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![Professional codes of conduct
A major weakness of the codes is poor drafting, so that, in the end, they do not mean
what they were intended to mean e.g:
Clause 6.05 of the IEEE-CS/ACM code states “[Software engineers shall] not promote
their own interest at the expense of the profession, client or employer”.
Clause 8.01 of the IEEE-CS/ACM code: “[Software engineers shall] not give unfair
treatment to anyone because of any irrelevant prejudice.”
The wording of clause 8 of the IEEE Code of Ethics (1990) expresses much better what
was presumably intended:
Treat fairly all persons regardless of such factors as race, religion, gender 18 , disability,
age, or national origin.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/chapter1-171014080826/85/Chapter-1-Professional-Issues-in-Software-Engineering-17-320.jpg)
Chapter 1: Professional Issues in Software Engineering
This document provides an overview of professional issues in software engineering. It discusses the engineering profession's two-tier structure, with engineering institutions covering disciplines and an umbrella Engineering Council. The document examines ethics and codes of conduct for software engineers. It outlines strands of ethical thinking around rules and consequences, moral authority, and more. The document also reviews weaknesses of professional codes for software engineering around poor drafting and inviting judgements outside engineers' competence.
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Chapter 1: Professional Issues in Software Engineering
- 1. PROFESSIONAL ISSUES IN SOFTWAREENGINEERING CHAPTER 1: THE ENGINEERING PROFESSION BY: SHAVEZ MUSHTAQ QURESHI LECTURER, QARSHI UNIVERSITY SHAVEZ.MUSHTAQ@QU.EDU.PK
- 2. Profession? Terms likeprofession, professional and professionalism carry a whole variety of meanings. The engineering profession has a two-tier structure. At the first level, there are the engineering institutions, that is, the chartered professional bodies, each of which covers a single or several closely related engineering disciplines. Examples are the Institution of Electrical Engineers, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and the British Computer Society. Each institution has its own rules regarding membership and its own codes of practice and conduct.
- 3. Profession? The BritishComputer Society (BCS) is the engineering institution which is the most natural one for software engineers to join. However, the Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE) also welcomes software engineers, particularly those whose interests incline towards safety critical systems or control systems, and offers an extensive programme of relevant professional activities.
- 4. Profession? The second-levelbody in engineering is the Engineering Council, a chartered body which recognizes certain engineering institutions as its “Nominated Bodies”. This means that the Engineering Council is satisfied that their standards of membership meet its requirements. In this way, the Engineering Council acts as an “umbrella” body and represents the interests of the engineering profession as a whole.
- 5. Development of EngineeringProfession The term “engineer” was first used in the sense of a military engineer, concerned with the building of engines of war and other military construction. It was in the eighteenth century that the term “civil engineer” began to be used to distinguish engineers who were concerned with civil rather than military construction. The Institution of Civil Engineers was founded in 1818
- 6. Development of EngineeringProfession The Institution of Mechanical Engineers was founded in 1847 The Royal Institution of Naval Architects in 1860 The Institution of Gas Engineers in 1863, and the Institution of Electrical Engineers in 1871. Many others followed—there are now 42 chartered engineering institutions.
- 7. Professional Qualifications Entryto almost all professions requires an appropriate educational qualification followed by appropriate professional experience.
- 8. The position ofSoftware Engineering The use of the term “software engineering” had become widespread by the mid- 1990s. The situation was further complicated by the fact that suppliers such as Sun Microsystems and Microsoft were awarding qualifications with titles like “certified systems engineer” or “network engineer” to those who could demonstrate suitable skills and knowledge in the use of their equipment.
- 9. Ethics and SoftwareEngineering Ethics is the study of right and wrong in relation to human actions. It includes metaethics, that is, study of the general principles from which ethical systems can be built; Moral theory, that is, the ethical systems themselves, consisting of the criteria and procedures that can be applied to decide whether individual actions are right or wrong; Practical ethics or applied ethics, that is, the application of ethical systems to the analysis of particular situations, including such specialized areas as business ethics and medical ethics.
- 10. Ethics and SoftwareEngineering The availability of technology and its speed and effectiveness mean that many ethical questions present themselves in a particularly acute form. The obligation to keep an individual’s medical records confidential has long been recognized and accepted; We would criticize the management of a hospital that allowed the key to the room containing all the manual records to hang on a convenient hook outside the door when no staff were on duty.
- 11. Ethics and SoftwareEngineering It is information technology that has made the offence possible. What concernsus, then, is not the issue of confidentiality of medical records but the moral responsibility of the system developers who have left the metaphorical key hanging outside the door, that is, who developed a medical records system that did not contain access controls to make such an action impossible. It is important that IT professionals should be capable of thinking clearly about such situations, since they are the people who understand them and know what is and is not possible.
- 12. Strands in EthicalThinking Rules and consequences Sources of moral authority Absolutism v Relativism The doctrine of double effect
- 13. Strands in EthicalThinking Follow the rules and judge their consequences. Some people believe that moral authority lies with the individual, who by reflection and self-analysis develops a set of rules. Others believe that moral authority must be located in larger units—the organization or society, the body politic or the profession. Absolutists believe that ethics and moral laws are the same at all times, in all places, and in all societies. Relativists believe that they depend on time, place and circumstances.
- 14. Strands in EthicalThinking According to doctrine of double effect, the foreseeable effects of an action can be divided into those that are intended and those that are merely foreseen but not intended. It is, in certain circumstances, permissible to carry out an action whose intended effects are good even if some of the consequences that are foreseen as possible but that are not intended are bad.
- 15. Professional codes ofconduct Professional codes of conduct are, by their very nature, collectivist and rule-based. Codes of ethics and codes of conduct: 1. Its provisions must be in the public interest and not be inconsistent with the law of the land. 2. Its provisions must be generally acceptable to members of the profession. 3. It must be precise, in the sense that it should be possible to establish convincingly whether or not an act violates the code. 4. Its scope should be limited to professional conduct. 5. It should be accurately worded.
- 16. Professional codes ofconduct Software engineering codes and their weaknesses: As far as software engineering is concerned, these have recently been replaced by a code developed jointly by the ACM and the IEEE Computer Society. ACM codes include: As an ACM member I will… 1.1 Contribute to society and human well-being; 1.2 Avoid harm to others; 1.3 Be honest and trustworthy.
- 17. Professional codes ofconduct A major weakness of the codes is poor drafting, so that, in the end, they do not mean what they were intended to mean e.g: Clause 6.05 of the IEEE-CS/ACM code states “[Software engineers shall] not promote their own interest at the expense of the profession, client or employer”. Clause 8.01 of the IEEE-CS/ACM code: “[Software engineers shall] not give unfair treatment to anyone because of any irrelevant prejudice.” The wording of clause 8 of the IEEE Code of Ethics (1990) expresses much better what was presumably intended: Treat fairly all persons regardless of such factors as race, religion, gender 18 , disability, age, or national origin.
- 18. Professional codes ofconduct International Initiatives: The International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) has made some attempts to develop an international code. Contentious Issues: Predicting the social and economic consequences of any major development may require professional skills in the social sciences that few software engineers possess. If a code of conduct demands that software engineers take responsibility for these matters, it is inviting them to form judgements, and presumably promulgate them, in areas outside their competence, something which is expressly forbidden elsewhere in most codes.
- 19. Reading Assignment: Applying codesof conduct Sales proposals Integrity and professional status Political and social considerations Public health and safety Conflicts of interest