Applied Professionalism and Management Assignment Instructions
Assignment 3
This assessment contributes 40% to the overall assessment of the module.
To complete this assessment students are required to complete a project proposal. This will be formatively assessed with feedback given to help with the completion of the final report. The formative assessment will be carried out during seminar time of week 4 (week commencing 20th February 2006). The project proposal should be as follows.
Project Proposal
Give a brief outline of the project you have chosen. The outline should comprise of:
· A brief history of the issue chosen, (250 words)
· An indication of why it is an issue, (250 words)
· Why the problem is particular to computing (250 words)
· An indication of why you are interested in this issue (250 words).
The assessment
The objectives of this assessment are to investigate an ethical issue, identify who is affected by the issue and how, critically analyse the issue and problems, determine whether there are choices to be made in the issue and propose outline solutions to the issue.
Students are encouraged to develop the project based on actual experience. However when this is not possible research based alternatives are suitable. Project ideas should be discussed with seminar tutors before project proposals are completed.
Date Set
1st February 2006
Deliverables
All deliverables must be handed to Pandon 007.
Wednesday 10th May 2006 by 16:00 at the latest
Expectations
You are expected to make use of the principles and frameworks developed on the module.
You are expected to read widely on the subject, and undertake significant research. You should show evidence of reading and research in your report.
A full reference list and bibliography, using the Harvard Standard, should be included at the end of the final report, but you should reference work throughout your project, again to Harvard standards.
An indication of the word count is given for each section.
Possible Projects
The project should be taken from one of the suggested topics below.
· Failure of the computer systems at the Department for Work and Pensions,
· Children’s Tax Credit System,
· Robustness of online banking/Internet banking (for example Cahoot),
· National Health Service, patients records and booking system,
· Operation Ore
· Therac-25,
· Google supporting censorship in China
· Manipulation of photographic images using multimedia tools,
· UK
· National Air Traffic Control system
Learning Outcomes
The following learning outcomes are assessed in the project
Learning outcome 2
Critically evaluate the principles of computer ethics.
Learning outcome 5
Consider the effect on society on the ubiquitous nature of computing, computer systems and information systems, and on society’s increasing resultant dependency.
Learning Outcome 6
Appreciate the legal aspects of computing and information systems.
Learning Outcome 7
Critically evaluate the risk associated with the use of computer and information systems.
Description of Deliverables
NOTE: word count is for indicative purposes only
Section 1 (10 marks)
An introduction to the problem and the domain area. This should be a précis of your project proposal, and should give a thorough understanding of the problem domain, the issues within the dilemma and the ‘sides’ being considered (up to 500 words)
Section 2 (20 marks)
A critical discussion f the ethical choices involved in your issue. Where possible you should indicate both sides of the dilemma, ie one side is “right” and the other side is “wrong”. Alternatively the dilemma might be a description of the confusion between “right” and “wrong” in your topic. In some cases the choice might be between two (or more) choices that are “right”. If there is no issue of choice at all you should justify and explain this situation (up to 500 words).
Section 3 (20 marks)
An identification of the primary, secondary and implied participants in the issue. You should produce three lists, one each for primary, secondary and implied participants. For each entry in the list you should give a brief justification for inclusion.
Primary participants those who have taken specific obvious actions.
Secondary participants those who have acted or otherwise been affected by the actions of the primary participants, or who have been mentioned in the scenario, but take no direct action themselves.
Implied participants those who are not specifically identified by name, but who may have a stake in the events in the scenario. Implied participants can be primary or secondary in nature.
The following is a hypothetical example
Primary participant: systems analyst, responsible for making decisions in the development of the system, and made the decision for the system to go live without system tests being accepted by the users.
Secondary participant: customers of the e-commerce website
For implied participants, you should also indicate whether they are primary or secondary implied participants.
(This section can be presented in tabular form).
Section 4 (25 marks)
A theoretical, analytical and critical discussion about the problem. You should explore the ethical, legal and professional principles relevant to your chosen problem. In this section in particular you should make reference to literature. (up to 1000 words).
Section 5 (25 marks)
An outline of the solutions you think most appropriate to the issue, using (and showing) your understanding of professional and ethical theory as well as critically discussing the risks involved. You should outline 2 to 3 possible solutions, and indicate the preferred option with a justification as to why it is your preferred option. (500 words)
