CODES OF PRACTICE

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CODES OF PRACTICE
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Codes of Practice

• Topics
• 1. Professionalism Framework
• 2. Professional Certification, Licensing and
  Practice
• 3. Codes of Practice
• 4. Software Engineering Code of Ethics and
  Professional Practice
• 5. An Examination of Computer Ethics -The Killer
  Robot

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Codes of Practice

• 1. Professionalism Framework
•  
• INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION FOR INFORMATION
  PROCESSING
•  Harmonization of Professional Standards
• Drafted in 1998 by Ian Mitchell, FNZCS, Peter
  Juliff,, FACS and Joe Turner, FACM.

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Codes of Practice

• The Harmonization of Professional Standards
  document was produced in 1998 under the auspices
  of the International Federation for Information
  Processing (IFIP) 
• The document essentially defines a framework or
  meta model for a standard for professional
  practice
• The components for professionalism covered by the
  IFIP document are
• Ethics of professional practice,
• Established body of knowledge,
• Education and training,
• Professional experience,
• Best practice and proven methodologies and
• Maintenance of competence.

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Codes of Practice
Implications of International Harmonisation

• The benefits of internationally recognised
  standards are that
• The public is assured that safety or economically
  critical work is performed by competent
  individuals regardless of where in the world
  those persons gained their qualifications and
  experience.
• The client is assured that a person who meets
  such international standards is competent to
  carry out tasks in documented specific areas
  regardless of where the work is done or the
  output of the work is used (subject to
  recognition of issues of culture and locale).
• Professionals are assured that their
  qualifications if recognised in one country will
  be accepted in other countries without
  re-examination (except possibly for being
  up-to-date).
• Under GATS (the General Agreement on Trade in
  Services), trade in products developed by
  practitioners who meet this standard cannot be
  restricted on the grounds that the developers
  were not competent or used inadequate
  professional practices.
• Such standards will contribute to the attainment
  of a reputation for competence by the
  profession.The standards will facilitate the
  obtaining of work by individual practitioners in
  the international arena.

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Codes of Practice
2. Professional Certification, Licensing and
Practice

• A professional discipline, as well as being
  supported by a clearly defined body of knowledge
  and curricula for appropriate educational
  courses, needs also to have formally defined
  ethical polices and professional practices. 
• Also where such practices are to be regulated,
  the licensing or certification body will require
  that such policies and practices are formally
  defined. 
• Definitions, which are useful when considering
  the roles of government and professional
  societies with regard to these concepts, are
• Licensing is a mandatory process administered
  by a government authority.
• Certification is a voluntary process
  administered by a profession.

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Codes of Practice
3. Codes of Practice

• Examples of codes of practice are those produced
  for specific bodies such as
• The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
• The British Computer Society (BCS)
•  And international codes for a discipline such
  as
• Software Engineering Code of Ethics and
  Professional Practice 
• For details of former see ACM, BCS web sites -
•  ACM (Association for Computer Machinery)
• Web site at http//www.computer.org
• BCS (British Computer Society)
• Web site at http//www.bcs.org.uk
• For the latter see
• http//.computer.org/tab/seprof/code.htm,
• http//.computer.org/tab/sweec/code.htd, or
• http//.computer.org/tab/sweec/SWCEPP

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Codes of Practice
4. Software Engineering Code of Ethics and
Professional Practice

• An IEEE-CS/ACM Co-ordinating Committee known as
  SWECC (Software Engineering Co-ordinating
  Committee) was responsible for the creation of a
  joint task force on Software Engineering Ethics
  and Professional Practice (SEEPP). This task
  force, under the chairmanship of Donald
  Gotterbarn of East Tennessee State University,
  has developed the Software Engineering Code of
  Ethics and Professional Practice.
•  The code is available in two forms a short
  version which summarises aspirations at a high
  level of abstraction and a full version which
  includes additional clauses. The latter provide
  examples and details of how the aspirations of
  the code should change the way persons act as SE
  professionals.

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Codes of Practice
4. Software Engineering Code of Ethics and
Professional Practice

• The code is available for public comment on the
  web and as at November 1999 was published as
  Version 5.2. In this version the eight principles
  laid out in the short code are
• 1. PUBLIC - Software engineers shall act
  consistently with the public interest.
• 2. CLIENT AND EMPLOYER - Software engineers shall
  act in a manner that is in the best interests of
  their client and employer consistent with the
  public interest.
• 3. PRODUCT - Software engineers shall ensure that
  their products and related modifications meet the
  highest professional standards possible.
• 4. JUDGMENT - Software engineers shall maintain
  integrity and independence in their professional
  judgement.

