Professional Ethics & Standards Flashcards
7 cards from real CAD practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Professional Ethics & Standards flashcards as text
A developer receives a request to build a feature that would enable covert surveillance of employees without their knowledge. The developer should:
Answer: Clarify legal requirements and refuse if the feature violates privacy laws or ethical standards
Building covert surveillance tools that violate legal or ethical standards contradicts professional ethics regardless of employer authority.
In the context of professional ethics, 'due diligence' in software development MOST closely means:
Answer: Thoroughly investigating and verifying work to an appropriate professional standard
Due diligence requires that developers apply reasonable care, skill, and thoroughness to ensure the quality and safety of their work.
A Certified Application Developer is engaged as both a developer and a paid consultant to the vendor supplying the project's main framework. This situation MOST likely creates:
Answer: A conflict of interest
Being financially tied to a vendor while making technology decisions for a client creates a conflict of interest that must be disclosed.
Which action demonstrates the ethical obligation of 'professional honesty' when estimating project timelines?
Answer: Providing a realistic estimate based on current knowledge and disclosing uncertainty
Professional honesty requires that estimates reflect genuine analysis and that uncertainty is transparently communicated to stakeholders.
When a developer discovers an undocumented backdoor in a legacy codebase they have inherited, the MOST ethical immediate step is to:
Answer: Document the finding and report it to the security or compliance team
Undocumented backdoors are a security and compliance risk; ethical practice demands immediate documentation and escalation to the security or compliance team.
The ethical principle of 'non-maleficence' in software development requires developers to:
Answer: Avoid contributing to systems that cause unnecessary harm
Non-maleficence, adapted from bioethics, obligates software professionals to avoid building or deploying systems that cause unnecessary harm to individuals or society.
A developer is asked to sign off on security testing they did not personally perform. Under professional ethics standards, they should:
Answer: Refuse to sign off on work they cannot personally verify
Signing off on unverified work misrepresents professional accountability; the ethical obligation is to refuse attestation for work one cannot directly verify.