The Disapproval Of The Professional Code

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Introduction:

A Software Engineer could be through as an individual who contribute to the creation of software systems (HERMAN, 2004). In addition, software engineer must also take in to consideration the impact which his product can have in private and public sectors, as well as "identifying, analysing, and communicating the assumptions and risk" which has influence the software systems (HALL, 2009).

It is important to understand from the scenario, that the professionalism of the technical staff was at risk. The technical staff should have reported to the client organisation. This is due to the code of ethic which each engineer must uphold. The code created by ACM/IEEE-CS by the executive chair Donald Gotterbarn (ACM 1999) state in article:

6.08: Take responsibility for detecting, correcting, and reporting errors in software and associated documents on which they work.

2.06 Identify, document and collect evidence and report to the client or the employer promptly if, in their opinion, a project is likely to fail, to prove too expensive, to violate intellectual property laws, or otherwise to be problematic

2.03. Use the property of a client or employer only in ways properly authorized, and with the clients or employer's knowledge and consent.

Upon considering the code stated it is possible to draw a conclusion that the technical staff should inform the client organisation. Upon withholding information to the client organisation without their consent is breaking the code of ethics.

Breach of Contract:

One of the most important concerns is the breach of contract. The breach of contract is a term used to define a breakage of a legal binding agreement between two parties. It is up to the parties to uphold there agreement and term which they have stated within agreement within the contract. By breaking the term of a contract the other party can then take legal action (NI-Direct).

Within the scenario, the technical staffs in question are breaching the contract and the professional code. Consider the code of ethic, clause 6.08 reports that an engineer must also document any detection or errors within their software. However a survey conducted by Rogerson has shown that 20% of IT professionals will continue to "develop the system" even though amendment will be made in the future (Rogerson 2001).

Within the Law of Contract this would be consider as Misrepresentation. Misrepresentation is term used in order to represent false information. As stated within the scenario if the technical staffs don’t report the information which they are holding it would be considered as deception.

Likewise within the Law of Restitution, it is stated that if an employee is failing to perform as promise it is possible to rescind the contract. Likewise it is also stated that legal action could also be consider if the accused don’t perform as expected. The client can henceforth consider legal action against the accused.

Disapproval of the Professional Code

One of the main areas which the code itself has been criticised is that "violating the professional code" does not actually damage the employment of the individual (HALL, 2009). Unlike other professional field such as medicine which violation of the Hippocratic Oath can lead to the loss of the individual employment, the code of ethic for software engineers contain no laws which can cost the software engineer there employment (QURESHI, 2001).

In addition a survey by Ben Fairweather (2001) found that the codes have been built upon four criteria which are "privacy, accuracy, property and accessibility". In addition, Fairweather also claimed that the code contain "loopholes" which can also allow employees to act in unethical ways (HALL, 2009). I will now give similar scenarios which displayed the failure of IT projects.

Similar Scenarios:

The failure of an IT project can be costly having an impact on other major area such as medical and business criteria. A survey conducted by Lyytinen and Hirschheim display four main criteria which is associated with project failure (K.T, 2002):

Correspondences Failure: Is when the design of the system in question is not met. The actual objective of the system itself and it requirements are not met the project will be consider a failure.

Process Failure: Is when the product itself goes over the budget and time given to create it.

Interaction Failure: Is based upon the end of user requirements. The amount of users which uses the product after production can influence if the product was a success or a failure.

Expectation Failure: This is based upon the view of the stakeholders who has invested within the product. If the product itself does not meet the stakeholder standard the project itself is consider a failure.

An example of a software failure which resulted in $25 million dollars fined by Securities and Exchange Commission is the AXA Rosenburg Group software glitch. AXA group is an industry which invested in trading approaches by creating computers algorithm. A software glitch which occurred within the AXA system wasn’t reported to the employers which cost there investor $217 million dollars (GREENE, 2011). The company was henceforth fined $25 million dollar by the Securities and Exchange Commission and henceforth had their software investigated by exchange commissions.

In addition, another software failure which causes a huge impact was the London Ambulance Service (known as LASCAD). This project itself was based upon introducing a new way which computerises technology can replace the manual handwritten systems. However the first failed attempt at the service loss over £7.5 million. A second attempt was then consider at 1992, however "barely 9 days" the project was deem a failure which result in a cost of lives and financial resources (ALKAZM et al).

Safety Critical Software:

Safety Critical software is software associated with "life-threatening impacts" (BOWYER, 2001). These types of software are mainly defined as software’s which can cause great damage such as missiles systems and medical treatment systems (HALL, 2009). Consider the case study Strategic Defence Initiative (SDI), which is a missile defence systems which provides a defence against oncoming missiles. The project consultant, David Parnas left the project for the reason that SDI couldn’t be trusted as proper testing of the software have not been done (HERMAN, 2004). Parnas have then been greatly criticised by being disloyal to the SDI. The project itself was then shut down. Did Parnas have the right to blow the whistle to the project?

Whistle Blowing:

The term Whistle blowing can be define as the act of "call attention to negligence, abuse, or danger that threaten the public interested" (BOK, 1997). Of course it’s not possible within the scenario to know what the purpose of the project is, however it’s important to consider whistle blowing nevertheless. For an individual to blow the whistle, it could cost the project and loyalty of his fellow employees however it could save millions of lives.

