Charles Sturt University: Early Launch Assignment 1 - Ethical Software

This assignment, completed for Charles Sturt University's School of Computing and Maths, analyzes the ethical implications of delivering software without proper encryption, focusing on the Problem-Action-Consequence technique. The student identifies the ethical problem as the lack of encryption, highlighting the potential for data breaches and unauthorized access. The project director is identified as the responsible party, prioritizing deadlines over security. The client is the primary stakeholder affected. The assignment explores project management strategies like the waterfall model to prevent these issues. It argues that the project director should prioritize encryption, even if it delays the project, emphasizing the long-term impact on quality and stakeholder trust. The document discusses implications on project time, cost, and quality, and the consequences of different actions on project stakeholders. References are provided to support the analysis.

SCHOOL OF COMPUTING AND MATHS, Charles Sturt University
Early Launch
Assignment 1: Problem-Action-Consequence Technique
Your Name
Student Number
Word Count: 1000

Early Launch
Introduction
The main issue, which is being faced in the selected YouTube video, is that a software
would be delivered to the client without any encryption implemented in the software. This
prospective can be termed as an ethical aspect as this can lead to consequences which can be
not appropriate from the point of view of the organization who is using the software.
Q1. What are the ethical problems you identified in your chosen YouTube video?
The main ethical problem, which is being encountered in the YouTube video, is that a
software due to deadline issue is being delivered to the client without any proper encryption
implemented in the software. The project director who does not want to delay the delivery of
the software and want to deliver the software without any proper security aspect involved in
it is forcing this (Ding et al., 2014).
Q2. Why are these ethical problems?
The problem, which is being seen in the video, is an ethical problem due to the factor
that a software without any proper encryption can be a problem in the near future. If a
software does not have proper encryption, it would be very much easy to hack the software
and achieve the data from it (Chen et al., 2016). The hackers who use them for their own
purpose usually achieve the data.
Q3. Who is responsible for these problems?
In the stated context, the person responsible for the action is the project director. The
project director is the head of any project and he or she has to make the main call regarding
what has to be done and what should not be done. In this case, the project director has made a
call to deliver the project without proper encryption (Kumar, Khan & Khan, 2015). The
Your Name

Early Launch
decision is taken mainly to deliver the project on time to abide with the term and condition
with the client.
Q4. Who is affected by these problems?
The group who is affected by the problem is the client or the person to whom the
software would be delivered to. The client when using the software in a live environment can
face different sort of problem. The problem may range from hacking of the data or
inappropriate access to the software by unauthorized users. This can affect the overall
working of the organization and affect them in the end. The private data of the organization
can be exposed and this would affect the working of the organization (Pires et al., 2016).
Q5. What project management strategies could have prevented these problems from
arising in the first place?
There are different types of project management approaches that can be involved in
the any project. The implementation of the appropriate form of project management tool
depends upon the need of the project. For example taking into account a software
development project named waterfall model can be used (Sadeghi et al., 2017). This model
directly incorporates the different requirement, which are needed in order to provide a proper
development of the software. There are other methods that can be used for example agile
method, spiral model, V shaped model and others.
Q6. Which of the three actions in your chosen YouTube video is better? Why?
Among the three options, which are stated in the video, the best option should be the
project director should ignore the project manager’s recommendation. This can be stated as
the most appropriate option due to the factor that in the future the total alteration of the
Your Name

Early Launch
software (implementation of the encryption in the software) would depend on the project
director. Appropriate testing and the necessary details can sometimes be ignored which
directly reinforces the reputation of the organization (Scott-Hayward, Natarajan & Sezer,
2016).
Q7. What action, other than the three in your chosen YouTube video, can best resolve
the problems?
The problem in the stated video can be resolved by speeding up the development
process. This can be implemented by more developers involved into a single project for
pacing up the development phase. This can be directly be beneficial due to the factor that the
deadline issue would be meet by involving more developers and the issue of the
implementation of the encryption can also be incorporated in the software. Due to which the
reputation of the organization would also not be hampered and other projects, which are in
the pipeline, would not be directly affected (Sadeghi et al., 2017).
Q8. Who should take the best action? Why?
The best action in this case should take by the project director. The project director
has the overall knowledge of the project and he should know that should be done in order
reach of expectation of the client. The project director should know what all the software
should consist of and the main requirement of the client and what the software is intended to
perform. According to this, the main framing of the project should be done so the satisfaction
of the client is reached accordingly.
Q9. What are the implications of the best action on the project’s time, cost and quality?
Your Name

Early Launch
Project time: The project time may be altered few days taking into consideration the
involvement of more developers or workers into one project, which is trending towards the
deadline. This can be few consequences as well but it would not be so much hampering as
delivering the project without proper encryption involved into the software.
Cost: The cost of the project may remain the same or may alter a bit taking into consideration
not reaching the deadline issue. The cost factor is a very much issue when relating to
development of the software.
Quality: In accordance to the action, which is selected for course plan, the quality of the
product would not be altered. This is due to the factor that the quality of any software is the
main issue, which is directly related to the reputation of the organization. The project director
should always consider taking the preventive measures during the implementation of the
project that compromise in the sector of quality is not being reinforced.
Q10.What are the consequences of the best action on the project stakeholders?
The stakeholders would be somehow disturbed because the project would not be
delivered at the predefined time framework. On the other hand, when one projects deadline
would be missed it would directly affect the working of other projects, which are in the
pipeline. This would result in alteration of all the deadline aspects, which would not be
beneficial for the organization. The project manager and the project director are directly
answerable to the stakeholders for the reason due to which the projects are not being
delivered at the pre estimated time framework (Sadeghi et al., 2017).
Your Name

Early Launch
References
Chen, M., Qian, Y., Mao, S., Tang, W., & Yang, X. (2016). Software-defined mobile
networks security. Mobile Networks and Applications, 21(5), 729-743.
Ding, A. Y., Crowcroft, J., Tarkoma, S., & Flinck, H. (2014). Software defined networking
for security enhancement in wireless mobile networks. Computer Networks, 66, 94-
101.
Kumar, R., Khan, S. A., & Khan, R. A. (2015). Revisiting software security: durability
perspective. International Journal of Hybrid Information Technology (SERSC), 8(2),
311-322.
Pires, R., Pasin, M., Felber, P., & Fetzer, C. (2016, November). Secure content-based routing
using intel software guard extensions. In Proceedings of the 17th International
Middleware Conference (p. 10). ACM.
Sadeghi, A., Bagheri, H., Garcia, J., & Malek, S. (2017). A taxonomy and qualitative
comparison of program analysis techniques for security assessment of android
software. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, 43(6), 492-530.
Scott-Hayward, S., Natarajan, S., & Sezer, S. (2016). A survey of security in software
defined networks. IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials, 18(1), 623-654.
Your Name