Professionals or Hired Guns Don Gotterbarn Licensing isn't currently required for computing professionals, but it is currently being looked at by several professional computing organizations. The question of licensing professionals is a very controversial and political question. Licensing generally means that to claim to practice a certain profession requires a government license, often administered through a professional organization. The general theory is that it is supposed to help those outside of the certified or licensed profession judge if someone else is capable of doing certain jobs. People who fly get concerned when they realize that the only part of an airplane that is built by an unlicensed practitioner is the avionics software which flys the airplane and controls all of its safety features.
Bills related to licensing software practitioners are under consideration in at least six states.
Others are motivated by the desire to establish some mechanism for accountability which has legislated sanctions. Medicine has such sanctions. If you don't practice medicine according to established guidelines, the State will force you out of the practice of medicine. If you don't practice computing according to the approved standards then you will be forced out of the profession. These standards would also lay a solid foundation for computing malpractice suits.