ACS Code Analysis: Ethical Implications of an Early Software Launch

This essay provides an ethical analysis of a scenario called 'Early Launch,' where a project manager is pressured to release a software project prematurely without proper encryption. The analysis identifies the ethical issues at stake and evaluates them in relation to the Australian Computer Society (ACS) Code of Professional Conduct. It discusses how the actions of the CEO and program director violate several ACS codes, including prioritizing public interest, enhancing quality of life, honesty, competence, professional development, and professionalism. The essay concludes with a recommendation that the project manager should resist the unethical demands and take legal action if necessary, emphasizing the importance of adhering to ethical standards over potential financial gains. Desklib offers similar solved assignments and essays for students.

Running head: EARLY LAUNCH
Ethical Issue: Scenario 3: Early Launch
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note:

1
EARLY LAUNCH
Table of Contents
1. Introduction............................................................................................................................2
2. Discussion..............................................................................................................................2
2.1 Identifying Ethical Issue from Provided Early Launch Video.........................................2
2.2 Proper Analysis of the Identified Ethical Issue in relation to ACS Codes of Professional
Conduct..................................................................................................................................3
2.3 Relevant Recommendation based on Previous Analysis with Suitable Reasons.............4
3. Conclusion..............................................................................................................................5
References..................................................................................................................................6

2
EARLY LAUNCH
1. Introduction
The report will be outlining a brief discussion on the given scenario of Early Launch.
According to this specific given scenario, the organizational program director is instructing
Greg, the manager of the project to subsequently launch one of the important ongoing
projects, Willis project 1 month before their original delivery date (Scenario 3: Early Launch.
(2019). He is forcing Greg to launch this project without encryption and thus making ways
for unsecured product.
2. Discussion
2.1 Identifying Ethical Issue from Provided Early Launch Video
The manager of the Willis project, Greg wants to provide his clients a flawless and
efficient product without any type of issue or error. This is only possible after successful
encryption of the project. The developer of this project, Jason also agrees with his project
manager (Scenario 3: Early Launch. (2019). However, the Chief Executive Officer of the
respective company has instructed their program director to inform Greg and Jason that they
want to launch that particular one month before the original delivery date. This is mainly
because he thinks that this would make the client happy and they would be obtaining the next
contract as well that is worth $3 million.
With the next contract, the organization will be extremely benefitted and even the
project members will be getting extra benefits. To fulfil this unethical activity, the director of
program is instructing Greg to deliver the project by lack of proper encryption. The manager
of project, Greg is unhappy with the decision of program director since according to him the
project system may be hacked without encryption and security. However, CEO and program
director has been forcing Greg, the manager of this project to launch this project by not
considering the risk of project being hacked under any circumstance (Frank, 2013). After

3
EARLY LAUNCH
analysis of this scenario, it is concluded that launching of project without encryption is
unethical activity that the Chief Executive Officer as well as program director is violating
work ethics and ethical rules and is also forcing the manager of the project to get involved in
such unethical activity.
2.2 Proper Analysis of the Identified Ethical Issue in relation to ACS Codes of
Professional Conduct
Six distinctive codes of ACS code of professional conduct are required to uphold and
advance the efficiency and dignity of any professional (ACS Code of Professional Conduct.
2019). In the provided scenario, called Early Launch, ethical issue that is being identified
after analysis is that the program director and Chief Executive Officer is forcing Greg to
launch their project one month before the original delivery date without any type of
encryption. Greg thinks that the entire project would crash or could even be hacked due to
lack of security (Patterson, Wilkins & Painter, 2018). However, the program director and
Chief Executive Officer of the organization are only considering about profit that they might
get from next contract.
With ACS Codes of Professional conduct, this ethical issue could be analysed
effectively and the description of the six codes is provided below:
i) The Primacy of the Public Interest: As per the first code of ACS, a person, who is
placing the public interests prior to his personal, business as well as sectional interests, is
termed as ethical. Furthermore, there should not be any type of interpersonal conflicts.
Regarding this particular scenario, the CEO and program director are only thinking about
their own benefit and is not thinking about the client’s security. It refers to the fact that the
given scenario is absolutely unethical.

4
EARLY LAUNCH
ii) The Enhancement of the Quality of Life: This is the second code of ACS
professional conduct. It ensures that life quality must be enhanced by work effort. In this
scenario, the higher authority rather decided to degrade the quality of Willis project by not
meeting every requirement of the client and thus it can be referred to as unethical.
iii) Honesty: According to this professional conduct code, no employee should break
public trust at any circumstance and the personal beliefs should not be prioritized (Bailey,
2018). However, in this case, the senior authority only considered their own benefits to obtain
the next contract and thus they are dishonest.
iv) Competence: According to this code, an employee must work competently as well
as diligently for clients and the products should match every criteria of the product (Hoffman,
Frederick & Schwartz, 2014). In this case study, none of the above criterion is being fulfilled
and hence it is unethical.
v) Professional Development: This code states that an employer must enhance the
professional development of both himself and his staffs (Van Hooft, 2014). In this scenario,
program director and CEO is forcing Greg to take unethical means by making him launch the
project.
vi) Professionalism: This particular code of professional conduct ensures that every
employee must enhance respect and integrity of other employees (Chanter, 2016). However
here, program director and CEO did not consider the ideas of Greg and is forcing him to
launch the project. Thus, they can be referred to as unethical.
2.3 Relevant Recommendation based on Previous Analysis with Suitable Reasons
The most suitable and relevant recommendation based on the previous analysis of the
scenario of Early Launch is that the manager of the project should raise his voice for the
unethical and illegal step that the higher authorities of the Chief Executive Officer and

5
EARLY LAUNCH
program director are forcing him to take. They have tempting him by mentioning that even he
would be getting subsequent bonuses from the next contract that they would be getting from
that particular client worth $3 million. Since, they are violating ACS codes of professional
conduct, Greg should undertake legal steps against them.
3. Conclusion
Therefore, from the above discussion, conclusion can be drawn that the organizational
program director and Chief Executive Officer is considering their own profits from the
business. For this reason, they are forcing Greg to eventually launch their Willis project
without encryption and one month prior to the original date of delivery. This can lead to data
losses and falls under work ethics violation. The above given report has properly outlined a
brief analysis of the mentioned ethical issues in relation to the ACS Codes of Professional
Conduct.

6
EARLY LAUNCH
References
ACS Code of Professional Conduct. (2019). [online] Accessed from
https://www.acs.org.au/content/dam/acs/rules-and-regulations/Code-of-Professional-
Conduct_v2.1.pdf [Accessed on 21 Mar. 2019].
Bailey, S. K. (2018). Ethics and the public service. In Classics of Administrative Ethics (pp.
63-78). Routledge.
Chanter, T. (2016). Ethics of Eros: Irigaray's Re-writing of the Philosophers. Routledge.
Frank, A. W. (2013). The wounded storyteller: Body, illness, and ethics. University of
Chicago Press.
Hoffman, W. M., Frederick, R. E., & Schwartz, M. S. (Eds.). (2014). Business ethics:
Readings and cases in corporate morality. John Wiley & Sons.
Patterson, P., Wilkins, L., & Painter, C. (2018). Media ethics: Issues and cases. Rowman &
Littlefield.
Scenario 3: Early Launch. (2019). [online] Accessed from https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=v5M7ohdZ6qA [Accessed on 21 Mar. 2019].
Van Hooft, S. (2014). Understanding virtue ethics. Routledge.