CSU Computing & Maths: Ethical Analysis of Software Delivery Dilemmas

This essay examines the ethical dilemmas present in a software development scenario where a project manager proposes delivering a software without proper encryption to meet deadlines, with a plan to introduce a patch later. It identifies the ethical problems, including the vulnerability of the software to unauthorized access and data breaches, and assigns responsibility to the project director and project manager. The analysis considers the impact on stakeholders, particularly the client, and suggests alternative project management strategies, such as the waterfall model, to prevent such issues. The essay argues that delaying the software delivery to incorporate full encryption is the best course of action, despite potential impacts on project timelines and costs, as it safeguards data security and maintains quality. The essay concludes by emphasizing the project director's accountability and the need to prioritize ethical considerations in software development.

SCHOOL OF COMPUTING AND MATHS, Charles Sturt University
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Assignment 1: Problem-Action-Consequence Technique
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Word Count: 1000

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Introduction
The main issue, which is being highlighted in the video, is that a software without any
proper encryption involved in it is being delivered to the client. As a strategy, the project
manager wants to deliver the project on time without encryption; later on, they want to
introduce a patch, which would involve the patch of the encryption (Ding et al., 2014).
Q1. What are the ethical problems you identified in your chosen YouTube video?
The main ethical issue, which is being encountered in the video, is that a software
without any proper encryption is being delivered to the client. On the other hand as a plan,
they would be incorporating a patch, which would consist of the encryption later on (Kumar,
Khan & Khan, 2015).
Q2. Why are these ethical problems?
The concept of delivering the client the software without proper encryption involved
into it can make the system very much vulnerable. The vulnerability can lie in the sector of
security issue related to the software. Any unauthorized person can access the data, which the
software would possess after the software would be live. It would make the data being used
by any unauthorized person for their own benefit (Chen et al., 2016).
Q3. Who is responsible for these problems?
The person who is responsible for the problem is the project director who is the main
person involved in the overall working of the project and its implementation. The project
director should have completed the project before on time with every proper security
implementation involved in the software. The project director is directly responsible for not
completing the project on time (Scott-Hayward, Natarajan & Sezer, 2016). On the other hand,
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the project manager is also responsible for initiating the delivery of the project without proper
encryption being involved into it.
Q4. Who is affected by these problems?
The client who would be using the software would be affected by the incident. The
unencrypted software could make their data vulnerable to hackers. When a client wants a
software, the developers should incorporate all the necessary security aspects so that later on
they would not face any problem relating to it (Pires et al., 2016).
Q5. What project management strategies could have prevented these problems from
arising in the first place?
There are different project management strategies that can be used according to the
need of the organization. There are different project management strategy for example taking
into consideration a software development the waterfall model can be implemented. This
project management methodology is best suited for the software development as it involves
all the necessary details that can be involved in a software development. The details, which
are incorporated, are basic requirement to budgeting to time management (Sadeghi et al.,
2017).
Q6. Which of the three actions in your chosen YouTube video is better? Why?
Among the three actions, which is stated in the video the action that should have been
selected, is that the project director ignores the recommendation of the project manager. This
action is selected due to the factor that delivering of a project without proper encryption
involved into it can be very much problematic in the near future. The client who would be
using the software in live environment can face many problems. The problem can be in the
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sector of issue related to securing of the private data (Scott-Hayward, Natarajan & Sezer,
2016).
Q7. What action, other than the three in your chosen YouTube video, can best resolve
the problems?
Apart from the options, which are stated in the video, the best option can be delay the
delivery of the software by few days. This would incorporate that the software would be
having all the necessary implementations of the security aspect so that in the future there
would not be any problem (Pires et al., 2016).
Q8. Who should take the best action? Why?
The project director should take the best action. This is due to the factor that the
project director knows all the loopholes in the software and he has the overall idea of the
software and working of the software. The delivery aspect of the software completely
depends on the project director. On the other hand as stated in the video by the project
manager, that later on a patch would be introduced in order to implement the encryption
process could be a problem (Sadeghi et al., 2017).
Q9. What are the implications of the best action on the project’s time, cost and quality?
Project’s time: Considering the best option the project would not be delivered on time due to
the factor of introducing the encryption into the system. This could be a problem for the
client who would be introducing the software but later on, the software would not face any
sort of problems (Kumar, Khan & Khan, 2015).
Cost: The cost related issue would be affected by means of focusing more time and resources
for a particular software. The cost factor can also affect the project stakeholders. The cost
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factor can be stated to be directly proportional to the project’s time. As long, the project
would be in the development phase it would be affecting the cost factor.
Quality: taking into consideration the best option which is selected the quality factor would
not be hampered by any means. The project would be delayed but on the other hand, the
quality and the security factors would be neglected (Kumar, Khan & Khan, 2015).
Q10.What are the consequences of the best action on the project stakeholders?
The stakeholders would be affected by the best option, which is selected. The project
director and the project manager would be directly answerable to the project stakeholders
(Sadeghi et al., 2017). The delay in the project delivery would be affecting the client as well
as the organization.
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References
Chen, M., Qian, Y., Mao, S., Tang, W., & Yang, X. (2016). Software-defined mobile
networks security. Mobile Networks and Applications, 21(5), 729-743.
Ding, A. Y., Crowcroft, J., Tarkoma, S., & Flinck, H. (2014). Software defined networking
for security enhancement in wireless mobile networks. Computer Networks, 66, 94-
101.
Kumar, R., Khan, S. A., & Khan, R. A. (2015). Revisiting software security: durability
perspective. International Journal of Hybrid Information Technology (SERSC), 8(2),
311-322.
Pires, R., Pasin, M., Felber, P., & Fetzer, C. (2016, November). Secure content-based routing
using intel software guard extensions. In Proceedings of the 17th International
Middleware Conference (p. 10). ACM.
Sadeghi, A., Bagheri, H., Garcia, J., & Malek, S. (2017). A taxonomy and qualitative
comparison of program analysis techniques for security assessment of android
software. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, 43(6), 492-530.
Scott-Hayward, S., Natarajan, S., & Sezer, S. (2016). A survey of security in software
defined networks. IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials, 18(1), 623-654.
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