Firestone IT: Software Development Case Study Analysis Report

This report provides an in-depth analysis of the Firestone case study, which centers on ethical dilemmas in software development within an advertising agency. The case study explores the development of a new marketing database, Reaper, and the ethical challenges faced by IT consultant Sophie Ryder. The analysis covers legal, professional, employment, social, personal, and intrinsic factors influencing the company's decisions. Key issues include data vulnerability, informed consent, improper behavior, and the prioritization of ethical considerations in database management. The report discusses these factors, their prioritization, and the decisions made, offering insights into ethical decision-making processes and the importance of data privacy and security in the IT industry. The report concludes by emphasizing the significance of ethical conduct and responsible data management for maintaining client trust and ensuring the success of software development projects.

Running Head: Software Development 0
Firestone
Software Development IT
4/23/2019

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Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Analysis...........................................................................................................................................3
 Legal factors.........................................................................................................................3
 Professional factors...............................................................................................................3
 Employment and Social factors............................................................................................4
 Personal factors.....................................................................................................................5
 Intrinsic factors.....................................................................................................................6
 Prioritization.........................................................................................................................6
 Decision................................................................................................................................7
Discussion........................................................................................................................................9
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................11
References......................................................................................................................................12

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Introduction
This assessment includes the case study of the Firestone organization, which works in the
IT industry. The case study included the career path of the Firestone Company. It consists of
various ethical issues in the organization in managing the database for the clients. This report
includes the ethical decision model which describe various ethics occurred in the organization.
The assessment includes a brief analysis regarding the case study, which includes a detailed
description of several factors, included in the case study. The case study consists that the
advertising company Firestone for the technical consultancy hires the girl Sophie Ryder. The
company developed the new database for marketing purpose that is known as Reaper. The
companies create promotional campaigns for the clients using the competition to attracting the
clients towards their database. Sophie faces many ethical issues in her job role as it is related to
the database of a particular company. The certain factors will be included in the assessment that
consists of different type of factors occurred in the case study. Other people of the company have
provided the proper training to Sophie for doing her work. Sophie faces the issue of informed
consent in his starting of work. This process of informed consent can create many legal issues in
the work of an organization. Sophie can make the database strong and usable by the clients with
her efforts. This assessment includes the whole description of the Reaper database that includes
various information regarding the clients. The discussion of the case study will be also included
in this assessment.

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Analysis
 Legal factors
Factor1- Make a disclosure agreement
The case study includes various factors that are connected to many legal issues.
The one legal factor is related to the disclosure agreement needed to be signed by Sophie.
The company can include different factors related to the hiring of the IT development
consultant (Colaco, et. al., 2015). The Manager of the Firestone gives the information that
she cannot disclose the information of the organization without the prior permission of
the company so she needs to sign the disclosure agreement.
Factor2- The issue of informed consent
Sophie needs to face informed consent issues several times in the process of
working. The other manager of an organization needs to get full information from the
database. The organization needs to get full web-form completed by the client. The web-
form include name, address, age, occupation, marital status, hobbies, annual income and
many more. However, the Firestone people did not consider the matter of informed
consent.
Factor3- Vulnerability of Database
The Firestone faces the issue related to the database vulnerability as per the
database of other organizations. The Firestone is an organization that works in the
technical consultancy and makes a new database called Reaper. The data vulnerability is
considered as a legal issue as it includes the personal and confidential data of the
organization.
 Professional factors
Factor1- Improper behavior
The improper behavior is highly involved in the professional factors of the
Firestone. Some of the employees of Firestone behaves in an unethical way with Sophie.

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So this behavior is included in unethical behavior. This can create various problems in
managing a particular database.
Factor 2- Demands of clients
The Firestone did not tell the other organizations about their database as this is
considered as a privacy act 1988. The Firestone is very aware that there is a risk of
fetching data from a particular database. The professional code of conduct includes the
codes related to the interest and demands of the clients. The Firestone need to maintain
the demands of clients as this can maintain the use of the database in the market.
Factor 3- Competence
The Reaper is a database system that includes in the technical consultancy that
needs a proper experienced person to manage this database. Sophie is considered as an
experienced person that handles this project. There is a competition faced by the
Firestone as relating to the same database functions. This competence needs to manage
by the organization. The ACS makes the value of the competence states regarding the
skills and knowledge of the person handles this project.
 Employment and Social factors
Factor1- Complaints regarding wrongdoing
The Firestone faces many factors that are related to the complaints of
wrongdoing. These consequences are relatively big as compared to other factors and it
includes in unethical behavior. The social factors are much related to this case study,
which is related to the management of database Reaper. The proper behavior of the
persons related to the Firestone creates a particular process in the system.
Factor2- Different policies followed by the organization
The policies are much valuable for the organization as it increases the business
process in the market. The main policy of Firestone is not to disclose the ethical issues
and personal information of the organization. So it is related to the project of managing

