Early Launch/Scenario 3 Assignment: Doing Ethics Technique Analysis

This assignment analyzes an early launch project scenario, focusing on the ethical considerations involved. Using the 'Doing Ethics' technique, the assignment examines a scenario where a Project Director pressures a Team Leader to deliver a project ahead of schedule, potentially compromising data security by omitting encryption. The analysis addresses the facts, non-ethical and ethical issues, affected parties, and implications of the situation. It explores the ethical dilemmas related to lack of professionalism, honesty, and client respect, as well as potential breaches of duty of care. The assignment proposes options for addressing the issues and recommends the best course of action, emphasizing the importance of data encryption, client communication, and adherence to ethical guidelines, referencing relevant literature and legal requirements for data security. The solution highlights the importance of prioritizing quality and ethical conduct over short-term gains.

SCHOOL OF COMPUTING AND MATHS, Charles Sturt University
Early Launch/Scenario 3
Assignment 1: Doing Ethics Technique
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Early Launch/Scenario 3
Q1. What's going on?
The chosen video is video 1, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5M7ohdZ6qA
Considering the doing ethics technique, the focus of the project is on the analysis of an early
launch project scenario. Here, the Project Director recommends the Team Leader Gregg for
delivering the project of Wills, before time. He has been under pressure from CEO whose
main aim to focus on delivering the work before the deadline and get them into trust. This
could be a profitable situation for the company which will help them to get their next
project worth 3 million (Ferrell & Fraedrich, 2015). Gregg tells him about the project of
encryption and hacking which could be a major concern and his senior developer of the
team thinks that encryption is very important for handling the project. On the other hand,
the Project Director wants to get more opportunities for the company, and more profit for
the employees. But Gregg feels that hacking is one of the major issues which can lead to
disruption of company data as well as the client data.
Q2. What are the facts?
The Project Director considers looking forward to delivering the project on time without any
encryption of the project. The CEO is trying to earn money from the client without thinking
of delivering the quality work. Gregg tries to explain the Project Director about the
consequences and it is not easy to create a system one month before the deadline as the
Project Management has been done accordingly (Wachs, 2017). The work complexity would
require a proper attention and encryption with SQL injection so that the data is not lost.
Gregg is not ready to deliver the work one month before.
Q3. What are the issues (non-ethical)?
Project Director and CEO wants early delivery of work, making sure that they are able to get
through the other future project from the client (Wills). They have not asked the team about
the possibilities of the project completion and forcing them to send the work unencrypted
(Miller & Blackler, 2017). The CEO looks for only the profit of 3million from the client rather
than delivering a quality work. Their intent is seen in the differentiation set in between the
data which is encrypted and unencrypted.
Q4. Who is affected?
The company and the client are going to get affected, the most.
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Early Launch/Scenario 3
Apart from this, there is a major loss done to the customers who are relying on the system
of Wills. The engineers and the software development team who was working on it and who
did not send a proper encrypted version. The team and management of the company who
was looking for the project (Eisenbeiss et al., 2015). The legal authorities and the marketing
companies are also affected by the impact of the loss of data.
Q5. What are the ethical issues and their implications?
The ethical issues involved are lack of professionalism and honesty, lack of respect for the
client as the company is running after money. This is a clear case of deception and an
informed consent to send the work without encrypted by CEO.
There are certain implications where the professionalism is not followed and a trust by the
client on the company is also breached. The company fails in its duty of care with accidental
claiming and lack of intent to store the data in an accurate manner.
Q6. What can be done about it?
The company owes a public apology as it will affect the company of the client as well as
break the trust of the customers. The lack of professionalism and major focus on earning
more money will lead to the no-where situation (Cummings & Worley, 2014). They have to
release the copies of apology to and destroy the communication data gathered as well. The
company should not ask the employees to deliver the project early as this will lead to
problems of hacking. A proper budgeting and estimates should be given to the team earlier
so that such incidences do not impact the functioning of the company as well as do not
impact the reputation of the client.
Q7. What are the options?
The options are:
Option 1: The Program Director Gregg surrender to the pressure from the company and the
CEO.
Option 2: The Program Director tends to ignore the suggestions and the recommendations
made by the Project Manager.
Option 3: The Project Director Gregg listens to the team for the proper delivery of the
project.
Q8. Which option is the best and why?
The option 2 is effective here and recommend the Project Manager to alert Wills (the client)
about the problems. He should know about the data gathering of the project. Apart from
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this, a proper detailed version should be incorporated where in this case, a certain part of
the project can be sent to the client so that he can verify the same. The option 3 can be
incorporated into the option 2, where Gregg listens to the team and understands the effect
of hacking a project. For instance, the legal requirements of Australia clearly define that
encryption of the project is important before delivering to the client (Iphofen, 2016). The
encryption, after the project launch, could have serious consequences.
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Early Launch/Scenario 3
References
Cummings, T.G. and Worley, C.G., 2014. Organization development and change. Cengage
learning.
Eisenbeiss, S.A., Van Knippenberg, D. and Fahrbach, C.M., 2015. Doing well by doing good?
Analyzing the relationship between CEO ethical leadership and firm performance. Journal of
Business Ethics, 128(3), pp.635-651.
Ferrell, O.C. and Fraedrich, J., 2015. Business ethics: Ethical decision making & cases. Nelson
Education.
Iphofen, R., 2016. Ethical decision making in social research: A practical guide. Springer.
Miller, S. and Blackler, J., 2017. Ethical issues in policing. Routledge.
Video1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5M7ohdZ6qA
Wachs, M. ed., 2017. Ethics in planning. Routledge.
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