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Question: Discuss about the Project Manager Roles and Responsibilities. Answer: Introduction Business ethics are the standards and principles which define an acceptable behaviour in business environment(Ferrell, Hirt, Ferrell, 2016). Code of ethics differentiates members of a professional body from those who have similar qualifications. In this report, after briefing the ethical dilemma faced by Test engineer and Project manager at Occidental Engineers, consequences for various stakeholders will be discussed. The report will also point out the ethical grounds based of which Occidental Engineers indulged in aggressive bidding. It will also cover what duties do Wayne and Deborah have as test engineer and project manager respectively, before the software is rolled out. Finally, possible alternatives to solve this ethical dilemma will be suggested. What is ACS Code of Conduct? Australian Computer Society (ACS) is a recognized association of information and communication technology (ICT) professionals. It has around 25,000 members from all over Australia(www.acs.org.au, 2017). ACS was formed on January 1, 1966. ACS has established a Code of professional conduct in which it has listed six core ethical values and parameters of professional conduct(Australian Computer Society , 2014). All the members of ACS are required to abide by these values while performing all their professional activities. The aim of developing this code was to define acceptable standards of conduct for IT Professionals(Burmeister, 2000). Ethical Dilemma Ethical Dilemma can be defined as a situation where there is a conflict between two or more ethical principles(Allen, 2017). In business ethics are concerned with making right choices when managers have to make choices which create tension between ethics and profits. In this case, Occidental Engineers, software firm which is in the midst of a financial crisis, bids for a project by quoting figures lower than the actual costs. US Federal Aviation agency gives the contract of developing an air traffic control system to Occidental Engineers. It is agreed that Occidental engineers will deliver this software after two years. In spite of limited financial resources and understaffed team the software was developed, but, at the time of testing it was found that if there are too many aircrafts the system might lose track of one or more of them. Now three days before the delivery the test engineer does not want to release faulty software and asks for extension and on the other hand, Project Ma nager does not want to jeopardize the career of her team members by missing the deadline and asks the team to do a quick patch instead. Wayne Davidson (Test Engineer) As a test engineer Wayne is aware of the fault in the prototype. Now he has two choices in front of him i) to release the software in next three days after mending the code with a quick patch or ii) to refuse to roll out the software till it meets all the specification and is tested thoroughly, which will take 30 more days. At this point of time Wayne is aware of following duties: He must keep Project manager informed of all the challenges or additional costs which might impact the timely delivery of software. Running extensive tests on software to determine that it meets all the specifications and is free from defects (Johnson, 2017). Deborah Shepherd (Project Manager) As a Project Manager, Deborah is aware that delivering this software on time is important for the firm to uphold its reputation and to save the jobs of those working on this project. Now she has to choose between following options i) deliver the software in 3 days by covering the fault to meet the deadline or ii) inform the client about the defect and ask for extension. Right now Deborah is aware of following duties: Meeting the deadline of the project without exceeding the budget. Maintain the relationship with client and other stakeholders. Project manager is also responsible for safeguarding the interests of her team members and to uphold their morale (Project-Management.com, 2015). Why Occidental Engineers quote a figure below estimated costs? From the case study it is clear that Occidental Engineers had bid less than the actual cost it would bear in developing the software. They did so to beat their competitors and to improve their financial condition. From the point of view of ethics their decision to bid aggressively can be justified by Utilitarianism. According to(Eggleston, 2012) utilitarian theory of ethics judges the actions as right or wrong based on the outcomes of those actions. Utilitarianism can be identified by following characteristics: a) Consequentialism, b) welfarism, c) individualism, d) aggregation and e) maximisation. In this particular case, Occidental Engineers was aiming to achieve two things firstly, improve its financial condition and secondly, job security for its employees. It is clear that by aggressively bidding for the project Occidental Engineers was actually looking at the greatest good for the greatest number. Consequences