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database for making proper information of the clients. The policies are also included with
the ethical aspects of an organization.
Factor3- Mentality factors
The mentality factors have occurred among the departments. So that they cannot
share personal information with each other. This factor is also related to the decision-
making as it creates bad decision making which is very bad for the environment of
business. The decision-making process is very important for any business organization so
the Firestone need to manage the decisions as per their functions.
 Personal factors
Factor1- for managing the work properly
This factor is included in the personal factors related to the case study as Sophie
needs to do the management of work properly as she is newly hired employee and related
to the database management so the management is necessary for impressed the managers
of the organization Firestone. The work management is very essential for the employees
so Sophie needs to manage the work as per the needs and requirements. The personal
factors are related to the specific person like Sophie as it works for proper database
management. This factor increases the value of the employee as it depends on them only.
Factor 2- Dealing with the unimpressed nature
This factor is related to the dealing of unimpressed nature. Richard, the manager
of the Firestone unimpressed with Sophie due to not performing good results in his work.
This is also related to the personal matter of employees so it includes in the personal
factors. Richard is not happy as per the situation of the work due to the success also. The
Reaper created is at risk due to this personal factor. The unimpressed nature can create
stress in the work and managers of the company Firestone have a negative impact due to
this process. So it is necessary to maintain the personal factors in the IT industry for the
positive benefits and for gaining a better amount of job as per the personal requirements
of the person.

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 Intrinsic factors
Factor1- Rising
Sophie the technical consultant at Firestone had a very tough upbringing in the
organization due to some aspects of her nature. After the proper rising of the employee,
Sophie made very good relations with the other project manager of the organization,
which is related to the management of database Reaper. The rising of a person is very
important in the intrinsic factors as it increases the value if an individual in the specific
organization and it is very much important in the Firestone as it relates with the safety of
the data related with the clients of the particular company.
Factor2- Education
Education also comes in one of the intrinsic factors related to an individual. The
influence is also taken from the high school as it shows better behavior towards the
people. Sophie had adopted better education as related to the IT industry. The Sophie had
achieved better knowledge regarding cyber security which is a positive factor for the
Firestone company as it requires the security of data related to the security of Reaper.
Therefore, education is also included in the intrinsic factors of the organization. This can
give the proper feedback of an individual regarding the education adopted by an
individual.
 Prioritization
This factor includes the priority factors related to all the above-discussed factors.
As per all the above factors, the data vulnerability related with the legal process is a most
important factor as the company itself is related with the proper security of data related
with the clients of the organization, which maintains their business. In fact, all the factors
are important for the business but some are more important like legal factors, social
factors, and many other factors. The least important factor is related to the intrinsic
factors, which includes the rising, and education which not matters a lot in the data
security and management.

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Priority Factor
1 Legal (Vulnerability of Data)
2 Legal(Disclosure agreement)
3 Professional (Demand of clients)
4 Professional (Competition)
5 Employment and Social factors (policies of the
organization)
6 Employment and Social factors (Complaints)
7 Personal factors(Managing work)
8 Personal factors(Unimpressed nature)
9 Intrinsic( Rising0
10 Intrinsic(Education)
 Decision
The decision is one of the prioritized processes related to all the significant factors
that are very important as per the client's interest. The decision can impress the clients
and increase their attraction. As per the experience, the legal factors are much more
important and give the highest priority in every business, as these factors are highly
important for the business (Kroenke and Auer, 2013). The legal issue in this particular
case is the data vulnerability, which means the security of data, which create influence
among the public as per the privacy. As Sophie needs to make proper security of data as
it related to the information of the clients. The disclosure agreement is an actual legal
issue related to Sophie in the Firestone. So, the legal factor is rectified which is on the
highest priority.
The department is responsible for the issue and the problem arises in the process that it
does not occur again. The department itself can easily manage many issues. The other
legal issue is a disclosure of agreement which is signed by Sophie in the organization
before starting a job at Firestone .this agreement is related with the disclosed matter of
the private information which includes in the database on which she works. This practice
is related to immediately cease. As the database consists of all the private information of

