UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY, SYDNEY

31272 Project Management and the Professional

Assignment 1 – Autumn 2012

Alternative 2

Due Date :      Due Thursday 6pm 12/4/2012. Submit at the Assignment boxes near the Student Centre, Building 10, Level 2.

Marks :           20%

Method :         Individual

Objectives :  Addresses objectives 4 and 5

Background :

Leveraging off some Australian research, a small company has developed hardware to perform genetic tests.  It is a small device which attaches via USB to a computer or mobile phone (as long as it can run the appropriate software). The software to control the device uploads and self installs enabling anyone to interpret the results.

In essence it means anyone with one of these devices can read, analyse and store any other human’s DNA. All that’s needed is a single human hair not less than 0.1 cm in length, some saliva, skin cells, or other human cells.. The analytical software that comes with the device will allow the user to look for any defects, analyse the genes, etc., The software allows you to store a complete DNA code and compare it to others stored using external storage.

The software is yet to be written, you have been offered a job as Human Computer Interaction Specialist for a major part of the User Interface. You have been chosen for your previous history of providing high quality, simple, intuitive, user interfaces. The job meets all your expectations.

The manager then advises you this device is going to generate a lot of public interest and release of the product may be delayed. He said he thinks the company has a strategy to deal with this.

Task :

Part 1 (15%) Report – to be given to the manager.

To ensure that you understand the issues involved, before being employed, the manager has asked you to write a report on the ethics of such a device (the hardware and the easy to use software) in terms of  its use..  You must keep in mind that without a simplified user interface to the complex software of the device, it could only be used by trained medical staff.

He has asked you for this report to clarify what ethical issues will be relevant to you, an IT professional, as you will be employed by him. You are not to concern yourself with other ethical issues of the device, as that is outside your expertise and, understanding the other issues, is the manager’s responsibility.

You should report from the viewpoint of potential stakeholders (e.g. members of the ACS, businesses, general public, various government departments etc) in terms of at least 3 of the ethical theories discussed by Dr Grant Mooney in his lectures (slides 24‑28, PMP lecture 3). Why might these stakeholders agree or object to this proposal?

The report should also discuss the ethical IT issues in relation to the ACS code of ethics and code of conduct.

Although the company is currently thinking of implementing this service in Australia, it may want to use the software in other countries –  you should also look at at least one other ethical code of conduct, for example that of the Chartered Institute for IT (BCS), the  US Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) or the New Zealand Computer Society (NZCS) . Differences between these ethical guidelines should be discussed in relation to the report.

N.B.     All your points will need to be argued with appropriate reasons and references. Merely making statements will be insufficient. Failure to make a decision and support it can  incur the loss of up to  6% of your marks.

Part 2(5%) Personal Opinion – NOT to be given to the manager.

Would you accept the job? Are there any conditions where you would accept the job or not accept the job?

Hint :

The movie Gattaca may be useful background to help understand some of the issues, although there are many other sources.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gattaca

Hand In

A MANAGEMENT REPORT that includes the following sections:

1.      Executive Summary  (for task 1 only)

2.      Table of Contents

3.      Task 1 (this should include an introduction, recommendations
and a conclusion)

4.      Task 2  (this should include an introduction and a conclusion)

5.      Bibliography

6.      Appendices (if applicable).

Your management report must be in a business report format and include cross references to support information.

Referencing and the Bibliography must be in an acceptable format. See Referencing Standards below.

Assessment : The Marking Scheme is as follows:

Presentation    up to  5% of marks can be lost if the following are not present..

• Cover sheet

(student #, name, Tutor Name, Tutorial Number, report  title
NOT just the FEIT cover sheet)

• Executive summary
• Quotes, Diagrams (where applicable)
• Correct Harvard referencing
• Correct English expression, & spelling
• Introduction, body of essay, & recommendations
• Logical division of chapters or sections
• Assertions backed up by quoted sources
• More than 10 references for part 1 and 2 or more references for part 2.

