Ethics Technique: Resolving Moral Issues

This assignment requires the application of the Doing Ethics Technique to a scenario where a software product is scheduled to be launched early without encryption. The project manager is hesitant due to potential security risks. The program director must consider the ethical implications and decide on a course of action, following the eight-step Doing Ethics Technique to reach an ethical solution.

Running head: DOING ETHICS TECHNIQUE – VIDEO 1
Doing Ethics Technique – Video 1
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Scenario: Video one...................................................................................................................2
What is going on?...................................................................................................................2
What are the facts?.................................................................................................................3
What are the issues?...............................................................................................................3
What are the ethical issues and implications?........................................................................3
Who is affected?.....................................................................................................................4
What can be done about it?....................................................................................................4
What options are there?..........................................................................................................4
Which option is best and why?..............................................................................................5
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................5
Reference....................................................................................................................................6

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Introduction
Every work delivered by a company demands ethical and lawful approach. Especially
the companies providing Information and Communication Technology support should abide
by the ethics even more since the ethics and laws for ICT claims customer welfare (Grant,
2016). In the following report, the ethical values of an organization should be evaluated with
the help of a scenario analysis by Doing Ethics Technique. This is a process where a situation
analysis will be inferred with the help of eight sequential questions. It is assumed that this
process will deliver an ethical solution to the problem mentioned in the scenario.
Scenario: Video one
In the given video about a case study, we come across a conversation of a Project
Manager and his supervisor Program Director about an early launch of their software product
for their client Wyllis Group ("Scenario 3: Early Launch", 2018). The program director
informs the project manager that the client had demanded an early launch, almost a month
early for their product, therefore they need to deliver the software to their clients one month
before the proposed time. When the project manager retaliated, the program director
suggested that they could deliver the product without encryption followed up by an update
comprising of the relevant encryptions that couldn’t be delivered because of the time
constraints. The project manager completely disagrees with the idea.
What is going on?
As the scenario describes, this is an incident where due to client requirement, a
program director is willing to launch software product without any encryption only to keep
up with the client requirements. Even the program director do not ask for the consent of the
project manager, instead, he orders to make the launch happen as the client has wanted

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("Scenario 3: Early Launch", 2018). This raises a discomfort in the project development since
the project manager seems to be dissatisfied with the decision of the program director.
Rightly so, because launching unencrypted software would result into a possibility of
introducing hazardous software in front of the clients, with the potential of causing havoc
with data security.
What are the facts?
The facts that could be found in this scenario, is that the client, Wyllis Group had a
fixed project plan settled with the software service organization, yet ordered to deliver the
product one month before the scheduled time with the perseverance of the CEO ("Scenario 3:
Early Launch", 2018). The program director of the software service providing organization is
willing to submit the product to the client as well without the consent of the rest of the project
team, including the project manager. Just to please the client, he is even not ready to listen to
the even-handed discussion form the project manager’s end as well.
What are the issues?
There are several issues that is detectable in this case scenario. If proper attention is
given, it could be seen that the client side has been creating the major issues. Asking for
product delivery before the prospective and proposed time is the major issue. This has given
rise to the rift between the project manager and the program director in launching and unsafe
and unencrypted version of the software to the clients (Van den Hoven, Vermaas & Poel,
2015). This potentially can claim the security of the clients. However, only to make the
clients satisfied with the company delivery, the program manager wanted to compromise the
software security implications as well, giving rise to another major issue in the scenario.

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What are the ethical issues and implications?
Ethical issues are the problems in a situation that arises due to the difficulty in making
a decision since it may or may not synchronize well with human morals. The most common
ethical issue that can be untangled in this scenario is the early launching of the software
without encryption risking the security of the customers only to satisfy them with the ability
of the organization in delivering requirements (Morgan, 2016). This issue has instigated the
program director to dictate over the project manager to release the software without an
encryption.
Who is affected?
The scenario suggests that so far only the project manager is affected as his ethical
views in not releasing the software without encryption has been called off ("Scenario 3: Early
Launch", 2018). However, if the program director goes on with the early launch and his idea
or pre-launching, then not just the client’s data security would be at risk but also the
organization’s reputation will be at stake. The stakeholders of the organization would face a
great loss if things proceed in the unethical ways.
What can be done about it?
The most feasible idea is to follow the ethical ways to move on further about solving
the issues that have been faced by the organization including the project manager and the
program director ("Scenario 3: Early Launch", 2018).
What options are there?
There could be three possible options to solve the issue generated in the scenario
(Barnes, 2017). These could be:
 The surrendering of the program director to the client’s needs
 The program director ignoring the Project Manager’s suggestions

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 The program director listens to the team
Which option is best and why?
Amongst the three options, it would be feasible that the third option be chosen. This is
because according to ICT ethics and laws, launching an unencrypted version of a software
claiming client data security would call for a lawsuit (McDermid, 2015). Adhering to the first
option would render the issue towards a lawsuit. On the other hand, the second option could
claim the career of the project manager, which is again an unethical way of dismissing any
employee from an organization only because he disagreed in complying with an unethical
launch of software to the clients.
Conclusion
Therefore, it can be concluded from the above discussion that ethical issues may
appear in a situation, but systematic doing ethics technique can definitely help in deciphering
the ethical solution to it. The situation in this scenario also demanded to reach a solution
about pre-launching an unencrypted version of a software to a client to meet their
requirements. This was an unethical way of addressing client’s requirements since it do not
synchronize well with the moral values of a human conscience. Launching an unencrypted
version of a software is a potential data security hazard. The doing ethics technique thus, aids
in reaching the ethical solution with the help of eight systematic questions, that the program
director listens to the team to understand the legal and ethical obligations keeping him from
committing an ethically incorrect chore.

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Reference
Barnes, C. R. (2017). Law and Ethics of Morally Significant Machines: The case for pre-
emptive prevention (Doctoral dissertation, University of Otago).
Grant, C. (2016). Improving Business and ICT Ethics Education–the Potential of Positive
Psychology and Appreciative Inquiry.
McDermid, D. (2015). Ethics in ICT: an Australian perspective. Pearson Higher Education
AU.
Morgan, W. (2016). Baring All: Legal Ethics and Confidentiality of Electronically Stored
Information in the Cloud. Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology, 24(2),
8.
Scenario 3: Early Launch. (2018). YouTube. Retrieved 23 March 2018, from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5M7ohdZ6qA
Van den Hoven, J., Vermaas, P., & van de Poel, I. (2015). Handbook of ethics, values and
technological design. Dordrecht: Springer.