Fragmental

Morar num pais distante é uma experiência diferente para cada um. Uma das coisas que estão bem claras para mim é que eu não estou fugindo do Brasil, estou apenas experimentando algo novo para ver como me sinto. No final deste experimento eu posso decidir ficar, voltar ou ir para outro lugar.

Esses dias eu pela primeira vez falei “ainda bem que não estou no Brasil”. A causa? A classe política brasileira que teima em se meter no que não entende.

A ACM é uma das mais respeitáveis organizações do mundo da tecnologia, uma referencia para toda a indústria. Há anos a organização estuda a possibilidade de aplicar licenciamento e regulamentação na área. A conclusão está neste documento, que diz:

From 1993 through June 2000 ACM worked with the IEEE Computer Society on projects to examine and guide the evolution of software engineering as a profession. This work was originally carried out under the Joint IEEE-CS and ACM Steering Committee for the Establishment of Software Engineering as a Profession. In 1998 the joint committee was superceded by the Software Engineering Coordinating Committee (SWECC) established by IEEE-CS and ACM to act as a “permanent entity to foster the evolution of software engineering as a professional computing discipline.” Under these efforts projects were launched to identify a software engineering body of knowledge (SWEBOK); develop curriculum recommendations for software engineering; and define a code of professional ethics and standards of professional conduct.

At the time SWECC was being established, the ACM and IEEE-CS received a request from the Texas Professional Engineers Licensing Board for help in defining performance criteria for software engineering licensing exams to be administered in Texas. As a result of this request, the question of licensing software engineers became more of an issue both for SWECC and for ACM. In March 1999 an ACM Advisory Panel on Professional Licensing in Software Engineering was established to make recommendations to ACM Council on the issue. After reviewing and discussing the advisory panel’s report (www.acm.org/serving/se_policy/report.html), ACM Council passed the following motion in May 1999:

“ACM is opposed to the licensing of software engineers at this time because ACM believes it is premature and would not be effective at addressing the problems of software quality and reliability.

“ACM is, however, committed to solving the software quality problem by promoting research and development, by developing a core body of knowledge for software engineering, and by identifying standards of practice.”

Over the next 12 months work continued on the SWEBOK project and other SWECC activities. In addition, ACM Council established two additional task forces: one to evaluate the SWEBOK effort; and the other to determine ways in which ACM and the profession might improve the robustness and quality of safety-critical software and evaluate licensing activities in this context.

After reviewing the reports of these two task forces, there was growing concern by ACM Council that supporting the request of the Texas Professional Engineers Licensing Board was becoming more the primary focus of SWECC’s efforts. As a result, ACM Council passed the following motion in June 2000:

“Society is becoming increasingly dependent on computers and software, which creates tremendous challenges and responsibilities for computing professionals. ACM Council believes that confronting these challenges will require creative and collaborative efforts by industry, universities, professional societies, and government. ACM Council strongly supports the idea of the ACM and the IEEE Computing Society working together on these challenges, including joint initiatives to promote the emergence of information technology professions.

“However, ACM Council believes that the current efforts of the Software Engineering Coordinating Committee (SWECC) toward licensing is misguided as they assume that software engineering is a profession appropriate for licensing under the rubric of the Professional Engineers Licensing structure and requirements. Moreover, ACM Council feels that further efforts in this direction will detract from our ability to take other more practical and productive initiatives needed to meet our common goals.

“Accordingly, Council directs that ACM withdraw from SWECC.”

Understanding the ACM Position

Why did ACM withdraw from SWECC? ACM Council felt the activities of SWECC had become too closely associated with promoting the licensing of software engineers as Professional Engineers (PEs).

Is ACM against licensing software engineers? Yes. For legal reasons, the only way to be a licensed software engineer is to become a PE. As described in the Safety-Critical report (see www.acm.org/serving/ se_policy/safety_critical.pdf), several topics on which all prospective PEs are tested, such as fluid mechanics and thermodynamics, are beyond the scope of software engineering. Mastering these topics could detract from the study of more relevant areas.

In addition, a software engineering license would be interpreted as an authoritative statement that the licensed engineer is capable of producing software systems of consistent reliability, dependability, and usability. The ACM Council concluded that our state of knowledge and practice is too immature to give such assurances.

Is ACM against software engineering being viewed as a profession? No. ACM believes it is important to foster the emergence of a true IT profession, not just software engineering. A field does not need licensing to be a profession.

