Beyond Competency: The Imperative to Foster Professionalism in Computing Graduates

The Computing Curriculum 2020 project report, CC2020, Paradigms of Global Computing Education prescribes a competency model for describing curricula that challenges baccalaureate curriculum design to integrate "knowing why" into a fifty-year tradition of guidelines focused on "knowing what." Prescribing this competency model is a call to action to understand the scope of society's aspirations dependent upon computing and, in turn, computing education. These aspirations remind us that the character of a computing professional is as important as her computing expertise. Computing professionalism demands a well-formed mindset, of which computing competency is an essential ingredient. We argue, however, that the whole recipe for professionalism in computing must recognize and reflect on its transformative impact on the systems of society, both technological and human. We extrapolate CC2020's competency model into a framework through which academia and industry can partner to advance computing as a profession by integrating the technological, sociological, and ethical dimensions of computing. Finally, we present a rationale of professionalism in computing where competent practice is informed by the critical aspects of accountability: risk, responsibility, and consequence, where developing a professional mindset of inclinations and dispositions of character is not ancillary, but essential to educating baccalaureate computing graduates.