Issues in licensing and certification of software engineers

The issues associated with licensing and certification of software engineers are difficult. At present, there is no agreed-to body of knowledge on which to base certification. Some state legislatures are attempting to regulate the practice of software engineering without adequate understanding of the field. As a result of safety-critical software disasters, some professionals believe that licensing or certification is inevitable, so the software community had better figure out how to do it before someone else does it for them. In this paper, we survey the state of the practice of licensing and certification in other professions, identify the issues that might be encountered in attempting to license and certify software engineers, and suggest possible actions that could be taken by the profession. We discuss the implications of licensing or certification for education.