Ethics for IT Workers

and IT Users
Dr.Rab Nawaz Jadoon
Department of Computer Science Assistant Professor
DCS COMSATS University, Islamabad
COMSATS University, Islamabad
(Abbottabad Campus)
(Abbottabad Campus)

Professional Practices for IT

 IT Professional
 A persona having specialized knowledge and
often long and intensive academic preparation.
 The U.S. Code of Federal Regulations defines a
person “employed in a professional
capacity” as one who meets these four criteria:
 the performance of work requiring knowledge of an advanced type
or learning customarily acquired by a prolonged course of
specialized intellectual instruction and study or work.
 One’s instruction, study, or work is original and creative in
character in a recognized field of artistic endeavor, the result of
which depends primarily on the invention, imagination, or talent of
the employee.
 One’s work requires the consistent exercise of discretion and
judgment in its performance.
 One’s work is predominantly intellectual

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 Are IT Workers Professionals?
 A partial list of IT specialists includes,
 programmers, systems analysts, software
engineers, database administrators, local area
network (LAN) administrators, and chief
information officers (CIOs).
 not every IT role requires,
 “knowledge of an advanced type in a field of science or learning
customarily acquired by a prolonged course of specialized
intellectual instruction and study,”
o to quote again from the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations.
o From a legal perspective, IT workers are not recognized
as professionals because they are not licensed by the state or federal
government.
o in malpractice lawsuits, as many courts have ruled that IT workers are
not liable for malpractice because they do not meet the legal definition
of a professional.
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 The changing professional services
industry
 Ross Dawson, author and CEO of the consulting
firm Advanced Human Technology, identifies
seven forces that are changing
the nature of professional services:
 clientsophistication,
 governance,
 connectivity,
 transparency,
 modularization,
 globalization,
 and commoditization

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 Client Sophistication
 Clients are more aware of what they need from
service providers,
 more willing to look outside their own organization to
get the best possible services, and better able to
drive a hard bargain to get the best possible services
at the lowest possible cost.


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 Governance
 Major scandals and tougher laws endorsed to
avoid future scandals
 (e.g., Sarbanes-Oxley) have created an environment
in which there is less trust and more oversight in
client–service provider relationships.

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 Connectivity
 Clients and service providers have built their
working relationships on the expectation that
they can communicate easily and instantly
around the globe through
 electronicteleconferences,
 audio conferences,
 e-mail, and
 wireless devices.

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 Transparency
 Clients expect to be able to see work-in-
progress in real time, and they expect to be
able to influence that work.
 No longer are clients willing to wait until the end
product is complete before they consider in with
comments and feedback.

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 Modularization
 Clients are able to break down their business
processes into the fundamental steps
 And decide which they will perform themselves and
which they will outsource to service providers.

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 Globalization
 Clients are able to evaluate and choose among
service providers around the globe, making
the service provider industry extremely
competitive.

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 Commoditization
 Clients look at the delivery of low-end services
(e.g., staff augmentation to complete a project)
as a commodity service for which price is the
primary criterion for choosing a service
provider.
 For the delivery of high-end services (e.g.,
development of an IT strategic plan),
clients seek to form a partnership with their service
providers.

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 Professional Relationships That
Must Be Managed
 Relationships Between IT Workers and
Employers
 Relationships Between IT Workers and Clients
 Relationships Between IT Workers and
Suppliers
 Relationships Between IT Workers and Other
Professionals
 Relationships Between IT Workers and IT Users
 Relationships Between IT Workers and Society

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 Professional Code of Ethics
 A professional code of ethics states the
principles and core values that are essential to
the work of a particular occupational group.
 Practitioners in many professions subscribe to a code
of ethics that governs their behavior.
 For example, doctors adhere to varying versions of the
2000-year-old Hippocratic oath, which medical schools offer as an
affirmation to their graduating classes.
 Most codes of ethics created by professional organizations have
two main parts:
o the first outlines what the organization aspires to become, and
o the second typically lists rules and principles by which members of
the organization are expected to abide.

 Note: Laws do not provide a complete guide to ethical behavior.

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 Benefits of Professional code of
ethics
 Ethical decision making
 practitioners use a common set of core values and beliefs as a
guideline for ethical decision making.
 High standards of practice and ethical behavior
 Strong codes of ethics have procedures for censuring professionals
for serious violations, with penalties that can include the loss of the
right to practice.
 Trust and respect from the general public
 Public trust is built on the expectation that a professional will behave
ethically.
 Evaluation benchmark
 A code of ethics provides an evaluation benchmark
that a professional can use as a means of self-assessment. Peers of
the professional can also use the code for recognition or censure

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 Professional Organizations
 No IT professional organization has emerged as
preeminent, so there is no universal code
of ethics for IT workers.
 However, the existence of such organizations is
useful in a field that is rapidly growing and changing.
 In order to stay on top of the many new developments in
their field, IT workers need to network with others, seek out new
ideas, and continually build on their personal skills and expertise.
 Whether you are a freelance programmer or the CIO of a Fortune
500 company, membership in an organization of IT workers
enables you to associate with others of similar work experience,
develop working relationships, and exchange ideas.
 These organizations disseminate information through e-mail,
periodicals, Web sites, meetings, and conferences.

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 prominent IT-related professional
organizations
 Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
 Association of Information Technology
Professionals (AITP)
 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Computer Society (IEEE-CS)
 Project Management Institute (PMI)
 SysAdmin, Audit, Network, Security (SANS)
Institute

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 IT Professional Malpractice
 Negligence has been defined as not doing
something that a reasonable person would do,
or doing something that a reasonable person
would not do.
 Duty of care refers to the obligation to protect
people against any unreasonable harm or risk.
 For example, people have a duty to keep their pets from attacking
others and to operate their cars safely.
 Similarly, businesses must keep dangerous pollutants out of the air
and water, make safe products, and maintain safe operating
conditions for employees.

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 Cont..
 If a court finds that a defendant actually owed a
duty of care, it must determine whether
the duty was breached.
A breach of the duty of care is the failure to act as a
reasonable person would act.
 A breach of duty may consist of an action, such as throwing a lit
cigarette into a fireworks factory and causing an explosion
o for example, a police officer not protecting a citizen from an attacker.

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