Ethical Dilemmas in Software Development: An ITC506 Case Study Report

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ITC506: INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ETHICS ASSESSMENT ITEM 1
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Contents
INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................................................3
BACKGROUND OF CASE..........................................................................................................3
ETHICAL ISSUES........................................................................................................................4
AUSTRALIAN COMPUTER SCIENCE CODE OF PROFESSIONAL ETHICS................4
RECOMMENDATIONS..............................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................6
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Introduction
Every ITC organization is required to follow the Australian computer Society code of
professional conduct. The members of the society abide by the values of the code and have to act
with integrity and responsibility in all of the professional dealings. Codes of professional conduct
have relevance to the legislation of professional conduct. If any of the ITC organization fails to
abide by the code then it can be used as a ground for claiming professional negligence. In this
assessment report, the ethical issues will be identified from the given case study’s videos and the
analysis of the ethical issues will also be made from the ACS code of professional conduct
perspectives. After analyzing the ethical issues various recommendations will be provided for
preventing the unethical activities in information and communication technology organization.
Background of case
The case study given in this assessment is of the software development organization. An
organization is asked by one of its client Willis who is the most important client of an
organization to deliver the project within the deadline. The CEO of the organization has given
responsibility to its senior developer for developing the software. The project manager has been
put under the pressure by the CEO of the organization to get this project completed a month
early as if the company will not get the next contract from Willis if the delivery is not made on
time. The senior developer was consulted by the project manager and he said that he was facing
the challenge to complete the project on time as he was working on the three designs of the
software and has to get them tested overseas. The project manager told him to make the optimum
utilization of the resources in making only one design for the project and not to waste time and
cost in developing three designs (You tube, 2016). The senior developer was then asked to
launch the project without encryption but as per the senior developer the testing of software was
very important as software without encryption and testing can lead to its hacking and it will
negatively affect the image of the organization. The program developer said that the work on the
encryption can be done after a few weeks of the delivery of the project, but the main motive is to
deliver the project on time.
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Ethical issues
Every organization are required to comply with the ACS code of professional conducts but here,
in this case, the project manager, keeping aside the code of professional conducts is putting
pressure on the senior developer to design the software for Willis who is one of the main clients
of the organization and just to make the project delivery a month early he said senior developer
to complete it without any encryption and testing of software. The professionals of ICT are
abiding by the code of ethics but just to meet the deadlines the organization is breaching the ACS
codes. ICT professionals must advance and uphold the dignity, effectiveness, and honor of being
professional and should work diligently and competently for its clients, should not breach public
trust in the profession or the trust of the clients or stakeholders (Mcdermid., 2015).
Australian computer science code of professional ethics
ITC Professionals must act in accordance with the ACS values and ethics within the law.
Following are the values which are included in the ACS professional ethics-
 The enhancement of quality of life
 Honesty
 Professionalism
 The primacy of the public interests
 Competence
 Professional development (ACS, 2019)
In the given case, the project manager, senior developer, and CEO of the organization have
breached the ACS code of professional ethics. as per the ACS code, always the preference
should be given to the public interests over the private and personal interests. But here the
project manager has suggested the senior software developer of the organization complete the
project without encryption just to make it delivery within the deadline and to grab the next
contract from the client Willis. They ignored the consequences which can be caused due to the
non-testing software as it might lead to the hacking and can cause great harm to the client as well
as to the organization also.
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The other ethical code which has been breached by the organization is honesty. Client or
potential client should not mislead knowingly but here the senior developer has been guided by
the project manager to complete the project within the deadline without even considering the
quality work and just focusing on how the company can earn more profits (UGBOGBO.S.N, &
MICHAEL, 2016).
Recommendations
The organization should not avoid the ACS code of ethics and should work considering all of its
elements. Looking at the importance of the client and timely delivery of the project the company
could engage more human and financial resources for its completion and that too with quality.
The effective decisions should have been taken by the senior authorities and they could have
offered the more attractive incentive schemes to the employees as well as the bonus scheme if
the project would have completed within the deadline. By this, the project would have been
completed on time without any compromise with the quality and ignorance of ethical standard
(Al-Saggaf.et.al, 2017).
Conclusion
Thus ICT professionals are required to follow all the ethical values of the ACS code of conduct
and should complete each and every tasks and project without breaching them. As the failure to
observe the code may lead the organization or any of its members to the disciplinary action by
the ACS. The case of the early launch project has been explained in this report with reference to
the unethical issues it is committing and recommendations have been providing which should be
followed by the ICT professionals.
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References
 ACS, (2019). About ACS. [Online]. ACS. Available4 at:
https://www.acs.org.au/governance/rules-and-regulations.html. [Accessed on 22 March
2019]
 Al-Saggaf, Y., Burmeister, O. K., & Schwartz, M. (2017). Qualifications and ethics
education: the views of ICT professionals. Australasian journal of information
systems, 21.
 Mcdermid. D. (2015). Ethics in ICT: an Australian perspective. Pearson higher education
au.
 UGBOGBO.S.N, & MICHAEL (2016). Ethical issues in information technology- a
conceptual approach. Igbinedion University Journal of Accounting. Vol. 2
 YOUTUBE, (2016). Early launch. [ONLINE]. YouTube. Available at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5M7ohdZ6qA. [Accessed on 22 March 2019]
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