Perceived levels of ethical responsibilities for a software engineer: computing academics' perspective

A Comparative Study on the Ethical Responsibilities of Key Role Players in Software Development

“…This study is an extension of a previous study by Marebane et al [17] which will be further discussed in the Section 2. That study was conducted to determine the perceived levels of ethical responsibilities of software engineers, as reported by educators in a South African university.…”

“…The summary concludes that software engineers are expected to take professional responsibility, specifically ethical responsibility for their work. This requires that they are aware of their ethical responsibilities [17]. This includes being aware and considering the ethical needs of stakeholders in software development.…”

“…However, the study did not include professionals with experience practising as software engineers, nor did it compare the perceptions of practising engineers to those of job entry level undergraduate students. A study conducted by [17], highlighted in the Section 1 of this paper which the current paper is expanding on, focused on the perceptions of computing academics about the ethical responsibilities of key stakeholders in software development. The findings of the study show that various software development key stakeholders should be held ethically responsible according to their contributions to software development.…”

“…Although the study used a survey design for data collection, as in the current study, the data analysed only included responses collected from teachers of software development courses and excluded other key stakeholders such as industry-based practitioners, end-users and students studying software development courses amongst others. Although the studies by [17,31] focused on ethical responsibility, the latter focused more on attitudes towards assuming ethical responsibility whilst the former focused more on the levels of ethical responsibility on various areas within software development.…”

“…Thirdly, because software professionals have an enormous impact on the lives and well-being of others [13], the wielding of power in terms of decision-making and technical expertise inherent in software development requires caution [14]. Furthermore, studies such as those by [6,8,10,[15][16][17][18] show the need for software engineers' ethical responsibility as part of their professionalism. In the acknowledgement of the importance of taking responsibility in professional practice, it is not surprising that [1] determined that the development of professional responsibility is one of the critical competences focused on in higher education.…”