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CHAPTER 2
Computer Related Code Of
Ethics
Introduction
Many professions have established professional societies,which
in turn have adopted codes of conduct. For example
- the medical profession established the American Medical
Association (AMA),
- legal profession established the American Bar Association
(ABA).
Both associations have formal codes of ethics/conduct for their
members.
Introduction
The computing profession has also established
a number of professional societies, the largest
of which are the Association for Computing
Machinery (ACM) and the Institute for Electrical
and Electronics Engineers-Computer Society
(IEEE-CS)
Introduction
Both organizations have adopted professional
codes of ethics, and the full texts of these two
codes are included in Appendixes A and E
(www .wiley.com/college/tavani), as well as
at the ACM and IEEE sites.
Codes Of Ethics
Codes of ethics for Computer/IT professionals, have five
important functions (Bynum and Rogerson,2004)
- Inspiration,
- Education,
- Guidance,
- Accountability
- Enforcement.
Codes Of Ethics
For example, they point out that codes inspire
Codes Of Ethics
codes describe the level of accountability and
responsibility that is expected and demanded by a
professional society.
codes have an enforcement function with regard to
behavior deemed to be ethically unacceptable in a
society.
Public Interest
Client and Employer
Product
Judgement
Management
Profession
Colleagues
Self
Public Interest
Software engineers shall act consistently with the
public interest.
Approve software only if they have a well-founded
belief that it is safe, meets standards, passes tests and
does not diminsh quality of life, privacy or harm the
environment.
Disclose any actual or potential danger to the user.
Be fair an davoid deception in all statements concerning
software.
Product
Software engineers shall ensure that their products
and related modifications meet the highest
professional standards possible.
Strive for high quality, acceptable cost, and a
reasonable schedule, ensuring significant tradeoffs are
clear.
Ensure adequate testing, debugging, and review of
software and related documents on which they work.
Treat all forms of software maintenance with the same
professionalism as new development.
Judgement
Software engineers shall maintain integrity
and independence in their professional
judgment.
Not engage in deceptive financial practices.
Disclose to all concerned parties those
conflicts of interest that cannot reasonably be
avoided or escaped.
Management
Software engineering managers and leaders
shall subscribe to and promote an ethical
approach to the management of software
development and maintenance.
Ensure that software engineers are informed of
standards before being held to them.
Offer fair and just remuneration.
Not punish anyone for expressing ethical
concerns about a project.
Profession
Software engineers shall advance the integrity and
reputation of the profession consistent with the
public interest.
Promote public knowledge of software engineering.
Be accurate in stating the characteristics of software on
which they work.
Take responsibility for detecting, correcting, and
reporting errors in software and associated documents
on which they work.
Colleagues
Software engineers shall be fair to and supportive
of their colleagues.
Credit fully the work of others and refrain from taking
undue credit.
Give a fair hearing to the opinions, concerns, or
complaints of a colleague.
In situations outside of their own areas of competence,
call upon the opinions of other professionals who have
competence in that area.
Self
Software engineers shall participate in
lifelong learning regarding the practice of
their profession and shall promote an ethical
approach to the practice of the profession.
Further their knowledge
Improve their ability to create safe, reliable, and
useful quality software
Improve their ability to produce accurate,
informative, and well-written documentation.
Computer-Related Risks
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Computer-Related Risks
Problems involving:
Reliability
Safety
Security
Privacy
Human well-being
Book: Computer-Related Risks by Peter
Neumann
(Addison-Wesley 1994; ACM Press Series)25
Computer-Related Risks
The Ariadne rocket, a common European
space project exploded a few seconds after
takeoff, due to a software error.
Computer-Related Risks in
Technical Systems
Some cancer patients in the USA have
received fatal radiation overdoses from the
Therac-25, a computer-controlled radiationtherapy machine.
The Sizewell B nuclear power plant in
England. Some years ago it was decided to test the subsystem
which is used to close down the reactor if a dangerous situation
occurs. The results were not comforting: the software failed almost
half of them. They were not able to find the errors in the 100 000 lines
of code. Instead, they reduced the overall expectation of the plant's
performance from one failure every 10,000 years to one every 1,000 27
years.
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http://legacy.eos.ncsu.edu/eos/info/computer_ethics/
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