ATMC ICT351 ICT Professional Practice Assignment 1 Semester 2, 2019 ATMC ICT351 ICT Professional Practice Assignment 1 Page 2 of 7 Assessment and Submission Details Marks: 30% of the Total Assessment...

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ATMC ICT351 ICT Professional Practice Assignment 1 Semester 2, 2019 ATMC ICT351 ICT Professional Practice Assignment 1 Page 2 of 7 Assessment and Submission Details Marks: 30% of the Total Assessment for the Course Due Date: Monday 19th of August 2019 by 5pm Students must submit the assignment through Blackboard using SafeAssign Note: Each student MUST make a second copy of the assignment and this copy MUST be produced within 24 hours of it being requested by the Course Co-ordinator. Failure to produce the second copy of the assignment when requested may result in loss of marks or a fail grade for the assignment. Task Below is a case study about a questionable situation in the ICT industry. You are to write a 1500 word case study report (course outline contains misprint of word count) about the case study making sure that you address each part of the ‘Doing Ethics Technique’. For this case study report you are not required to include an executive summary nor the authorisation, limitations, method or scope sections that are normally included in an introduction. Use the title of the case as the title for your case study report. Your case study report must be produced as a single Microsoft Word document and should include the following:  Title (use the case study title);  Introduction;  Body of the report;  Conclusion; and  Reference list using Harvard referencing. Rationale The case study report design is to help you to build skills towards achieving the learning objectives, by requiring you to:  identify ICT-related ethical issues in a case study;  methodically use the ‘Doing Ethics Technique’ to analyse a case study such that each part of the technique is used to build a full understanding of the complexity of the case;  recognise the interests of all stakeholders involved in the case;  apply knowledge of sustainability frameworks, theories and concepts to build an appropriate response;  demonstrate understanding and knowledge of relevant legislation/standards/codes of conduct/universal principles associated with social responsibility, ethical conduct and sustainable practice; and  write a case study report which includes a description and analysis of the issues and your recommendations for a solution. ATMC ICT351 ICT Professional Practice Assignment 1 Page 3 of 7 Case Study Adapted from ACS Code of Professional Case Studies Australian Computer Society April 2014 Software Procurement Nirmal is the IT manager in a government department with more than 500 staff members and six branches across Australia. His department has decided to acquire an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. A request for tender for the procurement of the software was advertised in a number of Australian newspapers. Two local companies responded to the advertisement and sent their offers to the department. When Nirmal opened the envelopes and examined the offers he found that company A’s offer is slightly better than company B’s offer. To his surprise, company B’s offer was made by his best friend Devraj, who is the general manager of company B. Company A’s software appeared to be easier to use and easier to modify compared to company B’s software. Although the initial cost of company B’s software appeared to be less than that of company A’s, the former may require some ‘tools-consultants’ to modify it and some ‘business-consultants’ to assist in running it, which might eventually raise the total cost. To complicate matters more, Nirmal received a phone call from Devraj, who urged him to favour his offer, as he is quite desperate to get this deal. He also reminded him that the ‘tools and business consultants’ who might be needed in the project will be recruited from his home country which means more jobs for his countrymen and in turn more money sent home. Concerned about his connection to Company B, Nirmal undertakes some preliminary research into Company A. He discovers that the head of the government department, Robert Brown, has an interest in Company A and could stand to benefit substantially if the contract is given to Company A. Office chatter within the department suggests that Robert Brown has a habit of getting what he wants and an ability of finding out who is responsible when that doesn’t happen. Nirmal has worked hard to achieve his position and is proud of his job and his work ethic, he now finds himself in a difficult position, what should he do? ATMC ICT351 ICT Professional Practice Assignment 1 Page 4 of 7 Assignment Requirements and Deliverables The case study report must be written in Microsoft Word and the file named as follows:_ICT351_Assignment_1.docx For example if your student ID was 12345678 the file would be named: 12345678_ICT351_Assignment_1.docx Note that is to be replaced with your actual student ID. Submission The completed assignment is to be submitted by the due date of Monday 19 August 2019 at 5pm through SafeAssign. The assignment