UK Tester Forums

A report, published by the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) on 31 July titled, "Engineering Values in IT" sets out recommendations to solve what could (lazily) be termed the 'Software Crisis' particularly the challenge of large IT government projects.

The recommendations, if implemented, could affect all software practitioners in the UK as they are quite wide-ranging and, when I think about it, disturbing.

For the sake of brevity, I would summarise the recommendations as follows:

1. Establish a certification scheme for IT Professionals based on systems engineering principles.
2. Put (somehow) Chartered IT Professionals in positions of IT leadership in government and industry.
3. Encourage (through market forces) IT workers to aspire to chartered status through continuous professional development.

(I recommend you read the full report - maybe I've missed the point and I'm being too blunt).

But I'll be using the report as a trigger for several blog posts that predict a bleak future. Here's my first stab at some potential computer press headlines of the future:

1. Systems engineering will deliver error-free software: Oh no it won't, say customers.
2. Software development: Not an engineering discipline after all.
3. Certification Scheme serves interests of software suppliers, not users.
4. Certification Scheme creates a software ghetto: Ignored by customers, shunned by practitioners.
5. Universities offer systems engineering courses; kids prefer media studies.

That's quite enough to be going on with - but you can see where this is heading.

Read the report - what do you think?