Discuss about the ICT Ethics Practice and Ethical Principles.
This report is aimed at highlighting the ethical aspects of the case study involving the development of tax payment software. The case study demonstrates a specific circumstance under which the president of an IT organization releases once such version of tax calculation software that contains several bugs. The customers who utilized the software were penalized by the ATO for filling wrong amount of the taxes.
The following sections of the report would shed some light on the case study itself, before moving forward towards the ethical dilemma that the president of the software organization face at present. The appropriate ethical response of the president would also be highlighted, taking into consideration both the consequences, application of , ethical principles and that of the “typical response of a caring person”. Attempts would be made to identify the norms of ACS codes of conduct that are applicable at this particular scenario, besides finding defensive arguments on the behalf of the decision taken by the president and providing proper advices to him.
The present situation of the software organization is indeed quite critical: the president of the organization was well aware of the fact that the software package contains certain bugs that would invariably lead to the wrong calculation of taxes. On the other hand, he firmly believes in the fact that the first organization that releases such a product in the market would be the one to capture a large section of the same. However, fixing all the bugs present in the software package would indeed require considerable amount of time, thus postponing the release date of the software. Postponing the release date would indeed allow the organization to provide a flawless package to the target customers: however, in case any other firm releases a similar package within the said time frame, the organization would be affected economically.
The president has thus to release the faulty software, thus gaining popularity in the market and temporarily avoiding any economic loss of the organization. However, in this case, the customers might lodge complaints against the organization when they are penalized by the government departments for incorrect tax filling. The organization would indeed face loss of reputation, besides facing large amounts of fines for professional negligence.
Thus, ethical dilemma that the president currently faces is that he has to chose between the benefits of the customer (and the reputation of the firm) and the economic stability of the organization, along with being the market leader in the domain of tax calculation software.
It is evident from the discussion made in the section above, that in case the president instructs the software development team to get rid of the bugs, any other firm might release a similar package and capture the market.
On the other hand, if the president decides to release the faulty software package, the consequences would be none less damaging. The user who utilize the software, without having any idea that the same would perform wrong calculation, would be penalized by the government for the incorrect filling of taxes. These customers would indeed lodge complaint against the firm, thus resulting in loss of reputation of the organization.
Such being the consequences, the most appropriate and ethical response of the president should have been to make a bet aversion of the software available at their website, thus allowing the interested customers to utilize the package free of cost and report the errors found. This particular strategy would not only allow the firm to identify the bugs and get to rid of them, within a short frame of time, but also advertise their product well before releasing the same in the market (Kruk, 2013).
The primary principles of ethics include the following ( Broad, 2014):
“Respecting autonomy”
“Doing no harm or nonmaleficence”
“Benefiting others or beneficence”
“Being just or justice”
“Being faithful or fidelity”
While considering the above mentioned principles, the most ethical decision that the president could have taken was to not release the software , after being aware of the fact that it contains non-identified flaws. This decision would have not only benefitted the customers, but would have been far less harmful for them (thus adhering to nonmaleficence, beneficence, and justice). The organization would have also remained faithful to their target customers (thus adhering to the principle of fidelity).
In the scenario under consideration, following would have been the duties of the president:
Decide to not sale the faulty product to the customers.
Instruct the software development team to identify the bugs (Lindley et al. 2013).
Find appropriate methods for sharing a beta version of the software with the target customers and involve them in the testing and debugging process.
According to the typical response of a caring person, following are the ethical responses that the president of the software firm could have taken:
Attentiveness: The president should have been more attentive towards the entire situation, thus weighing the options available to him (Burmeister et al. 2014).
Responsibility: Not releasing the faulty software indeed increases the chances of other organizations releasing similar software in the market in the meantime. This in turn, would possibly lead to the financial losses of the organization. However, the president could have taken the responsibility of finding alternative methods of avoiding the financial losses to the organization, and not release the faulty software.
Competence: The president should have exhibited his competence by taking the moral and ethical decision of not releasing faulty software in market.
Responsiveness: The president should have been much more responsive to the issues that the organization might experience in the future and thus considered the task of retaining the reputation of organization to be more important than that of gaining economic benefits temporarily (Stoodley, Bruce & Edwards, 2013).
In the following section of the report highlights the ethical requirements, as included in the ACS Code of Professional Conduct, that are applicable in the case study under consideration:
The Primacy of the Public Interest:
Requirement a: The identification of all those who would be affected by the release of the faulty software was essential (Acs.org.au, 2017).
Requirement b: The software firm should have indeed made their customers aware of the faults of the software, along with the probable consequences of using the same for filing taxes.
The Enhancement of Quality of Life
Requirement c: The president of the software firm should have considered the outcomes of releasing the faulty software from the perspective of the customers who would file wrong tax amounts (by using the said program) and be penalized (Stoodley, Bruce & Edwards, 2013).
Honesty
Requirement b: The president of the software firm should not have deceived their target customers by selling a faulty piece of software (Acs.org.au, 2017).
Competence
Requirement a: The software package should have been released in market only after ensuring that it meets all the operational functionalities of tax calculations.
Requirement e: The customers should have been informed of the fact that the software contains certain bugs and might results in incorrect tax calculations.
Professional Development
Requirement b: The president of the software firm should have been aware of the fact that releasing the faulty software would indeed affect the relationship with their existing and potential customers (Acs.org.au, 2017).
Requirement c: The president of the software firm should have encouraged the software development team to conduct the debugging process before releasing it in the market.
Professionalism
Requirement f: The president of the software firm should not released the faulty product in the market, thereby deceiving them (Acs.org.au, 2017).
As mentioned in the case study, a “disclaimer of responsibility for errors” was included in each of the software CDs that were shipped to the client.
Thu it can be said in the defense of the president of the software firm that he was ready to bear the consequences in case the customers face any penalty due to the errors made by the software.
Conclusion:
The preceding sections of the repot contain detailed information regarding the ethical dilemmas experienced by the president of the software organization. In the light of the responses discussed in sections 3, 4 and 5 of the report, the following advices are being made to the president of the said firm:
The faulty software should not be released in public, as it would only lead to the harassment of the customers and the loss of reputation of the organization.
The participation of the target clients in the debugging process should be encouraged. This would not only speed up the process of identifying the faults included in the project, but would also act as a marketing strategy for the product.
Acs.org.au,.(2017). Retrieved 4 January 2017, from https://www.acs.org.au/content/dam/acs/acs-documents/ACS%20Code-of-Professional-Conduct_v2.1.pdf
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