The Adaptable IT Professional
The demand for competent IT professionals is growing across Europe . Within Zeeland, there is a clear need for IT professionals who can respond to challenges and opportunities shaped by local industry, as well as the region’s social and economic context. While the needs of regional and national organisations may be specific, these are often shared more broadly at the international level . Business and industry contexts that require IT differ widely, and the ever-evolving technological landscape and broad demand from the industry requires that the IT professional be adaptable within organisational contexts.
Vision on Professional Competence
The Adaptable IT Professional is rooted in foundational knowledge of information technology, which includes not only solving problems using basic programming concepts, but also key aspects of human-computer interaction and organisational structures in order to solve problems within a context. This knowledge will allow them to into small to medium enterprises, either an organisation with a small IT department, or a small to medium development house.
Upon entering the industry, they will exhibit proficiency within a set of skills, both technical and professional. Building on solid principles they can independently master the necessary software engineering and data science skills, technologies, and methodologies to evaluate problems, design relevant solutions, and critically evaluate implementations using a methodical, industry-standard approach.
Following two internships at established organisations, Adaptable IT Professionals will immediately take to the ground running, understanding communication and collaboration with stakeholders, and immediately adding value to the organisation by realising actual solutions in the fields of software engineering or data science. By being comfortable with professional competences that allow them to understand and manage processes, the IT Professional will deliver relevant and authentic solutions within a wide range of problem and organisational contexts.
While the contexts may differ, problems stem from basic data transformation.
Data Transformation
With a focus on the computational logic of data, the professional can be seen as a software engineer focussing on algorithms and architecture. Focussing on statistical logic of the transformation of data, the professional can be seen as a data scientist. Skills are therefore required to transform to produce a useful platform or information using either computational and/or statistical logic. While the specific purpose of transforming data will differ, the understanding and basic transformation of data is still at the foundation. Different theoretical facets of computational and statistical knowledge will be instilled within the curriculum but also realised within a real-life project.
Project Cycle
IT professionals should be able to analyse the context to determine what the problem is that needs to be solved. From the analysis, a relevant solution should be designed. The designed solution should consider many different factors to achieve the most optimal design. The realisation of the design requires technical proficiency and should consider the existing environment. Finally, the solution should be evaluated to validate and verify the realised solution. This process should follow a well-structured methodology, ensuring each phase logically builds on the previous and provides a foundation for the next. This is the basis for all projects and is seen as the Project Cycle. The project cycle will also be the source for the learning outcomes.
Depending on the needs of the organisation, the job title will differ and independent of the job title and the context of the organisation, the same foundational skills are required.
Professional Profile
Regardless of the professional profile, the professional will need to deliver some product (comprised of multiple deliverables) that provides a solution within the specific problem context. The specific title will differ depending on the focus of data (be it algorithmic or statistical) that the professional will be working on. Depending on the focus on the professional, the titles for graduates with an ICT degree typically include:
- Software Engineer: Designs, develops, tests, and maintains software systems, often focusing on problem-solving and quality.
- Back-end Engineer: Builds and maintains the server-side logic, databases, and APIs that power applications.
- Front-end Engineer: Develops and optimises the user interface and experience of websites or applications using web technologies.
- Data Engineer: Designs, constructs, and maintains data pipelines and infrastructure for efficient data storage and processing.
- Data Scientist: Uses statistical analysis, machine learning, and data modelling to extract insights and make predictions from data.
All these roles require that the professional have an understanding of architectures, business logic, data structures, and usability. Depending on the specific role in the organisation, the project of the problem context will shift. However, within the problem context the process that will be followed will be the same.
Graduation Profile
Key Competencies
Depending on the problem context, students will rely on different competencies in order to solve the problem. While there are foundational competencies, there are also certain ones that will only be applied within specific contexts.
HBO-i
The study programme is based on the national domain description maintained by the HBO-i foundation of which the HZ is part, with input from the business community. The domain description has been adopted by the Association of Universities of Applied Sciences. The description shows the relevant competences, the subdivision of competences into professional tasks and examples of typical professional situations of entry-level ICT professionals as well professional skills.
Professional Tasks
During the four years, students should master a set of competences. However, teaching the competences in isolation only provides knowledge and comprehension. To fully master competences, a student should be able to apply and analyse their realisation as well. To this end, the Project Cycle (the process of analysis, design, realisation, and evaluation) should be repeated throughout most of the curriculum on the basis of specific competences.
| Analyse | Advise | Design | Realise | Manage & Control | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| User Interaction | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| Organisational Processes | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Infrastructure | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Software | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| Hardware Interfacing | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Learning Outcome Mapping
The different activities from the domain profile are mapped onto learning outcomes as follows:
| Learning Outcome | Profile Activities |
|---|---|
| Process | Analysis, Manage & Control |
| Analysis | Analysis, Design, Manage & Control |
| Design | Advise, Design, Manage & Control |
| Realisation | Realise, Manage & Control |
| Evaluation | Design, Advise |
Professional Skills
As shown in the diagram from HBO-i, the architectures, tasks, and activities are all contained within a set of professional skills. These skills are not independent from the professional competencies shown above. On the contrary, these skills are inherently integrated in the competences. For each competency will focus growth, reflection, and improvement. These professional skills should also be learnt and mastered, not in isolation, but to professionally execute the professional tasks within the project cycle.
| Focus Area | Competency |
|---|---|
| Future-Oriented Organisation | Organisational Context |
| Ethics | |
| Process Management | |
| Investigative Ability | Methodical Problem Approach |
| Research | |
| Solution | |
| Personal Leadership | Entrepreneurial Mindset |
| Personal Development | |
| Personal Profiling | |
| Targeted Interaction | Partners |
| Communication | |
| Collaboration |
Graduation Learning Outcomes
While the HBO-i domain description describes professional activities in separate layers, we believe that activities do not exist in isolation. Using the project cycle, the following five learning outcomes for graduation can be established:
- Process: You manage the work process effectively within a professional setting by applying a problem-solving approach using appropriate methodologies, such as Agile or CRISP-DM, while demonstrating professional skills, including communication and collaboration, considering the organisational context, ethical implications, and stakeholder interests; actively reflecting on decisions, progress, and outcomes using industry-standard tools and techniques for project management and documentation.
- Analysis: You identify and critically examine a problem in a professional setting that can be addressed with an IT solution by gathering and evaluating data, requirements, and constraints from stakeholders within a given technical or organisational context using relevant, industry-standard, techniques such as stakeholder and document analysis to define and justify appropriate evaluation criteria thereby producing and prioritising requirements in a structured format, such as user stories and data descriptions.
- Design: You produce various designs to meet identified requirements by selecting and adapting appropriate methods such as software architecture patterns and model assumptions, which includes relevant modelling tools, such as UML and data visualisations, while defining metrics to assess and justify a suitable solution.
- Realisation: You implement and deliver the chosen solution within the problem context, effectively employing appropriate techniques and tools, such as software development frameworks and machine learning libraries, to realise the specified design, ensuring that the defined evaluation criteria are implemented, tracked, and tested, while documenting the implementation process using appropriate formats, such as technical reports and system documentation.
- Evaluation: You assess the realised solution, analysing and interpreting the evaluation criteria to determine whether the solution effectively solves the identified problems and offer informed recommendations for refinement and future development recording conclusions using appropriate formats, such as review reports and impact analyses.