Sample Case for Ethical decision in Software Industry: A small software company is working on an integrated inventory control system for a very large national shoe manufacturer. The system will gather sales information daily from shoe stores nationwide. This information will be used by the accounting, shipping, and ordering departments to control all of the functions of this large corporation. The inventory functions are critical to the smooth operation of this system. Jane, a quality assurance engineer with the software company, suspects that the inventory functions of the system are not sufficiently tested, although they have passed all their contracted tests. She is being pressured by her employers to sign off on the software. Legally she is only required to perform those tests which had been agreed to in the original contract. However, her considerable experience in software testing has led her to be concerned over risks of the system. Her employers say they will go out of business if they do not deliver the software on time. Jane contends if the inventory subsystem fails, it will significantly harm their client and its employees. If the potential failure were to threaten lives, it would be clear to Jane that she should refuse to sign off. But since the degree of threatened harm is less, Jane is faced by a difficult moral decision.

Analyze the case for Jane to reach an Ethical Decision using the four steps process that can be adopted for ethical decision making. How would Kants Categorical Imperatives affect the decisions taken by Jane? Also use at least two theories of ethical decision making when analyzing the case. Your analysis should reflect that your thought process is influenced positively by the Software Engineering and ACM codes of conduct for the computing industry.