will be assessed according to the marking rubric (Appendix A). Late submission of the assignment will result in submission penalties as detailed in section 10.3 of the Course Outline. Release of Grades Assignment grades will be available on the Blackboard. Where an assignment is undergoing investigation for alleged plagiarism or collusion the grade for the assignment and the assignment will be withheld until the investigation has concluded. Assignment Guidelines A good understanding of ICT Ethics will be required for successful completion of this assignment. It is imperative that students take heed of the following points in relation to doing this assignment: 1. Ensure that you clearly understand the requirements for the assignment – what has to be done and what are the deliverables. 2. If you do not understand any of the assignment requirements – ask your lecturer. 3. Each time you work on any aspect of the assignment reread the assignment requirements to ensure that what is required is clearly understood. ATMC ICT351 ICT Professional Practice Assignment 1 Page 5 of 7 Doing Ethics Technique – Hints and Tips The 'Doing Ethics' technique is a process for analysing ethical issues in any scenario. It doesn't guarantee that what you come up with will be the best solution, but it does help you to think ethically. The technique may seem a little vague and perhaps lacking guidance, however the following might help you to understand how to apply the technique in order to better understand ethical analysis. Q1. What's going on? This is a synopsis of what the case is all about. It can be taken from a variety of perspectives, for example, from the perspective of a person raising a complaint, in which case, it is a synopsis of the complaint. It can be taken from the perspective of an involved observer, in which case, it is an outline of what was observed, without going into too much detail. Where you see multiple perspectives, you should describe them here. Q2. What are the facts? This is a descriptive list of the facts of the case. This doesn't just describe the case; it lists the facts as they are known (from all sources and perspectives), and also what one might reasonably consider to be possibilities. For example, if a person was raising a complaint, Question 1 would outline their complaint, and Question 2 would provide the evidence to both support and refute that argument. All such facts must be demonstrable or supportable. It would be worthwhile to assign a credibility weighting to each fact, to help with later analysis. Q3. What are the issues? This is a list of ALL the issues that are involved in the case. In Question 5 we can extract only the ethical issues for further analysis, but for now, simply extract and describe every relevant issue you can think of. Q4. Who is affected? This is a list of all the stakeholders involved in the case. This need not be restricted to the ones specifically mentioned in the case; you should consider who/what else might be affected by the issues listed at Question 3, regardless of the degree to which they are affected. In this question, you should describe how each stakeholder is affected, both positively and negatively, and perhaps comment on the degree of effect. Q5. What are the ethical issues and implications? For this question, you need to extract only the ethical issues identified at Question 3. List the ethical issues, discuss them in terms of classical ethical theory (as best you can), and discuss their implications - on the stakeholders and on the community in general. Q6. What can be done about it? This question elicits a general idea of what can be done to resolve the case, whether those ideas are practical, possible, or not. Generally what kind of resolutions might there be? You need not go into great detail to answer this question, as its purpose is to provide a basis for answering Question 7, but you do need to think broadly and laterally to come up with several alternatives. ATMC ICT351 ICT Professional Practice Assignment 1 Page 6 of 7 Q7. What are the options? This question requires that you list and describe (in detail) all the possible options that might be available to resolve the case. Be creative here; the most obvious options are not always the best. It's possible that not all options will result in a positive outcome for all stakeholders. List and describe at least three different options, and discuss the benefits and detriments of each. Q8. Which option is best - and why? In answering this question, you need to assess which of the options described in Question 7 is the best. You are recommending one of several options here, so you need to argue for your recommendation, providing a solid basis in fact and reasonable (and supportable) conjecture. You should add some of your own intellectual property, as an ICT professional, into answering this question. Supporting your argument based on classical ethical theory is not a requirement at this point, but it is what would be expected if you were a professional Ethicist. Appendix A Criteria High Distinction Distinction Credit Pass Fail Identification of issues, and determination of those that are classed as