCS professionalism Programme objectives (see slide 7)
the recognition of the strategic role for IT
acceptance of the equivalence of the IT profession
that employers should recognise and reward the capability qualified IT professionals
© 2007 The British Computer Society
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14. Success is measured by business outcomes
The IT Profession
IT (Information and Technology) doesn’t just support business it powers business.
Success is measured by business outcomes
and IT practitioners are the secret to the smooth running of today’s information society
© 2007 The British Computer Society
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