A professional implies a particular standard of workmanship. Especially in the engineering, architectural or other industries alike where the product can be measured in terms of performance, productivity or output, it is vital that work of a certain ‘professional quality’ is performed. Although currently there is no formal quality standard that is expected of software, the resultant success rate is relatively low compared to other disciplines and industries. However, it is credible to reason that this is due to the fact that software engineering is new to the world and has yet to evolve.

High academic standards are usually a requirement for acceptance as a profess

On similar levels of professionalism is the legal profession, which encompasses all law and society. Lawyers base their professional status on three grounds- special educational requirements, self-governance, and a singular or collective responsibility to assist members of the public by securing and protecting available legal rights and benefits.ª In this field, professionalism requires more than merely avoiding the violation of laws and rules but promoting, maintaining and enforcing them actively for the better of society. Although lawyers have a strictly defined set of laws from which to derive their actions, software engineers are fairly free to act in their own accordance, especially since current laws have not caught up with the current technology and its potential. Hardly any laws exist which would protect all people in the best moral interest. While lawyers enforce the law and protect people, software engineers have the ability to produce software that can be used unethically yet without violating any laws. Hence we can see the dangers of allowing any person to qualify themselves as software engineers and go on to develop software whose faults may not even be recognised for years. This fact strengthens the need for software engineering to become classified as a professional job to ensure the safety, security, wellbeing and integrity of the society to which the software is exposed.

For now, software engineering is in its infancy and not many institutions offer it as a course, however as time progresses and the significance of software engineers in systems development is made more aware within society, they hold a higher degree of responsibility towards the trusting community. Because software is so portable and hard to restrict users to, it can be transferred across the world in just seconds, unlike laws that exist for a certain state or country therefore affect only those within their reach. Hence software engineers become responsible to the entire world for the consequences of having their software used. Surely such an occupation must be classified as professional, amongst the ranks and responsibilities of those already in possession of such a title? Unionisation and a respectable classification of software engineers is needed to protect and safely guide these engineers whose population is growing as more graduates with the title ‘software engineer’ emerge.

All professionals, whether servicing society directly or indirectly, must be held responsible for protecting the health, welfare and safety of society, hence making licensing a compulsory activity of software engineers would bring benefits to both the public and the occupation. Licensure is the mark of a professional and would clearly indicate the professional recognition of software engineering whilst improving the quality of software engineering practices. Belonging to a licenced group in which conferences and journals are shared, has been found to be influential in producing reaffirmations of the core values of professionalism.¨ The concept of belonging to a defined profession f

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