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Codes of Practice
4. Software Engineering Code of Ethics and
Professional Practice

• The code (continued)
• 5. MANAGEMENT - Software engineering managers and
  leaders shall subscribe to and promote an ethical
  approach to the management of software
  development and maintenance.
• 6. PROFESSION - Software engineers shall advance
  the integrity and reputation of the profession
  consistent with the public interest.
• 7. COLLEAGUES - Software engineers shall be fair
  to and supportive of their colleagues.
• 8. SELF - Software engineers shall participate in
  lifelong learning regarding the practice of their
  profession and shall promote an ethical approach
  to the practice of the profession.

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Codes of Practice
4. Software Engineering Code of Ethics and
Professional Practice

• The task force that developed the code consisted
  of a three-person Executive Committee and a
  general membership of 22 members. It is
  interesting to note that the senior academics who
  formed the Executive Committee included one from
  the UK who is also listed as representing the
  British Computer Society. The general membership
  is also international and I know that many of
  them are active members in computer ethics
  organisations within their own countries and are
  also actively involved with international
  conferences concerned with computer ethics such
  as the Ethicomp Series

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Codes of Practice
5. An Examination of Computer Ethics -The Killer
Robot

• Don Gotterbarn, who led the development of the
  Software Engineering Code of Ethics and
  Professional Practice believes that elements of
  computer ethics should permeate all parts of any
  computing course/programme. A way of achieving
  this is to use case studies and exercises that
  have an ethical dimension to them. 
• Also, discussions can be generated by considering
  scenarios which involve ethical questions related
  to computing. Such as those detailed by Duncan
  Langford in his 1996 article Can A Software
  Engineer Afford to be Ethical?
• The article first appeared in the proceedings of
  the conference, Professional Awareness in
  Software Engineering, PASE'96, London 1-2
  February, 1996, pp160-168.
• The papers were first published in the
  proceedings produced by University of Westminster
  (1996)
• The conference papers were later published as
  edited chapters in the text Myers C., Hall T.
  and Pitt D, (Eds.), (1997), The Responsible
  Software Engineer, London, Springer-Verlag.

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Codes of Practice
Killer Robot Case Study

• The Case of The Killer Robot is a fictitious
  case study devised by Richard G, Eptein. 
• Full details of the case study can be found in
• Epstein RAG. (1997), The Case of the Killer
  Robot, New York, John Wiley and Sons. 
• We will use an abridged version which is freely
  available on the Web
• (e.g. at http/ricis.cl.uh.edu/FASE/Killer-Robot.h
  tml)

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Codes of Practice
Killer Robot Case Study

• The case study used consists of seven newspaper
  articles, one journal article and one magazine
  interview. 
• It centres around the situation where Bart
  Matthews, a robot operator at Cybernetics, Inc.,
  is killed by an assembly line robot- the Robbie
  CX30 produced by a company Silicon Technologies,
  Inc. 
• The case is first made that the cause of the
  accident was poor quality software produced by a
  programmer at Silicon Technologies called Randy
  Samuels. 
• However, as the case study progresses it becomes
  more obvious that there are many other people who
  could be held fully or partly responsible.

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Codes of Practice
Killer Robot Case Study

• You will be / have been divided into teams
  (typically of 3 to 6 students per team) and given
  copies of the case study and a code of Ethics.
• Each team will be associated with a particular
  character from the case study and the teams then
  have time to study the materials issued.

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Codes of Practice
Killer Robot Trial/Congressional Enquiry

• Team Activity
• One member of each team must present the case for
  their character being held responsible (the
  prosecution case) and another team member must
  present the opposing view (the case for the
  defence). Other members of the team should align
  themselves for the prosecution and the defence.
• Note - You are acting for or against the
  character (you are NOT the character) therefore
  as any competent advocate would you need to
  produce the best arguments for your "client" no
  matter what your personal views are.
• Class Activity
• After both presentations there is a short time
  for questions from the class and the prosecution
  team and the defence. Finally, once both sets of
  questions regarding the character have been
  completed the relative guilt or innocence of the
  character will be voted on by the class.

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Codes of Practice
Killer Robot Trial/Congressional Enquiry

• Your Character is
• Running order

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Codes of Practice
Killer Robot Trial/Congressional Enquiry

• "Killer" Characters
• Blame No Blame
• 5 4 3 2 1 0 1 2
  3 4 5

Randy Samuels
Sam Reynolds
Michael Waterson 
Cindy Yardly
Bart Matthews