Ethics in Information

Technology

Module 7: Software Development

Prepared by:

Engr. Frederick Von A. Ibasco, MSIT

Assistant Professor
 Objectives

• As you read this chapter, consider the following

questions:
– Why do companies require high-quality software in
business systems, industrial process control
systems, and consumer products?
– What potential ethical issues do software
manufacturers face in making trade-offs between
project schedules, project costs, and software
quality?
– What are the four most common types of software
product liability claims?
Ethics in Information Technology, Fourth Edition 2
 Objectives (cont’d.)
– What are the essential components of a software
development methodology, and what are the
benefits of using such a methodology?
– How can the Capability Maturity Model Integration
improve an organization’s software development
process?
– What is a safety-critical system, and what special
actions are required during its development?

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 – Systems software includes the operating system
and all the utilities that enable the computer to
function.
– Applications software includes programs that do
real work for users. For example, word processors,
spreadsheets, and database management systems
fall under the category of applications software.
– Computer software (often called just software) is a
set of instructions and associated documentation
that tells a computer what to do or how to perform a
task or it can mean all the software on a computer,
including the applications and the operating system.
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 – Software development is the process of
conceiving, specifying, designing, programming,
documenting, testing, and bug fixing involved in
creating and maintaining applications, frameworks,
or other software components.

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 Software Examples Program?
Firefox, Google
Internet browser Chrome, Internet Yes
Explorer
VLC, Windows Media
Movie player Yes
Player
Android, iOS, Linux,
Operating system No
macOS, Windows
Photo / Graphics Adobe PhotoShop,
Yes
program CorelDRAW

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 Strategies for Engineering
Quality Software
• High-quality software systems:
– Perform quickly and efficiently
– Operate safely and reliably
– Meet their users’ needs
– Are required to support the fields of:
• Air traffic control
• Nuclear power
• Automobile safety
• Health care
• Military and defense
• Space exploration
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 Strategies for Engineering
Quality Software (cont’d.)
• Increased demand for high-quality software
• Software defect
– Could cause a system to fail to meet users’ needs
– Impact may be trivial or very serious
– Subtle and undetectable or glaringly obvious
• Software quality
– Degree to which software meets the needs of users

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 Strategies for Engineering
Quality Software (cont’d.)
• Quality management
– Defines, measures, and refines the quality of the
development process and products developed
– Objective
• Help developers deliver high-quality systems that
meet the needs of users
• Deliverables are products such as:
– Statements of requirements
– Flowcharts
– User documentation

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 Strategies for Engineering
Quality Software (cont’d.)
• Primary cause for poor software quality:
– Many developers do not know how to design quality
into software from the start
– Or do not take the time to do so
• Developers must:
– Define and follow rigorous engineering principles
– Learn from past mistakes
– Understand systems’ operating environment
– Design systems relatively immune to human error

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 Strategies for Engineering
Quality Software (cont’d.)
• Programmers make mistakes in turning design
specifications into code
– About one defect for every 7-10 lines of code
• Extreme pressure to reduce time to market
– Driven by need to:
• Deliver new functionality
• Begin generating revenue to recover costs
• Meet quarterly earnings forecasts
– Resources and time to ensure quality are often cut

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 Strategies for Engineering
Quality Software (cont’d.)
• Ethical dilemma: how much additional cost and
effort should be expended to ensure products and
services meet customers’ expectations?
• First release of software
– Organizations avoid buying the first release
– Or prohibit its use in critical systems
– Usually has many defects
• Established software products can also falter:
– When operating conditions change

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 The Importance of Software Quality

• Business information systems

– Set of interrelated components including:
• Hardware
• Software
• Databases
• Networks
• People
• Procedures
– Collect and process data and disseminate the output

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 The Importance of Software Quality
(cont’d.)
• Business information system examples
– Manufacturer’s order-processing system
– Bank’s electronic-funds transfer system
– Airline’s online ticket reservation system
• Decision support system (DSS)
– Used to improve decision making
• Software is used to control industrial processes
• Software controls the operation of many industrial
and consumer products

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 The Importance of Software Quality
(cont’d.)
• Mismanaged software can be fatal to a business
• Ethical questions
– How much effort and money to invest to ensure
high-quality software
– Whether products could cause damage and what the
legal exposure would be if they did

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 Software Product Liability

• Product liability
– Liability of manufacturers, sellers, lessors, and
others for injuries caused by defective products
– There is no federal product liability law
• Mainly state law
• Article 2 of the Uniform Commercial Code
• Strict liability
– Defendant held responsible for the injury
– Regardless of negligence or intent

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 Software Product Liability (cont’d.)

• Strict liability
– Plaintiff (claimant) must prove only that the software
product is defective or unreasonably dangerous and
that the defect caused the injury
– No requirement to prove that the manufacturer was
careless or negligent or to prove who caused the
defect
– All parties in the chain of distribution are liable
• Manufacturer
• Subcontractors
• Distributors
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 Software Product Liability (cont’d.)

