Case Study: Ethical Dilemma in Software Release & ACS Code Analysis

This case study analyzes an ethical dilemma faced by Christina, a programmer, regarding the premature release of software with known bugs. The analysis employs the Macdonald Framework to evaluate the moral dimensions, stakeholders, values, and potential courses of action. It also examines the relevance of the ACS Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct, along with Australian legislation like the Fair Work Act 2009 and Privacy Act 1988. The study identifies key issues, such as the management's unethical demand for Christina to falsely sign off on completed tests. Strategies for resolving these issues include identifying responsible individuals and considering legal action to uphold work ethics and standards. The paper concludes with a discussion of the ethical implications and potential recommendations for Christina's response.

Running head: CASE STUDY ANALYSIS
Case Study Analysis
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note:

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CASE STUDY ANALYSIS
Table of Contents
1. Macdonald Frame Work.....................................................................................................2
2. ACS Code of Ethics............................................................................................................3
3. ACS Code of Professional Conduct....................................................................................3
4. Relevant Australian Legislation..........................................................................................4
5. Issues for the Case Study..................................................................................................4
6. Strategies for Solving Issues..............................................................................................4
References............................................................................................................................. 5

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CASE STUDY ANALYSIS
1. Macdonald Frame Work
a)
Recognizing the Moral Dimension
Christina is a programmer in a small software company. Being a smaller company,
they are establishing their market shares and are setting the dates of software release. She
has the core responsibility to program as well as test the next release of accounting package
software. In one of such program, she has found minor bugs and decided to fix them.
However, even before all of the bugs are resolved, the organizational management has
decided to release the software and for this purpose, Christina has to sign that all tests are
being completed. The implementation of ACS Code of Ethics and ACS Professional Conduct
with Australian legislation are the moral dimensions (Noddings 2013).
b)
Who are the Interested Parties? What are their relationships?
The interested parties in this particular case study are the organizational
management, software developers and Christina, the programmer. The relationship amongst
all the above mentioned individuals is that all of them are the parts of a same organization
and hence all of them are colleagues (Frank 2013).
c)
What values or principles are involved?
There are some of the major values or principles involved in this case study. The first
and the foremost ethical value is honesty. The management is not at all honest and hence
the clients could suffer. The next value is professionalism. They are not being professional
by releasing erroneous software (Fromm 2013). The third value is competence, since they
are not informing their clients about the bugs in the software.
d)
Courses of Actions
The major course of action for Christina is to inform the higher authority about this
type of misconduct. Moreover, she should not sign on the completion of test agreement; else
she would be termed as unethical and illegal in nature.
e)
Benefits and the Burdens
The major benefits here are identification of bugs by Christina and keeping employee
satisfaction on the highest priority (Peters 2015). However, the burdens here are that
emphasizing Christina to sign on the agreement of completion of testing and releasing
software without resolving the bugs.
f)
Analogous Cases
The three analogous cases in this specific case study are as follows:
i) The management could think of a different idea of releasing the software after
proper testing.
ii) Christina will not be forced to sign on the agreement of completion of testing.
iii) The author could himself check the bugs while writing the code (Crane and Matten
2016).
g)
Discussion with Relevant Others
This decision is undertaken by the management. However, Christina can discuss the
matter with the higher authority and could even take legal help to resolve the issue.
h)
Accordance of Decision with Legal and Organizational Rules

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CASE STUDY ANALYSIS
The decision that is taken by management is not following legal and organizational
rules. However, by applying ACS code of ethics and ACS code of professional conduct, the
decision could be aligned (Niebuhr 2013).
i)
Comfortable with Decision
I am not at all comfortable with the decision of management since they are breaking
the laws here. Moreover, they are not following the work ethics or organizational ethics and
hence I can call them unethical in nature.
2. ACS Code of Ethics
The three values of ACS code of ethics that are relevant to the case study are
honesty, competence, primacy of public interest and professionalism (Fromm 2013, p. 2).
This is mainly because the organizational management is not following the rules and laws of
ethics and hence could be termed as unethical (Krier et al. 2014).
The basic recommendation in this particular case study is that Christina should take
up the help of legislation and also inform her higher authority about this decision. The
second recommendation for Christina here is to follow her ethical values and standards and
hence a proper work framework would be maintained. Another significant recommendation
for Christina is to communicate with the significant person, who is responsible for allowing
erroneous software to the clients. This specific recommendation would help Christina is
solving the issues faced by her and clients.
3. ACS Code of Professional Conduct
There are some of the clauses that are relevant in the case study after the
identification of the 3 ethical values of honesty, competence, primacy of public interest and
professionalism.
Regarding honesty, the major clauses are
i) Misleading the clients by providing erroneous software and
ii) Not enhancing the organizational reputation or Christina’s reputation for the clients.
Regarding competence, the relevant clauses are
i) Not following the relevant legislation and standards and
ii) Providing products to the clients that are not tested properly (Crane and Matten
2016, p 3).
iii) Moreover, advising the clients to use the product, with the assurance that the
product is the best.
Regarding primacy of public interest, the most relevant clause is
i) Identifying those, who are potentially impacted by the work and explicitly
considering the interests. The customers are majorly impacted by this product and their
interests should be considered (Board 2014).
ii) The second clause that is relevant for the case study is raising with the
stakeholders that all the potential conflicts within professional activities and legal accepted
public requirements.
Regarding professionalism, the relevant clauses are
i) Taking appropriate actions against the unethical persons and

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CASE STUDY ANALYSIS
ii) Not attempting to influence the ethical person in undertaking actions that could
breach the code. Here, Christina is being influenced to sign the agreement of completion of
the testing.
4. Relevant Australian Legislation
The relevant Australian legislation for this case study is Fair Work Act 2009. As per
division 536CA, the management is being unethical and dishonest. The second relevant
legislation for the case study is Privacy Act 1988. This particular law regulates the proper
handling of the personal data regarding individuals. The personal data is regarding the
identified individuals.
5. Issues for the Case Study
The main issue for this case study is that the organization, where Christina is working
has decided to launch an erroneous software, without properly eradicating the minor bugs of
the software. The second issue here is that the management has asked Christina to sign on
the agreement that the software is appropriate even after knowing that it is not. This is
completely unethical in nature.
6. Strategies for Solving Issues
The major strategy for solving this particular issue is to identify the main individuals,
who are involved in the case of providing erroneous software. When Christina will be able to
identify those people, she would be able to undertake relevant steps against them (Board
2014). The second strategy to solve this type of issue is by undertaking legal steps against
the specified person directly and without considering outcomes. This would help Christina in
maintaining her work ethics and standards.

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CASE STUDY ANALYSIS
References
Board, B.A.C., 2014. Professional and ethical compliance code for behavior analysts.
Crane, A. and Matten, D., 2016.
Business ethics: Managing corporate citizenship and
sustainability in the age of globalization. Oxford University Press.
Frank, A.W., 2013.
The wounded storyteller: Body, illness, and ethics. University of Chicago
Press.
Fromm, E., 2013.
Man for himself: An inquiry into the psychology of ethics. Routledge.
Krier, P., Parman, A., Piercy, D., Erlandson, J., Keele, R., Hill, S.L. and Erlandson, J., 2014.
CODE OF ETHICS.
Niebuhr, R., 2013.
Moral man and immoral society: A study in ethics and politics.
Westminster John Knox Press.
Noddings, N., 2013.
Caring: A relational approach to ethics and moral education. Univ of
California Press.
Peters, R.S., 2015.
Ethics and Education (Routledge Revivals). Routledge.