It is spelled out in the code of ethics of the Association for Computing Machinery, one of the world’s oldest and largest computer professional societies: “An essential aim of computer professionals is to minimize negative consequences of computer systems, including threats to health and safety.”
Computer professionals, the code continues, should warn their bosses about any such threats and even blow the whistle if their superiors ignore them.
So why didn’t all those computer professionals do the ethical thing and prevent or blow the whistle on the year 2000 computer problem — a glitch that some experts warn could cause such threats to health and safety as malfunctioning medical equipment and wayward airplanes when the clock ticks over to Jan. 1, 2000?
Just how much programmers and their managers should be faulted for this problem — which was decades in the making — is but one question being raised about a profession that labors in obscurity, but plays an increasingly vital role in society.
Some experts say the year 2000 problem could lead to changes in the way programs are written, just as earthquakes can lead to stricter building codes. “Y2K,” as the problem is known, has given new life to a debate about whether programmers should be required to obtain professional certification, similar to that required of doctors, lawyers and certain engineers.
“You don’t want an unlicensed engineer working on a bridge, but you have unlicensed computer programmers working all the time,” said Marsha C. Woodbury, chairwoman of Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, an 1,800-member group that deals with social consequences of computing.
Pressure for change could evaporate depending on the extent of computing problems that occur after the stroke of midnight on Dec. 31. That is when millions of computers could fail to recognize that the two-digit year date “00” means 2000 and not 1900.
Even now, many computing professionals see the close of an era. “This is the end of 50 years of infatuation and unconstrained trust in what information technologists can deliver,” said Paul A. Strassmann, a former chief information officer for the Department of Defense and the Xerox Corp.
As Strassmann notes, the government has stepped in, as with the Securities and Exchange Commission’s requirement, which took effect last fall, that companies file detailed reports on the costs, timetable and other implications of their Y2K repair efforts. That was the first such detailed reporting required by the government for data processing operations. It is one reason that Strassmann formed the Software Testing Assurance Corp., aimed at verifying Y2K cleanup efforts.
Even without government pressure, big companies are finding that the demands of cataloging all their software, repairing it and testing it for Y2K problems have forced them to improve their own data processing procedures. This could be the silver lining of the Y2K cloud.
“I do think it helped us all grow up a little,” said William D. Friel, chief information officer at the Prudential Insurance Co. of America. Prudential now keeps better track of what programs it owns and has bolstered procedures for testing software, he said.
For all its high-tech image, developing software remains more art than science, and a fairly unpredictable art at that.
Last year, 46 percent of big corporate software development projects were either late or over budget, and 28 percent failed completely, according to a survey of 7,500 projects by the Standish Group of research advisers in Dennis, Mass.
Though the practitioners may speak of themselves as professionals, computing does not have educational requirements and licensing that many other professions do. “Many have called themselves software engineers,” said John R. Speed, executive director of the Texas Board of Professional Engineers. “Wrong. They’re the local music (scene) dropout who chooses to use that title.”
Texas last year became the first state to offer certification for professional software engineers, although it is not required. Candidates must have accredited degrees and at least 12 years’ experience or unaccredited degrees and at least 16 years’ experience. A certification test is also being developed.
Like other states, Texas has long required that anyone who designs a project that affects public safety must be licensed as a professional engineer. Such requirements were put in place after 1937, when an explosion at an elementary school in New London, Texas, killed more than 300 children. The cause was a faulty heater regulator. Now, that function would be handled by software.
