Code of Professional Practice For IT Practitioners: 2011 Induction of New Members
Code of Professional Practice For IT Practitioners: 2011 Induction of New Members
Practitioners
Presenter
Dr (Mrs) Titilola Akinlade
Code of Professional Practice for IT Practitioners
Outline
• Preamble
• Difference between Code of Practice and
Code of Ethics
• Obligations of the IT Practitioner
• Key IT Practices
• Conclusion
• The Code of Professional Standards for IT practitioners in Nigeria is enforceable, since continued
membership of the profession is contingent upon members‟ strict adherence to it, while non-compliance could lead
to prohibition from practice of IT profession in Nigeria.
• One of the hallmarks of a profession is the commitment by its members to high standards of professional conduct.
• Members of the Computer Professionals (Registration Council of Nigeria) should at all times maintain standards of
conduct worthy of Information Technology professionals. By doing so, they will enhance their personal stature as
IT professionals and help maintain the credibility and prestige of the IT profession. They will also secure the
continuing acknowledgment of their professional merits by the community (country) as a whole.
• The full and complete code is contained in the CPN publication titled
“Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct for the Information
Technology profession in Nigeria”
• Relationship Management
Definition:
• Relationship management is the collection of methodologies, processes and tools used to manage customer contacts and
relationships in an organized way. For example, an organization may have a database which contains sufficient details about their
customers to allow management, the sales team, the service team and even the customer have access to pertinent information to
manage and expand the relationship. Such information might include: online orders and tracking, history and pattern of previous
purchases, new products and offers that may match customer needs, service reminders etc. There are many Customer Relationship
Management (CRM) tools available from SAP, Oracle/Seibel, Salesforce etc
Obligations:
– The IT Practitioner should determine need for a CRM tool and make objective recommendations.
Recommended tool will then be used to manage and nurture interactions with existing and prospective
clients, ensuring effective long-term usage of information technology to increase profitability and reduce
operational costs
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Dr (Mrs.) Titilola Akinlade
Key IT Practices - Specific
• Security
Definition:
Computer system security is the collective processes and mechanisms by which sensitive and valuable information and services are
protected from publication, tampering or collapse by unauthorized activities or untrustworthy individuals and unplanned events. The objective
of computer system security includes protection of information and infrastructure (property) from theft, corruption, or natural disaster, while
allowing the system and its environment to remain accessible and productive to its intended users.
Obligations:
– The IT Practitioner is expected to identify and evaluate all potential risks in the IT environment, mindful of cost-
effectiveness and practicability of the proposed level of security. He /she should propose a mechanism for
subsequent, ongoing monitoring of the agreed level of security.
– Recommends and, if applicable, implement actions to be taken to protect life and equipment and recover data
in the event of disaster in the IT environment or in one or more component.
• Safety Engineering
Definition
Safety management is that function which assists all managers in better performing their responsibilities for operational system design and
implementation through either the prediction of management systems deficiencies before errors occur or the identification and correction of
such deficiencies by professional analysis of accidental incidents (performance errors).
Obligations:
– The IT Practitioner ensures that systems are designed to capture operational, error and audit logs and provide
tools for periodic analysis and reporting for system performance monitoring.
– Determines optimum operating conditions and tolerances for Computing Facilities, environment and equipment
and activates appropriate alarms and notifications in the event of significant deviations.
• Quality Management
Definition:
IT Quality Management helps in ensuring and managing quality throughout the system lifecycle from requirements analysis, to system
build/development to test scenarios, actual testing as well as error and defect handling.
Obligations:
– The IT Practitioner should utilize automated (software) functional, integration and regression testing tools (if
cost effective).
– Includes performance and load testing in IT Quality Management. Tools exist for run-time analysis, memory
leak detection, performance profiling, and component unit testing of embedded systems.
– Utilizes Web site security and compliance solutions to help identify vulnerabilities and assess compliance
requirements to improve the accuracy and reliability of online systems.
.
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Dr (Mrs.) Titilola Akinlade
Key IT Practices - Specific
• System Lifecycle
Definition:
A complete system lifecycle includes: Requirements Analysis and specification, system development, installation, testing, training,
operations and ongoing support/maintenance.
Obligations - The IT Practitioner should ensure that:
– Specifications and requirements definition are thorough and agreed with the client before qualified
vendors/service providers are invited.
– Vendor proposals are evaluated against previously agreed system specification.
– Sufficient time is allocated for meetings, clarifications etc and be fair to all invited vendors.
– One Vendor‟s proposal are not leaked to or discussed with other vendors.
– Avoid undue involvement with the staff of a particular vendor.
– Ensure that a consistent and objective scoring mechanism is applied across board to all proposals. It is
courteous and professional to notify unsuccessful bidders and inform them of reasons why they failed.
– Critical systems are designed and implemented with redundancy in mind.
– All systems are tested and accepted by the client in line with agreed comprehensive testing plan and
acceptance criteria.
– Adequate provision is made for training end users, management and support/operation staff.
– After installation, ongoing operations are efficient, reliable and at a reasonable cost.
– Operating procedures and user desk guides are available to ensure that the system continues to produce
expected results.
– A support structure (e.g. Helpdesk) is put in place to maintain formal and informal contact with the end user
for problem resolution, ongoing support and routine maintenance.