Ethics and Responsibilities in a CDIO based Software Engineering Process

The great impact that Software Engineering has had on society during the latest decades has put demands on that discipline to become a mature, as well as a trustworthy engineering discipline. Here, the so called, software engineering Code of Ethics has been introduced to encourage such development.

The Code of Ethics has a prime focus on the Public, and a secondary focus on co-operation and development. While the Code of Ethics in first place concerns Software Engineers in professional work, it is interesting to see how this concept influences maturity and trustworthiness also to students in educational project based work.

This contribution will cover on-going experiments in project based courses where students reflect on the Code of Ethics. Such reflections should have impact on team work, as well as on views on Software Engineering for the common public. The main question concerns how student’s project work may be improved through such reflections, to meet previously observed cases of low self-responsibility and effort. The contribution covers case studies of CDIO based projects, as well as the concept of the Code of Ethics of Software Engineering in itself.

According CDIO, using the Code of Ethics in education should have relevance to several points of the CDIO syllabus, such as, 2.4 Attitudes, Thought and Learning, and 2.5 Ethics, Equity and Other responsibilities. The case studies as such, furthermore relate to aspects such as team work and communication, besides the core of the CDIO intension of driving student projects.

Proceedings of the 9th International CDIO Conference, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Cambridge, Massachusetts, June 9 – 13, 2013.