1. The Code helps to define those actions that are ethically improper to request of a software engineer or teams of software engineers.
2. Ensure that clients, employers, and supervisors know of the software engineer's commitment to this Code of ethics, and the subsequent ramifications of such commitment.
3. In accordance with that commitment, software engineers shall adhere to the following Code of Ethics and Professional Practice.
4. In particular, those managing or leading software engineers shall, as appropriate:Ensure good management for any project on which they work, including effective procedures for promotion of quality and reduction of risk.
5. Extend software engineering knowledge by appropriate participation in professional organizations, meetings and publications.
6. Improve their ability to create safe, reliable, and useful quality software at reasonable cost and within a reasonable time.
7. Take responsibility for detecting, correcting, and reporting errors in software and associated documents on which they work.
8. Identify, document, and report significant issues of social concern, of which they are aware, in software or related documents, to the employer or the client.
9. The Code contains eight Principles related to the behavior of and decisions made by professional software engineers, including practitioners, educators, managers, supervisors and policy makers, as well as trainees and students of the profession.
10. To ensure, as much as possible, that their efforts will be used for good, software engineers must commit themselves to making software engineering a beneficial and respected profession.
1. The ultimate effect of the work should be to the public good.
2. Keep private any confidential information gained in their professional work, where such confidentiality is consistent with the public interest and consistent with the law.
3. Work to develop software and related documents that respect the privacy of those who will be affected by that software.
4. Obey all laws governing their work, unless, in exceptional circumstances, such compliance is inconsistent with the public interest.
5. Identify, define and address ethical, economic, cultural, legal and environmental issues related to work projects.
6. Ensure an appropriate method is used for any project on which they work or propose to work.
7. Work to follow professional standards, when available, that are most appropriate for the task at hand, departing from these only when ethically or technically justified.
8. Ensure adequate documentation, including significant problems discovered and solutions adopted, for any project on which they work.
9. Ensure realistic quantitative estimates of cost, scheduling, personnel, quality and outcomes on any project on which they work or propose to work, and provide an uncertainty assessment of these estimates.
10. Be accurate in stating the characteristics of software on which they work, avoiding not only false claims but also claims that might reasonably be supposed to be speculative, vacuous, deceptive, misleading, or doubtful.
1. s humanity, in special care owed to people affected by the work of software engineers, and the unique elements of the practice of software engineering.
2. These Principles should influence software engineers to consider broadly who is affected by their work; to examine if they and their colleagues are treating other human beings with due respect; to consider how the public, if reasonably well informed, would view their decisions; to analyze how the least empowered will be affected by their decisions; and to consider whether their acts would be judged worthy of the ideal professional working as a software engineer.
3. In particular, software engineers shall, as appropriate:Provide service in their areas of competence, being honest and forthright about any limitations of their experience and education.
4. Because of their roles in developing software systems, software engineers have significant opportunities to do good or cause harm, to enable others to do good or cause harm, or to influence others to do good or cause harm.
5. In particular, software engineers shall, as appropriate:Help develop an organizational environment favorable to acting ethically.
6. Principle 8: SELFSoftware engineers shall participate in lifelong learning regarding the practice of their profession and shall promote an ethical approach to the practice of the profession.
7. The Code contains eight Principles related to the behavior of and decisions made by professional software engineers, including practitioners, educators, managers, supervisors and policy makers, as well as trainees and students of the profession.
8. In particular, software engineers shall, as appropriate:Temper all technical judgments by the need to support and maintain human values.
9. In particular, software engineers shall, as appropriate:Strive for high quality, acceptable cost and a reasonable schedule, ensuring significant tradeoffs are clear to and accepted by the employer and the client, and are available for consideration by the user and the public.
10. However, even in this generality, the Code provides support for software engineers and managers of software engineers who need to take positive action in a specific case by documenting the ethical stance of the profession.
1. Provide for due process in hearing charges of violation of an employer's policy or of this Code.
2. Recognize that personal violations of this Code are inconsistent with being a professional software engineer.
3. Ensure that clients, employers, and supervisors know of the software engineer's commitment to this Code of ethics, and the subsequent ramifications of such commitment.
4. Avoid associations with businesses and organizations which are in conflict with this code.
5. Report significant violations of this Code to appropriate authorities when it is clear that consultation with people involved in these significant violations is impossible, counter-productive or dangerous.
6. Improve their knowledge of this Code, its interpretation, and its application to their work.
7. Software Engineering Code of Ethics and Professional Practice (Full Version)PREAMBLEComputers have a central and growing role in commerce, industry, government, medicine, education, entertainment and society at large.
8. In all these judgments concern for the health, safety and welfare of the public is primary; that is, the "Public Interest" is central to this Code.
9. The Code prescribes these as obligations of anyone claiming to be or aspiring to be a software engineer.
10. Express concerns to the people involved when significant violations of this Code are detected unless this is impossible, counter-productive, or dangerous.
1. Promote no interest adverse to their employer or client, unless a higher ethical concern is being compromised; in that case, inform the employer or another appropriate authority of the ethical concern.
2. Identify, define and address ethical, economic, cultural, legal and environmental issues related to work projects.
3. Be careful to use only accurate data derived by ethical and lawful means, and use it only in ways properly authorized.
4. Work to follow professional standards, when available, that are most appropriate for the task at hand, departing from these only when ethically or technically justified.
5. Ethical tensions can best be addressed by thoughtful consideration of fundamental principles, rather than blind reliance on detailed regulations.
6. In particular, software engineers shall, as appropriate:Help develop an organizational environment favorable to acting ethically.
7. The Code provides an ethical foundation to which individuals within teams and the team as a whole can appeal.
8. The Code is not a simple ethical algorithm that generates ethical decisions.
9. Principle 5: MANAGEMENTSoftware engineering managers and leaders shall subscribe to and promote an ethical approach to the management of software development and maintenance .
10. As this Code expresses the consensus of the profession on ethical issues, it is a means to educate both the public and aspiring professionals about the ethical obligations of all software engineers.