Issue of professionalism of IT practitioners
Modern societies are highly dependent on information technology (IT) and therefore on IT professionals. The fact is that a large number of practitioners in the IT field have not passed a formal engineering education, and many have other (or no) college degrees. Unfortunately, even a large number of those who completed the engineering studies are not familiar with the issue of professionalism and ethics. IT professionals produce many business systems in today's digital economy, but also they produce, implement and maintain some critical systems – a system whose failure to operate correctly could result in physical injury or loss of life, or catastrophic economic damage. The public has entrusted in these IT professionals a level of responsibility because systems they design, implement and maintain affect the public directly and indirectly. Therefore, IT professionals must exercise the utmost conscientiousness in their designs, implementations and maintenance of IT systems. As such, IT professionals should have an understanding of the responsibilities associated with IT professionals practice.