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the clients, so it is important to sign a disclosure agreement as per the requirements
(Caldwell, 2013). The other legal issue is related to the informed consent arises in the
procedure of the work done by Sophie in the organization. The issue of informed consent
comes many times so it is important to manage these but the organization ignores this
issue and did not take seriously. These legal issues are more priorities in the particular
case study as it is greatly related to the overall process of the Firestone, which is totally
based on database management.
Apart from all these legal issues, some other issues are also important in the decision
taken by the Firestone. The proper behavior and other social factors also influence the
process of the organization.

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Discussion
The ethical decision-making is very important in the organization related to the case
study as it all depends on the privacy and security of the data of the particular clients. The
behavior of Sophie gives a high positive impact on the ethical decision-making process. As per
the various ethical theories, the different perspectives can be used for a particular case study.
Sophie has been appointed for the technical consultancy Firestone, for managing the database
security. In the organization, there are various perspectives some are positive and some are
negative. Sophie also faces many negative sides to the organizational perspectives. Sophie has
been appointed for the technical consultancy to save and secure the database Reaper that includes
certain information of the clients. Sophie needs to sign the disclosure agreement to sure, that she
will not disclose the information of the clients (Stallings, et. al., 2012). Therefore, Sophie needs
to follow several legal issues regarding the disclosure process. The legal factors are the main
factors in this particular case study. This study includes several analyses regarding the various
factors involved in this case.
In this particular case study, various perspectives and other project managers are involved
in this practice. The different ethical practices are involved in the case study as it is related to the
security of the database. As Richard and other project managers are involved with Sophie in
doing their work properly. Many factors like professional factors, personal factors, employment
factors, and other intrinsic factors are involved in the analysis of this particular case. Sophie can
work properly with the managers and achieve a proper secure database management system.
Sophie needs proper support to continue the proper security of the database Reaper (Sun, et. al.,
2014). The particular decisions are made for the particular process to increase the several
processes. All the aspects of the case study are much involved in this process related to the
security of database management. The ethical aspects have been used in this case to manage all
the work of the Firestone. The database management is very essential as per the requirements of
Firestone. Several factors are important in this case study, which has been discussed above.
These factors are properly prioritized as per their needs in the work. The EDM model is used to
maintain the several ethics involved in this case study. The ethics are very much important in

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every business management. The factors related with the society are related to the data of the
clients and by this security of the database, mire clients attract towards Firestone.
Conclusion
This case study is related to the proper database management security in the Firestone
named as Reaper. The report includes the proper introduction of the case that includes Sophie,
which is hired by the Firestone as a technical consultancy for the proper management of the
work. Using the EDM model, various ethical perspectives has been involved in this process. The
demand of the public and the data vulnerability comes at first priority. All the legal issues have
seemed an important part of the process. This case study includes the various factors that are
involved with Sophie who works for database management security. The various project
managers are involved in doing the project with a particular person to properly save the
information of the clients. The Reaper is an integrated database, which includes the information
of the clients like name, address, age, occupation, hobbies, marital status, and annual income.
This case is related to the Firestone business, which creates many promotional campaigns
included in the competition. The proper meeting has been conducted among the managers to start
the work to secure the database management. The Richard included with Sophie to do the
particular work related to the database security. By the activities done by Sophie, Sophie has
been formally hired. The non-disclosure agreement is a large legal issue faced in this case as it is
related to the private information of the clients. The proper prioritized factors and decisions have
been included in this report.

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References
Caldwell, T. (2013). Plugging the cyber-security skills gap. Computer Fraud &
Security, 2013(7), 5-10.
Colaco, M., Heavner, M., Sunaryo, P., & Terlecki, R. (2015). Malpractice litigation and
testicular torsion: a legal database review. The Journal of emergency
medicine, 49(6), 849-854.
Kroenke, D. M., & Auer, D. J. (2013). Database processing(Vol. 6). Prentice Hall.
Stallings, W., Brown, L., Bauer, M. D., & Bhattacharjee, A. K. (2012). Computer
security: principles and practice (pp. 978-0). Upper Saddle River (NJ: Pearson
Education.
Sun, Y., Zhang, J., Xiong, Y., & Zhu, G. (2014). Data security and privacy in cloud
computing. International Journal of Distributed Sensor Networks, 10(7), 190903.