"Three case pairs- Isomorphic ethical issues in safety critical and non-safety critical systems." By Don Gotterbarn.
Each case pair has one safety critical and one non-safety critical description. Each story raises significant computer ethics issues even though the second element in the pair does not involve safety issues. Even with a minimal description, a student should be able to identify the ethical issues.
A computer company is writing the first stage of a more efficient accounting system which will be used by the government and will save taxpayers a considerable amount of money. A software engineer is asked to design a user interface for the system. The accounting system and the interface contain all of the functionality described in the requirements—all of the required data is accessible somewhere in the system. The system is installed. Users find that data which would normally go together is distributed over multiple screens and does not fit their work organization. Because the user interface is so hard to use the staff complaints upper level management. Because of these complaints, upper level management will not invest any more money in the development of accounting system and they go back to their original system. Management will not change from the original system which is inefficient and still cause taxpayers more money than is necessary.
A computer company wrote a radar system for ships which identifies incoming aircraft as friend or foe. A software engineer developed a user interface which will display needed information. This information can be used to determine if defensive action is necessary. The radar system and the interface contains all of the functionality described in the requirements. Although all the information required was displayed, it was not displayed in a way that was adequate for the users to distinguish a military attack plane from a commercial airliner in a timely fashion in a crisis situation. This contributed to the loss of many lives.
A computer company wrote a very complex system for a national bank. The system manages local checking accounts, saving accounts and loans. It also manages the bank's national and international fund manipulations. The system is installed in all of the bank's branches. The system's effectiveness is partially responsible for the bank's success despite the failure of many similar banks. The bank becomes aware of some things it can do that will better protect it from the threat of lower profits. They request that the computer company make immediate modifications to this system and deliver it within a week. The software engineering department decides to do the work.
A computer company wrote a very complex system for an anti-missile missile. The system is being used successfully to shoot down incoming missiles in a current military action. The military determines that the anti-missile missile would be more effective if it shot down incoming missiles while they were further away. They ask the computer company to make immediate modifications to the system and deliver it within a week. The software engineering department decides to do the work.
A computer company is working on a integrated control system for a national shoe manufacturer. The system will gather sales information daily from shoe stores nationwide. This information will be used by the accounting, shipping, and ordering departments to control all of the functions of this large corporation. A quality assurance software engineer suspects that the auditing functions of the system are not sufficiently tested, although they have passed all its contracted test suites. She is being pressured by her employers to sign off on the software. Her employers say they will go out of business if they do not deliver the software on time. She signs off.
A computer company is working on an experimental fighter. A quality control software engineer suspects that the flight control software is not sufficiently tested, although it has (finally) passed all its contracted test suites. She is being pressured by her employers to sign off on the software. Her employers say they will go out of business if they do not deliver the software on time. She signs off. (This case adapted from McFarland in the May, 1990 IEEE Computer).
Use the Code of Ethics to Identify Professional Ethical Issues.
Read the ACM Code of Ethics and Guidelines for Professional Conduct or the Software Engineering Code of Ethics and Professional Practice. Then read the article on the three case pairs. After you have read and thought about these, write a two page paper identifying the computer ethics issues in each of the case pairs.
For each pair of cases 1) identify the ethical issues in them with reference to the Code of Ethic you read, 2) say whether there is any difference between the causes of the issues in the safety critical case and the non-safety critical case. For each pair say 3) whether you think the penalties should be different for the people who caused the safety critical problem and those who caused the non-safety critical problem.