Issue with Ethics
11 May 2022Issues
During my ICS314 Software Engineering class at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, we learned about Issue Driven Project Management. Issue Driven Project Management is a method of managing a project that allows the group to develop concrete issues that may pop up during the lifespan of the project, quickly highlighting problems to the entire group. When an issue arises, someone in the project may log it down and even assign it to themselves to solve it.
Although we may have used it in our final project during the process of developing a web application, this type of project management can be utilized in almost any type of project. Even if the project were an arts and crafts project that only took an hour, the crafter may find that they need to buy more glue, or lack the proper grit sandpaper, or even that they need to redo the craft because of a faulty base. These are all issues that can be logged down and solved.
The purpose of Issue Driven Project Management is that it is flexible and quick. Once an issue arises, it can be solved by anyone in the group. I plan on utilizing this type of project management in future projects, not just coding related.
Ethics
“Moral principles that govern a person’s behavior or the conducting of an activity.” As software engineers, we develop applications in order to propagate good in the world; however, there are always ways for technology to be exploited for malicious intent. The Association for Computing Machinery has drafted a ‘Code of Ethics’ in order to enforce responsible dissemination of code in order to consistently support the public good.
To summarize, the code emphasizes that computing professionals should have a benefit for society, the people in it, and the environment. Professionals should be transparent, treat everyone fairly, and respect privacy. Then the code talks about the technical aspects a computing professional should think about, but I will not be going into that. Before reading this, I never thought about the implications of widespread technology and the impact that it could have on our society.
Scams are bad
Evaldas Rimaskauskas set up a phishing scam that duped huge companies out of over $100 million. Phishing is an attack whereby the attacker pretends to be a trusted company or identity and tricks a victim into opening an email, allowing the attack to steal crucial data such as login credentials and credit card numbers. Evaldas had a fake company where he served as the sole member of the board of directors and sent emails to employees at Facebook and Google, masquerading as invoices, prompting big companies to payout millions of dollars at a time.
Our Role as Computing Professionals
Technology has propagated the welfare of mankind but a bright light always casts a dark shadow. As computing professionals, we need to be vigilant in ensuring that our technology does not harm others, treat others unfairly, or take advantage of anyone especially in the age of global communication.