Action taken by the Texas Board of Professional Engineers could have a major impact on all Information Technology professionals in the USA. At their quarterly Board meeting held June 16 -17, 1998 in Ft. Worth, Texas, the Texas Board of Professional Engineers adopted software engineering as a distinct discipline under which engineering licenses can be issued. Until professional software engineering examinations are available, only those applicants with sufficient engineering experience to qualify for waivers of examinations will be eligible to apply.
The enacted rules that recognized software engineering as a distinct engineering discipline are:
1. Allow individuals with acceptable educational credentials and significant levels of active software engineering experience to immediately apply for a license to practice professional engineering in Texas without additional examination; and
2. Begin the process of developing exams that can be used for licensing software engineering practitioners with less experience to practice professional engineering in Texas.
Another logical outgrowth of this action is that the Texas Board will continue to pursue the national use of any developed exams by the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES). To that end, our representatives to the August 1998 Annual Meeting of NCEES introduced a resolution of support for the concept of licensing software engineers throughout the nation. The resolution, adopted by the Council, reads:
We move that the Council express its intention to add software engineering as a new discipline to PE examination status at such time as the provisions of Examination Policy 7 (EP7) are met. In anticipation of the ABET action on a software engineering curriculum, Council staff will be authorized to provide assistance and advice to aid the joint efforts of the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers - Computer Society (IEEE-CS) in the development of appropriate national examinations in software engineering.
The Texas Board is using the following definition for the "practice of software engineering."
"The practice of software engineering will mean a service or creative work such as analysis, design, or implementation of software systems, the adequate performance of which requires appropriate education, training or experience. Such education, training or experience shall include an acceptable combination of: computer sciences such as computer organization, algorithm analysis and design, data structures, concepts of programming languages, operating systems, and computer architecture; software design and architecture; discrete mathematics; embedded and real-time systems; or other engineering education. Such creative work will demonstrate the application of mathematical, engineering, physical or computer sciences to activities such as real-time and embedded systems; information or financial systems, user interfaces, and networks."
The AITP Legislative Committee will continue to monitor the actions of the Texas Board and will prepare a recommendation to the AITP Board of Directors and the Executive council regarding AITP's position and possible involvement with this extremely important issue. Further information on the actions of the Texas Board of Professional Engineers can be found at:
If you are aware of any other action by any states, I would appreciate your letting me know at:
Kenneth R. Adams CDP
2800 East Lake Shore Drive
Springfield, IL 62707-8912
E-Mail - kradams@eosinc.com
I have contacted the Texas Board of Engineers regarding the Certification done by the ICCP to see if the board was aware of the ICCP certification. I will forward a copy of the response I received from the board. They are interested in developing some dialogue with ICCP. I will follow up with someone at ICCP to see if they will contact the Texas board.
Last Updated Jan 01, 1999