Software Engineering 2

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Software Engineering 2

• Software and Society

Mark J. Christensen
Presented by Feras Batarseh
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Importance of Software

• Pure Software pharmacy.
• Software controlled products braking
• system.
• People earn a living from building
• software.

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Software by itself

• The world cannot function as it does,
• Without software.
• BUT SW does nothing except moving
• electrons from one computer to another.
• Like all eng. Activities it derives importance
• from the world.

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Software by itself 2

• SW is the Key enabler, but not the
• final effecter.
• Ex. Decision making.

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Software Importance

• SW importance depends on the
• number of
• -Individuals.
• -Entities that are involved in the
• process.
• -Size of the business.

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Software impact

• Software industry and impact are not
• isolated to one part of the world.
• SW development and research centers
• all around the world, with people,
• Governments and companies involved
• in the process.

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My opinion

• Software is still limited to a number of
• places in the world, there is a lot of places
• that software didnt reach yet!
• GUI is a major factor in spreading PCs
• around the world, if the user interface
• wasnt that friendly, just the specialists
• would use the computers.

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Success is avoiding failure

• Knowing what doesnt work and Past SW
• failures, helps us avoid repeating mistakes.
• Expect any un expected behavior from the
• SW if not build on scientific and technical
• knowledge.

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Code of Conduct

• Short version and Long version.
• Describes the relation for SW engineer
• with the surrounding
• 1-Society
• 2-employer
• 3-work activities and products
• 4-SW engineering profession

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Code of Conduct 2

• Engineer is asked to balance between the
• different sides of the code, as they may
• conflict sometimes.
• Ex
• Faithfulness to the public and to the
• employer.

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Code of Conduct 3

• Short version with 8 points.
• Long version with 6 to 15 sub points
• for the 8 points.
• Available at the IEEE CS and ACM
• websites.

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Law Issues

• 80 of individuals working for licensed
• companies are not licensed!
• They can still work but cannot take
• major decisions.

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Law Issues 2

• British and American courts developed rules
• for such cases.
• Plaintiff must present expert testimony to
• proof the deviation from the standards from
• the defendant engineer.
• Or proof the design criteria that the product
• didnt meet to sue the manufacturer.

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Engineer against Manufacturer

• The engineer doesnt guarantee the results,
• his only responsibility is to work in
• accordance to the standards .
• The manufacturer must provide a non
• defected product and is responsible for the
• results.

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Example

• You are transferred into a new work unit,
• although their work is legal, you concluded
• that its not for the public good.
• What do you do?
• 1-Leave the job.
• 2-Continue to work in the business with your best
• effort.
• 3-Continue to work and complain to your
• colleagues and friends about it.

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Example cont.

• 1-you left your job, didnt benefit your society
• or your company or even your self.
• 2-continue your work!
• You are harming your society.
• 3-you are dragging down your colleagues
• morale.
• In all the cases you are violating the code!

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Example cont.

• In such cases you should balance your
• action, and do it with your best of
• honesty and professionalism.
• By respecting your colleagues
• judgments, the society and your
• employer.

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My opinion

• In my opinion, I think the software
• engineer must contact his employer,
• to discuss about making the society a
• priority, without harming the profit of
• the company.

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Colleagues

• Respect your colleagues.
• Two main problems (occur frequently)
• Immaturity.
• Technical Arrogance.

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IEEE

• IEEE provided standards for working in SW
• engineering threw all the stages like
• -IEEE standard for software test
• documentation.
• -IEEE standard for software Maintenance.
• -IEEE standard for software Unit testing
• -IEEE standard for software verification and
• validation.
• -IEEE standard for software safety plans.

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Codes are not Magic

• Many professions had codes for decades,
• but problems still occur.
• Ex
• Doctors make surgical mistakes.
• Structural engineers design bridges that fail
  during storms.
• So Codes must provide guidance about
• what should be done.

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Much to do

• Average user of software is still expecting a
  great
• deal of bugs, failures!!
• Does that mean that we failed?
• NO!
• Even if the underlying science is well known,
• a great deal of work is needed to apply it to
• domain of engineering.
• That is the case with all engineering
  disciplines.

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• Thank you.