Content     15% Task 1 – 5% Task 2

• Correct length of answer without verbosity
• Deals correctly & fully with the topic
• Arguments for (and against where appropriate)
• Clarity in the overall aim of the answer
• Clarity and sufficient amount of analysis
• No large amount of material quoted
• Appropriate referencing if needed

Referencing Standards:

All material derived from other works must be acknowledged and referenced accordingly using the Harvard Referencing Style,

(see  http://www.lib.uts.edu.au/help/referencing/harvard-uts-referencing-guide).

Late penalty:

Late submission of assignment 1 will attract a one mark per day late penalty, more than seven days late the assignment will receive zero unless special consideration has been sought and granted. Special consideration, for late submission, must be arranged beforehand with the subject co-ordinator.

Reminder:

Students are reminded of the principles laid down in the “Statement of Good Practice and Ethics in Informal Assessment” (pages 5 & 6 of the Faculty Handbook). Unless otherwise stated in a specific handout, all assessment tasks in this subject should be your own original work. Any collaboration with another student (or group) should be limited to those matters described in “Acceptable Behaviour” section of the Handbook. For essay questions, students should pay particular attention to the recognition of “Plagiarism” as described in that section of the Handbook (page 6). Any infringement by a student will be considered a breach of discipline and will be dealt with in accordance with Rules and By-Laws of the University. Penalties such as zero marks for assignments or subjects may be imposed.

Expected standard of the work

You are expected to conceptualize the problem or issue, find relevant references for context, facts, theory and examples, come up with a point of view (not necessarily one sided) and support that point of view with argument and references. In some cases, the “point of view” will be a design proposal. Your presentations should be written as if they are addressing an audience, not attempting to satisfy course requirements.

Improve your academic and English language skills: HELPS (Higher Education

Language and Presentation Support) Service provides assistance with English language proficiency and academic language. Students who need to develop their written and/or spoken English should make use of the free services offered by HELPS, including academic language workshops, vacation intensive courses, drop-in consultations, individual appointments and Conversations@UTS (www.ssu.uts.edu.au/helps). HELPS is located in Student Services, on level 3 building 1 at   City campus and via the Student Services area at Kuring-gai campus. Phone 9514-2327 or 9514-2361.

The Faculty of Engineering and IT intranet (MyFEIT: http://my.feit.uts.edu.au/myfeit) and the Faculty Student Guide

( http://my.feit.uts.edu.au/modules/myfeit/downloads/StudentGuide_Online.pdf) provide extensive information about the services and support available to students within the Faculty”

Hints:

You should reference the relevant ACS site:

http://www.acs.org.au/index.cfm?action=show&conID=coe

1. You are encouraged to use the UTS Library on-line Journal Database accessible from http://www.lib.uts.edu.au/databases/search_databases.py
   You need to obtain UTS e-mail user id and password by activating your UTS e-mail account at
   http://webmail.uts.edu.au/   in order access the resource through out-of-campus facilities.

1. Most organisations have templates for management reports, such as the list of sections given in the assignment. It serves 2 purposes:
2. a checklist for the writer to make sure all topics are covered that the company thinks are relevant.
3. Makes it easier for management to find information in the report. Individual managers will often not read the whole report.

In other words, if you are given a template, USE IT.

1. The Executive  Summary summarises the report’s findings & recommendations. It can stand by itself as an overview of your ideas. You write it last.  An Introduction tells you what the report is going to cover.  (see UTS-Online as well as google this!)

SOLUTION

Introduction

The medical science has always been improving the ways to find out the betterment of human lives. The research has been always helpful to find out a reason. The medical science is not a field of mathematics or calculations but is the field of experiment. The researches pave way for the new medicines and the devices which help in diagnosis and the further research as well. Most of the medical devices have simple interfaces, unless it has been designed to be used by a medical practitioner only.

Ethics of medical research draws a fine line between the ethics of a physician and a research fellow. Sometime both roles are observed by the same persons. The ethics of a physician lies in utilizing all his skills seeing the good health of the patient. However, the ethics of the research fellow lies in the collection of unbiased data from the experiments conducted over the small organisms and the human beings.(NZCS,2012) The researcher has to conduct experiment over the lives which may sometimes be life threatening. Hence it has been expected from a research fellow to ask for the permission of the patient or the person on which he wants to notice the results of particular drug.

