CAD Professional Ethics & Standards 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which scenario BEST illustrates a violation of professional confidentiality by an application developer?
- Sharing anonymized performance metrics in a conference talk
- Discussing client database schemas with a friend outside the company (Correct answer)
- Reporting a security flaw to the internal security team
- Documenting proprietary algorithms in internal wikis
Correct answer: Discussing client database schemas with a friend outside the company
Disclosing client-specific technical details to unauthorized parties outside the organization is a direct breach of professional confidentiality.
Question 2: An open-source license requires that any modifications be released under the same license. A developer incorporates the library into a proprietary product without complying. This violates:
- Service-level agreements
- Intellectual property and licensing obligations (Correct answer)
- Data privacy regulations
- Non-disclosure agreements
Correct answer: Intellectual property and licensing obligations
Copyleft open-source licenses such as GPL impose binding legal and ethical obligations to release derivative works under the same terms.
Question 3: The concept of 'informed consent' in software applications PRIMARILY means that:
- Users must pass a literacy test before using the app
- Users are clearly informed about data collection and agree before processing occurs (Correct answer)
- Developers inform management before collecting user data
- Applications must include consent forms only for medical data
Correct answer: Users are clearly informed about data collection and agree before processing occurs
Informed consent requires that users receive clear, understandable information about how their data will be used and actively agree before collection begins.
Question 4: A developer notices that a colleague is committing code under a false identity to circumvent audit trails. Ethically, the developer should:
- Ignore it because it does not affect their own work
- Confront the colleague privately and encourage self-reporting
- Report the behavior through the appropriate ethics or compliance channel (Correct answer)
- Replicate the practice to maintain parity
Correct answer: Report the behavior through the appropriate ethics or compliance channel
Circumventing audit trails undermines accountability; the ethical obligation is to report such misconduct through established compliance or ethics channels.
Question 5: Which practice BEST supports the ethical standard of transparency in software development?
- Obfuscating source code to protect trade secrets
- Providing stakeholders with accurate project status reports including known risks (Correct answer)
- Releasing only successful test results to management
- Withholding defect counts until after the release
Correct answer: Providing stakeholders with accurate project status reports including known risks
Transparency requires honest and complete communication about project status, defects, and risks to enable informed decision-making by stakeholders.
Question 6: When a developer's personal moral values conflict with a lawful but ethically questionable project, the MOST professional response is to:
- Refuse all future assignments from that manager
- Raise concerns through appropriate internal channels and, if unresolved, consider recusal or resignation (Correct answer)
- Comply silently to protect job security
- Publicly expose the project on social media
Correct answer: Raise concerns through appropriate internal channels and, if unresolved, consider recusal or resignation
Professional ethics calls for raising concerns internally first; if the conflict remains irresolvable, recusal or resignation preserves personal integrity without causing unnecessary harm.
Question 7: According to the IEEE-CS/ACM Software Engineering Code of Ethics, software engineers shall act in a manner consistent with the PUBLIC INTEREST, which includes:
- Maximizing shareholder returns at all times
- Approving software only when it is safe, meets specifications, and passes appropriate testing (Correct answer)
- Prioritizing speed to market over quality
- Keeping all known defects undisclosed until a patch is ready
Correct answer: Approving software only when it is safe, meets specifications, and passes appropriate testing
The public interest principle requires software engineers to certify work only when it meets quality, safety, and specification standards that protect end users.
CAD Professional Ethics & Standards 3
Which scenario BEST illustrates a violation of professional confidentiality by an application developer?