• Legal defenses used against strict liability

– Doctrine of supervening event
– Government contractor defense
– Expired statute of limitations
• Negligence
– Failure to do what a reasonable person would do, or
doing something that a reasonable person would not
do
– Responsibility is limited to defects that could have
been detected and corrected through “reasonable”
software development practices
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 Software Product Liability (cont’d.)

• Negligence
– Area of great risk for software manufacturers
– Defense of negligence may include:
• Legal justification for the alleged misconduct
• Demonstration that the plaintiffs’ own actions
contributed to injuries (contributory negligence)

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 Software Product Liability (cont’d.)

• Warranty
– Assures buyers or lessees that a product meets
certain standards of quality
– May be expressly stated or implied by law
• Breach of warranty claim
– When the product fails to meet the terms of its
warranty
– Plaintiff must have a valid contract that the supplier
did not fulfill
– Can be extremely difficult to prove because the
software supplier writes the warranty to limit liability
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 Software Product Liability (cont’d.)

• Intentional misrepresentation
– Seller or lessor either misrepresents the quality of a
product or conceals a defect in it
– Forms of representation
• Advertising
• Salespersons’ comments
• Invoices
• Shipping labels

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 Software Development Process

• Large software project roles

– System analysts
– Programmers
– Architects
– Database specialists
– Project managers
– Documentation specialists
– Trainers
– Testers

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 Software Development Process
(cont’d.)
• Software development methodology
– Standard, proven work process
– Controlled and orderly progress
– Defines activities in software development process
– Defines individual and group responsibilities
– Recommends specific techniques for activities
– Offers guidelines for managing the quality of
software during various stages of development

Ethics in Information Technology, Fourth Edition 23

 Software Development Process
(cont’d.)
• Easier and cheaper to avoid software problems at
the beginning than to attempt to fix damages after
the fact
– Cost to identify and remove a defect in an early
stage can be up to 100 times less than removing a
defect in distributed software
– Identify and remove errors early in the development
process
• Cost-saving measure
• Most efficient way to improve software quality

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 Software Development Process
(cont’d.)
• Effective methodology protects from legal liability
– Reduces the number of software errors
– If an organization follows widely accepted
development methods, negligence on its part is
harder to prove
• Software quality assurance (QA) refers to methods
within the development cycle
– Guarantee reliable operation of product
– Are applied at each stage in the development cycle
– Include testing before the product ships

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 Software Development Process
(cont’d.)
• Dynamic testing
– Black-box testing
• Tester has no knowledge of code
– White-box testing
• Testing all possible logic paths in the software unit,
with thorough knowledge of the logic
• Makes each program statement execute at least once

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 Software Development Process
(cont’d.)
• Static testing
– Static analyzers are run against the new code
– Looks for suspicious patterns in programs that might
indicate a defect
• Integration testing
– Occurs after successful unit testing
– Software units are combined into an integrated
subsystem
– Ensures that all linkages among various subsystems
work successfully

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 Software Development Process
(cont’d.)
• System testing
– Occurs after successful integration testing
– Various subsystems are combined
– Tests the entire system as a complete entity
• User acceptance testing
– Independent testing performed by trained end users
– Ensures that the system operates as they expect

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 Capability Maturity Model Integration

• Process improvement approach

• Defined by the Software Engineering Institute
– At Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh
• Defines essential elements of effective processes
• General enough to evaluate and improve almost
any process
• Frequently used to assess software development
practices

Ethics in Information Technology, Fourth Edition 29

 Capability Maturity Model Integration
(cont’d.)
• Defines five levels of software development
maturity
• Identifies issues most critical to software quality
and process improvement
• Organization conducts an assessment of its
software development practices
– Determines where they fit in the capability model
– Identifies areas for improvement
• Action plans defined to upgrade the development
process

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 Capability Maturity Model Integration
(cont’d.)
• Maturity level increases
– Organization improves its ability to deliver good
software on time and on budget
• CMMI-Development
– Set of guidelines for 22 process areas related to
systems development
– Organizations that do these 22 things well will have
an outstanding software development and
maintenance process

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 Capability Maturity Model Integration
(cont’d.)

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 Key Issues in Software Development

• Consequences of software defects in certain

systems can be deadly
– Companies must take special precautions
• Ethical decisions involve a trade-off between
quality and cost, ease of use, and time to market

Ethics in Information Technology, Fourth Edition 33

 Development of Safety-Critical
Systems
• Safety-critical system
– A system whose failure may cause injury or death
– Examples
• Automobile’s antilock brakes
• Nuclear power plant reactors
• Airplane navigation
• Roller coasters
• Elevators
• Medical devices

Ethics in Information Technology, Fourth Edition 34

 Development of Safety-Critical
Systems (cont’d.)
• Key assumption
– Safety will not automatically result from following the
organization’s standard development methodology
• Requires a more rigorous and time-consuming
development process than other kinds of software
• All tasks require:
– Additional steps
– More thorough documentation
– Vigilant checking and rechecking

