Hello:
You are invited to participate in our survey about dilemmas in software engineering. In this survey, people will be asked to complete a survey that asks questions about their reaction to specific situations that have occurred in the work place. It will take approximately 20 minutes to complete the questionnaire.
Your participation in this study is completely voluntary. There are no foreseeable risks associated with this project. However, if you feel uncomfortable answering any questions, you can withdraw from the survey at any point. It is very important for us to learn your opinions.
Your survey responses will be strictly confidential and data from this research will be reported only in the aggregate. Your information will be coded and will remain confidential. If you have questions at any time about the survey or the procedures, you may contact Lindsay Ivins at [email protected].
Please read every situation presented and answer the question that follows with the response that best demonstrates your action. .
Thank you very much for your time and support. If you are ready, you can start with the survey now by clicking on the Continue button below.
1. I would be more likely to select a solution to a situation that was ethical rather than expedient. 2. Have you had any industrial training in ethics? 3. You have just been named project manager for the new system your company wants to create. You have been given a team of veteran workers who are considered to be the most experienced in the company. When the issues of process and methodology arise, the team informs you they have an established way of doing things. You feel you have knowledge of techniques that could be used on your new project to significantly improve quality and productivity. When you suggest changes to the team, they reject them and tell you that they have been doing it this way for years. Not wanting to disrupt ongoing work, you abandon the idea of process improvement and do not raise the issue again. 4. After interviewing with a new company that competes with your current one, the new company offers you a job to create a program that your current company is trying to patent. The new company has also offered a large pay increase and signing bonus. 5. You are the lead developer of a module and your boss tells you that the project is slipping. He desperately needs you to finish the module within the next two weeks. You realize that in order to finish on time, you need to skip putting in any annotation on the documents. You also have to use convoluted coding techniques and patch existing software because you don’t have the time to create an optimal design. You accept the assignment and create a module that is nearly impossible to understand and thus extremely difficult to maintain. Everyone congratulates you for having met your deadline. 6. You are project manager for the delivery of a control system and you have just been informed by your staff that the earliest possible delivery date is six months later than contracted. You know that if you tell the client that there is any slippage, the next meeting with the client may be contentious and your client might withhold the payment, or worse, cancel the contract. To avoid this consequences, at the next meeting you reassure the client that the project is on schedule. 7. You are in charge of a project to build a new program for computers. After the program is put into the market, you find out that the program occasionally causes computers to overheat and catch fire. Your company has decided against recalling the product to fix the problem because of the high cost. The company will protect you against any law suits directed at you and try to settle any suit directed at it. 8. You are asked to deliver a simulator that your company has been working on to a Canadian oil and gas company. One feature of the simulator is a 10 fold speed up, but running the simulator locks the computer by using 100% of the CPU's cycles. Your project manager wants the simulator delivered anyway because it meets the terms of the contract and upon delivery, a large milestone payment will be made. 9. You find out your boss has installed frequently used programs without paying any license fee. You know he is notorious for giving bad performance reviews to any subordinates who has disagreed with him, which translates to unchanged pay or low or no pay raise. With your review coming up within the next two weeks, you do not say anything because you do not wish to harm your relationship with your boss. 10. You are in negotiations with a company asking you to create a transportation system for them. The contract is a multi-million dollar deal that may be the key to your company’s survival. One of the client’s terms is that the system be 100% reliable. You agree to their terms even though you know making any system 100% reliable is impossible. You feel that after the contract is awarded you can always renegotiate the terms and if it does go to court, the requirement would be voided because it is physically impossible to deliver. 11. The CEO of your company has promised a system to a very important client by a certain date. Your boss asks you to create a schedule that will meet the date promised by the CEO. After review, you come to the realization that you have created a schedule that requires your staff to work twelve hours a day, seven days a week, for the next two months. Hiring new staff is not feasible because it will take them at least two months to learn enough about the system to be useful. Your boss has promised to compensate you and your team after the project is completed. 12. As a senior manager, you have been asked to review a draft contract for the delivery of a large hospital medical system. At the present time, you are swamped with other projects that desperately need your attention. As a result, you quickly scan the table of contents, read 10% of the document and ask your subordinates to read over other selected pieces and report whether these pieces are satisfactory. After they have reviewed their parts and have reported that they are all okay, you sign off on the contract. 13. You need all of your employees to be in the office the upcoming week to make sure a project milestone is met before the next meeting with the client. That same week one of your employees is scheduled to be on vacation. He had booked a cruise vacation for his family three months in advance. In order to have everything completed, you press him to cancel his vacation, with a promise to reimburse him for the unused tickets and a promise to make up the time at a future date. 15. What country do you have citizenship in? 16. Which best classifies you? 17a. If you answered undergraduate or graduate student to the previous question, please answer which year of study you are in. 17b. What is your concetration? 17c. Which university do you attend? 17d. Who is your professor? 18. If you are a working professional, what is your profession? 19. Do you have any additional comments? |
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