Software engineering code of ethics and professional practice

Science and Engineering Ethics, 2007

Among the various contemporary schools of moral thinking, consequencebased ethics, as opposed to rule-based, seems to have a good acceptance among professionals such as software engineers. But naïve consequentialism is intellectually too weak to serve as a practical guide in the profession. Besides, the complexity of software systems makes it very hard to know in advance the consequences that will derive from professional activities in the production of software. Therefore, following the spirit of well-known codes of ethics such as the ACM/IEEE's, we advocate for a more solid position in the ethical education of software engineers, which we call 'moderate deontologism', that takes into account both rules and consequences to assess the goodness of actions, and at the same time pays an adequate consideration to the absolute values of human dignity. In order to educate responsible professionals, however, this position should be complemented with a pedagogical approach to virtue ethics.

Contemporary Ethical Issues in Engineering, 2015

The difficulties inherent in the nature of software as an intangible object pose problems for specifying its needs, predicting overall behavior or impact on users, and therefore on defining the ethical questions that are involved in software development. Whereas software engineering drew from older engineering disciplines for process and practice development, culminating in the IEEE/ACM Professional Code in 1999, the topic of Software Engineering Ethics is entwined with Computer Science, and developments in Computer and Information Ethics. Contemporary issues in engineering ethics such as globalization have raised questions for software engineers about computer crime, civil liberties, open access, digital divide, etc. Similarly, computer-related ethics is becoming increasingly important for engineering ethics because of the dominance of computers in modern engineering practice. This is not to say that software engineers should consider everything, but the diversity of ethical issues...

ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes, 1997

Registered Engineers are expected to be aware of their responsibilities as professionals. Those who practice Software Engineering often enter that profession without either an engineering education or professional registration. This paper discusses professional responsibilities and ways to improve the level of professionalism among software developers.

The Software Engineering Code of Ethics and Professional Practice encourage software engineers to undertake positive actions and to resist pressures to act unethically. The paper illustrates how the Code emphasizes self-regulation as well, offering practical advice, fundamental principles, and methods for applying its guidelines in difficult situations. Using 3 cases- one fictional and two from news reports- we illustrate how a software professional can use the Code as a decision-making aid when ethical conflicts arise. The Code can help a software engineer make complex technical and ethical decisions that are better for the public, the profession, and the engineer. actions and to resist pressures to act unethically.

International Journal of Innovative Research in Computer Science & Technology, 2020

Gone are the days when "Might is Right", the law of Jungle use to prevail everywhere, though it still exists but to a much lesser degree. This means that the people & nations have understood their duties & right towards others in the current information or precisely the media age. This would not have come to the existence in the absence of the revolutionary nature of the computer evolution (encompassing almost all the disciplines of life) either Relativism or Emotivism paradigm. In my opinion Ethics is" Acknowledgement of others rights (whosoever & whatsoever) is directly or indirectly related to you & discharging your duties and responsibilities to them to the utmost satisfaction of your inner self. " This research based on the lifelong (twenty eight years) teaching the software Engineering as a computer discipline has envisioned the researcher to attribute software Engineering as a character in the light of the various ethical and moral considerations , theory and Practices.

Cross-disciplinarity in Engineering Education, CeTUSS, Uppsala, 2005

Engineering has a direct and vital impact on the quality of life of people. The services provided by engineers are required to take into consideration the safety, health and welfare of the public. Engineering Ethics is of relevance to the majority of people within the field of computing which has its own particular ethical concerns. Computer Ethics (with Software Engineering Ethics as its subfield) has thus been developed as a specific branch of Applied Ethics. It is important to recognize that prudent ethical judgment is an essential ...

Dilemmas 2015 Papers from the 18th annual International Conference Dilemmas for Human Services: Organizing, Designing and Managing, 2017

The aim of this paper is to analyze the ethical dilemmas that IT professionals in general, and software engineers in particular, face in the Balkans, specifically in Macedonia, Kosovo and Albania. In an environment where there is still an absence of policies regarding ethics and best practices, developers' perceptions and their dilemmas are investigated. The paper first gives a general overview of the social and cultural issues in these countries, and then follows an analysis of issues regarding software development, good and bad work practices, and developers' reactions to these issues. In this research, varying security and privacy compliance situations are explored through qualitative interviews of 6 developers that work in domestic and foreign developing companies in Macedonia, Kosovo and Albania: how they deal with dilemmas, how they make decisions and how they ensure that users are never harmed -was the objective of this investigation. Some conclusions are drawn based on participants' reported perceptions regarding these issues.

Ethical Issues of Information Systems, 2002

The process of software development is usually described in terms of a progression from the project planning to the final code, passing through intermediate stages such as requirement analysis, system design, coding, system testing, and maintenance. One important aspect of these requirements concerns the reliability of the software. The use of computers for life-critical systems demands extremely high reliability of the computing functions as a whole. The consequences of negative results from unreliable systems and software are becoming public knowledge every day. Since these situations create a negative image for computer professionals and since these episodes create an environment of nontrust for the discipline, a good look at the ethical issues in software engineering is necessary. In this chapter, we look at each of the software engineering steps and the important aspect of their reliability and safety in the analysis, design, and implementation of software. We also examine the ...

2009

The increasing dependence on computers for critical infrastructures essential for the functioning of a society and its economy has given rise to host of ethical, social, and legal issues. The ability to make sound ethical decisions is thus an important part of Computing and Software engineer's professional skills. This paper argues for the significance of teaching professional, social and ethical issues in Software Engineering in a Swedish context and practice. Examples are presented of teaching materials and experiences from the course Professional Ethics in Science and Engineering at Mälardalen University, and the PIFF project for support of Software Engineering Master Theses running at Mälardalen University, Blekinge Institute of Technology and Lund University.