In Part 1, I briefly introduced the guide to the Software Engineering Book of Knowledge (SWEBOK) that was published in 2004.  “The IEEE Computer Society establishes for the first time a baseline for the body of knowledge for the field of software engineering…”  We will come back to the SWEBOK in a future post as this post is about how to qualify for “professional” league play.

In Part 1, I discussed software engineering as being a team sport.  This is nothing new as far as I am concerned, but I am still amazed when a multi-million dollar software development project is assigned to, and executed by, a newly assembled team.  This team has never played together, and quite likely consists of shinny players to NHL stars and everything in-between.  Now imagine that this team is somehow “classified” as an amateur Junior “B” league hockey team and their very first game was to play a real NHL professional hockey team.  What is the likelihood of the B hockey team winning?  Don’t forget, the B team has not played together as a team yet.  Their first game is to play together and play against an NHL pro hockey team.  Did I mention that just before actual game play the team figures out that they are missing their Center, who also happens to be the Captain of the team.  Again, what is the likelihood of success?

Of course, this hockey scenario would never happen in real life, but it is certainly happens in our software development world.  Where teams (assembled or not) get assigned software development projects that are way beyond their software engineering capabilities to even have a chance at successful delivery.  I see it everyday.  And to varying degrees, I have seen it over the past 16 years of being in the software development business.  I have been fortunate as some of the dev teams I have worked on are at “professional” league play, where all team members have +10 years of software development engineering experience.  Aside from work being fun on theses teams, our success rate for the design and delivery of software on time and on budget was very high. Our motto was give us your biggest, baddest, dev project you got – c’mon, bring it on!

However, most teams I have worked on have been a mix of shinny players to pros.  Our success rate was highly variable.  And even more variable (chance has better odds) if the model is assembling players from the “resource pool.”  Some of the shinny players have aspirations of becoming pros and take to the work, listening to the guidance of the pros.  Other shinny players are finding out for the first time what it means to try out in the pro league and are questioning whether they are going to pursue their career in software development.  It’s a hard road, being unindustrialized and all.

There are shinny players (and pro posers) that try real hard but simply don’t have the knowledge or skills (aptitude?) to play even at the shinny level, for whatever reason.  This is especially difficult to deal with, if one or more of this type of player happens to be on your team.  It is the equivalent of carrying a hockey player on your back in the game because s/he can’t skate.  Never happens in the pro hockey league, but amazingly often in our software development world.  If our software development world was more “visible”, you would see in every organization that develops software of any sort, some people wandering around carrying a person on their back.  It would be kind of amusing to see, unless of course you were the one carrying… or being carried.

That is the irony of what we do as software developers.  It is nowhere near as “visible” as a team (or even individual) sport where everyone can visibly see exactly what you are doing.  And even if people could see what you are doing, it still may not matter, because to most people, other than software developers, software engineering is a complete mystery. 

So how does one find out what level of league play you are at?  One problem in our software development world is that we do not have levels of team play.  We are not that mature (i.e. industrialized) yet. Well, some would say that the CMMI has levels of play and I would agree, but I am talking about individual level here first, then we will discuss what that means when you qualify to be on a team (or even the remote possibility of finding a team that has the same knowledge and skill level you do).  Another way to determine your knowledge and skill level is through certifications.  There are several ways to get certified.  Some popular ones are: Certified Software Development Professional and the Open Group's IT Architect Certification Program.  Other certifications are directly related to vendors’ products such as Microsoft’s Certified Architect and Sun's Certified Enterprise Architect.

For this series of articles, I am looking at level of play as being a “professional software engineer.”  I firmly believe that software development is an engineering discipline and it appears that there is only one association, in the province I live in, that recognizes this and that is the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of BC (APEGBC).  That designation is called a Professional Engineer or P.Eng.  “The P.Eng., designation is a professional license, allowing you to practice engineering in the province or territory where it was granted.  Only engineers licensed with APEGBC have a legal right to practice engineering in British Columbia.”  Of course, this may be slightly different depending on your geographic location. 

Note how this is entirely different than any other certification – it is a professional license giving you a legal right to practice software engineering.  “The term Professional Engineer and the phrase practice of professional engineering is legally defined and protected both in Canada and the US.  The earmark that distinguishes a licensed/registered Professional Engineer is the authority to sign and seal or "stamp" engineering documents (reports, drawings, and calculations) for a study, estimate, design or analysis, thus taking legal responsibility for it.” 

Ponder this for a while, what would it mean in your software development job right now if you were a professional software engineer and that you were legally responsible for the software that you designed?  How would that change your job today?  I know it would change mine.

