Download Slide 1

Ethics & Professional Issues
in
Information Systems
Development
What constitutes IS failure?
Not solely from technical perspective
• Social, economic, political & ethical
environment in which development takes
place Sauer, (1993)
• Complex combinations of organisational,
financial, technical, human, political factors
Why IS projects fail
• Over commitment to projects
• Managers unable to take impartial view of
project
• Social pressures that often exist within
organisation
• LAS, London Stock Exchange etc
Where do the problems lie?
• Organisations are communities of people
• People compete for power & resources
• Differences of opinions & values
• Conflicts of priorities and goals
• Bonds of alliance
• Political dimensions
• Developments in government sector can provide
examples of externally set deadlines
• Political, commercial implications
• Inadequate testing
• Decision-making
• Almost every worker in industrialised countries use IS’s
for daily work
• Development & implementation of systems is
responsibility of IS professionals
• Conduct influenced by ethical attitudes
Throughout duration of IS development project
• Numerous activities and decisions to be made
• Most will have an ethical dimension
What is Ethics?
• The discipline dealing with what is good & bad &
with moral duty & obligation
• Individual human opinions and beliefs
• Hard to define
“most of our moral responses seem to be more a
matter of intuitions and feelings than of
reasoning and logical deduction – we are not
always the rational creatures we would like to
be” Gross, (1996)
What is Computer Ethics?
• Analysis of the nature & social impact of
computer technology and the corresponding
formulation & justification of policies for the
ethical use of such technologies
• “ethics for computing professionals is ethical
rules & judgements applied in a computing
context based on professional standards & a
concern for the use of the computing product”
(Gotterbarn, 1997)
What is professionalism?
• To meet standards set by a professional
body in terms of individual conduct,
competence & integrity
• A commitment to interests of all end-users
and other stakeholders
Solutions
Produce ethical tools
• SoDIS
• Ethically negotiated ethical triangle
Need to address
• Means of education for IS developers who
are able to integrate the ethical dimension
into their work
Starting Point
• Consider how professional issues in Computing
are taught
• Address & raise awareness of teaching
professional issues in computing curriculum
• Investigate differing approaches to delivery
• Essential issues need to be addressed to
produce computing professionals in line with
Engineering, Law, Medicine
Professional Bodies
• QAA Subject Benchmark
• Professional consideration
• Recognise the professional, moral &
ethical issues involved in exploitation of
computer technology & be guided by
adoption of appropriate professional,
ethical & legal practices
• BCS Code of Conduct
• Establish & maintain standards of professional
competence, conduct & ethical practice
• Syllabus to include ethical, legal, social issues
• ACM Code of conduct
• Critical importance to improve student’s
perspective of professional issues
• Integration into their learning experience
• In line with other professions
• Naivety amongst organisation & some
academics concerning benefits of codes of
conduct – that an ethical code makes an
unethical company ethical
McCusker, (1998)
“many in the criminal fraternity operate
under a self-regulated and strictly enforced
code of conduct. One would be unlikely to
conclude that the mafia for example was
an ethical organisation in consequence”
McCusker, (1998)
• “I cannot imagine any conditions which
could cause this ship to flounder. I cannot
conceive of any vital disaster happening to
this vessel”
• “I am amazed when I meet computer
professionals in business and industry or
even computer science teachers in
colleges and universities who fail to
recognise that their profession has social
and ethical consequences”
Terrell Ward Bynum (2003)