Here in this report we are going to investigate into the ethics of a software based USB device. The scenario in this experiment is completely different from the medical researches as pointed out above. The experiment does not play any life threatening role. However, the ethics of these experiments lies in putting the information of the lives of the people exposed to other people.

The significance of the USB device lies in the fact that it has the capability to reveal the information hidden in human DNA or genetics. It is the genes which typically defines an organism. The results from the DNA study could be used by the physicians or medical Scientists to identify the problems in the genes and cure the problems. The inputs required to conduct a test on the human being are so easily available that a person can find out the secrets hidden in the DNA of the human beings.

Ethics in Information Technology

The information technology is a relatively new branch of science and technology which is under the phase of constantly evolving itself and producing new innovations. The reason of having been a new discipline and in the state of continuous changes makes the professionals in IT vulnerable to the practice from the view point of ethics. Although such a practice has undergone significant change, such change has not been matched with a development in ethical thinking in the field (Gotterbarn, 2004a). Thus, most of the practicing professionals have little idea about the ethics in the field. Even some of the researchers have predicted the most challenging issues related to ethics are yet to come (Moor, 2011). Some of the researchers believe that just stamping the developments in the information and technology as just a technological development would not be fair, as it has the social and ethical impacts too(Bynum,1999). This can be easily proved as example below:

The social networking and the portals helping out to get a common place or platform, sharing our views, keeping in touch with friends far and wide, publishing the images and videos has an impact widespread and cannot be treated as just a virtual world. Some of the people we meet are only on the social networking but their views have become important to us. This clearly shows how a technological advancement is not just a development of the technology and they have a reaching impact on the psyche of the people.

Some of the researches have proved that the significance of the ethical thinking should be regularized by the organizations, with as many as 90% of the people among the IT professionals, students, faculties and the academicians were in the favor of such a system( Rogerson and Prior, 1999). There were many Australian surveys which proved the inclusion of business ethics in the Information systems study.

The Ethical Viewpoint of the USB Device

 Viewpoint as an IT professional

The research in the medical filed and the IT fields have different implications on the society and the ethics of the people. While many life saving drugs are discovered and produced by the medical scientists, they have to be tested on the fellow people in the society before they are finally released for the public use. The ethics of the research person lies in collecting data from the tests on the animal and the human lives to get enough results which may be helpful in making the decision on whether the drug should be accepted or rejected. This is important to do such researches as to get the drugs and devices to find the best cure to the ailments. However, in the process of getting the results of the drugs, some of the people have to go through bad experiences and may be the experiment is fatal to them. (Stoodley,2009)So, it becomes required for the medical researchers to let the people joining in the campaign to develop a drug, to know that the drug is being tested on them and what are the possible implications of the drugs on them.

Similarly, the device in the case has implications on the people being tested through them. This is a small hardware device which connects to the computer or mobile phone via USB medium. The computer or the mobile device must be compatible to the software which controls the device. The software to interact with the device is yet to be written. The interface of the device determines the fate of the device as it would decide the users who can control the device. The software would tell the user the characteristics of the genes or DNA of the person on whom the test is to be conducted.

The requirements for the device to tell about the genetic features of a person is a single human hair not less than 0.1 cm in length, some saliva , skin cells, or other human cells. Thus, it is very easy to collect these things of a human being and conduct such a test on them. The interface to the device would collect the characteristics of the human cells and present the results to the user in an understandable format.

This device would have its own database as stored in the computer with which it compares the results to some other person’s records. There lies a big loophole for the practice of ethics. The data of all those people, who have gone through the tests of the device for one reason or another, would be at the risk of being exposed to malpractices. Being an IT professional, I do not have the precise idea of how the data of the genetic characteristics of the people could be misused, but it is easy to understand that it could lead to social and ethical threats.

 Viewpoint as a member of ACS

There are five fundamental codes of ethics for ACS:

1.  Primacy of the public interests: The interests of the public should be held of prime importance, over the personal, professional and the business interests.
2. Enhancement of the quality of life: An IT professional should strive for the betterment of the lives of the people affected by their work.
3. Honesty: It is expected that an IT professional should be honest in the representation of their skills, knowledge and the products.
4. Competence: The IT professionals should be working competently and diligently for their employers or stake holders.
5. Professional Development: The IT professionals should enhance their own professional skills and help their co-workers in doing the same.
6. Professionalism: The IT professionals enhance the integrity of the society and respect the members for each others.

