Improving software quality: an ethics based approach

ABSTRACT

Software quality in recent years has been plagued by significant quality issues. One of these issues is the rush to market of commercial software. This has resulted in poor quality leading to numerous updates and patches to correct inherent problems and to prevent malicious software attacks from viruses, worms, or other nefarious external hacking. The author believes that poor software quality presents an ethical issue for society. The issue of improvement in software quality is proposed to relate to fundamental ethical issues that need to be addressed by software developers. The author explores various philosophical ethical theories to address this issue including Aristotelian virtue ethics, and Humean virtue ethics, settling on Humean virtue ethics as the most effective approach. The author then proposes changes to industry codes of ethics as well as strengthening of the international software organizations as a social network to support necessary emphasis on proper software quality.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  D. Software
  D.2 SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
      D.2.9 Management
          Subjects: Software quality assurance (SQA)

Additional Classification:
  K. Computing Milieux
  K.4 COMPUTERS AND SOCIETY
      K.4.1 Public Policy Issues
          Subjects: Ethics
  K.7 THE COMPUTING PROFESSION
      K.7.1 Occupations
      K.7.3 Testing, Certification, and Licensing
      K.7.4 Professional Ethics
          Subjects: Ethical dilemmas; Codes of good practice; Codes of ethics

General Terms:
Design, Legal Aspects, Management, Verification

Keywords:
business ethics, code of conduct, code of ethics, software ethics, software quality