Microsoft action enrages engineers

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 17/08/2002 (8518 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Canada’s professional engineers are mad as hell and they aren’t going to take it anymore. The target of this engineering rage is Bill Gates and his Canadian subsidiary, Microsoft Canada.

The Canadian Council of Professional Engineers (CCPE), a national organization of provincial and territorial associations that regulate the profession of engineering in Canada and which license the country’s more than 160,000 professional engineers, thinks Microsoft is playing fast and lose with their title.

At issue is a designation Microsoft bestows on those who complete a Microsoft-sponsored technical training course. They are called Microsoft Certified Systems Engineers. Graduates of this course — which can be completed in as little as a few days — are encouraged by Microsoft to add the letters MCSE after their name.

But an MCSE is not an engineer, as least not in Canada, according to the Canadian Council of Professional Engineers.

“People who hold Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer designations could face enforcement measures from Canada’s provincial and territorial engineering licensing bodies if they follow the recent advice of Microsoft Canada,” says a statement released by Glenna Benson, the council’s corporate director.

Dave Ennis, executive director and registrar of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Manitoba said yesterday his organization fully supports the position taken by the CCPE.

“What value is a certificate signed by Bill Gates that you receive as an attachment over the Internet?” Ennis asked.

According to published Microsoft information, to secure the MCSE designation an individual is required to complete seven exams. Depending on a person’s previous experience, preparatory training leading to successful completion of the exams can range from several days to several months.

This is far short of the four-year university engineering degree required as one of the prerequisites to become a professional engineer in Canada.

Ennis said the issue goes way beyond engineering egos and professional pride. “It is actually illegal to call yourself an engineer if you are not endorsed by a provincial engineering licensing body.”

In a July 25 statement, Microsoft Canada said it will continue to use the term “engineer” as part of the MCSE designation, changing a decision the company made just a year earlier following discussions with the CCPE and representatives of the provincial engineering licensing bodies.

“CCPE is extremely disappointed with Microsoft’s announcement,” said Marie Lemay, a professional engineer and CEO of the CCPE.

“By reversing this decision and advising their titleholders to use the full MCSE title, it has become clear that Microsoft Canada is no longer interested in continuing to work with the engineering profession or in assisting their certificate holders in avoiding the associated enforcement issues,” Lemay said.

In May 2001, Microsoft agreed to advise Canadian holders of the MCSE certification not to call themselves engineers or use the title Microsoft Certified System Engineer. It was a major step toward preventing Canadian holders of the MCSE certification from inadvertently breaking provincial and territorial laws, and was seen by the engineering profession as a sign of good corporate leadership.

But things have changed. It would appear Microsoft Canada is bowing to the pressure of MCSE holders and the training and certification organizations which have been capitalizing on the intrinsic value of the term “engineer” with little regard for potentially misleading the public.

“To protect the public, laws and regulations restricting the use of the titles engineer and engineering and limiting the practice of engineering solely to licensed professional engineers have been put in place by all of Canada’s provincial and territorial governments,” the council said in its statement.

“The engineering licensing bodies are obligated by their legislative mandate to enforce against inappropriate use of the terms engineer and engineering.”

Microsoft’s earlier decision, the engineers say, was designed to assist MCSE holders so they would not mistakenly use the engineer title or otherwise hold themselves out as qualified to practise engineering “which would require the engineering profession’s licensing bodies to take action against them.”

Lemay said it would have been prudent for Microsoft Canada to have listened to other groups, beyond those with a vested interest, to determine what title should be used to avoid confusion and prevent MCSE titleholders from encountering enforcement from the engineering licensing bodies.

“It is pretty obvious that the certificate holders would see value in the use of the title ‘engineer,'” she said. “But engineering is a profession and with that comes an obligation to protect the public. It is important for the public to know that the term engineer refers to a person with a university engineering education and engineering experience who follows a professional code of ethics, not someone with just a few months of IT training.”

“Microsoft’s advice to their certificate holders in May 2001 was well placed then and it continues to be today despite their recent announcement,” Lemay said. “MCSE certificate holders would be well served to continue heeding this advice.”

In other words, a cyber diploma isn’t worth the paper it is written on.

paul.pihichyn@freepress.mb.ca