These above ethics as governed by the ACS society is expected to be held by every IT professionals working in the field, who is a member of the society. The ACS society holds the supreme respect for the interests of the public, the people who are to be directly affected by the product.(ACM,2012) Here, the product is a hardware device which would be used in testing the results over the human cells to arrive at the specific results about the DNA characteristics of the person whose cells are being used.

The product could be used by the physicians and the medical practitioners to reach at the conclusion that if a particular ailment showed its roots in the genetics of the person. There can be many diseases which could be tracked by following the links of the genetics, as it is the genes which determine the characteristics of the person.

However, if the product is sold to be used by the general public the product could lead to many unknown malpractices. This is even so because the requirements for the device to start the analysis could be easily met. Another cause of concern is that the device is able to conduct analyses based on the records of the other persons stored in the databases. Hence the records of the other persons could be also accessed.

Viewpoint as a General public and the Government Departments

The general public would be apprehended about such a device if the use of the device is not felt as secure. The interface of the device should not be user friendly so that any person who has some knowledge about operations of the computers could operate it. The purchase of the product should be properly licensed, so that only the medical practitioners are able to purchase it. It should be also monitored that the product is used only for the medical use and that too, for the diagnosis of the ailments and the research works.

Comparison of the Ethics of ACM and NZCS

We would now compare the code of ethics followed by the NZCS of New Zealand, as the product is indented to be sold in different nations, hence there can be a difference in the code of ethics followed in the concerned nations. For that purpose we discuss the code of ethics in New Zealand as mentioned by NZCS:

1. Non-Discriminatory: Members should treat all the fellow members and the co-workers without any discrimination and with respect.
2. Zeal: The members should work with professional sense of integrity, dignity and honor.
3. Community: The IT professionals should work for the rights and the welfare of the people belonging to the community.
4. Skills: The people should improve their skills and knowledge in the interests of their clients and the employers.
5. Continuous Development: The members are expected to enhance their skills and the knowledge throughout their careers.
6. Outcomes and the consequences: The members should inform the outcomes and the possible consequences that may arise from their actions.
7. Potential and the real conflicts of the interests: The members should inform their clients and the employers about the possible conflict of interests of the two.
8. Competence: The members should be following the professional conduct and should improve their competence.

As you would go through the code of ethics of the ACM Australia, and the NZCS New Zealand, you would find a similarity everywhere except the issue of public interests being most important for the ACM while the same finds little place in the NZCS.

Conclusion

The hardware device to predict the DNA analysis should be used by the medical practitioners only. The purchase and the use of the device should be strictly monitored. The device should not be used for any purposes intended for reasons other than the medical ones. The databases of the device should be secure. The apprehensions and the interests of the public should be resolved and honesty should be shown while delivering the advertisements about the product.

References

1. NZCS, News Zealand, The ethics of IT , viewed on 19^th may 2012, <http://www.nzcs.org.nz/about/ethics>

2. ACM, Australia The ethics of IT ,viewed on 19^th may 2012, <     http://www.acs.org.au/index.cfm?action=show&conID=coe>

3. Stoodley Ian (2009), “IT professionals’ Experience of Ethics and its implications for IT education”

4. ICA, Spain, ”Code of ethics of Companies”

5. Gotterbarn (2004), “Informatics and Professional Responsibility”

6. Bynum Ward Terrell(1999) “A very Short history of computer ethics”

7. “Ethicultural” Sensitivity in E-Learning: Discussing Lusíada Universities Empirical Findings by Rogerson and Prior ,viewed on 19^th may 2012,

< http://www.ccsr.cse.dmu.ac.uk/conferences/ethicomp/ethicomp2010/abstracts/ethicomp2010_silva_rogerson_stahl.php>

8. Moor, J. (2001), “The Future of Computer Ethics: You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet,” Ethics and Information Technology, 3(2): 89-91.

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