Stakeholders' dilemma and academic leadership on the different computing disciplines

Abstract

There is significant overlap between the uniqueness of the disciplines that has complicated trainers, learners and business community’s choice between the different disciplines. As computing has rapidly evolved its different disciplines has equally expanded in the academic community. The distinction between disciplines by the trainers is purposed to provide unique skills to serve unique needs of employers and society needs. For the business community to receive the best from the products of the programs therefore, it needs to understand what each of the different types of programs provides to meet their needs. This paper presents the results of a survey to determine if stakeholders were able to differentiate between computing disciplines and the level of academic leadership available. The findings of this paper make it clearer the distinct uniqueness of the different computing disciplines. The study found out the computing disciplines are each unique to themselves although there exists an overlap over the content covered. The study established that the stakeholders are not very clear of the difference between the computing disciplines. It also established that some universities have while others do not have academic leadership in the computing disciplines. When the practitioners are very clear on the differences between the different computing disciplines they are most likely to choose the correct employee, training as well as provide the correct training of the relevant discipline. The implication of the findings being that most likely organizations may not be receiving to best returns from the computing human resource employed as a result of hiring those not best suited for their tasks. Based on the findings of this research, further research can be undertaken on the various curriculum offered by universities to ascertain whether the unique computing disciplines are apparent in them.