Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Lecture 3
The Computing Profession
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(The Computing Profession)
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IT: Information Technology
The group of technologies concerned
with the capture, processing and
transmission of information in the
digital-electronic form
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INFORMATION
TECHNOLOGY
Telecom
Software
Engineering Engineering
Computer
Computer Science
Engineering
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Who is a computing professional?
• Professionals involved in the development
and/or maintenance of SW and/or computer
HW
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Today’s Focus Group
• we will be focusing only on a subset of
computing professionals: those involved in the
development of SW
• Let us further restrict discussion to the
computing professionals belonging to an
organization focused solely on custom, SW
development
• They work in a 100-person organization – pretty
big on a local scale, but quite insignificant on an
international one
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Organization: A Collection of Teams
Executive Team
CEO, COO, GM
Team
Lead
• Profile:
– 5+ years of team-lead experience
– Professional development course(s) in SW project
management
– Technical MS and/or Technical BS + MBA
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Architect
• Responsibilities:
– Technology selection
– High-level design
– Makes certain that the implementation remains true
to the design
• Profile:
– 10-15 years of development experience
– In-depth exposure to several domain areas
– In-depth experience in several technologies
– MS or PhD in a technical discipline 11
Team Leader
• Responsibilities:
– Planning and tracking of the project
– Detailed design
– Professional development of team members
– In case of small teams, development activities
• Profile:
– 5+ years of development experience
– Excellent interpersonal skills
– Good planning skills
– Good design skills 12
Developer
• Responsibilities:
– Module-level design
– Coding
– Unit-testing
• Profile:
– Technical BS
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Executive Client’s
Bigger
Team Project Manager Project
Project Project
Manager Architect
Sub-team 1
Lead
A B C D E F G
Sub-team 2
Lead
A
A B C D
B Sub-team 3
Lead
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C
Executive Team
• CEO – Chief Executive Officer
– Developer of the vision of the organization
– Great PR skills
– Great knack for spotting talent
• Profile of Members:
– Combination of technical and business expertise
– Good oral & written communication skills
– Combination of technical & business degrees
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Architecture Team
• 2-3 members
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Configuration Management Team
• 2-3 members
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Process Team
• 1-2 members
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Social Implications of Computing
– Business
– Work
– Living
– Health
– Education
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Why should we, as computing
professionals, be interested in studying
the social implications of our creations?
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Powerful Global Corporations
• Internet-based communication is allowing
business entities to coordinate the activities of
their globally-spread units with greater accuracy
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The Network Organization
• The network paradigm (all connected to many
others) is becoming the preferred
organizational structure of more and more
organizations as time goes by
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While old professions are being eliminated …
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Number of Temporary Workers is on the Rise
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Businesses Monitoring Their Employees
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Working from Home
• Computing has made it possible for some to
avoid going the office for their work
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The Political Process
• Through computer discussion forums,
newsgroups and mailing-lists, public and
politicians may engage in a free, open
exchange of ideas without leaving the comfort
of their not-so-comfortable and very
comfortable homes, respectively
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Distances Have Contracted
• Because of the ever-decreasing costs of verbal,
text, video communications, it is becoming
easier to stay in touch with anyone, regardless
of their physical location
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Distances Are Increasing
• Solitude is the order of the day as many
children & adults spend their free time surfing,
chatting, playing computer games, instead of
spending it on interacting with friends or family
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Virtual Communities
• Interest-based, instead of geography-based
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A Society Under Surveillance
• While surfing, we are being watched, constantly
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The Changing Face of Education
• Distance learning has received a boost due to
the low-price of Internet communication and the
availability of Web-based interactive content
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The Changing Face of Education
• The fact, however, remains that the best mode
of education is the conventional one, which has
become more effective with the augmentation
of computer-based learning aids
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Info Gathering
• The time and effort spent on gathering info can
now be spent on using it
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Telemedicine
• An audio/video/text connection combined with a
few remote medical instruments and an on-site
trained assistant can enable a doctor to
examine and prescribe medicine to a patient
far, far away
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Closure
• I command you to “go and invent the future,” it
is your duty and you may not desist from it, but,
please, do think about the social implications
and consequences of what you are doing
before actually doing it
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