What's the story with the BCS?

[NotAllThere]

..."computer programmers" were graduates and held in greater esteem than rocket scientists, and documentation was only needed by idiots...

Sounds great. Is there a downside?

[Doggy Styles]

Sounds great. Is there a downside?

I was interviewed by a Fellow of the BCS once. I've never spoken to a more pompous, elitist, snob in my life. And he kept banging on about how professional he and the BCS were.

Put me off Scotsmen for a few years, I can tell you.

[Zippy]

I was interviewed by a Fellow of the BCS once. I've never spoken to a more pompous, elitist, snob in my life. And he kept banging on about how professional he and the BCS were.

Put me off Scotsmen for a few years, I can tell you.

My ex-boss was a Fellow. One of the nicest and smartest blokes I know, so you can't generalise.
The BCS suffers from a real image (demographic?) problem. I used to be a member when I belonged to a lively local group. When I moved away from that area and attended meetings of other branches I found them to be stereotypical middle-aged, dysfunctional geeks (went to a meeting where I was the only woman and they all stared at me - I sheet you not)

[sasguru]

Any CV with BCS on it goes straight in the bin. It shows the candidate lacks judgement about what is important.

[Muttley08]

i worked with a chairman of one of the BCS's and he was without doubt the most incompetent person I have ever worked with. With that in mind i'm not a member and have no intention of ever becoming one...

Had a very similar experience...and very similar opinion....

[DodgyAgent]

Any CV with BCS on it goes straight in the bin. It shows the candidate lacks judgement about what is important.

Quite
The whole point of the BCS is to seperate IT into a "profession" when IT is widely regarded as an integral part of the function of business.

[thunderlizard]

Would you do the same for a chartered accountant? Shouldn't accountancy be an integral part of the business?

[DodgyAgent]

Would you do the same for a chartered accountant? Shouldn't accountancy be an integral part of the business?

No because the accountancy bodies are responsible for setting training and professional standards and for policing them. Furthermore the risks from "quack" accountants to business are higher an easy to define should things go wrong. If It systems get f***ed up they are usually down to a complex mix of factors that cannot always be defined as within the domain of IT.

[thunderlizard]

And so it would be great if the BCS had the clout to set likewise, but we're stuck with joining the professional body that we've got. I joined BCS because you get a good online library; they organise a decent meeting once in a blue moon; and I want to signal to clients that I'm not a total fly-by-night and am willing to sign up to a code of practice. Not because I believe in the moral superiority of people who know FORTH.

As for risks, the risks to "business" of bad accounting might often look higher than IT, but on the other hand you'll never see an accounting failure crash a Chinook. The real difference is that accountancy standards are old enough to be enshrined in law but IT ones are not (or hardly).

It is indeed often easy to blame IT failures on other things, but that is precisely because of a lack of definitions and standards on what is acceptable and what isn't. If there was a legally enforceable basic minumum of requirements sign-off, for instance, it would be a lot harder to pin IT failures on the client and it's mainly the dishonest suppliers who stand to gain from the status quo.

[Doggy Styles]

As for risks, the risks to "business" of bad accounting might often look higher than IT, but on the other hand you'll never see an accounting failure crash a Chinook.

Accounting failures at HMG mean that we cannot afford enough of them to avoid roadside bombs in Afghanistan.