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 Development of Safety-Critical
Systems (cont’d.)
• Project safety engineer
– Explicit responsibility for the system’s safety
– Uses a logging and monitoring system:
• To track hazards from the project’s start to finish
• Hazard log
– Used at each stage of the software development
process to assess how project team has accounted
for detected hazards

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 Development of Safety-Critical
Systems (cont’d.)
• Safety reviews
– Held throughout the development process
• Robust configuration management system
– Tracks all safety-related documentation
• Formal documentation required
– Including verification reviews and signatures
• Key issues
– Ethical dilemmas re: increased time and expense
– Deciding when QA staff has performed enough
testing
Ethics in Information Technology, Fourth Edition 37
 Development of Safety-Critical
Systems (cont’d.)
• Risk
– Probability of an undesirable event occurring times
the magnitude of the event’s consequences
– Consequences include:
• Damage to property
• Loss of money
• Injury to people
• Death

Ethics in Information Technology, Fourth Edition 38

 Development of Safety-Critical
Systems (cont’d.)
• Redundancy
– Provision of multiple interchangeable components to
perform a single function
– Used to cope with failures and errors
– During times of widespread disaster, lack of
sufficient redundant can lead to major problems

Ethics in Information Technology, Fourth Edition 39

 Development of Safety-Critical
Systems (cont’d.)
• N-version programming
– Form of redundancy
– Involves the execution of a series of program
instructions simultaneously by two different systems
– Uses different algorithms to execute instructions that
accomplish the same result

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 Development of Safety-Critical
Systems (cont’d.)
• N-version programming (cont’d.)
– Results from the two systems are compared
– If a difference is found, another algorithm is
executed to determine which system yielded the
correct result
– Instructions for the two systems can be:
• Written by programmers from two different companies
• Run on different hardware devices
– Rationale
• Both systems are highly unlikely to fail at the same
time under the same conditions
Ethics in Information Technology, Fourth Edition 41
 Development of Safety-Critical
Systems (cont’d.)
• Decide what level of risk is acceptable
– Difficult and controversial decision
– Make system modifications if level of risk is judged
to be too great
• Mitigate the consequences of failure
– Devise emergency procedures and evacuation plans
• Decide whether to recall a product:
– When data indicates a problem

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 Development of Safety-Critical
Systems (cont’d.)
• Reliability
– Probability of a component or system performing
without failure over its product life
• Human interface
– Important and difficult area of safety-critical system
design
– Should leave the operator little room for erroneous
judgment
– Poor design of a system interface can greatly
increase risk

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 Quality Management Standards

• ISO 9001 family of standards

– Guide to quality products, services, and
management
– Organization must submit to an examination by an
external assessor
– Requirements
• Written procedures for everything it does
• Follow those procedures
• Prove to the auditor the organization fulfilled the first
two requirements

Ethics in Information Technology, Fourth Edition 44

 Quality Management Standards
(cont’d.)
• Failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA)
– Technique used to evaluate reliability and determine
the effect of system and equipment failures
– Failures are classified by:
• Impact on a project’s success
• Personnel safety
• Equipment safety
• Customer satisfaction and safety
– Goal
• Identify potential design and process failures early in a
project
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Ethics in Information Technology, Fourth Edition 46
 Summary

• Demand for high-quality software is increasing

• Developers are under extreme pressure to reduce
time to market of products
• Software product liability claims are frequently
based on:
– Strict liability
– Negligence
– Breach of warranty
– Misrepresentation

Ethics in Information Technology, Fourth Edition 47

 Summary (cont’d.)

• Software development methodology

– Defines activities in the development process
– Defines individual and group responsibilities
– Recommends specific techniques
– Offers guidelines for managing product quality
• CMMI
– Defines five levels of software development maturity
• Safety-critical system
– Failure may cause injury or death

Ethics in Information Technology, Fourth Edition 48

 Summary (cont’d.)

• ISO 9001 standard is a guide to quality products,

services, and management
• Failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) is an
important technique used to develop ISO 9001-
compliant quality systems

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 Major Challenges in Software
Development
• Rapid technology advancement. Every technology
advancement is a blessing for the IT industry. ...
• Increasing customer demands. ...
• Time limitations. ...
• Limited infrastructure/resources. ...
• Conflicts with software testing teams.

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• While the top challenge developers appear to face is
dealing with unrealistic expectations (34.52%), other
common challenges include “Interacting with stupid
people” (20.15%) and “Trying to be nice” (8.09%). Just
saying it like it is. Challenges in communication come
in many forms.

Source: https://www.techinasia.com/talk/discuss-greatest-challenge-software-developer

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 What are the challenges you face as a
student and how to overcome them?
• Ten Common Problems Students Face in College

• Time Management. Problem: College is academically challenging.

...
• Debt. Problem: Tuition costs are rising at alarmingly high rates. ...
• Spreading Yourself Too Thin. Problem: To afford the high price of
college tuition, many students must get jobs. ...
• Homesickness. ...
• Depression. ...
• Sickness/Health Conditions. ...
• Social Problems. ...
• Partying.

Source: https://owlcation.com/academia/common-problems-for-college-students 52