Why everyone tries to attribute something to software professional and redefine the meaning of professional. The term is well understood [1][2] and means just someone that do some work for a living, get paid for it.
That's all there is, no further requirement to be "professional". The whole discussion about professionalism in the context of software reminds me of FSF attempts to convince us that "free" means something else which is not actually the same as "free" in every other context.
> Why everyone tries to attribute something to software professional and redefine the meaning of professional.
(1) There are several definitions of "professional", one of which (from your own linkedsource, wiktionary) is "Of, pertaining to, or in accordance with the (usually high) standards of a profession." -- which requires the existence of such standards within the profession.
(2) The actual word at issue in the title of the linked article is "professionalism" which is specifically, in its primary definition, about standards/expectations within a community [1].
> The whole discussion about professionalism in the context of software reminds me of FSF attempts to convince us that "free" means something else which is not actually the same as "free" in every other context.
"Free", too, has many meanings, but being a reference to freedom (i.e., liberty) rather than absence of cost isn't a particularly obscure one. For instance, the common phrase "free country" does not mean "a country available at no cost". The idea that there is one thing that "free" means "in every other context" besides Free Software is, well, completely wrong itself.
Yes, but the word 'professional' technically describes a job that goes beyond doing work and getting paid. Some milestones of a profession:
1. an occupation becomes a full-time occupation
2. the establishment of a training school
3. the establishment of a university school
4. the establishment of a local association
5. the establishment of a national association
6. the introduction of codes of professional ethics
7. the establishment of state licensing laws
Software dev has yet to come up with official ethics and state licensing for the most part, verses civil engineering for instance, which you have to be licensed to do.
What scares me about licensing is having all the non coding CMM professionals that evolved into Agile that may end up defining the licensing requirements.
Just because there are higher organizational levels of "professionalism" does not mean that it is reasonable to go there for our profession. Those higher organizational levels should be taken when there is a clear need for them. They should not be taken just because we feel we exist long enough.
That's all there is, no further requirement to be "professional". The whole discussion about professionalism in the context of software reminds me of FSF attempts to convince us that "free" means something else which is not actually the same as "free" in every other context.
[1] http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/profess... [2] https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/professional