Consider the case study of the AXA Rosenberg group, if the individual did blow the whistle he could have save investor millions of dollars. However, if he did he would have been disloyal to his supervisor and his employees. Most employees should have the right to blow the whistle however it is due to authority which they don’t. This is due to the fact that most employees might find a bug within the software, however due to uncertainty they might not reported it (QURESHI, 2001). This could have been the case of the AXA Rosenberg software glitch. Since the software engineer profession are based upon stressful environment, this could cause most individual to second question themselves. This hence could lead to error in their work and can stop them from blowing the whistle.

Richard De George has stated a specific condition’s which need to be met before an engineer has the rights to blow the whistle. This hence give the employee some form of authority over there management if they think that the public interest was at harm. In addition he also mention that the employee can go public with their claim if a single condition was met (HALL, 2009). (See Appendix: A).

Recommendations:

In order to improve the quality of control to ensure that the project itself does not failed, I recommend improving the clients’ relationships with the team. Improving the clients’ relationship and communication with the teams can hence improve the quality of the product and time management. As you can see from the scenario, there was a weak relationship between the technical staff and the client, which could have resulted to the failure of the project. Second factor is stronger set of requirements and objectives.

Conclusion:

Even though within the scenario given don’t state what the purpose of the project was, considering the amount of money involved should cause concern about the implementation of the software. The morality of the issue here displayed that the technical staff should inform the client organization even thought it could be called a "Process Failure" (K.T, 2002). Consider the case studies within the report, for example the lives that have been loss due to inadequate testing of the LADCAS systems and the loss of millions of dollar due to a software glitch. Without informing the client could cause a serious impact not only on the client but also on member of the public. It is up to individual to learn from their mistake, but also to learn from other.

References:

ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) (1999) / Executive Chair: Donald Gotterbarn / Software Engineering Code of Ethics and Professional Practice / URL: http://www.acm.org/about/se-code / Last Updated: Not Mention / Date of Access: Jan 17 2012, Time of Access: 03:56

ALKAZM. Abdulhameed et al (Date not Mention) / London Ambulance Service Software Failure / URL: https://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/teaching/09/modules/CO/8/86/rdl/CaseStudies/Reports/reportLondonAmbulanceS.pdf / Publish Date: Not Mention / Date of Access: Jan 29 2012, Time of Access: 01:12

BOK, Sisela (1998): Secrets: On the Ethics of Concealment and Revelation / ISBN: 0679724737 / Publish: Mar 1998 / UK: Vintage Books

BOWYER. W. Kevin (2002): "Star Wars" Revisited - ETHICS AND SAFETY-CRITICAL SOFTWARE / ISSN: 0278-0079 / Volume No: 2 / Publish + Copyrights: IEEE Technology and Society Magazine/ Date: Nov 2002

ROGERSON. Simon (2001): Is IT Ethical? 2000 ETHICOMP Survey of Professional Practice / ISSN: (Not Stated) / Volume No: 11 Issue No: 6 Publish + Copyright: ETHIcol in the IMIS / Date: 2001

GREENE. Tim (2011) / Network World: Financial firm fined $25M for hiding software glitch that cost investors $217M / URL: http://www.networkworld.com/news/2011/020411-axa-rosenburg-group-glitch.html / /Last Updated: Feb 4 2011 / Date of Access: Jan 29 2012, Time of Access: 12:21

HALL.D (2009): The Ethical Software Engineer / ISSN: 0740-7459 / Volume No: 26 / Issue No: 4 / Publish + Copyrights: IEEE Computer Society / Date: Aug 2009

HERMAN. T. Tavani (2004): Ethic Technology-Ethical Issues in an Age of Information and Communication Technology / ISBN: 0471452505 / Publish: 2004 / USA: John Wilkes Publishers

K.T. Yeo (2002): Critical failure factors in information system projects / ISSN: 0263-7863 / Volume No: 02 / Issue No: 20 / Publish + Copyrights: Elsevier Science Ltd and IPMA / Date: 2002

QURESHI. Shoaib (2001): How Practical is a Code of Ethics for Software Engineers Interested in Quality? / ISSN 0963-9314 / Volume No: 9 / Issue No: 3 / Publish + Copyrights: Kluwer Academic Publisher / Date: Nov 2001

Bibliography:

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BASSINGTHWAIGTE. C. S. Mark et al (2006): The Top Ten Causes of Malpractice – and How You Can Avoid Them / URL: apps.americanbar.org/lpm/lpt/articles/tch12062.pdf / Publish: ABA TECHSHOW / Date: 2006

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(Author Not Mentioned) / Understanding Intent to Deceive / Laws.com Contract Law / URL: http://contract-law.laws.com/legality/intent-to-deceive Last Updated: (Not Stated) / Date of Access: Feb 17 2013, Time of Access: 12:42

LANCASTER Kevin et al /Breach of Contract for Failure of Consideration or Failure to Perform: Elements, with Complaint / James Publishing / URL: http://www.jamespublishing.com/articles_forms/civillitigation/elements_breach_contract_failure_preform.htm / Last Updated: (Not Stated) / Date of Access: Feb 17 2013, Time of Access: 13:12