ITC506 Early Launch School of Computing Ethics Assignment

This assignment analyzes an ethical dilemma faced by a project manager in the 'Early Launch' scenario, employing the Doing Ethics Technique (DET). The assignment begins with a detailed overview of the scenario where the project director pressures the project manager to launch a software project earlier than planned, without proper security encryption. The student identifies the facts, stakeholders (CEO, project director, project manager, senior developer), and ethical issues at stake, including privacy, security, and cybercrime. The core of the assignment involves applying the DET to evaluate different options: surrendering to pressure, ignoring management, or explaining the threats and finding a compromise. The student argues that the best option involves the project manager communicating the risks to the project director, leading to a revised launch plan with proper security measures. The student's conclusion justifies the chosen option, emphasizing that it protects the company's reputation and ensures customer data security. The assignment adheres to APA referencing style and includes a detailed analysis using the DET framework.

SCHOOL OF COMPUTING AND MATHS, Charles Sturt University
Early Launch
Assignment 1: Doing Ethics Technique
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Word Count: 1000

EARLY LAUCH
ITC506 Assessment Item 1- Marking Sheet
Total Obtained Marks /100 & /15
Criteria Standards
Marks
awarde
d
Analysis of
the ethical
dilemma
using the
Doing
Ethics
Technique
(DET)
(Value:
70%)
HD: Answers all DET questions, lists all the facts, identifies all the
non-ethical issues, lists all the stakeholders, identifies all the
ethical issues, evaluates all the options that seek to resolve them
and selects the best option from these and justifies why this option
is the best using supporting arguments based on the literature.
DI: Answers all DET questions, lists all the facts, identifies all the
non-ethical issues, lists all the stakeholders, lists all the ethical
issues and options that seek to resolve them and selects the best
option from these and explains why this option is the best.
CR: Answers all DET questions, lists most of the facts, identifies
most of the non-ethical issues, lists most of the stakeholders, lists
most of the ethical issues and options that seek to resolve them
and selects the best option from these and makes an attempt to
explain why this option is the best.
PS: Answers some of the DET questions, lists a few facts, identifies
a few non-ethical issues, lists a few stakeholders, lists a few ethical
issues and options that seek to resolve them and selects the best
option from these but without explaining why this option is the
best.
FL: Answers a few DET questions but fails to list important facts,
fails to identify relevant non-ethical issues, fails to list important
stakeholders, fails to identify the ethical issues and evaluates the
options that seek to resolve them and does not select the best
option or does not explain why the option selected is the best.
Writing &
structure
(Value
20%)
HD: Language features and structures are used to convey meaning
effectively, concisely, unambiguously, and in a tone appropriate to
the audience and purpose with no spelling, grammatical, or
punctuation errors.
DI: Well developed skills in expression & presentation of ideas.
Fluent writing style appropriate to assessment task/document
type.
Grammar & spelling accurate.
CR: Good skills in expression & clear presentation of ideas.
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Mostly fluent writing style appropriate to assessment
task/document type. Grammar & spelling contains a few minor
errors.
PS: The text contains frequent errors in spelling, grammar, word
choice, and structure, lacks clarity, and is not concise, but the
meaning is apparent to the reader with some effort.
FL: Rudimentary skills in expression & presentation of ideas.
Not all material is relevant &/or is presented in a disorganised
manner.
Meaning apparent, but writing style not fluent or well organised.
Grammar & spelling contains many errors.
Referenci
ng
(Value
10%)
HD: Referencing is comprehensive, demonstrates academic
integrity, and conforms exactly to APA style conventions.
DI: Very good referencing, including reference list and citations.
High quality references.
CR: Good referencing, including reference list and citations. Good
quality references.
PS: Referencing is comprehensive, mostly accurate according to
APA style conventions, and demonstrates academic integrity.
Some minor errors or omissions in style and formatting choices
(e.g. italics, punctuation, etc) don’t impact on the transparency
and traceability of the source, or demonstration of academic
integrity.
FL: Sub-standard (or no) referencing. Poor quality (or no)
references.
Total
Marks
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Q1. What's going on?
The project director of the organization is speaking to Dave the CIO of the organization,
about the willies’ project, which was to be delivered after a month after. But the CIO wants
that the project to be delivered without any encryption a month earlier than the original
date. The CIO wants this because the in future the Willies may give a new contract worth
3millions. And if the project is delivered a month earlier than the actual date, it may help
the company to get the contract. The manager askes the same to the project manager
Gregg, as asked by Dave. As per the senior developer of the team Jason the project is hard
to be finished with in the given deadline, providing it a month earlier may be difficult and
without encryption may be deadly for both the organization and the client, explains the
project manager. Bob tries to convince Gregg for the same and explains if the project is
delivered a mon earlier it may open up new scopes for the company as well as the team of
Greg. Further, Greg’s explains if there is no implication of the security in the system, may
lead to leakage of vital information that is there may be risk of hack in the system ("Scenario
3: Early Launch", 2018). Although project director Dawn tries to explain a lot, bob is not sure
of the threats and tells Bob, he will consult with the developer once a comeback (Weiss,
2014). The dilemma in this situation is whether the product is to be launched a month early
