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Back to Outline 13 - Test-Driven Development. On to Outline 15 - Codes of Ethics, Revisited.

Summary

We consider ethical expectations of computerscientists.

Related Pages

Overview

• Ugly Code, Revisited.
• Professional Codes of Ethics.
• Comments From Students.
• Agile and Ethical.

Administrivia

Upcoming Work

• SaaSbook 9 for Friday.
• Reading Journal for Friday (due Thursday at 8pm)
  • Subject: Reading Journal for Class 15 (Your Name)
  • How does the description of Software Mainenance reflect your own expectations or experiences about such issues? What was familiar? What was surprising?
  • What is the most important thing you learned from Chapter 9, Software Maintenance (textbook or videos)?
  • What was the muddiest point from this week's material? Explain that idea in your own words as best you can.
  • These questions were inspired by the work of JLND.

Good Things to Do

Academic

• Town Hall, Tonight 7:30 pm JRC 101
• CS Extras Thursday (?)
• GCStuACM after CS Extra

Peer

• SGA Meeting tonight!

Ugly Code, Revisited

Professional Codes of Ethics

• Why?
• What?
• What else would you expect to see?
• Would you sign?
• How do we enforce?

Quotes

"I don't see anything morally wrong with accessing systems without permission - it's like trespassing in an abandoned house. Would ACM say Edward Snowden was malicious in his actions?"

"I really liked that the Code of ethics included the 8th principle, Self. It’s good to see that they are encouraging SW devs to continuously learn, change, grow, and become more than what they are currently. Also, the general moral imperatives of ACM’s code of ethics surprised me because it reminded me of the hippocratic oath. It’s really nice to see that they’re promoting people to be a nice person in general as well as an environmentally conscious person!"

"3.5 said to articulate and support policies that protect the dignity of users and others affected by a computing system, what happens if programmers are told otherwise by higher authority like the case of Apple and the government with privacy?"

"The ordering of some of the code of ethics principles was somewhat surprising at first. Before having read it, I would have assumed that the obligation to the client would be first, and the fact that the obligation to the profession comes before that of yourself seems somewhat odd to me."

"I was very positively surprised by how the Code of Ethics specifies developers' responsibilities when it comes to software whose malfunction is potentially catastrophic. It is very important that this is provided in the evolving field of software engineering."

Ethics and Agile

• How do they cohere?
• How do they differ?