A push by the Australian Computer Society (ACS) to increase accreditation in a bid to raise the bar when it comes to professionalism in the IT industry unleashed a fiery debate last week.

It began when ACS president Philip Argy rated Australia's A$90 billion (US$66 billion) ICT industry at 66 percent out of 100. He attributed the poor scorecard to the need for objective standards for IT workers.

"I don't believe you should be able to walk off the street and claim to be an IT security consultant ... there needs to be some objective standard, but it is a bit harder in IT because experience carries a lot more weight," Argy said.

"Professionalism in major IT projects means rigorous sensitivity analysis and in my experience this is rarely done." The call for professionalism is as much a call to boards of directors that information is critical content in decision-making, he said.

However, IT managers denied they ever walked off the street into a plum job and labelled accreditation a "useless exercise".