Lecture: Professionalism & Ethics

1. Lecture: Professionalism & Ethics

2. Agenda • Professionalism • Ethics

3. What is a Profession? • A profession is a vocation founded upon specialised educationaltraining, the purpose of which is to supply disinterested counsel and service to others, for a direct and definite compensation, wholly apart from expectation of other business gain.[1] • Source: Wikipedia

4. Profession • Classically, there were only three professions: Divinity, Medicine, and Law.[2]

5. Profession The main milestones which mark an occupation being identified as a profession are: • It became a full-time occupation; • The first training school was established; • The first university school was established; • The first local association was established; • The first national association was established; • The codes of professional ethics were introduced; • State and provincial licensing laws were established.[2]

6. Profession • With the rise of technology and occupational specialization in the 19th century, other bodies began to claim professional status: Pharmacy, Veterinary Medicine, Nursing, Teaching, Librarianship, Optometry and Social Work, all of which could claim, using these milestones, to be professions by 1900.[3]

7. Legally recognized professions • Some professions are legally recognized • Governments have passed laws recognizing members • In turn, members have a legal responsibility to uphold the interests of society, above other interests • Others professions are less formal

8. Legally recognized professions Professions with practice-restricting licenses in many jurisdictions • Practice or aspects of practice are limited to license holders • Medicine, Veterinary Medicine,Dentistry, Chiropractic, Pharmacy, Law, School Teaching, Engineering (in theory in Canada), Architecture • Some licensed professions in Ontario http://www.citizenship.gov.on.ca/english/working/career/ • Divinity (those licensed can perform marriages, etc), etc. • Those requiring less education are commonly called ‘trades’ • *Truck Driving, (required training and drivers license) • Electricians • Auto Mechanics

9. Legally recognized professions Professions with signoff-restricting licenses or certifications, • A licensed/certified person must approve certain types of work done, but may delegate most of the work to others • Anyone may ‘do certain of the work’, but members have a legal basis to state to others that they are competent • Engineering (in some places), Financial Analysis (CFA), Chartered Accountancy (CA), Certified Management Accountancy (CMA), certain ‘trades’ (Electrician, Plumber) • Veterinary Medicine Professions with legal standing but where there is no license issued nor legal requirement for signoff of work • Information Systems Professional (I.S.P.) in Canada

10. Professions without legal recognition • Professions with optional certifications that do not have legal weight • Software Development (CSDP), Project Management (PMP) • Professions not generally licensed or certified, but where a degree or diploma provides evidence of competence • Scientist (various types), Journalist • Other professions or trades where an apprenticeship model is typically followed • Mechanic, Electrician • Professions where the limiting factor is simply that you must have sufficient skill or knowledge that someone is willing to pay you enough to do it full time • Sport player (Hockey, Golf, Football), Actor, Artist, Musician, etc.

11. Key attributes of a profession • Public recognition: Others outside profession understand what a member of the profession does and can do • So outsiders know who to consult when they want some service • So outsiders can feel confident they are getting work done by someone competent • To ensure public recognition: There must be • A defined scope of practice • A recorded body of knowledge (principles, facts, best practices, required procedures such as the building or plumbing code) • A code of ethics • consequences when it is violated • Methods to educate/train, accredit education, and ensure continuing education • Well-understood criteria for membership • Organizations to establish and administer the above

12. Specializations / Specialties • Most professions have well-defined specialties, often with their own certifications and associations • Medicine: Board-certified specialties • Veterinary Medicine • IT/Computing: • AI - American Association for Artificial Intelligence • Project management Professional http://www.pmi.org • Information security (Certified Information Security Manager) http://www.isaca.org/Template.cfm?Section=CISM_Certification • Hacking (Certified Ethical Hacker) http://www.certifiedethicalhacker.com/ • Certified Information Technology Professional • Vendor-specific certifications (Microsoft, Oracle) • Database administration, UI design • etc.

13. General Professional Associations for Computer Professionals • CIPS - Canadian Information Processing Society • The national society for computing in Canada • Affiliated with Réseau Action TI (Québec) • Two US-based associations with international membership • ACM - Association for Computing Machinery • IEEE Computer Society

14. Certification • An earned professional designation which assures qualification as a professional • Earned through a professional body (society) who sets the criteria for eligibility of the qualification • Usually: • Course of study in an accredited program • Proof of professional accomplishments (work experience) • Examination

15. Certification • Value of certification: • Demonstrates commitment to your profession • Increases your professional credibility • Adhere to the code of ethics • Mastery of a BOK (Body of Knowledge) • Committed to ongoing education

16. Certification • Must be renewed periodically (usually annually) • Types: • Legal (doctors, dentist, lawyers, veterinarians, teachers) vs: non legal (PMP, apprentices, athlete) • Corporate (Sales, Customer Service) • Product-Specific (i.e. MCSE, CISCO) • Professional-wide (i.e. CGA, CA)

