Agenda
 Professionalism
 Ethics
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What is a Profession?
 A profession is a vocation founded upon specialised
educational training, the purpose of which is to supply
disinterested counsel and service to others, for a direct
and definite compensation, wholly apart from
expectation of other business gain.[1]
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Source: Wikipedia
Profession
 Classically, there were only three professions: Divinity,
Medicine, and Law.[2]
Profession
The main milestones which mark an occupation being
identified as a profession are:
 It became a full-time occupation;
 The first training school was established;
 The first university school was established;
 The first local association was established;
 The first national association was established;
 The codes of professional ethics were introduced;
 State and provincial licensing laws were established.[2]
Profession
 With the rise of technology and occupational
specialization in the 19th century, other bodies began
to claim professional status: Pharmacy, Veterinary
Medicine, Nursing, Teaching, Librarianship,
Optometry and Social Work, all of which could claim,
using these milestones, to be professions by 1900.[3]
Legally recognized professions
Some professions are legally recognized
 Governments have passed laws recognizing members
 In turn, members have a legal responsibility to uphold
the interests of society, above other interests
Others professions are less formal
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Legally recognized professions
Professions with practice-restricting licenses in many jurisdictions
 Practice or aspects of practice are limited to license holders
 Medicine, Veterinary Medicine,Dentistry, Chiropractic,
Pharmacy, Law, School Teaching, Engineering (in theory in
Canada), Architecture
 Some licensed professions in Ontario
http://www.citizenship.gov.on.ca/english/working/career/
 Divinity (those licensed can perform marriages, etc), etc.
 Those requiring less education are commonly called ‘trades’


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*Truck Driving, (required training and drivers license)
Electricians
Auto Mechanics
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Legally recognized professions
Professions with signoff-restricting licenses or certifications,
 A licensed/certified person must approve certain types of work
done, but may delegate most of the work to others
 Anyone may ‘do certain of the work’, but members have a legal
basis to state to others that they are competent
 Engineering (in some places), Financial Analysis (CFA), Chartered
Accountancy (CA), Certified Management Accountancy (CMA),
certain ‘trades’ (Electrician, Plumber)
 Veterinary Medicine
Professions with legal standing but where there is no license issued nor
legal requirement for signoff of work
 Information Systems Professional (I.S.P.) in Canada
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Professions without legal recognition
Professions with optional certifications that do not have legal weight
 Software Development (CSDP), Project Management (PMP)
Professions not generally licensed or certified, but where a degree or diploma
provides evidence of competence
 Scientist (various types), Journalist
Other professions or trades where an apprenticeship model is typically
followed
 Mechanic, Electrician
Professions where the limiting factor is simply that you must have sufficient
skill or knowledge that someone is willing to pay you enough to do it full time
 Sport player (Hockey, Golf, Football), Actor, Artist, Musician, etc.
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Key attributes of a profession
Public recognition: Others outside profession understand what a member of the
profession does and can do
 So outsiders know who to consult when they want some service
 So outsiders can feel confident they are getting work done by someone
competent
To ensure public recognition: There must be
A. A defined scope of practice
B. A recorded body of knowledge (principles, facts, best practices, required
procedures such as the building or plumbing code)
C. A code of ethics

consequences when it is violated
D. Methods to educate/train, accredit education, and ensure continuing
education
E. Well-understood criteria for membership
F. Organizations to establish and administer the above
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Specializations / Specialties
Most professions have well-defined specialties, often with their own
certifications and associations
 Medicine: Board-certified specialties
 Veterinary Medicine
 IT/Computing:
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AI - American Association for Artificial Intelligence
Project management Professional http://www.pmi.org
Information security (Certified Information Security Manager)
http://www.isaca.org/Template.cfm?Section=CISM_Certification

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Hacking (Certified Ethical Hacker) http://www.certifiedethicalhacker.com/
Certified Information Technology Professional
Vendor-specific certifications (Microsoft, Oracle)
Database administration, UI design
etc.
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General Professional Associations
for Computer Professionals
CIPS - Canadian Information Processing Society
 The national society for computing in Canada
Affiliated with Réseau Action TI (Québec)
Two US-based associations with international membership
 ACM - Association for Computing Machinery
 IEEE Computer Society

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Certification
 An earned professional designation which assures
qualification as a professional
 Earned through a professional body (society) who
sets the criteria for eligibility of the qualification
 Usually:
 Course of study in an accredited program
 Proof of professional accomplishments (work experience)
 Examination
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Certification
 Value of certification:
 Demonstrates commitment to your profession
 Increases your professional credibility
 Adhere to the code of ethics
 Mastery of a BOK (Body of Knowledge)
 Committed to ongoing education
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Certification
 Must be renewed periodically (usually annually)
 Types:
 Legal (doctors, dentist, lawyers, veterinarians, teachers)
vs: non legal (PMP, apprentices, athlete)
 Corporate (Sales, Customer Service)
 Product-Specific (i.e. MCSE, CISCO)
 Professional-wide (i.e. CGA, CA)
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IT Certification
 Vendor specific

