CBOK     About CBOK     Project Governance     Pre-2011 BOK     Objectives

History

Following the adoption of the CIPS Initial Body of Knowledge in 2005, CIPS has now embarked on a new project to define a more comprehensive document. The work is in line with CIPS’ ambition to build a profession for IT, and the CBOK will:

• Establish the boundaries of the profession;

• Establish a shared knowledge base from which a unified and consistent version of IT related terminology can be derived;

• Establish the breadth of knowledge required, including mandatory knowledge areas;

• Clarify to employers and users the basis of the expertise of IT Professionals and what to expect from them;

• Provide guidelines to educators and course designers of what knowledge and skills to deliver.

In the more established professions of engineering and accounting, the accreditation of post-secondary curricula and the certification of practicing professionals are taken very seriously. These activities are seen as key to the constant upgrading of professionals and the improvement of the level of professional practice. Recognizing a common body of knowledge is pivotal to the development of a profession. It should be emphasized though that the Common Body of Knowledge and curriculum are not the same.  The goal of CBOK initiative is not to inventory everything that computing or IT professionals should know, but to identify what forms the core. It is the responsibility of other organizations and initiatives such as CIPS and its Accreditation Councils which are involved in the certification of professionals and the development of accreditation criteria to define what a computing/IT professional must know outside the core.

Moreover, it should be noted that the Guide does not purport to define the body of knowledge,but rather to serve as a compendium and guide to the body of knowledge that has been developing and evolving over the past decades. Furthermore, this body of knowledge is not static. The Guide must, necessarily, develop and evolve as the IT profession matures.

The CBOK will contain a list of topics about which any computing or information technology professional should have some knowledge of. The range of such professionals includes programmers, business analysts, computer scientists, software engineers, data centre managers and many others.

Consultation

Achieving consensus by the profession on a common body of knowledge is a key milestone in all disciplines and has been identified by the CIPS as crucial for the evolution of IT towards professional status. The current draft Guide, written under the auspices of the Common Body of Knowledge Committee, is part of a multi-year project designed to reach such a consensus.  Consultation on the draft Guide has started through an outreach campaign involving the broader IT community.  This consultation will wrap up after the summer 2011, at which point the CBOK Committee will review the feedback and produce the final document.