Legal and Professional Considerations in Agile Development - Coursework Example

Ethical, Legal and Professional Considerations in Agile Development al Affiliation: Ethical, Legal and Professional Considerations in Agile Development Introduction Software practitioners have always experienced pressure that forces them to compromise their work in order to offer reasonable care to other parties that are or rather will be in affected by the software. As much as development of software is becoming more beneficial, interconnected and pervasive, there is an increased potential of unexpected errors or rather harm. Agile Software Development is basically an approach that entails building creating a software system that will embody a given set of crucial principles. On the other hand, management of agile software development is a set incremental and iterative method which is focused on the value of customers and interactions that turn it to a business reality following a particular plan. For a project which is meant to investigate methods of agile development, effects of using agile to improve IT and valuation of agile methods, there are a number of crucial considerations that can be focused on. They include legal considerations, professional considerations and ethical considerations. Professional Considerations A systematic approach for dealing with any moral dimensions of any practice or activity is professionalizing. Software development is considered an emerging profession in engineering whereby a professional is expected to rely on common sense alongside time-honored experience other than relying application of scientific knowledge and principles and lack the essentials elements of a real professionalism. Any profession has a basic requirement for training and learning, a particular code of conduct that impose high standards, an effective disciplinary system meant for those people who breach the code, a basic emphasis on the social responsibility of a professional and finally licensing. Therefore, when a code of conduct is enforced in a profession or rather for given professionals, it has a significance impact on the professionals. To start with, it enables a professional to protect and serve the public by developing user friendly and less harmful software. Secondly, it enables a professional to inspire and provide guidance to other aspiring or junior professionals in the field. Moreover, enforcement of code of conduct enables professionals to arrive at or rather meet the set standards for a given profession; for this case Agile Software Development. Fourthly, it assists in giving moral support that is essential for validation of courageous decisions in line of duty. Finally, enforcing code of conduct in Agile Development educates and engenders mutual understanding among professionals or rather practitioners who have to work together in order to attain a given set goal, offer discipline and deterrence which contributes to creating a presentable image of Agile practitioners in the society. Therefore, if software professionals cannot obverse the given standards, their ability or potential to meet set targets and deliver quality outputs can never be realized. This would result to poor work relationships and low quality products (Martin & Schinzinger, 2005). The most common code of conduct across the globe is “The Software Engineering Code of Ethics and Professional Practice.” Ethical Considerations In Agile Software Development, the computer society identifies several areas of concern. These are the ethical issues that might impact negatively on particular groups of aspects inside and outside the industry. This includes the product, the client, management, employer, the environment and employees. All these fall under the Agile Principles which stands for a commitment to attain business values, offer quality software, continuous improvement of the products, introspection and honesty, human environments and collaboration between workers and clients. The strengths of these principles are with regard to the behaviors value of product directed to the customer, sustainability of supply and a projected sign of excellence. Thus, for the public, Agile Development has to protect its good by disclosing the probable dangers to all the software users, the entire public or rather the environment. This can be achieved by putting into consideration a number of issues such as physical disabilities, distribution of resources, disadvantages of the economy and other factors which can be an obstacle to the access and benefits of the software (Maner, 1996). For the clients or customers, Agile Development has to win their trust. This can only be achieved when there is a continuous delivery or supply of the product, when the developers provide working software, when there is a good relationship between the customer and the software developers and in situations whereby the changes made on the software can be positively received by the client. Moreover, many companies tend to employ individuals who are below the required working age, which is 18 years in most cases, in order to minimize on labor expenditures by underpaying them. This act is unethical on the side of employers as it might result to low quality products due to inexperience and abuse or labor. Thus, for a product which has implications on the public, employers should consider quality as it will determine the market’s reception. Legal Considerations With the rising level of technology across the globe, there are several security risks that are associated with transmitting data through via the internet. This is simply because these security risks cannot be fully safeguarded from the third party. For instance, many Web providers safeguard personal information from reaching the third party and only allowed to reach the third party if it cannot infringe upon his or her rights (Dixon, 2004). In addition, a number of agile developers such as web providers work for the safety of their clients and thus they have policies that govern all the operations related to their sites. For example, in order to protect information of a client, some websites have cookies which enable them to analyze how regular users make use of the sites. Moreover, IP address and other relevant information are truncated and stored just in case there is a breach of the policies. When anyone goes against the set policies, some website easily track down such cases and take legal action. Google is a common site which applies the agile development technology and has a given set of policies that govern or regulates its use. References Dixon, R. (2004). Open Source Software Law. Artech House. Print Maner, W. (1996). “Unique Ethical Problems in Information Technology”, Science and Engineering Ethics, vol.2, p.137-54. Martin, M. & Schinzinger, R. (2005). Ethics in Engineering, McGraw Hill, Boston. Print Read More