What Do You Mean I’m Practicing Without a License? Certification and Licensing of Requirements Engineering Professionals Nancy R. Mead Software Engineering Institute, Carnegie Mellon University
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1. Introduction During the past few years, we have seen some dramatic events that support licensing and certification of software professionals. The decision to license software engineers in the state of Texas was a landmark event. Other significant events include the establishment of undergraduate degree programs in software engineering, the merger of the CSAB and ABET accrediting bodies, and the plan to accredit undergraduate degree programs in software engineering. The work of the SWECC and other groups such as the WGSEET all point in the direction of a discipline of software engineering that can support licensing and certification. I have long felt that licensing or certification of software engineers was inevitable, at least for developers of products that need to exhibit safety and security properties. Our inclination to sue may also lead to licensing of software engineers who develop essential business applications. The issues to be addressed today have to do with the concept of licensing requirements engineers, which is not exactly the same as licensing software engineers. My views on these issues follow.
2. Issues to Be Debated Here are the questions to be addressed by the panel along with brief responses: What are the goals that we want to achieve and is certification of software professionals the best way to achieve those goals? I think that safety, security, reliability, and correctness of software are important quality goals, and certification of software professionals is a way to improve our software product quality. Because we have shown little inclination to achieve improved software quality otherwise, certification is desirable. Who should be certified? Requirements engineers?
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Certainly software engineers who develop systems that must meet certain quality standards should be certified. For such products, I think it would also be useful to certify requirements engineers. Who should be responsible for the certification process? I believe the professional societies should be responsible for this process, but this is an area of controversy within the societies, so in the end this may not be feasible. I think it is more desirable for the profession to own the certification process than for it to be owned by legislative bodies. Are the SE and RE disciplines sufficiently mature and stable to permit the licensing and/or certification of software professionals? I believe there is a core knowledge base that will support licensing or certification. It is not stable, but I believe the act of licensing or certification will drive it towards maturity and stability quickly. I believe that if professionals continue to resist the concept of licensing or certification it will be decided in the courts or legislatures, which in my view is undesirable.
