Professional Issues in IT - 3rd Edition by Frank Bott & Neil Taylor (Paperback)

About the Book

This book addresses the social, legal, financial, organisational and ethical issues relevant to IT professionals. It is designed to accompany the BCS HEQ 'Diploma in IT' core module: Professional Issues in Information Systems Practice.

Book Synopsis

To be effective at a senior level, IT professionals need not only appropriate technical skills and experience, but also a broad understanding of the context in which they operate. Relevant to all sizes of organisation, this book addresses the social, legal, financial, organisational and ethical issues faced by IT professionals, in alignment with the BCS HEQ 'Diploma in IT' core module: Professional Issues in Information Systems Practice. This new edition takes into account the social and legal implications of the changes to legislation and technology over recent years, including the GDPR and Data Protection Act, with comprehensive updates across the book in line with the latest syllabus.

Review Quotes

Professional Issues in IT provides the reader with a comprehensive list of issues that they can relate back to their professional experience. Ideally suited to early careers or those new to the IT profession. As reader of the book, the most important issues for me are Data Protection and Privacy, Contracts and Licences, and Internet Issues, as these topics are intertwined within my day-to-day work with increasing presence, variation and complexity. As the IT landscape and horizon constantly changes, evolving and gaining momentum in new domains, IT increasingly infiltrates new aspects of both personal and professional life (whether you are an IT professional or not), and so this book will also be invaluable to readers looking to understand the basics of navigating today's world on a personal level.

This excellent book provides a full, but easy-to-read, description of all relevant professional issues for those involved with IT from law to finance. From my perspective this book is very well written guide which bridges what can be a gap between an IT expert's technical knowledge and knowledge of the business side of the industry. The book covers issues such as intellectual property and data protection law and the laws on hacking in the UK. The financial side is well covered as is relevant employment legislation such that individuals who might work for themselves in this sector or set up their own company have a ready to use guide and can also see where they may need to take more specialist advice. Many people working in the IT and related fields would find this book a very useful purchase. It is the kind of book where even just one chapter can save a reader thousands of pounds. As a solicitor who advises many clients who make mistakes all the time and do not have written agreements about copyright and their relationship with fellow shareholders in their limited company, I can see immediately how many 'elephant traps' this book would help an IT professional avoid.

This is a very important book and I have been referring to it, using it and recommending it to students since I was introduced to the first edition many years ago. It does what it says on the tin, it provides an introduction to what every good student (whether they be IT Practitioners, Software Engineers, Computer Scientists, Games Programmers or otherwise) should know about professional issues in their industry. It covers everything from legal issues, through social and ethical concerns to what is needed to run a small software company. It is a must have book for any bookshelf!

About the Author

Frank Bott, now retired, was Head of the Computer Science Department at Aberystwyth University. He has published extensively on software engineering and professional issues in IT. Neil Taylor is a lecturer in the Computer Science Department at Aberystwyth University, and moderator for the BCS HEQ examinations.