In 1907 a group of engineers and bridge builders in Quebec, Canada, embarked on an ambitious project to build the longest bridge in the world. But before the bridge was completed it was to cost almost 100 human lives.

On August 29th the partially built bridge collapsed, killing 75 workers and injuring another 11. A Royal Commission of Enquiry found a lack of experience of the type and size of bridge and clear mistakes had caused the disaster and held the designer and consulting engineers responsible. Construction began on the bridge once more in 1916, but disaster struck again, when the central span was being raised into position, and fell into the river killing 13 workers.

The managers had been made aware of the problem that caused this second collapse a full six weeks prior by the engineer responsible for the construction of the centre section, but hadn’t taken any action. All in all, 88 people lost their lives to predictable failures.

So what does all of this have to do with IT and technology today?

It was after this double tragedy that the concept of the Professional Engineer was born. Engineers realised that they couldn’t continue to have such devastating failures caused by inexperience or not following reasonable standards of practice. And they could no longer tolerate decision-makers ignoring their professional advice.

A similar sentiment has been growing in the international IT community since 2008, when the national tech professional bodies from Canada, the UK, Australia, South Africa, Japan and elsewhere came together to discuss whether it was time for the IT profession to also put in place minimum competency standards. Since then, all of these countries, and many others have done just that.

In New Zealand’s case, the road towards the Chartered IT Professional accreditation that was officially released in February began when the IITP (then called the NZ Computer Society) released a 2008 discussion document outlining a range of problems in the industry and calling for the profession to form independent competency standards to address them.

As well as continual significant failures in major IT projects in both the public and private sectors, some of the issues highlighted included the global IT skills shortage; significant reduction in technology undergraduates and in the percentage graduating; negative perception of IT as a career amongst youth; and lack of retention of skilled individuals in New Zealand.

In other words, our bridges were falling down and we needed to do something about it. New Zealand’s response, run by the Institute and named IT Certified Professional (ITCP), was released in late 2009 to great success.

Up until that point, IT was almost the only vocation or profession remaining without a set of independent benchmarks outlining the minimum expected standards of skills, knowledge, ethics and professionalism for people operating the field. And we’re not just talking about the established professions such as accountants and lawyers here. Almost every area you can think of, from plumbers to librarians and architects, has minimum standards in the form of an overarching professional certification. The reason for such accreditations is that there is a real difference between someone who knows what they’re doing and someone who doesn’t. Professionals have the right to differentiate themselves and a responsibility to come together within professional bodies and define minimum standards.

In February the IITP converted the ITCP to the Chartered IT Professional NZ, issued under license from the UK-based BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT. It also introduced a new Certified Technologist accreditation for those in the first few years of their career. The reason for the change is to increase the recognition of Kiwi IT professionals both in New Zealand and around the world, and to provide credentials that are immediately recognisable by the public.

Those accredited have committed to adhering to standards of professional conduct and ethics and have agreed to be professionally accountable if they don’t. In return, they have the weight of the entire profession behind them when they say that a project can’t proceed because if it does, the bridge will fall down.

ABOUT PAUL MATTHEWS//
Paul Matthews is chief executive of the Institute of IT