Professional Practices
“The Profession”
Contents
• Profession
• Fundamental characteristics of a profession
• Ethics and Profession
• Professional Ethics
• Professional codes of conduct
• Applying codes of conduct
Profession
“A paid occupation, especially one that involves
prolonged training and a formal qualification”
Profession
• A formal education is one where you would go to
a college or university for an actual degree.
• An informal education is simply learning a trade from
someone else. It’s possible to have a formal education
and an informal education.
• The formal education is what most employers would
prefer to see because it is easier to prove. Having
a degree in a specific field will mean that you have
certain knowledge that will translate into a better
paying job and the company that’s employing you
getting a qualified person for the job.
Profession
• An informal education is what many people end up
having. You work under someone who has a degree or
has been doing it for enough years to be
knowledgeable about the subject.
• Many car mechanics and other "trade” skills usually
have an informal education as to what they’re doing.
• Informal education can also be referred to as life
experience. After going through life for so many years,
you’ll naturally acquire some knowledge about
different things that you may not even learn after going
through a formal education.
Fundamental characteristics of a
profession
• Great responsibility
– Professionals deal in matters of vital importance
to their clients and are therefore entrusted with
grave responsibilities and obligations.
– Given these essential obligations, professional
work typically involves circumstances where
carelessness, inadequate skill, or breach of ethics
would be significantly damaging to the client
and/or his fortunes.
Fundamental characteristics of a
profession
• Accountability
– Professionals hold themselves ultimately
accountable for the quality of their work with the
client.
– The profession may or may not have mechanisms
in place to reinforce and ensure adherence to this
principle among its members.
Fundamental characteristics of a
profession
• Based on specialized, theoretical knowledge
– Professionals render specialized services based on
theory, knowledge, and skills that are
characteristic to their profession and generally
beyond the understanding or capability of those
outside of the profession.
– Sometimes, this specialization will extend to
access to the tools and technologies used in the
profession (e.g. medical equipment).
Fundamental characteristics of a
profession
• Institutional preparation
– Professions typically require a significant period of
hands-on, practical experience in the protected
company of senior members before candidates
are recognized as professionals.
– After this provisional period, ongoing education
toward professional development is compulsory.
Fundamental characteristics of a
profession
• Ethical constraints
– Due to the other characteristics on this list, there
is a clear requirement for ethical constraints in the
professions.
– Professionals are bound to a code of conduct or
ethics specific to the distinct profession.
– Professionals also aim toward a general body of
core values, which are centered upon the client's
benefit and best interests.
Fundamental characteristics of a
profession
• Merit-based
– In a profession, members achieve employment and
success based on merit rather than on corrupted
ideals such as social principle, mandated support, or
extortion.
– Therefore, a professional is one who must attract
clients and profits due to the merits of his work.
– In the absence of this characteristic, issues of
responsibility, accountability, and ethical constraints
become irrelevant, negating any otherwise-
professional characteristics.
10 things that define a true
professional
• Put customer satisfaction first
• Make expertise your specialty
• Do more than expected
• Do what you say and say what you can do
• Communicate effectively
• Follow exceptional guiding principles
• Praise your peers not yourself
• Share your knowledge
• Say thank you
• Keep a smile on your face and the right attitude in your
heart
Ethics and Profession
• Ethics is the study of right and wrong in
relation to human actions. It includes
– Meta-ethics: study of general principles from
which ethical systems can be built.
– Moral theory: ethical systems, consisting of the
criteria to decide whether individual actions are
right and wrong.
– Practical ethics: application of ethical systems to
the analysis of particular situations.
What is Professional Ethics
• One's conduct of behavior and practice when
carrying out professional work, e.g.,
consulting, researching, teaching.
• The principles and standards that guide
members of a particular profession in their
interactions with internal & external
stakeholders.
Professional Ethics
• „Professional Ethics must take into accounts:
– Relations between professionals and clients
– Relation between profession and society
– Relations among professionals
– Relations between employee and employer
Why professional ethics?
• Awareness of professional ethics is gaining
importance with time.
• Decision making process in the work place is a
complex phenomena.
• The professional ethics provide a way of
simplifying that decision making process.
Professional code of conduct
• One of main characteristic of profession is that the
professional body establishes and enforces a code of
conduct on its members.
• As far as software engineering, Computer Science and
Information technology is concerned, most code of
conducts established by ACM and IEEE undergo major
revisions with the passage of time.
• All previous code of conducts are recently replaced by
“Software Engineering Code of Ethics and Professional
Practice” developed jointly by the ACM and IEEE
Computer society.
Professional code of conduct
• It outlines 8 principles of software engineering
ethics: The obligation of the software engineer to
the
– general public
– the client and employer
– the product
– the profession
– Colleagues
– the engineer himself or herself
– the ethical management of software engineering
projects.
Applying codes of conduct
• This section provides some examples based on
real situations regarding professional practices
in software engineering.
– Sales proposals
– Integrity and professional status.
– Public health and safety
– Conflicts of interest