Discussion Assignment 9 Ethical Decision Making (Chapter 9) (20 points)
Here are three scenarios involving ethical decision making.
For this discussion, the assignment will take place in two phases:
Post at least one message in two of the discussion forum threads.
Continue to participate in two discussion forums. You may respond to other people’s postings or add original posts.
A. Discussion forum: "Automated Pharmacy" 
You are an experienced programmer working on part of a project to bring automation to a pharmacy. This will automatically fill the most common prescriptions and allow the pharmacists to focus on more complex and less common prescriptions. 
The project is behind schedule and risks losing some critical first sales that have already been made with a firm delivery date. In order to make the delivery date, it has been proposed that documentation be finished after the delivery. This would cause the testing schedule to be condensed to half the allotted time. Any problems not caught in testing will be dealt with in patches and updates. 
Would the ethical considerations be the same if the software was to automate an auto parts store? A stationary store?
Note: This exercise is adapted from the text A Gift of Fire, by Sara Baase.
B. Discussion forum: "Sharing Trade Secrets"
Suppose there are two large, competing telecommunication firms in your city. The companies are hostile to each other. You have worked for one of the companies for five years in a position that gives you access to company trade secrets. You are now interviewing for a job with the other company that would be a substantial step-up in your career. During the interview, you get the impression that the company expects you to share your knowledge, including the trade secrets, if they hire you. What are the ethical issues involved? What are the legal issues? Are they the same as the ethical issues? 
You have signed a non-disclosure agreement as part of your condition of employment with your current company. Does this change the ethics involved? Suppose the first company fired you, would the ethics involved change?
Note: This exercise is adapted from the text A Gift of Fire, by Sara Baase.
C. Discussion forum: "LANSCAPE" 
You work for a large electronics distributor. Your job is to provide training and to be a troubleshooter and consultant for users of the company's local area network. In the past, your job has required you to spend a lot of time traveling from building to building to assist users. Now, however, you have a utility program called LANSCAPE that lets you monitor the activities of any user who is logged in. You can see exactly what is being displayed on the user's screen, and can even take over the session if you need to. Your boss tells you, in confidence, that she suspects one or more employees of dealing illegal drugs on company premises. She has no proof, but suspects that they are using the phone and maybe even the computer to make deals. She asks you to monitor the employees and to provide her with a log of all the computer activities of the suspected employees. What are the ethical considerations involved?
Grading:
Participating in the discussions as described above can earn up to 20 points as follows. (Please see the grading scale given in the Discussion Guidelines.)
Phase 1 - 5 points for each of two initial postings
Phase 2 - 5 points for each of two additional postings