1.    What is professional ethics?

 

It is a field of applied ethics concerned with moral issues that affect computer professionals.

 

 

2.    Who is a computer professional?

 

A computer professional is one who recognize his or her obligation to society by living up to established and accepted codes of conduct.

 

 

3.    Do computer professionals have special responsibilities that ordinary computer users do not have? If so, what are some of those special responsibilities?

 

Yes, they do have special responsibilities because they have the capability to do good or cause harm to other people. They can also enable or influence other people to do those things. They have the skills and talent to make something that can change the world.

 

 

4.    Why is it useful to limit our discussion of moral issues affecting computer professionals to issues affecting software engineers and engineering teams, computer science instructors, and IT support professionals, as opposed to professionals such as lawyers and accountants who also use computers and who may work for computer corporations?

Computer professionals have different responsibilities and line of work compared to other professionals who only use computers. Computer professionals have moral issues concerning with the creation of things that might influence people who uses it.

 

5.    How do Gotterbarn, Miller, and Rogerson propose that we define the profession of software engineering? Who is included in a software engineering team?

The profession of software engineering should be defined as those who can contribute to the analysis, specification, design, development, certification, maintenance, and testing of software systems. In a software engineering team, there should be a software engineer, software analysts, software managers, etc.

 

6.    What are professional codes of ethics and what are the functions that this code serves?

These are codes or guidelines that of which are followed by people practicing computer professionalism. This is used to help others to follow the right path to be disciplined and morally equal to others.

 

 

 

7.    List some of the benefits of professional code of ethics. Describe some of the criticisms of these codes have.

 

These professional code of ethics are made to inspire, guide, educate, and discipline other members. One criticism is from Ben Fairweather, he believes that codes of conduct have been influenced by a conception of computer and information ethics that is limited to four traditional areas of concern: privacy, accuracy, property, and accessibility.

 

 

8.    Why does John Ladd believe that professional codes of ethics rest on a series of errors that are both intellectual and moral? Describe the arguments that he uses to provide his position.

 

John Ladd insists that ethics is basically an “open ended reflective, and critical intellectual activity’. He also thinks that it is a confusion of micro ethics, and that attaching procedures and sanctions to codes effectively turns them into legal rules or authoritative rules of conduct rather than ethical rules.

 

9.    Explain Don Gotterbarn’s three-fold distinction: codes of ethics, codes of conduct and codes of practice. Do Gotterbarn’s distinctions help to eliminate any of the criticisms that have been raised against professional codes?

 

·         Code of ethics  they serve as a mission statement for the profession and can provide vision and objectives. 

• Code of conduct addresses profession and professional behavior and attitude
• Code of practice refers to the operational activities within a profession

 

10.  How does IEEE-CS/ACM Software engineering code of ethics and Professional practice (SECEPP) improve on earlier professional codes?

 

It is a balance about all the information concerning ethical and moral issues, and it answers the criticisms on the earlier version.

 

 

11.  Do computer professionals have a presumed, or prima facie, obligation to loyalty to their employers? Explain.

 

Yes, because they have the obligation to be loyal to their employers as soon as they are hired. It is somehow part of their contract to do so.

 

 

 

12.  Describe the arguments by Ronald Duska and John Ladd regarding employee loyalty.

 

Both Ronald Duska’s and John Ladd’s arguments about employee loyalty are almost the same. They say that loyalty is sometimes fueled by mutual enrichment.

 

 

13.  What, exactly, is whistle blowing? According to Michael Martin, what are the three general approaches that have been taken in the analysis of whistle-blowing cases?

 

 

Whistle blowing is an act of a person to get public attention.

 

·         Condemned as an action taken by disloyal troublemakers who on their companies and undermine teamwork based on the hierarchy of authority within the corporation.

 

·         Tragedy to be avoided

 

·         Affirmed unequivocally as an obligation that is paramount in certain circumstances where it overrides all other considerations, whatever the sacrifice involved in meeting it.

 

14.  Describe Richard De George’s criteria for determining when one is required to blow the whistle as opposed to when one is permitted to do so. Are De George’s criteria useful in making this distinction? Explain.

 

When one is required to blow the whistle it must be:

 

·         There are strong evidences that making the information public will in fact prevent the threatened serious harm.

·         Employees have documented evidence that would convince a reasonable, impartial observer that his/her view of the situation is correct and the company policy is wrong.

 

When one is permitted to blow the whistle it must be:

 

·         The harm that will be done by the product to the public is serious and considerable

·         The engineers have made their concerns known to their superiors

 

 

 

15.  In which ways do Gene James and Kenneth Alpern disagree with De George’s model for whistle-blowing?

 

They are saying that it is too lenient and if it concerns the public, whistle blowing would be accepted. 

 

 

16.  Describe John Ladd’s argument in defense of De George’s position on whistle-blowing.

 

John Ladd consents that it is acceptable to whistle blow that requires engineers to blow the whistle in non-extra ordinary cases can be undesirable from an ethical point of view because it demands that these individuals be moral heroes.

 

 

 

17.  Why does Helen Nissenbaum believe that the notion of accountability has been systematically undetermined in the computer age? How does she distinguish between accountability and responsibility?

 

She believes that accountability is a broader concept than responsibility. Responsibility is only a part of accountability.

 

 

18.  What does Nissenbaum mean by “the problem of many hands” in a computing context?

 

It means that in a computing context, there is a wide range of people accountable for a lot of things. If a something bad happens, it would be difficult to determine who is the actual person accountable for the thing that happened.

 

 

19.  Why does Nissenbaum believe that it is important to distinguish between moral accountability and legal liability?

 

It is important because moral accountability and legal liability are different from each other. In a computer context, they weigh different from each one.

 

 

20.  According to Don Gotternbarn, what is required for a model of risk analysis to be adequate in the software development process for safety-critical systems?

 

It is required to withstand the two defects in the current models which are the overly narrow conception of risk and the limited notion of system stakeholders.