> home
> About
> Contact Us
> Editorial Info
> IEEE-USA

01.11

IEEE-USA and IEEE Computer Society Cooperate in New Professional Software Engineering Licensure Initiative

Professional licensure is a vital mechanism to ensure a minimal level of competency for engineers who offer their services to the public or work on projects that expose the public to significant physical or financial risk. Civil, mechanical, electrical and several other types of engineers can be licensed in their respective areas of practice in any U.S. state or territory. Licensure requirements vary slightly by state, but all require an appropriate undergraduate degree, significant practical experience and the passing of two exams — a comprehensive fundamentals exam, and a discipline-specific principles and practices exam. Licensure for engineers has been available since the early 1900s, but notably, software engineers could not be licensed, even though they may be writing software embedded in systems that would expose the public to the aforementioned risks.

In 1998, Texas began issuing licenses to software engineers who met certain educational and experiential requirements. To date, no other state or territory requires licensure of software engineers who offer their services to the public. But this is about to change. Nine states are moving legislation that will require licensure of software engineers, and it is expected that, eventually, every other U.S. state and territory will follow suit.  The availability of a path to licensure for software engineers was not an easy one, and the story of how IEEE-USA and the IEEE Computer Society combined forces and worked with nine other states to create a path to software engineering licensure is a gratifying tale of persistence and cooperation.

In September 2008, a survey was prepared and sent to over 3,500 U.S. IEEE members who indicated that software engineering was their primary practice area. The survey was prepared by a group of interested organizations, the Software Engineering Licensure Consortium (SELC) and administered by the IEEE Computer Society with support from IEEE Corporate Research.  SELC consists of representatives from the IEEE-USA Licensure and Registration Committee, IEEE Computer Society, National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE) and the Texas Board of Professional Engineers.  

The survey consisted of five questions that asked about the need and desire for establishing a professional path to licensure in the United States. The results of the survey indicated that a majority of respondents felt there was a need for professional licensure and that they supported the establishment of a Professional Engineering (PE) examination for software engineers.   Coupled with these results were the support of the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE) and several state boards of licensure. Based on the apparent need and support for the establishment of a PE licensure path for software engineers, the SELC began coordinating an effort to initiate the process.

The process of establishing a licensure path for software engineers began with the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES) — a non-profit organization that oversees the development and scoring for all engineering licensure examinations in the United States.  NCEES is composed of members from the various licensing boards in all jurisdictions of the United States and has a formal procedure for the initiation of new licensing disciplines.  NCEES maintains a model licensing process that, in part, requires candidates to be graduates of a four-year ABET-accredited program, successfully complete an eight-hour examination in the fundamentals of engineering, have four years of relevant and verifiable engineering experience, and successfully complete an eight-hour examination on the principles and practice of a particular discipline of engineering.  Because a number of ABET-accredited undergraduate programs in software engineering were in existence and the eight-hour fundamentals of engineering examination was already being administered in all U.S. jurisdictions, the only remaining requirement was the creation of a principles and practice examination for software engineering.

The requirements for initiating the development of the eight-hour PE exam in software engineering were that at least 10 licensure boards must request it and a professional organization must be willing to serve as the sponsoring or lead technical society.  Through the SELC, several licensure boards were contacted and asked to consider sending letters of support for the software engineering PE examination to NCEES.  SELC concentrated on those state boards that had institutions offering ABET-accredited programs in their jurisdictions or that had a significant amount of software engineering industry.  Within a few months, the Texas  Board of Professional Engineers and nine other state boards sent request letters.  The other states were Alabama, Delaware, Florida, Michigan, Missouri, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina and Virginia. With the letters in hand, the remaining challenges were to develop the licensure examination and to determine a supporting lead technical organization.

The lead technical organization has several responsibilities.  One responsibility is to provide volunteers who can serve on NCEES committees that develop and review licensing examinations; another is to provide partial financial support for the licensure activities (e.g. travel to required meetings).  The IEEE Computer Society is the home for software engineering professionals and seemed the most logical candidate for the lead technical organization.  However, the IEEE is a transnational organization that serves the needs of members in all countries of the world, while professional licensure in compliance with state laws is clearly a U.S.-centric issue.  IEEE-USA is an organizational unit of IEEE whose purpose is to support the career and public policy interests of IEEE’s U.S. members.  Because of IEEE’s global mission and its particular organizational makeup, it was determined that IEEE-USA would serve in the official capacity of lead technical organization for the software licensure initiative, with the understanding that the IEEE Computer Society would serve as a close partner, particularly in providing the technical expertise required for examination development volunteers.

A unique financial arrangement was struck, differing from other U.S. engineering licensure disciplines. SELC coordinates a partnership between IEEE-USA, the IEEE Computer Society, NSPE, and the Texas Board of Professional Engineers — all of whom provide financial  support the software engineering licensure effort.  The contributed funds are used primarily for meeting expenses, writing and evaluating the PE examination, and for reporting to the various agencies involved.

In January of 2010, the four partner entities conducted a national search, and Phillip Laplante, CSDP, P.E., Ph.D., was appointed chair of the licensure examination development committee. Software engineering professionals interested in serving on the committee have submitted applications to the NCEES and are currently being selected.

One of the committee's first tasks will be to conduct a job analysis survey, the results of which will be used to determine the subject matter content of the examination.  A meeting to begin creating the job analysis survey instrument was held in September 2010 with representatives from NCEES, contractors specializing in technical licensing examinations, and software engineering professionals.  Once the survey is complete and has been administered, the examination specification will be produced. It will list the various topics that will be included in the examination along with the number of questions devoted to each area.  After the specification is completed, the remainder of the examination development committee will be populated, and work will commence on building a bank of test questions (items) that will appear on the licensing examination.

According to the current schedule, it is anticipated that the first licensing examination for software engineering will be available for administration sometime in 2013.

Each U.S. licensing board has the ultimate authority on licensing requirements in their jurisdiction, and will decide if they will offer the software engineering licensure examination.  Some jurisdictions automatically offer all available licensing examinations for every discipline, while others make the decision based on their needs.

The close and collegial cooperation of IEEE-USA and the IEEE Computer Society was instrumental in creating the software engineering licensure initiative and is a good example of how the various organizational units of IEEE work in harmony to serve the needs and desires of members.

Mitchell A. Thornton, Ph.D., P.E., is a professor of computer science and engineering and a professor of electrical engineering at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. He currently serves as chair of IEEE-USA’s Licensure and Registration Committee.

Phillip A. Laplante, Ph.D., P.E., CSDP, is a professor of software engineering at Penn State University’s School of Graduate Professional Studies in Malvern, Pennsylvania. He currently serves as chair of the software engineering licensure examination development committee.

Comments may be submitted to todaysengineer@ieee.org.