|
Practitioners in most major
professions subscribe to codes of ethics that govern their
behavior. Trust is thus linked to expectations that a
privileged expert will behave ethically. Such an outlook is essential
in order for a modern society to operate, because we depend on the
fairness and good judgment of an advantaged few to tell the truth,
abstain from giving self-serving advice and offer warnings when waste
of valuable resources is discovered. Otherwise, corruption will
invariably creep in, opening the door for government intervention.
My interest in the relationship between ethics and computing goes
back to 1981, when I authored the code of ethics for the Data
Processing Management Association. Professionals who successfully
passed the examination to obtain a certificate in data processing had
to pledge adherence to this code. To see how we have become accustomed
to lower standards of morality, as well as the rising insensitivity to
IT errors, consider the following:
- A forthcoming conference for IT leaders features a tutorial that
includes as topics "how to make other people cringe and whimper when
you enter the room," "how to get what you want when you want it
whether you deserve it or not," "how to act . . . without morality,"
"how to leave kindness and decency behind" and "how to seize the
future by the throat and make it cough up money." The entire
conference is offered to IT executives for a fee of $2,380 each and to
consultants for $10,000 each, with an additional opportunity to
purchase a book that includes lessons on "how to get mean and nasty"
and how to "lie when necessary."
- Microsoft launches Windows 2000 with claims of its extraordinary
reliability, but its own list of potential defects and required fixes,
which come to light a week after it released the software, is
testimony to the company's long-standing track record of releasing
fault-prone products. One of Microsoft's own developers rationalized
this situation by stating, "(T)he fact that Microsoft found that many
bugs indicates just how thorough their testing processes are, both
prior and after releasing new software." A misleading demonstration of
Windows 98 by a key Microsoft executive before a federal judge last
year is another example of how many employees in that wealthy firm
subject customers to a skillful cover-up of the truth.
- InfoWorld columnist Bob Lewis (Feb. 14) contrasts the admittedly
ample and successful Y2k spending with the 30% success rate for all
other IT projects. He argues that such an excessive failure rate may
be the result of too-tight budgets. This argument suggests that since
IT project proposals aren't trustworthy anyway, management ought to
always increase IT funding for projects to succeed like the Y2k
nonevent.
- America Online releases Version 5.0 of its software, which
interferes with other computer programs and Internet service providers
without prior notice and without permission from the customer. It
tends to disable, interrupt, alter and interfere with competing
software offerings. This case is an example of the arrogance that has
become accepted behavior by IT software suppliers.
Executive Implications
Marie Antoinette, who like her husband, King Louis XVI of France, was
beheaded in 1793, is popularly thought to have said, "Let them eat
cake," when she heard that peasants didn't have enough bread and were
starving. I hear too many examples of a similarly smug disregard of IT
troubles.
No one will lose his head over this. But IT runs the risk of inviting
government regulations and mandatory compliance with "best practices"
promulgated as universal codes, which will greatly erode all the
personal freedom, creativity and prosperity with which computer
professionals have been blessed so far. To postpone this, get a copy
of any code of professional ethics (see http://csep.iit.edu/codes/computer.html),
put it into practice, and demonstrate less tolerance for many current
transgressions.
Strassmann (paul@strassmann.com) advocates
regulation-free pursuit of professional work, as long as it's
accompanied by an ethical sense of accountability.
|