RE: Should XML Professionals Be Programmers?

A little panglossian but ok.  Given a problem space where the XML tools provided are inadequate for the problems created as a result of inadequate processes such as file management (therefore id management) and a staff untrained in digital delivery of XML products and therefore unable to create valid documents, how do you expect the person hired as “XML tagger” to define their capabilities?  Further do you expect them to solve any of those problems (“create and deliver an error free XML document”)?   And if they are able to do this via programming, XSL authoring, etc., do you think they are outside their job description?

This is not a question of how people define their own abilities.  This is a question of organizational competence over tasks.  I do agree that someone who defines themselves in terms strictly of the tools they are trained to use is a technician.  They are still a professional but I don’t consider them XML professionals.  They may simply be data entry clerks and as a manager I would scope their tasks accordingly.

len

On 08/03/2012 16:27, Len Bullard wrote:

It’s a general qualifications question:  do you expect an XML professional to:

There's no such thing as an XML professional, any more than you can be a screwdriver professional or a fork-lift truck professional. People who define their abilities by the tools they can use proficiently are not professionals, they are technicians; professionals define their capabilities in terms of the problem space, not the solution space.

Michael Kay
Saxonica