Question

Subject : Professional ethics in computing

Based on the given scenario answer the following question

Software Engineer Christopher is hired by software company, ABC Software, and involved in the design of specialized software for Gladstone City Council (GCC) in connection with the operations of facilities that impact on public health and safety, such as those that control air and water quality. Testing the software system is part of the design process. Christopher conducts extensive testing and finds that the software is safe to use under existing standards. But Christopher is aware that new draft standards are about to be released by the national standard setting organization, standards that the newly designed software may not meet. Christopher suggests that ABC Software and GCC perform additional testing on the software to see if it meets these new safety standards. Such testing would determine whether the software is suitable for release as it currently exists or whether further development is required. But GCC is eager to proceed and ABC Software is eager to satisfy its client and protect its finances and existing jobs. Doing the additional testing would be extremely costly and delay the project at least six months. This would put ABC Software at a competitive disadvantage and cost it a lot of money, putting the goals of protecting its finances at risk. However, ABC Software wants to be sure that the software is safe to use. ABC Software has requested Christopher's recommendation concerning the need for additional software testing. (adapted from Online Ethics Centre for Engineering and Science. Software Design Testing. Retrieved 24/9/2014 from http://www.onlineethics.org/Resources/Cases/ec96-4.aspx)

a) State the ethical dilemma that confronts Christopher.

b) Use bullet points to list the relevant facts as given in the scenario.

c) What are the potential consequences and to whom, if the software is not tested further and the new standards are not met?

d) What are the consequences and to whom, if the extra testing is done?

e) What conflicting duties does Christopher have in this scenario?

f) What rights do the general public, Gladstone City Council and ABC Software have in this scenario

g) What virtues should Christopher exhibit in this scenario are observe in this scenario?

i) Recommend the course of action that Christopher should take giving reasons based on some or all of your previous 6 answers (parts c to h)

Answer 1

Solution 1: The ethical dilemma that is faced by Christopher is that whether to ensure that the application is safe to use or to ensure the organizational growth and its benfits.

Solution 2: Some of the facts that are given are:

• The app meets the current standards.
• New standards are being drafted.
• The application needs to be tested on these standards too.
• The client is not willing to delay.
• The IT organization is also not willing to make their client wait.

Solution 3: See, the application is developed for ensuring the public health and if there are any glitches within the application then it may lead to potential threats to the people that are going to use it.

Solution 4: If the extra costing is done, then the client would not be able to get the application on time which might lead to a delay in the business operations for them and hence it would also lead to the loss of money as well as the other resources to them.

Solution 5: As described in the solution 1, Christopher has the responsibility to ensure that the application meets the new standards and also it does not delay the delivery to the client that is to deliver the application to the client on time. Therefore it is a conflict between the organizational as well as the social ethics in the mind of Christopher.

Solution 6: The rights of the public is that they must get the application that is in line with the latest standards regarding the air purifiers, the rights of the GCC is that they can ask the vendor organization to get the product whenever they want if the application is tested, the rights of the IT organization is that they can ask the GCC for the payment as soon as the product is delivered to them.

Solution 7 and 8: Christopher being the lead must show some character and must persuade the organization to get some more time to test the application so that is falls in line with the new standards. This is the only way the organization can ensure the food quality of the product and so that the users do not have to face any problems while using the application. This would also bring the good name to the organization not just the money and they can get such projects in the future as well.

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