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Cisco
IBM
Microsoft
Red Hat
SAP
…..
 Third party
 CompTIA
 CISSP
 ITIL
 General Certification
 IEEE
 CITP (BCS)
 I.S.P./ITCP (CIPS)
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Some Benefits of Professional
Status in Computing
Social and societal standing
 Computing professionals have similar responsibilities to society as
engineers, doctors, lawyers, accountants, financial analysts, etc.
 Other professionals, members of the public and the media need to
know who to consult
Legal reasons
 Judges and lawyers need to know who can be considered an expert
witness in a court case involving computing or IT
 The Chief Information Officer (CIO) of a corporation needs to
know who has the expertise to certify that the corporation has
adhered to laws and regulations
 Privacy acts like PIPEDA
 Corporate regulatory compliance
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Agenda
 Professionalism
 Ethics
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Ethics
What is Ethics:
 Study of what it means to “do the right thing”
 Assumes people are rational and make free choices
 Rules to follow in our interactions and our actions that
affect others
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Ethics
Ethical Views:
 Deontological

Judging right or wrong based on whether one adheres to the
rules
 Utilitarianism /consequentialism
 The greatest good for the greatest number of people
 Natural rights
 Some things are right regardless of what rules and laws are
written down
No simple answers to many ethical questions
 Do organizations (businesses) have ethics?
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Ethics
Important Distinctions:
Difference between wrong and harm

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Wrong: May cause harm, but may not
Harm: Bad consequence actually occurs
Personal preference and ethics

Collective rights vs. individual rights
Law and Ethics
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Ethics
Important Distinctions:
Negative rights (liberties)

The right to act without interference

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The right some people assert to do what you want with your
property
Freedom of expression
Positive rights (claim-rights)

An obligation of some people to provide certain things for others

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A doctor has an obligation to care for a sick patient
A computer scientist or engineer must take action if they know
something is unsafe, will impact the environment, etc.
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Codes of Ethics for Computer
Professionals
 CIPS Code of Ethics
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Summary of the CIPS Code of
Ethics
http://www.cips.ca/ethics
1. Protect the Public Interest and Maintain Integrity
 Work with due regard for health, safety and the
environment
 Report problems that may injure persons, organizations,
property or the economy
 Not discriminate on any grounds, such as race, sex,
sexual orientation, nationality, social origin, family
status or disability
 Not bring the profession into disrepute
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Summary of the CIPS Code of
Ethics
2. Demonstrate Competence and Quality of Service
 Serve client in conscientious, diligent and efficient manner
 Not undertake a task unless you have competence or can
become competent without delay, risk or expense to the client
 Exercise uncompromised judgment
 Be honest and candid when providing service
 Maintain competence (constantly update knowledge)
 Be aware of and compliant with legislation, standards and
bodies of knowledge
 Respect rights of third parties, such as giving credit where it
is due
 Respect property rights
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Summary of the CIPS Code of
Ethics
3. Maintain Confidential Information and Privacy
 Duty of Secrecy: Clients have a right to expect that anything
disclosed, seen or overheard will remain confidential
 Do not even disclose having been retained by the client
 Respect PIPEDA (Privacy Act) and other laws
4. Avoid Conflict of Interest
5. Uphold Responsibility to the IT Profession
 Use courtesy and good faith when dealing with other
professionals
 Participate in professional societies
 Support others in their professional development
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What should guide ethical decision
making?
Seven levels
 International treaties and agreements
 Laws (statutes)
 Reguulations
 Standards of good practice
 Professional codes of ethics
 Corporate policies
 Community and personal values
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Guidance for ethical decision
making in the area of privacy
 Fair Information Practice Principles
 Personal Information Protection and Electronic
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Documents Act: PIPEDA
Ontario Freedom of Information and Protection of
Privacy Act
Ontario Personal Health Information Protection Act
CIPS Guidelines
CIPS Code of Ethics
Seneca College Policies
Common sense
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Method for Ethical Analysis
Take a set of ethical points of view
 Equality, justice, respect, self-respect (integrity)
 Gather all ethically relevant facts regarding the situation and people
involved
 Actions, roles, relationships (e.g. conflicts of interest)
 Identify key issues
 Look for an existing policy or law that matches
 Pay attention to precedents and people who might be sensitive to
any given solution
 If a solution found, apply it

But watch out for conflicting policies, laws, principles and points of
view
 Otherwise apply higher-level general principles and consult with
others
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Example ethical situation 1
You know how to crack the encryption on cell phone
calls and have the hardware and software available to do
this.
Is there any ethical situation when you might consider
it ‘right’ to use this knowledge
If you were asked by the police? A judge? A CSIS agent?
James Bond?
If you knew it would save someone’s life? If you thought
it would prevent some other crime?
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Credit
Thank you to Timothy Lethbridge PhD, P.Eng., I.S.P.,
CSDP for providing this lecture. Tim is a Professor of
Software Engineering and Computer Science at the
University of Ottawa.
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