Does ACM see a difference between licensing and certification? Yes. Certification is a statement by a recognized authority that a person is competent in an area. Licensing, by contrast, is regulated in the U.S. by legislation at the state level. With few exceptions, a PE in a profession for which licensing is required must be licensed in every state in which he or she practices.

Will ACM continue its efforts to improve the quality of software? Absolutely. ACM believes the problem of reliable and dependable software, especially in critical applications, is the most important problem facing the IT profession.

A Sociedade Brasileira de Computação (SBC) é outro organismo importante na indústria. Ela também já flertou com a regulamentação mas possui a seguinte opinião:

A comunidade científica da computação brasileira vem discutindo a questão da regulamentação da profissão de Informática desde antes da criação da SBC em 1978.

Fruto dos debates ocorridos ao longo dos anos, nos diversos encontros de sua comunidade científica, em relação às vantagens e desvantagens de uma regulamentação da profissão de informática, a SBC consolidou sua posição institucional em relação a esta questão pela formulação dos seguintes princípios, que deveriam ser observados em uma eventual regulamentação da profissão:

1. Exercício da profissão de Informática deve ser livre e independer de diploma ou comprovação de educação formal.
2. Nenhum conselho de profissão pode criar qualquer impedimento ou restrição ao princípio acima.
3. A área deve ser Auto-Regulada.

Os argumentos levantado junto à comunidade da SBC e que nortearam a formulação dos princípios acima estão detalhados na Justificação que acompanha o PL 1561/2003, o qual é integralmente apoiado pela Sociedade de Computação.

O livro Software Craftmanship, de Pete McBreen, possui um capítulo chamado “Licensing is an Illusion”, de onde eu cito:

Licensing Is an Attempt to Solve the Wrong Problem

Licensing works for engineering because one licensed engineer can certify that something using accepted best practices has been built. The same is not possible with software. Certification can be applied to buildings and other mechanical structures because they involve standard materials and designs with well-known properties. They are also a lot less complex than software. Most engineering designs have very few parts. For example, cars typically have fewer than 15,000 parts and fewer than 5,000 unique part numbers. By comparison, this book contains about 50,000 words, and the space shuttle software contains approximately 420,000 lines of code.

Cars are interesting because they are so complex that it is not cost-effective to have licensed engineers certify that they are built correctly. As the J.D. Power and Associates 2000 Vehicle Dependability Study reported, even the best cars average more than two defects per vehicle. Some cars have serious design defects that require a complete safety recall, attesting to the fact that even the design is incorrect. Tellingly for the engineering profession, auto manufacturers rarely acknowledge a problem until they have a fix available.

In software, the problems are even harder. Even with multiple reviews and copyediting, most books contain a few typos or mistakes. Now imagine the problem that a licensed software engineer would face when asked to sign off on the space shuttle software. An individual could not sign it off as correct. Even if a person spent an entire career at that one task, she could never sign it off as correct because the software is too large and complex for any one individual to be able to guarantee that there are no mistakes. The concept of a single, responsible engineer signing off the complete work is not feasible for software.

The key problem is that licensing assumes that it is possible to inspect quality into a product. This approach is the wrong way to improve quality, and even the manufacturing world has shifted away from this concept.[41] As quality pioneer W. Edwards Deming stated, one of the key responsibilities of management is to cease dependence on mass inspection and testing: much better to improve the process in the first place so you don’t produce so many defective items, or none at all.

Eu pergunto se o senador Eduardo Azeredo tem respostas para estes questionamentos. Pergunto se ele e os envolvidos e apoiadores deste grande erro sequer sabem que existe um mundo todo aqui fora e que o Brasil não é o primeiro a passar por este questionamento. Pergunto se eles sabem que nenhum pais minimamente relevante na área de Tecnologia da Informação, desde os desenvolvidos até nossos colegas de BRIC impõe uma lei absurda dessas.

Mas nós sabemos como o Brasil funciona (funciona?) e que essa lei não vai causar nada alem de transtornos leves. Não posso mais chamar a pessoa de Analista de Sistemas (que aliás é algo que nem existe mais hoje em dia) mas podemos continuar tudo como sempre foi.

A diferença, é claro, é que mais e mais pessoas vão entrar em instituições de ensino de péssima qualidade apenas para ter o diploma que dá direito ao exercício de uma profissão que não existe. E eu pergunto: a quem esta lei beneficia mesmo? Os profissionais ou os donos de faculdades McDonald’s?

This entry was posted on Friday, March 21st, 2008 at 5:41 pm and is filed under comunidade, engenharia, gerencia, negocios, programando. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.