SWEN-559: Lesson: Code of Ethics
Purpose
This lesson will introduce students to the concept of Professional Codes of Ethics across many disciplines including software engineering. It will show the difference between software engineering codes of ethics and other professions and explain the impact they have on ethical dilemmas faced by software engineers.
Learning Outcomes
- Identify and understand common elements among popular software engineering codes of ethics
- Understand how codes of ethics are used in the medical and legal fields
- Understand the difference in structure & enforcement of codes of ethics between SE and non-SE codes of ethics
Lesson Content
- Overview of IEEE, ACM, and NSPE codes of ethics
- Explain what engineering societies are and why they exist
- Apply code of ethics concepts to case study
- Review alternative codes of ethics (from medical and legal professions) and discuss differences
Resources
Class Lecture
Exercises
Before-Class Exercises
This class will be a discussion based class. Students will be evaluated by their participation in the discussion and ability to show their understanding of the reading material under Resources section above. Before coming to class, you are required to complete the following (multi-part homework) which is to be submitted in one document. Be sure to identify each part as follows:
- Complete the assigned EFE (Textbook) reading and prepare a summary for each of the three codes of conducts covered and a comparison between them.
- Summaries should be 2-3 paragraphs in length.
- In your final comparison, identify which ethical issues are, and which are not, being addressed by these codes of ethics.
- Search for and collect general examples where AMA and ABA codes of conducts are being used in the context described below:
- Provide a summary of the situation in which a lawyer lost their license to practice.
- Provide a summary of the situation in which a medical doctor lost their license to practice.
- Note which items within the codes were violated for each example
- Add links to your sources below each summary.
- Prepare summary of Challenger Case Study covered in reading.
- Summary should be 1-2 paragraphs long and include independent research on what happened.
Rubric
In-class after lecture
After lecture portion of class, there will be a general class discussion based upon the following questions.
- How do the codes of ethics in our (Textbook) differ from codes of ethics used by doctors and lawyers?
- Given the case studies in (Textbook), do you think the codes of ethics discussed had significant impact on the outcome?
- Which code of ethics to you find most applicable to you and why?
Project Work
Refer to project deliverables on schedule