without any security or in the given time with proper security measurements.
Q2. What are the facts?
 The CEO of the Willis project force the project director for the delivery of the project
a month earlier than he actual time, so does the project director on the project
manager.
 The Concerns of the project manager is that his seniors want the project without
proper encryption which may have devastating outcomes.
Q3. What are the issues?
The issue of the manager is to deliver the willies project time before the actual date without
proper security encryptions, required to protect the software. The issue of the project
manager is that the seniors of him are forcing him to deliver a software which does not have
any proper security updates.
Q4. Who is affected?
According to project manager, if there is any security breach in the willies systems, the
biggest victims of will be the public whose private data would become public due to the
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negligence of the organization. Also, this may hamper the company profile and the good
name the company has earned.
Q5. What are the ethical issues and their implications?
 Privacy: This is one of the biggest ethical issue one may face if there is any security
breach in the project (Gray,2013). This may harm the data of millions of the
customers of the Willis project. Privacy is one of the basic right for any human being
 Security: One of the other major ethical issue is the security. Breach in the security of
may lead to devastating aftermaths and can harm the organisation in bad way
(Ghillyer, 2012). Taking proper security steps is a must for any private platform.
 Cyber-crime: If there is any security failure it ay opens up exposures for the cyber
criminals to steal data, which are mean for private use (Trevino& Nelson, 2016). This
is one of the biggest ethical threat the world is facing these days. Making the
software secured with encryption ensures that there is no such offence and data is
safe.
Q6. What could have been done about it?
The project director must have not agreed to the CEO and deny delivering the software
without any encryption showing a proper team quality as a team leader.
Q7. What are the options?
Option 1: The project manager Gregg surrenders to the pressure of the management and
agrees to deliver the project a month earlier than the given schedule and with no security
encryption in the beginning and later including the security filer in later updates. Three
weeks later, the entire Willis project gets compromised to hackers and details on entire
customer database becomes public. The manager gets angry and about it wants explanation
about the same. Gregg explains that he had earlier said about the consequences and
doesn’t know what to do about it ("Scenario III 1 Project Manager surrenders to pressure",
2018).
Option2: The project manager ignores the words of the project director and sticks to his
decision about not delivering thee project without the security encryptions. As a result, the
management gets annoyed on him and speaks to the CIO about the attitude of the project
manager. The project director also manages to convince the CIO for the dismissal of Gregg.
The CIO agrees to the manager and orders the HR department to send a disciplinary action
against Gregg. Consequently, the project manager Gregg gets fired and a new project
manager gets hired. This process takes time and consequences in failure of delivery of the
product in given time ("Scenario III 2 Program Director ignores Project Manager’s
recommendation", 2018).
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Option3: The project manager Gregg explains the possible threats to the project director.
According to the project Gregg, if the security encryption is not done and if there is any
possible hack to the systems of the project it may result in exposing of thousand of the
customers sensitive information, which would harm the name of the organization. Further
the project manager explains that he too wants to deliver the project as early as possible,
but without the security encryption is not an option for the betterment of the organization,
according to him a good secured product reflects well on the company profile. The project
director understands the issue and agrees to the same. HE also explains the problems to
the CEO of the organization and results him for not delivering the project without the
security updates. The CEO approves the request and praises the project manager for the
same ("Scenario III 3 Program Director Listens to team", 2018).
Q8. Which option is the best and why?
The best solution for this ethical dilemma is the third option. The project manager explains
every minute details of the problems that may be caused if there is no proper security
update and the results of the same can also be predicted. The project director understands
the problems of the project and the concerns of the team and takes back the decision of
delivering the product earlier than the actual launch time. This is the best solution because
in this process no one gets the harm. The client gets satisfied with a stable and secured
project, and the company also delivers a project which reflects well on the profile of the
organization.
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References
Ghillyer, A. (2012). Business ethics now. McGraw-Hill.
Gray, D. E. (2013). Doing research in the real world. Sage.
Scenario 3: Early Launch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5M7ohdZ6qA (2018).
YouTube.
Scenario III 1 Project Manager surrenders to pressure. https://www.youtube.com/watch?
annotation_id=annotation_3128347609&feature=iv&src_vid=BEtvmNou7r8&
v=UfGeK08y10o (2018). YouTube.
Scenario III 2 Program Director ignores Project Manager’s recommendation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
annotation_id=annotation_726259537&feature=iv&src_vid=BEtvmNou7r8&v
=JjLK_JjAu48 (2018). YouTube.
Scenario III 3 Program Director Listens to team.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
annotation_id=annotation_726259537&feature=iv&src_vid=BEtvmNou7r8&v
=JjLK_JjAu48 (2018). YouTube.
Trevino, L. K., & Nelson, K. A. (2016). Managing business ethics: Straight talk about how to
do it right. John Wiley & Sons.
Weiss, J. W. (2014). Business ethics: A stakeholder and issues management approach.
Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
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