Assignmen

Read the 3 Case Studies below and select ONE as the basis of your analysis and discussion. Indicate clearly which Case Study you have chosen

Case Study 3 - Copyright and Intellectual Property Considerations

Courtney is a young ambitious programmer working for a small company developing software for web-based services in the health area, with a focus on supporting remote aboriginal communities. To further her career Courtney undertakes additional tertiary study, with support from her manager Michael.

This study includes topics covering computer ethics, and issues related to the impact of ICT on different communities. On her current project, Courtney develops a new user interface, which has a strong focus on accessibility for remote communities, especially considering the type of technology likely to be used. She also pays special attention to the use of cultural images in the interface to avoid those which may be distressing or offensive to aboriginal users.

The new system is a great success and Courney's contribution is recognised by her company, through an Employee of the Month Award. The company also receives a national business award for its contribution to the positive use of ICT in aboriginal communities.

Michael takes all of the credit for this, and Courtney receives no acknowledgement for her efforts.

Discuss briefly the ethical issues related to this case. As a result of your discussion, you should be able to make some recommendations as to how this ethical problem may be resolved. Be sure to support any recommendations with reasons, informed by your research and thinking on the ethical issues identified in your discussion.

Case Study 8 - Conflict of Interest

Harshal works for the IT section of a very large Federal government department. His role is mostly database management and coding associated with that. He is always looking for ways to get ahead so on his own initiative he gained accreditation as a SFIA consultant even though the Department has not yet adopted it.

He receives a very interesting offer direct from Alice, the head of the IT Section. Alice wants him to submit a proposal to do a full SFIA analysis of the skills of all 10 staff in the IT Section's Business Analysis Unit as a pilot project for bringing SFIA into the whole Section. This is great news for Harshal because he has long been interested in moving into business analysis. The BA Unit has been considered a very successful unit for a long time, but for some reason it's profile has dropped considerably recently.

Harshal 's proposal is accepted by the IT Head very quickly and with almost no consultation with other staff. When Harshal meets John, the leader of the BA Unit, John immediately hands over a schedule of first interviews with most of the BA Unit staff. However he also passes across 2 documents which appear to be SFIA matrices already filled-out for John and Freda, one of the senior consultants. John explains that it won't be necessary for Harshal to interview either himself or Freda. He explains that he himself is too busy and that Freda has just come back from extended stress leave, so it's not really appropriate for her to be interviewed.

John is very welcoming and to Harshal 's surprise he adds that if his report is well-received, he will make sure that Harshal is short-listed for any upcoming positions in the Unit, should he be interested in applying for them.

Harshal is actually somewhat shocked by this because he did not know that John knew of his interest in joining the unit. He also now has a problem. How can he fulfil his responsibility to interview and document everyone in the Unit as agreed in the project brief?

Case Study 11 - Pico PC's Manufacturing Company

Pico PCs has decided to begin manufacturing tiny processors for use in the manufacture of wearable technology.

During manufacture, 64 gold wired, each much finer than a human hair, must be soldered from the chip to the pins of the processor. Robots were trialled for the soldering, but the error rate was unacceptable high. One single mistake in positioning a wire or soldering it, ruined the chip. The robots were also not only prohibitively expensive. But required frequent and expensive calibration.

Kushlani, the IT Production Manager was asked to carry out trials using human technicians for the work. The trials clearly demonstrated that humans had a much lower error rate and were less expensive than robots, but the technicians complained that constantly staring through a microscope at a brightly illuminated object gave them headaches and was harmful to their eyes.

She reported back to management that she believed the trial had failed.

The CEO was very disappointed, because he thought that the solution was good, and ‘worth a few headaches'. He asked Kushlani to get a professional medical opinion.

Kushlani discussed the issue with two senior doctors, who confirmed that this work could permanently damage a person's eyesight in as little as 5 months, and could lead to blindness in as little as 18 months.

The company's legal advisors confirmed that this was clearly in breach of the Work Health and Safety Act in Australia, so they could not go ahead. The CEO was really angry.

Next morning the CEO called Kushlani into his office. Kushlani was surprised to find him quite cheerful. The CEO said that he had discovered that there was an Island in the Pacific that does not have health and safety laws, and so it would be quite legal for people of that island to solder the processors. And, better still, they were willing to work for one tenth of the wages of Australians. He said that this was a ‘win win'.

What do you think that Kushlani should do?

Assignment Task

From what you have learned during your Professional Environments Course, discuss ethical, professional and legal issues which you consider arise from this scenario. Make some recommendations of actions which could be taken to resolve the situation and/or to minimise the chance the scenario may recur. Support your answers with relevant references (as well as the Codes and Laws).

Things to Consider in Your Assignment:

• You should list at least 3 values from the ACS Code of Ethics and up to 5 clauses from the ACS Code of Professional Conduct, you think are specifically relevant in deciding how to resolve the situation. Make sure that you refer to the most up to date ACS Codes which are available on the ACS website.

• You should also list any relevant Australian legislation that you think applies to this scenario.

• Your analysis, discussion and recommendations should use the framework you selected in Week 3 - Solving an Ethical Dilemma.

Your assignment should be 400 -500 words in length (excluding your code lists, legislation list and references).

You may need to undertake a small amount of research, however, most information you will need is available via the seminars and their references.