PART 1: DOING ETHICS TECHNIQUE AND ETHICAL THEORY QUESTIONS
Part 1 - Question 1 - Doing Ethics Technique
This session we have restricted the cases to the following three (3). One of these will appear in the exam. We encourage you to prepare all three.
i. A small software company is working on an integrated inventory control system for a very large national shoe manufacturer. The system will gather sales information daily from shoe stores nationwide. This information will be used by the accounting, shipping, and ordering departments to control all of the functions of this large corporation. The inventory functions are critical to the smooth operation of the system. Jane, a quality assurance engineer with the software company, suspects that the inventory functions of the system are not sufficiently tested, although they have passed all their contracted tests. She is pressured by her employers to sign off on the software. Legally she is only required to perform those tests which have been agreed to in the original contract. However, her considerable experience in software testing has led her to be concerned over risks of the system. Her employers say that they will go out of business if they do not deliver the software on time. Jane contends if the Inventory sub-system fails, it will significantly harm their client and its employees. If the potential failure were to threaten lives, it would be clear to Jane that she should refuse to sign off. But since the degree of threatened harm is less, Jane is faced with a difficult moral decision.
ii. Company X has just signed a business agreement with Company Y, which entitles both of them to access each other clients' records. Mr. Faisal, a software programmer at Company Z, was assigned the task of developing a software program that handles the access and retrieval of records from each Company's database system into the other. A first run of the software on real data indicated that the work was well within the state of the art, and no difficulties were found or anticipated. Several weeks later and during a normal test on the software developed, Faisal discovered a serious 'security hole' in the database system of Company Y by which hackers can easily obtain confidential information about clients. He was convinced that while the software he developed could correctly accomplish the task, the code in
Company Y's database system could not be trusted as the security hole posed a threat even on Company X's database system. Faisal told his manager about the problem and explained its significance. The manager's response was, "That's not our problem; let's just be sure that our software functions properly." Faisal is not sure what to do. Refusing to work on the project means disobeying his manager's orders. Continuing to work on the project, means disobeying one of God's commands, this requires him to be truthful and sincere in his dealings.
iii. Andrew, a highly qualified and experienced software developer, has just started work with a government health department on a project that has been underway for about 9 months. He is replacing a novice developer who has decided to move on to a new project with another organisation. Even though the current system is incomplete, it has is being used with 'live' data. On analysing what's been done so far, Andrew discovers that the system is poorly designed and is riddled with bugs due to the former developer's lack of expertise, and that the choice of technologies are incompatible with the department's infrastructure, leading to corruptions and loss of financial data on a daily basis. In fact, much of Andrew's time is initially spent unsuccessfully attempting to recover corrupted data. His vast experience leads him to the conclusion that the system is so unstable that it will eventually corrupt beyond repair and that all its data will become unrecoverable. He therefore advises the supervisor of his findings and recommends that the system be redeveloped using appropriate technologies and quality control measures. He indicates that the entire redevelopment effort will take less than 6 weeks. The supervisor rejects Andrew's recommendation, stating that their IT Department will not agree to a change in technology, and directs Andrew to complete the project using the existing technologies. What should Andrew do?
Reference: Australian Computer Society (2014). ACS Code of Ethics Case Studies & Related Clauses to the Code of Conduct
Part 1 - Question 1 - Doing Ethics Technique
Analyse the above case study using the Doing Ethics Technique.
Part 1 - Question 2 - Ethical Theory question
Some years we ask that students use two specified theories, other years four. It is always from the following short list: utilitarianism, deontology, virtue and contract.
Part 2 - Short Answer Questions
These will be four questions covering anything in the syllabus. In every topic that had review questions from the text we encouraged students to do them; exam questions in this section are frequently based on them.
PART 3: ESSAY
This session we have restricted the essay topics to the following three (3). One of these will appear in the exam. We encourage you to prepare all three.
i. Over the years a number of systems have been developed which record coded information across a range of factors about disabilities in ethnic communities. A new coding convention has been developed to rationalise the inconsistent coding conventions of these legacy systems. The new coding convention uses codes which had different meanings in the legacy systems. This means that time series analysis gives inconsistent results, particularly showing both under and over reporting of numbers of particular disability categories. This is significant when making policies for people based on the size of the communities. To fix this would take a lot of work and expense, and management has decreed that historical systems will not be fixed, but new systems will all adopt the new coding convention.
ii. Through the use of currently available online tools and search facilities, ordinary users can easily acquire personal information about others. In fact, anyone who has Internet access can, via a search engine such as Google, find information about us that we ourselves might have had no idea is publicly available there. Does this use of online tools threaten the privacy of ordinary people?
iii. Professions Australia has recognised the members of the Australian Computer Society (ACS) as 'professionals'. What special responsibilities does that imply for ACS members? In your answer you need to distinguish between someone who is a practitioner but not a professional.