All of this is not news to any practicing electrical, electronic and all of the various other engineering disciplines as this have been standard practice for years, even decades.  Yet it is seemingly all new to us software professionals.

Let’s take a look at the requirements for applying for P.Eng., specifically related to software engineering.  These two documents are: "2004 SOFTWARE ENGINEERING SYLLABUS and Checklist for Self-Evaluation” and “APEGBC Guide for the Presentation and Evaluation of Software Engineering Knowledge and Experience.”    

From the Software Engineering Syllabus:  “Nineteen engineering disciplines are included in the Examination Syllabi issued by the Canadian Engineering Qualifications Board (CEQB) of the Canadian Council of Professional Engineers (CCPE). Each discipline examination syllabus is divided into two examination categories, compulsory and elective. Candidates will be assigned examinations based on an assessment of their academic background. Examinations from discipline syllabi other than those specific to the candidate’s discipline may be assigned at the discretion of the constituent Association/Ordre. Before writing the discipline examinations, candidates must have passed, or have been exempted from, the Basic Studies Examinations.”

That’s right – exams.  While I have 16 years of professional software experience, I may end up having to write exams.  I wrote 17 exams when a postgraduate Software Engineering Management program, so what’s a few more.  I say bring it on.  Oh yeah, did I mention I was applying to become a professional software engineer?  I want to work on teams near or at “professional” league play.  Practice what you preach, eh?  I will be documenting the process and my progress through this blog.

Open up the Software Engineering Syllabus PDF and have a look for yourself.  Can you take your existing education and map it to the basic studies?  How about that Digital Logic Circuits? Or how about discrete mathematics, remember your binomial theorem?  Now look at Group A.  Unless you are a very recent Comp Sci grad, it is unlikely you took Software Process – so perhaps exams for everyone!  Who’s with me?!

While I am having a little fun here, no matter what, it is going to be work.  And that’s the point, you don’t become a professional engineer overnight.

In addition to the educational requirements, have a look at the Presentation and Evaluation of Software Engineering Knowledge and Experience PDF.  You need a minimum of 4 years of satisfactory software engineering experience in these 6 main software engineering capabilities:

1. Software Requirements
2. Software Design and Construction
3. Software Process Engineering
4. Software Quality
5. Software Assets Management
6. Management of Software Projects

Some capabilities are further decomposed into sub-capabilities.  To each capability area can be associated:

• the fundamental knowledge or theory , indirectly, pointing to the model academic curriculum of Software Engineering,
• the applicable industry standards,
• the recognized industry practices and tools,
• and a level of mandatory or optional experience on real projects. 

The document then defines these capabilities and sub-capabilities as to what they mean.  Finally the document provides a suggested presentation of experience and an example of how to layout your projects.  Seems pretty straight forward enough, but when you sit down and actually go through it, remembering the projects you worked on and what capabilities were used and referenced to the sub-capabilities, it can take a while.

While I won’t go through some of the details of the  other requirements, which you can read in this 25 page application guide,  two other items stand out, one is writing the Professional Practice Exam, in addition to attending the Law and Ethics Seminar and the other is references.

The Professional Practice Exam. Before being granted registration as a Professional Engineer, you must pass the Professional Practice Examination.  The Professional Practice Examination is a 3-hour examination consisting of a 2-hour multiple-choice section and a 1-hour essay question. The examination tests your knowledge of Canadian professional practice, law and ethics.  There is a (large) book reference that you need to study in order to prepare for the exam.

The reference form is interesting in the sense that the Association requires that Referees be Professional Engineers with first hand working knowledge of the applicant’s work and that the applicant must have been under suitable supervision throughout the qualifying period.  I don’t know what your experience has been, but in my 16 years of being in the software development business, I have only worked with two professional engineers.

One more specific aspect I would like to point out is the APEGBC Code of Ethics.  The purpose of the Code of Ethics is to give general statements of the principles of ethical conduct in order that Professional Engineers may fulfill their duty to the public, to the profession and their fellow members.  There are 10 specific tenets and while I understand and appreciate each one, there is one in particular that is very apt to the state of software engineering today and that is:

(8) present clearly to employers and clients the possible consequences if professional decisions or judgments are overruled or disregarded;

You know what I mean.

This sums up the application process for becoming a professional software engineer. As you can see it is considerable effort and can take 3 to 6 months to acquire your license.  However, the main benefit is that it tells employers that they can depend on your proven skills and professionalism.  The main benefit for me is to use it as a qualifier for any new software development teams I will join in the future.  My goal is to work on teams that are at the “NHL” level of play. 

In Post 3 we are going to dive into the SWEBOK for an explanation of what the guide to Software Engineering Body of Knowledge is and how through this knowledge and practice, we as software professionals, can assist in the industrialization of software.