for US Federal Aviation Agency US Federal Aviation Agency accepted a bid in which quoted amount was clearly below the actual cost of doing the project. By accepting such a bid US federal aviation agency might face following consequences: It has been seen that in cases where the contract was given to lowest bidder the completed work did not completely addressed the needs of clients and was expensive to maintain(Markus, 1997). In this case, if Occidental Engineers decide to deliver the product as is than US Federal Aviation Agency would have to bear additional costs for improving the software. Another consequence of accepting faulty software would be increased risk of accidents. If this software is put to use and it loses track of one or more airplanes this can put the lives of passengers travelling in such airplanes at risk. Accepting a bid way below the actual costs puts the officials handling the bid under scanner. Sanctioning such a bid can raise questions over the integrity and intensions of those who sanctioned the bid in first place. Lastly, if Occidental engineer decides to deliver the software as it is US Federal Aviation Agency all the money spent by them for last two years will go in wane and if Occidental Engineers ask for extension of deadline it will again result in added costs for US Federal Aviation Agency. Other Stakeholders Following is the list of stakeholders who will be affected by this bid: Company: If Occidental Engineers decide to deliver the software with the fault it will affect their goodwill in a negative manner and if they ask for extension to rectify the issue it will result in extra costs for them when they are already struggling financially. Team of developers: Employees of Occidental engineers might have to lose their job. It has been mentioned in the case study that if the deadline of project is not met or if the software delivered is not up to the mark employees might have to pay with their jobs. Finally, the passengers traveling by airplanes monitored by such faulty software are at the risk of meeting with an accident if the software loses track of their airplane. Alternative Solutions Analysing this case by keeping Codes of professional ethics given by ACS in perspective following are the alternatives Wayne and Deborah have in front of them to ethically resolve their issues: Letting the client know about the defect: The third code of ethical conduct guides the professionals to be honest about their services and products. As per this code Occidental Engineers should clearly tell US Federal Aviation Agency about the fault and be prepared to do whatever the client seems well. Cover the fault with a quick patch: It is the responsibility of every IT professional to work towards completion of work within timeframe. To honour the deadline the team can initially add few codes to solve the issue for the time being. This way the client will receive the product in time but the quality would be compromised. Deliver competent software: Finally, Occidental Engineers can ask for extension of deadline and rewrite the code to eliminate the defect and finally deliver a completely functional and fault free software to its client. Conclusion Code of ethics developed by ACS define guidelines for ethical conduct of IT Professionals. IT professionals like any other professionals face ethical dilemmas in their day to day work life. In this case Wayne and Deborah faced ethical dilemma over delivery of faulty software. With the help of ACS code of ethics it was concluded that they could i) release the software as is and be ready for repercussions, ii) secondly they can let the client know of the defect or iii) finally, they can ask for extension to fix the fault. Bibliography Allen, K. (2017). What Is an Ethical Dilemma? Retrieved January 4, 2018, from https://www.socialworker.com: https://www.socialworker.com/feature-articles/ethics-articles/What_Is_an_Ethical_Dilemma%3F/ Australian Computer Society . (2005). ACS code of professional conduct and professional practice. Australian Computer Society. Burmeister, O. K. (2000). Applying the ACS Code of Ethics. Journal of Research and Practice in Information Technology, 32(2), 107. Eggleston, B. (2012). Utilitarianism. Lawrence: Elsevier Inc. Ferrell, O. C., Hirt, G., Ferrell, L. (2016). Business: A Changing World. McGraw Hill. Johnson, D. W. (2017). Automated software testing: The role of a test engineer. Retrieved December 27, 2017, from techtarget.com: https://searchsoftwarequality.techtarget.com/tip/Automated-software-testing-The-role-of-a-test-engineer Markus, E. (1997). Low bid alternatives. Retrieved January 4, 2018, from americancityandcounty.com: https://americancityandcounty.com/mag/government_low_bid_alternatives Project-Management.com. (2015). Project Manager Roles and Responsibilities for Software Projects. Retrieved December 27, 2017, from www.project-management.com: https://project-management.com/project-manager-roles-responsibilities-software-projects/ www.acs.org.au. (2017). www.acs.org.au. Retrieved December 28, 2017, from www.acs.org.au: www.acs.org.au