Buffini's Blog

1. Decisions concerning software need to be regulated in areas affecting people and the environment

This is true of any area, but is only being properly adopted now. The example given of the Therac radiation machine is good, and serves to drive the point home. As engineers we can, and do, create products that can ave lasting effects on peoples lives. Embedded software for pacemakers, flight control software, nuclear reactor control systems, all of these things have an immediate and lasting impact, so regulation would be no small thing. Would you want your doctor practising on you after 2 years tinkering on the family gerbils?

2. Situations should be analysed ethically from first principles of moral philosophy

This is a sightly tricky one – as the text mentions moral philosophy has been hotly debated as long as man could bang two rocks together, and no definitive answer has ever emerged, nor, I personally believe, will it ever. With changing society, etc.. , how can one set of moral codes define behaviour for all time?

Leaving that aside, first principle analysis using some system, whether it be utilitarian or deontological, does at least provide some reference or framework to go on. Work out the implications, cost/benefits, for the fair treatment of all parties.

3. Sets of rules can be applied instead whenever pre-analysed situations arise

Fairly intuitive statement here. Applies to damn near anything really… The ground they’re attempting to cover is that canned responses can be used to apply to certain situations, i.e what to do if a safety critical app develops a major bug or something similar. The idea is to get across the point that there will be some form of backup I think…

4. Professional societies provide  set of rules as codes of conduct

Essentially correct. Every professional body that has ever existed (might be stretching things a bit here..) has had some set of laws that determine their actions, for both their benefit and their clients. They serve to protect everyone involved in the transaction, much like a social contract, and members must perform to the standard of these rules to gain admission and to safeguard their clients, and them, in return from the clients also.

5. Professioal societies support software practices through events and activities that share d promulgate best practices

An emergent property of the professional body or society is the code of conduct. A set of rules grows to become a code of conduct, a set of instructions for the member and org to work by. This is a fantastic development as it lays down the expected conduct of the member by the organisation, but where a lot of places fall down is enforcement. A code of conduct is absolutely no use if it is not verified and proven to be in use at any given time. For doctors, lawyers, etc… they can and will be dismissed from the professional group for lack of adherement to these codes, but there is currently no such failsafe for software developers, and there will be definitely be a need for one in the very near future.

6. Standards for software provide extra guidance, with ISO being increasingly important

Harping back to the last point – this is a step along the right road but not really far enough. An organisation can lose its ISO certification for lack of adherence to practices and guidelines, but thats about it.. They can still trade away happily without it, and quite likely retain a lot of their customer base. Some form of negative reinforcement for non-adherence will be required.

7. Process standards can be bureaucratic, displaying their military origins

I’d probably argue the point here about military implying bureaucracy, but lets continue. Oriinally this would have been true, as a lot of standards work would have come out of the military, being an area where quality was important. However, with growth and emergence of new memes such as agile processes, the bureaucratic emphasis fall away to leave a more process-centric process, odd as that may sound.

8. Internationally approved technical standards should be consulted and used in procurement and

development work

This is really just an extension of what went before – the implication that professional bodies exist coupled with codes of conduct and standards means that these should now be adopted internationally also. Not doing so, considering the global status of many of todays major suppliers, is braindead.

9. Overall processes can be certified that they comply with the relevant standards

Once both the process and the standard are sufficiently then yes I’d agree with this. The problem is that there is potential for fluffiness, vague generality creeping in here and there, interpretation of meanings and so on, which will essentially render you standards and the ceritification related to it meaningless.

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