Professional Informational Technology Practice: A Code of Conduct - Assignment Example

Professional Practive A3E Task Contributions to Forums Running and heading a private business is a challenging job. One, you are responsible for your staff and also for yourself and your family. Two, the customers need to be answered and the commitments made need to be honored including the time lines. When one is with a company, you enjoy the holidays, the maternity or paternity leave and other such benefits which really become a requirement in your normal social life. Whereas when you are on a business, then every such work is only interference to your business and no one is going to compensate you for the time you spent with your family. As a matter of fact, the staff in your company will expect you to compensate them for the same kind of work. The responsibilities at the office are more profound and finding time to make contributions to forums of interest seems to be a difficult proposition. Since the new addition to my family is also a time occupying commitment, with a four week old baby, the time taken at the family end has been quite overpowering. The kind of time I had to make technical and academic contributions were pretty limited though I have been an active participant of a number of forums and their activities. Task 2: Ethical and Professional Issues In our day to day work we face a number of professional issues that we face which I feel are a challenge and have to counter and succeed in handling them. In case of Ethical issues the nature of problem faced generally hurts the sentiments of people. This has to be handled much more carefully than the professional issues and many times it turns out to be tricky and delicate. I would list down some of the professional issues I faced during the course of my work with various companies. As Head IT Technician, I was expected to plan for ongoing and regular backups of database in a particular client site. This was done twice every week at an interval of three days every time. The idea was, in case there is any data related issue, the client would be able to roll back to a state that was maximum three days prior to the date of the problem. I also planned it in such a way that there will be at least one more backup which will also be maintained. That is, at any given point of time, there will be two backups available, the last one and the one before that. On one bright day, on the New Year eve, the main server crashed. Though we were able to restart the server and line it up for service, the database could not be started. After much trying we decided to restore the backed up data from the earlier date. As luck would have it, the restored data also failed. If we had tried to restore this data it would have been two days work which the client might have had to do, instead if we were to restore the earlier one, we need to restore or reenter almost one week’s data which is quite a volume. Taking all this into consideration we tried our best to bring back online the original data without loss of any information. It took almost two days for us to bring back the data and restart the database. This professional issue meant we are possibly missing our New Year celebrations. But for the client, it was down the day before the New Year and it was brought on line the day after the New Year. Literally, there was no down time for them. They were happy. Professional issues many times are application of mind and common sense coupled with appropriate technical knowledge. May be I should say, 20% technical knowledge and 80% common sense. I have found along with this, there is also another major factor which plays an important role in sorting out professional issues and that is the attitude. The learning attitude and an open mind, both for criticisms, for new ideas and for sharing new thoughts, would all help in solving very many complex issues. Professional issues are welcome since they would bring in challenges that make our work more interesting, in the bargain, educating us and leave us with a sense of achievement at the end. Whereas Ethical issues are not so. I would like to relate an anecdote to stress this point. We were in the process of finalizing a network management tool. We were considering a number of them including IBM Tivoli and others. We were evaluating all the tools from a neutral point of view without specific preference to any one of them either professionally or otherwise. Many times, when we evaluate a product it is our own comfort factor which brings in a significant choice while deciding. However while evaluating products a professional stance needs to be maintained not giving way to such preferences that individuals might have. During one such evaluation process, I felt that one of the committee members in which I was involved, was having personal preferences with regard to a product and is not being open while comparing products, their features and their suitability to our needs. This was a predicament, when I could not come out in a meeting and say that a person has preferences since I might be spoiling working relationships with this person. But if I do keep quiet then I felt the ethical issues are not being addressed during evaluating a product. Such issues are more complex than professional ones and normally case bitter feelings with co workers. These issues need to be avoided and the professionals and practitioners should not lend way to such behaviours. A3E had programs that introduced the ethical and professional standards that we need to maintain during the execution of our work. In the course of our professional work we are confronted everyday with professional issues which we need to resolve to move forward. Similarly, the course also prepared us to face ethical issues that are faced by every professional and resolve them in a manner that fits with the laid down ethical standards. Various professional associations and bodies have written down work ethics for IT professionals which