Certifying Software Professionals

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(No Transcript)
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(Using Clip Art to Help Argue That)Certifying
Software Professionals(is the Wave of the Future)

• Brian Demers
• February 24, 2000
• CS 99
• Prof. Kotz

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Whom do you trust? And how much do you trust
them?
Your house
Your friend Raoul
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Software Developers Today

• No common background
• College grad
• Transfer from another field
• Self-taught
• Training is often inadequate (Or, Did CS 23
  really teach you about Software Engineering?)

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Consequences of the Current Situation

• Non-critical systems
• Windows
• Netscape
• PC Blitz

• Critical systems Therac-25
• Radiation treatment device
• Hardware interlocks replaced by faulty software
• 2 dead, 4 crippled by radiation overexposure

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How professional is software engineering?

• Deborah Johnson on Special Professions
• Requires mastery of an esoteric body of knowledge
• Autonomy in work
• Professional society controls admission
• Fulfills important social need

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Software Engineering vs. Other Professions

• SE could meet all four criteria
• Other professions fail some criteria, but are
  still thought of as professions
• All professionals obligated to some minimum
  level of performance

How can there be a minimum standard of
performance with bugs?
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BUGS!

• Errors in computer programs are inevitable

• but programmers cannot be absolved of
  responsibility for serious or careless mistakes

• and not all errors are inevitable

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Why Certification?

• Establish a base quality level
• Expose SEs to more problems
• Exposure happens before the job
• Tests could change with advances/changes in
  technology
• Facilitates identification of negligent
  programming

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Types of Certification

• Group
• Capability Maturity Model (CMM)
• ISO 9001
• Individual
• Personal Software Process (PSP)
• Microsoft Certification

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Group Certification

• CMM model
• 5 different levels of process maturity
• Describes what, not how
• Documented process
• Monitor and control performance
• Review

• Does it work?
• Great improvements in meeting ship dates
• At one company, number of critical defects at
  ship time dropped to zero.
• Teams claimed to experience higher overall
  efficiency

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Individual Certification

• PSP
• Devised by Software Engineering Inst. (creators
  of CMM)
• Focuses on how avoid introducing error to
  begin with
• Practice large-scale techniques on small problems
• Quantitatively analyze results

• Does this work?
• Much improved ability to estimate product
  completion
• EKLOC dropped from 100 to 20
• LOC/hr remained constant
• Shorter test times claimed

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Conclusions

• Ethically, there is a class of problems which
  good design and implementation principles would
  help prevent
• Certification of software engineers
• Seems to help prevent these problems
• Increases reliability and productivity overall
• Protects against lawsuits in the future?

What do you think?