Don Gotterbarn, Software Engineering Ethics Research Institute, USA
gotterba@etsu.edu
 

Gotterbarn, D. (2007, Jun), The SoDIS Process: two steps forward and one step back. Bulletin of Applied Computing and Information Technology Vol. 5, Issue 1. ISSN 1176-4120. Retrieved from

1. INTRODUCTION

This is a report on the previous year’s work related to SoDIS. There are several new initiatives. Some items have been completed and others have been delayed. The end result is positive. More people are paying attention to SoDIS and its principles. It is being used both in academe and industry. There have been some setbacks which provide new opportunities for raising the consciousness of software developers regarding the ethical, social and professional impacts of their work.

2. DISCUSSION

Most of the work done to forward the SoDIS process as a standard and to improve general awareness of professional responsibility in software development is being done by volunteers. This shows the virtues of commitment but unfortunately forward progress is related to the degree to which these volunteers are distracted by other responsibilities. Among the forward progress I reported last year was the branding of SoDIS as a trademark, the completion of the definition of the SoDIS inspection process, and the Web presence of SoDIS at the Software Development Research Foundation (SDRF) Web site - www.sdresearch.org. This year, July 2005-2006, there have been some interesting developments, some lost opportunities, and some exciting new possibilities.

2.1. Good News in Academe

One of the initial surprises to us was the breadth of application of the SoDIS process. It was originally designed to help software project managers identify qualitative risks early in the development life cycle. The process is now being used in the academic sector to help train students to identify a broader variety of risks than they would normally think about and to train them to think about the basic tasks needed for the completion of their projects. Students use it to identify social and ethical risks related to their work. The use of the SoDIS process Auditor also helps them to identify where their work falls short of meeting even the most basic standards for software development.

• Required in some curricula: The Institute for the Management of Information Systems (IMIS) provides a standard IT curriculum which is used throughout UK related schools. There is a required SoDIS workshop as part of that curriculum. A similar workshop is also required in the project management section of the IT curriculum at De Montfort University in the UK. It is also required in one school in Poland and as part of an IT curriculum in the US. It had been part of several curricula in New Zealand although I am not aware of its current status in schools in New Zealand.
• Students are using the process in their capstone courses and doing SoDIS related projects.
• Students read about SoDIS in some Computer Ethics courses using an anthology written by Herman Tavani. They are required to understand the underlying principles of a SoDIS audit.
• Publications about SoDIS. As the domain of SoDIS application extends into other sectors, such as medicine and finance, articles about it continue to be written. Here are some of the articles I know about.
  1. “Refining the SoDIS® Process in the field: A COTS Project as a context for Risk Analysis”,  (T. Clear, C. Kwan, L. Hitchcock, & D. Gotterbarn),  National Advisory Committee  on Computing Qualifications  Conference Proceedings, Wickliffe Press, July, 2005. Reprinted in JACIT.
  2. “Developing Software in a Bi-cultural Context: the role of a SoDIS Inspection”, (D. Gotterbarn T. Clear, W. Gray, & B. Houliston), Journal of International Technology and Information Management, April-June, Vol. 2, No 2, 2006.
  3. “The Ethics of Software Project Management”,  (S. Rogerson & D. Gotterbarn), in G. Richardson and C. Butler (Eds.), Readings in Information Technology Project Management , Thomson Course Technology, January 2006.
  4. “Internet Development: Professionalism, Profits, Ethics, or Sleaze?”, (D. Gotterbarn & D.Tarnoff), in K. E. Himma, Jones and Bartlett (Eds.), Readings in Internet Security, Sept. 2006.
  5. “Software Design Ethics for Biomedicine”, in S. Nagl & R. Begent (Eds.), Cancer Bioinformatics: From Cancer Biology to Therapy Design and Treatment, London, Wiley & Sons, January, 2006.

2.2 Work in the Commercial Sector

New ways to introduce the SoDIS process to the business sector are being developed.

1. We have had meetings with De Montfort University Innovation Centre about extending the application of SoDIS into communications and construction. There is work underway to develop a specific set of questions for software security.
2. Meetings with AUT are underway about commercialization in New Zealand.
3. Work is underway within Europe to develop ethics standards for the funded development of software.
4. Standards of professional SoDIS Analyst certification have been developed and are being formalized.

2.3 Revised SoDIS framework

We have continued laboratory work applying the SoDIS in industry and in the classroom as indicated above. Using this experiential evidence we have refined some items in the SoDIS.

• Issue statements have been revised in light of lab experiments with students.
• Specific case studies for use in workshops and student labs have been developed and tested.
• The SoDIS process has been reorganized to separate questions of ethical judgment from factual questions in the project checklist. This results in a cleaner approach to a SoDIS audit.

2.4 Frustrations

Some of the SoDIS projects thus far undertaken have not yet borne positive results.  Several things we tried were delayed and for others, approaches were rejected. There are always time constraints since much of the work is done by volunteers. We always have to address the resistance to new ways of looking at things. In seeking grant funding to support our work we regularly encounter rejection because we are doing qualitative analysis rather than quantitative analysis.  We are developing a user friendly version of the SoDIS Project Auditor (SPA) which is Java based. Delays in the implementation have caused delays in the automated SoDIS tutorial which will accompany the new SPA.

2.5 Further Work

It is hoped that the new SPA will be available shortly. The work in Europe should be a significant step in making SoDIS an industry standard. After the tutorial is developed for the new SPA, the tutorial will require testing in student environments so we are looking for volunteers.

Our major problem with progress is that it is only easy to convince people, one at a time, of the values of using the process. For the process to make a significant impact, we need to show a broad base of people the merit of the process. Working in an environment where others do not understand the process makes it difficult for those who want to continue to use the process. We need to find ways to educate a broad base of software developers and designers.

Copyright © 2007 Don Gotterbarn
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