The Profession of IT, and Software Engineering
SPEAKER
Prof. Doug Grant
Dean of Information Technology
Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne
Australia
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.