17. IT Certification • Vendor specific • Cisco • IBM • Microsoft • Red Hat • SAP • ….. • Third party • CompTIA • CISSP • ITIL • General Certification • IEEE • CITP (BCS) • I.S.P./ITCP (CIPS)

18. Some Benefits of Professional Status in Computing • Social and societal standing • Computing professionals have similar responsibilities to society as engineers, doctors, lawyers, accountants, financial analysts, etc. • Other professionals, members of the public and the media need to know who to consult • Legal reasons • Judges and lawyers need to know who can be considered an expert witness in a court case involving computing or IT • The Chief Information Officer (CIO) of a corporation needs to know who has the expertise to certify that the corporation has adhered to laws and regulations • Privacy acts like PIPEDA • Corporate regulatory compliance

19. Agenda • Professionalism • Ethics

20. Ethics • What is Ethics: • Study of what it means to “do the right thing” • Assumes people are rational and make free choices • Rules to follow in our interactions and our actions that affect others

21. Ethics • Ethical Views: • Deontological • Judging right or wrong based on whether one adheres to the rules • Utilitarianism /consequentialism • The greatest good for the greatest number of people • Natural rights • Some things are right regardless of what rules and laws are written down • No simple answers to many ethical questions • Do organizations (businesses) have ethics?

22. Ethics • Important Distinctions: • Difference between wrong and harm • Wrong: May cause harm, but may not • Harm: Bad consequence actually occurs • Personal preference and ethics • Collective rights vs. individual rights • Law and Ethics

23. Ethics • Important Distinctions: • Negative rights (liberties) • The right to act without interference • The right some people assert to do what you want with your property • Freedom of expression • Positive rights (claim-rights) • An obligation of some people to provide certain things for others • A doctor has an obligation to care for a sick patient • A computer scientist or engineer must take action if they know something is unsafe, will impact the environment, etc.

24. Codes of Ethics for Computer Professionals • CIPS Code of Ethics

25. Summary of the CIPS Code of Ethics • http://www.cips.ca/ethics 1. Protect the Public Interest and Maintain Integrity • Work with due regard for health, safety and the environment • Report problems that may injure persons, organizations, property or the economy • Not discriminate on any grounds, such as race, sex, sexual orientation, nationality, social origin, family status or disability • Not bring the profession into disrepute

26. Summary of the CIPS Code of Ethics 2. Demonstrate Competence and Quality of Service • Serve client in conscientious, diligent and efficient manner • Not undertake a task unless you have competence or can become competent without delay, risk or expense to the client • Exercise uncompromised judgment • Be honest and candid when providing service • Maintain competence (constantly update knowledge) • Be aware of and compliant with legislation, standards and bodies of knowledge • Respect rights of third parties, such as giving credit where it is due • Respect property rights

27. Summary of the CIPS Code of Ethics 3. Maintain Confidential Information and Privacy • Duty of Secrecy: Clients have a right to expect that anything disclosed, seen or overheard will remain confidential • Do not even disclose having been retained by the client • Respect PIPEDA (Privacy Act) and other laws 4. Avoid Conflict of Interest 5. Uphold Responsibility to the IT Profession • Use courtesy and good faith when dealing with other professionals • Participate in professional societies • Support others in their professional development

28. What should guide ethical decision making? • Seven levels • International treaties and agreements • Laws (statutes) • Reguulations • Standards of good practice • Professional codes of ethics • Corporate policies • Community and personal values

29. Guidance for ethical decision making in the area of privacy • Fair Information Practice Principles • Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act: PIPEDA • Ontario Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act • Ontario Personal Health Information Protection Act • CIPS Guidelines • CIPS Code of Ethics • Seneca College Policies • Common sense

30. Method for Ethical Analysis • Take a set of ethical points of view • Equality, justice, respect, self-respect (integrity) • Gather all ethically relevant facts regarding the situation and people involved • Actions, roles, relationships (e.g. conflicts of interest) • Identify key issues • Look for an existing policy or law that matches • Pay attention to precedents and people who might be sensitive to any given solution • If a solution found, apply it • But watch out for conflicting policies, laws, principles and points of view • Otherwise apply higher-level general principles and consult with others

31. Example ethical situation 1 • You know how to crack the encryption on cell phone calls and have the hardware and software available to do this. • Is there any ethical situation when you might consider it ‘right’ to use this knowledge • If you were asked by the police? A judge? A CSIS agent? James Bond? • If you knew it would save someone’s life? If you thought it would prevent some other crime?

32. Credit • Thank you to Timothy LethbridgePhD, P.Eng., I.S.P., CSDP for providing this lecture. Tim is a Professor of Software Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Ottawa.