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Unit 1: The Evolving Role of Software

Issues of Professional Responsibility Notes

Confidentiality: Engineers should normally respect the confidentiality of their employers
or clients irrespective of whether or not a formal confidentiality agreement has been signed.

Competence: Engineers should not misrepresent their level of competence. They should
not knowingly accept work, which is out with, their competence.
Intellectual property rights: Engineers should be aware of local laws governing the use of
intellectual property such as patents, copyright, etc. They should be careful to ensure that
the intellectual property of employers and clients is protected.

Computer misuse: Software engineers should not use their technical skills to misuse other
people’s computers. Computer misuse ranges from relatively trivial (game playing on an
employer’s machine, say) to extremely serious (dissemination of viruses).

Task Suggest four attributes, which all software products have.

1.5.5 ACM/IEEE Code of Ethics

The professional societies in the US have cooperated to produce a code of ethical practice.

Members of these organizations sign up to the code of practice when they join.
The code contains eight principles related to the behavior of and decisions made by professional
software engineers, including practitioners, educators, managers, supervisors and policy makers,
as well as trainees and students of the profession.

Code of Ethics – Preamble

The short version of the code summarizes aspirations at a high level of the abstraction; the
clauses that are included in the full version give examples and details of how these
aspirations change the way we act as software engineering professionals. Without the
aspirations, the details can become legalistic and tedious; without the details, the aspirations
can become high sounding but empty; together, the aspirations and the details form a
cohesive code.

Software engineers shall commit themselves to making the analysis, specification, design,
development, testing and maintenance of software a beneficial and respected profession.
In accordance with their commitment to the health, safety and welfare of the public,
software engineers shall adhere to the following Eight Principles:

Public: Software engineers shall act consistently with the public interest.
Clients and Employer: Software engineers shall act in a manner that is in the best
interests of their client and employer consistent with the public interest.

Product: Software engineers shall ensure that their products and related modifications
meet the highest professional standards possible.
Judgment: Software engineers shall maintain integrity and independence in their
professional judgment.
Management: Software engineering managers and leaders shall subscribe to and
promote an ethical approach to the management of software development and
maintenance.

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