| Everyone knows about the Hippocratic oath and what
it means to the medical profession. Yet while there is
nothing as notorious that the much younger IT (Information
Technology) profession can boast about, the question of
ethics in IT has become more prominent in the last few
years. Events such as Y2K, the dotcom crash, and the recent
string of corporate accounting scandals, have pushed the
question of ethics in IT into the spotlight.
Hide…
In the case of Y2K (also known as the millennium bug),
the question of ethics (or part of it) hid comfortably
under the shield of a technical problem. No one laid
blame with the inventive programmers, who, some twenty
years ago or better, saw fit to defy the technological
limitations of the day’s computers by using only
the last two digits in the year. Many did, however, raise
ethical questions right after Y2K passed - in a profoundly
uneventful manner - as they felt the Y2K problem had
been unscrupulously exaggerated by the many IT consultants
whose main purpose, it seemed, was to create, exaggerate
and exploit the Y2K frenzy in order to fill their pockets.
The fall of the dotcom then underscored the reality that
no technological advance, no gimmickry - no matter how
brilliant - can replace the fundamental principles underlying
a business’ success – and end product. Even
though a lucky few made fortunes in the dotcom era, scores
of overworked programmers saw their stock options and illusions
of a retire-rich-soon future end in free-fall. Common sense,
let alone professional ethics, seems to have been eclipsed
by that gold rush of events.
Even the accounting scandals that have recently rocked
North America have not seriously called into question the
professionalism and ethics of the IT staffers who, willingly
or not, helped produce the fraudulent numbers. No mass
resignations decimated the IT departments of those companies.
Could anyone on the IT side have detected and prevented
the fraud that was orchestrated using some of the programs
and computers they were in charge of? Although the IT ethical
question was not raised, the question really is but can
and should it be avoided from now on? Probably not, as
IT becomes more integrated with business, rather than being
just a tool serving it, the question of ethics within the
IT industry will have to be addressed.
Look again…
There is at least one instance when the lack of ethics
in IT is evident and unobstructed: take the viruses,
worms and other man-made “creatures” that
have hit hard computers all over the world. These are
the work of professionally savvy, but ethically bankrupt,
IT practitioners. And while the term IT practitioner
might sound too pretentious for a wicked teen-ager eager
to leave his mark on the world, one should also look
at the many well established software vendors who know
that their products have security vulnerabilities but
release them on the market anyway. Ethics – at
individual or corporate level – can be easily compromised
in the quest for the bottom line. But, in the long run,
the price of overlooking the ethical side may not be
worth paying.
The IT industry has also been known for a high percentage
of project failures – going over-budget, over-deadline,
and not meeting business requirements - yet how many professional
resumes would mention association with those projects.
How many IT practitioners would take, accept or document
responsibility? Resumes overstating accomplishments and
credentials are not a rarity in IT (according to some research,
as many as 30% of resume authors opt for “fake it
till you make it” job search technique).
On the other hand, employers do not look to the solidity
of a prospective employee’s work ethics with nearly
the same attention they pay to technical skills.
Last, but not least, there is one more thing standing
between the IT profession and its ethics: IT as an industry,
and the IT professional as an individual, is almost always
circumscribed within a business. The networks, programs
and applications that IT practitioners develop are built
to serve businesses; they are a link in the chain, not
the business goal per-se. Also, IT practitioners rarely
work in a stand-alone manner like doctors or lawyers most
often do; even independent contractors are incorporated
in teams and therefore their individual responsibility
from an ethical perspective is very much diluted. So, while
technology failure is an easy scapegoat for a product or
business failure, it is most often the business that bears
the ultimate consequences of that failure. By then, the
contractor, consultant or employee to whom the failure
can be traced may be long gone.
Not a rosy picture so far. But things are changing. How
and why – in the second installment of this article.
Tatiana Andronache is IT technical staff
for a large information technology company in Toronto, Canada.
She can be reached at tatiana.andronache@sympatico.ca
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