needs to be followed. This course introduced me to BCS, ACM and IMIS code of conduct. BCS has framed specific code of conduct1 that addresses the duties of Information Technology professionals to their profession, to relevant authority and to the public. ACM, on its part, has its own code of conduct2 and professional ethics. IMIS has listed out its version of the ethics and morals in their own code of conduct. All the three of them have their own versions but reflect almost a similar approach to the problem of ethics and professionalism. These codes of conduct do not offer solutions to every situation that we might be facing; however, this tells us what is considered right and what is wrong. Invariably, we know what is right and wrong and we need to be firm on our ethical standards and stick to it. The codes talk of the ethics and morals if you are the leader. It could be that we are managing the IT department and the codes reinforce the traditional ethics of a manager. They code of conduct comprises general moral imperatives, detailed and specific professional responsibilities, organizational responsibilities and compliance to the code. While insisting on the adoption of such codes in our professional practice, the course also brought into focus the issues which are not discussed in any professional program earlier. This course also made a very important point and that is: we may not be able to satisfy every one at every point in time. Professionals need to up hold the highest professional tradition and ethic. The codes of conduct are not books of law; at the same time they are not situational either. The course made me to appreciate these facts of the codes of conduct as well as the ethics and the morals behind these codes so that they are appreciated and adhered to. As a matter of fact some of these codes of conduct are viewed under colored glasses. It is true that some do not look at the means if the ends are right. While certain others object to the methodology even if the target is right. We should ideally reach our target through legitimate and ethical means3. These points were reinforced by the course in me and I am sure I would be able to carry this forward through out my career. These codes of practice would certainly augment and reinforce our commitment to lead a career that is in line with the professed standards of the profession. Task 3: Personal Development Plan Goal 1 Aim – I target to get an entry level management position in a challenging environment of a mid size company. Timescale – I target to complete this within 2 months from the completion of this program. Benefit – A position of this kind will result in multiple benefits to me. Since the position would be an important managerial one, I would be able to earn more money. Since I will be in the management position, further growth will be better and I will get experience of working in management position. This will also throw light on the operating methodology of small and medium size companies, the problems they face and the successes they enjoy. Obviously, this will add to the value of my CV. Resources Required – Up to date cv, job sites to register with, local agencies, newspapers. Goal 2 Aim – I target to complete MSc with Honors in Business Computer Science. Timescale – The time needed to complete this will be normal duration of 18 to 24 months from the completion of this program. Benefit – A postgraduate degree will open up immense working options to me. I become a preferred person in the competitive job market and would command a better compensation. And this will add to the value of my CV. Resources Required – Time to do the program, financial support, admission in a University. Goal 3 Aim – I target to complete my PhD in the subject area. Timescale – This program would require about five years to complete from the start date and can only be started after completing my post graduation listed in the Goal 2. From the date of completion of my MSc, I will take five years to complete. Benefit – It is my passion to do research in this specific area and this would satisfy my internal passion to lay the road for future generations to follow. There are a number of high profile niche jobs available for the Doctoral scholars and the value of these professionals are immensely high. I should be able to command both a good compensation and an equivalent social recognition for the work done. It would add, naturally, immense value to my cv. And in addition to all this, I will be working on cutting edge technologies which is a major morale booster. Resources Required – Time to do the program, financial support, admission in a University, completing my MSc in Business computer science. Goal 4 Aim – I want to be a consultant and work for large multinationals like IBM and DELL. Timescale – I need to complete my PhD which would take five years to complete after a two year graduate program. After this I should be taking another one year to get into such companies. In all, the time line for this target will be eight years from now. Benefit – Since most of the large companies are engaged in cutting edge technologies, I will be exposed to the latest technologies and associated research work which will enable me to use my capabilities to the maximum. These large companies have multinational operations and that would mean I will be exposed to work both inland and abroad which will add to my experience immensely. They are also good paymasters and make sure their staff are adequately compensated. I will also get the management techniques adopted by these companies to further my career. This will be a rewarding target from both technology and management point of view. Resources Required – Finish my earlier goals in flying colors as I have completed my education so far, gather enough managerial experience and also ensure that I get adequate technology backing as well by suitably concentrating on the job at hand and ensure I gather as much knowledge as possible on the relevant topics. Read More