How do I become an honorary member of the Association?
Standard membership and Honorary Member status are two distinct levels with different requirements.
For standard membership we impose no achievement-based requirements on a candidate at all — belonging to the target profession is enough. This is the open tier.
Honorary Member status is a separate, higher level with its own, substantially stricter threshold. It is conferred only on those who hold an outstanding, sustained record of achievement in software engineering and information technology — achievements that have contributed importantly to the advancement or application of the field and brought significant value to the profession and to society. Membership in the profession, years of experience, job title, level of income, or service to the Association do not, by themselves, qualify a candidate for this status.
This is not a points system. There is no fixed number of boxes a candidate can tick to pass automatically. The criteria below are illustrations of what an outstanding achievement looks like — they are not independent qualifying paths. The decisive question is a single one: does the candidate's body of work represent an outstanding contribution to the field, recognized as such by leading practitioners?
Who evaluates candidates
Evaluation is carried out by the Admission Committee — a standing body of the Association that reviews applications and approves the membership of every member, and that also conducts the expert review of candidates for honorary membership. The Committee is composed of recognized national or international experts in software engineering and IT, each holding an externally verifiable mark of recognized standing (for example, fellow or senior member of a body such as IEEE or ACM, a full academic appointment, a significant independent professional award, or service on the jury or program committee of an authoritative competition or publication); its current composition is published on a dedicated page. A current honorary member of the Association may serve on the Committee, but for any honorary candidate a majority of the evaluating members must hold such externally verifiable standing independent of the Association. The requirements for the committee's composition (documented expert standing, contribution to the field, absence of conflict of interest, rotation of members), the selection procedure, and the standard are set out in a separate Regulation on Honorary Membership approved by the Council. As regards honorary membership, the committee's decisions are a substantive expert judgment of the candidate's achievements — not an administrative review of an application form by Association staff.
How the selection works
- Nomination or self-nomination. A candidate may be nominated by any member of the Association, or may self-nominate. No nomination or seconding by a current honorary member is required, and length of membership is immaterial. A single outstanding-achievement standard applies to every candidate, however nominated.
- Documentary evidence. The candidate submits objective documentary evidence of their achievements, mapped to the standard; unsupported assertions are not evidence.
- Expert review. The Admission Committee reviews the candidate's documented achievements on the merits and measures them against the outstanding-achievement threshold, producing an individualized written assessment.
- Conferral. The Honorary Member status is conferred by the Admission Committee on the basis of the expert evaluation.
- The selection is competitive. Not all candidates are admitted: the decision is made on the merits of the achievements, and the outcomes are reflected in annually published statistics of nominations and admissions.
The criteria below are what the committee treats as evidence of outstanding achievement. A candidate does not "collect" them: each one must describe an achievement of genuinely outstanding caliber, and the final decision is made on the totality of the record.
1. Awards
The candidate is the winner of a major, recognized national or international award or competition granted for outstanding professional achievement. The competition must be open and authoritative; local, student, or internal corporate awards do not count. For a team award or hackathon, the candidate must prove that their contribution was decisive and that the award itself carries industry-wide significance.
2. Building a successful IT business
The candidate is a founder or a defining figure behind an IT company or product that has had a measurable impact on the field — significant market share, broad adoption, or technological leadership. Objective evidence of the scale of that impact is required. Joining an already successful company in a senior role does not meet this criterion.
3. Research and development
The candidate is an author or principal contributor to research, a technology, or a software project that has had a significant impact on the field. A link to a repository plus proof of involvement is not enough. Objective evidence of impact is required: broad industrial or scientific adoption, citations, an industry-recognized result, or a substantial contribution to a product or standard that others rely on. What is judged is the significance and measurable impact of the work, not the mere fact of authorship.
4. Leading role
The candidate has played a leading or critical role in an organization or project with an outstanding reputation in the field, and that role produced achievements of outstanding caliber. A job title alone — team lead, lead engineer, senior developer — and likewise the employer's revenue do not satisfy this criterion: employment and seniority are not achievements. Objective evidence is required that the candidate's role specifically drove results the field recognizes as outstanding.
5. Mentorship and advancing the profession
The candidate has shaped how professionals develop at a scale beyond a single employer: created a recognized educational program, school, or methodology; trained specialists who have themselves had a notable impact on the field; or otherwise materially influenced the professional community. Ordinary mentoring of colleagues or guiding teammates within one's own job does not meet this criterion — outstanding scale of influence, objectively documented, is required.
6. Expert evaluation of others' work
The candidate is called upon as a recognized expert to evaluate the work of others at the level of the field: reviewing for authoritative publications or program committees, assessing grants or technology competitions, or shaping industry standards. An employer's internal processes, such as performance reviews, do not meet this criterion — the evaluation must be field-level and grounded in the candidate's recognized expertise.
7. Publications and presentations
The candidate is the author of influential professional publications or an invited speaker at authoritative industry venues whose work has had a notable reception in the professional community. What counts is influence and reach — significant outlets, keynote or invited talks at recognized conferences — not the mere existence of articles or posts.
8. Judging
The candidate has been invited to serve as a judge or jury member of an authoritative national or international competition or expert body — itself a form of recognition of their expert standing by the field. Occasional or internal judging without industry weight does not count.
9. Recognition through compensation
The candidate's compensation sits at the very top of the profession and objectively reflects the exceptional value of their achievements — not merely an above-average salary among peers. This indicator is considered only as indirect evidence of outstanding standing, and only together with a documented record of achievement; high income by itself does not qualify a candidate.
10. Notable recognition
The candidate holds wide recognition in software development and IT, attested by independent sources: coverage in authoritative trade publications, industry awards, or recognition by leading practitioners. Self-assessment and unsupported assertions are not accepted — recognition must follow from outstanding achievement and be objectively corroborated.
Know a worthy candidate?
A candidate may be nominated by any member of the Association, or may self-nominate — no seconding by a current honorary member is required, and length of membership is immaterial. The path starts with joining the Association.