Ana Monica V.

Ramos

Honor Pledge for Assignments

“I affirm that I shall not give or receive any unauthorized help on this assignment and that all work
shall be my own.”

As an initiation into the study of ethics, carefully read each of the following scenarios. After reflection,
come up with your own answer to each of the questions.

Scenario 1 (8 points)

Alexis, a gifted high school student, wants to become a doctor. Because she comes from a poor family,
she will need a scholarship in order to attend college. Some of her classes require students to do extra
research projects in order to get an A. Her high school has a few older PCs, but there are always long
lines of students waiting to use them during the school day. After school, she usually works at a part-
time job to help support her family. One evening Alexis visits the library of a private college a few miles
from her family’s apartment, and she finds plenty of unused PCs connected to the Internet. She
surreptitiously looks over the shoulder of another student to learn a valid login/password combination.
Alexis returns to the library several times a week, and by using its PCs and printers she efficiently
completes the extra research projects, graduates from high school with straight A’s, and gets a full-ride
scholarship to attend a prestigious university.

Questions:
1. Did Alexis do anything wrong? Yes, She is guilty of gaining unauthorized access to the school's
network.
2. Who benefited from Alexis’s course of action? Alexis benefited the most from this case because she
received a higher grade when she graduated.

3. Who was hurt by Alexis’s course of action? The person who owned the data Alexis used was the one
who was affected by her actions. Because the owner's identity is being used in this ungrateful act, he or
she can be held responsible for everything.
4. Did Alexis have an unfair advantage over her high school classmates? Yes, she had an unfair
advantage in terms of getting a good grade. She used other people's information to access PCs and
printers to complete her researches, and as a result, she received a perfect score, which I find to be
unfair to other students, and she is not deserving of the scholarship.

 
Scenario 2  (10 points)

You are the senior software engineer at a start-up company developing an exciting new product that will
allow salespeople to generate and email sales quotes and customer invoices from their smartphones.
Your company’s sales force has led a major corporation to believe your product will be available next
week. Unfortunately, at this point, the software still
contains quite a few bugs. The leader of the testing group has reported that all of the known bugs
appear to be minor, but it will take another month of testing for his team to be confident the product
contains no catastrophic errors. Because of the fierce competition in the smartphone software industry,
it is critical that your company be “first to market.” To the best of your knowledge, a well-established
company will release a similar product in a few weeks. If its product appears first, your start-up company
will probably go out of business.

Questions
1. Should you recommend the release of the product next week?

I will not recommend the product or software to be produced next week because there are still
bugs in the product that could cause a problem for the customer. The company should be aware of the
issues so that users or customers do not leave a negative review or comment on the product or
software. Although other companies will release products soon, it is preferable to wait until the product
or software is ready for release so that the company's reputation does not suffer. Even if the other
company has released their product, the software engineering team can improve these products by
looking at it.
2. Who will benefit if the company follows your recommendation?

For me, I believe that one of the greatest benefits of my decision is that it will benefit my
company in the long run, because if we release too soon, the product will most likely have some
problem or bug when it is released and used by the customer. However, my decision comes with its own
risk, because this move will most likely benefit the competition from other companies, because they will
release their product first to the public and we will not have a similar product to compete with, they will
have a significant advantage over us.
3. Who will be harmed if the company follows your recommendation?

According to the scenario presented, our company may be harmed if we release the product
before it is ready. However, in my opinion, it is not acceptable to release a product that is not yet ready
for sale because it will negatively impact users and our company. From a problem standpoint, if a user is
dissatisfied with our product, the company's reputation will suffer as other businesses take advantage of
our poor website. However, our company will be harmed in the short term, and it will affect our
relationships with all of our customers. As we all know, the customer is an integral part of the product
and the primary user of the product. So, in order to receive positive feedback, we must maintain the
integrity of our company's website. In the long run, if we release the product with the error, we risk
losing customers and, worst of all, our company will go bankrupt, which will have an impact on my
career as a software engineer. As the company's senior software engineer, I'll make sure the product is
finished before releasing it to the public, even though we won't because our product is ready to sell.
4. Do you have an obligation to any group of people that may be affected by your decision?

I believe we have a responsibility to the major corporation to whom we announced our product
was ready. However, because the product was not ready, we will have to take this hit. We will try to
make a fair deal with this company and start our business on the basis of honesty rather than lying to
them, which could be detrimental to our company's future. Rather than delivering a product that may
fail later, it is preferable to build client trust so that our product is known for its quality rather than its
speed. Furthermore, it is still unknown whether the other upcoming product released by another
company will be fully functional and bug-free. If their product is released sooner than ours, it is
preferable for a professional senior software engineer to compete in a healthy environment to see
which product performs better.
5. What additional information, if any, would help you answer the previous questions?

There is some additional information to support the previous question given, the first of which is
the company name and strength. The question states that we are required to postpone our product
rather than releasing it as soon as possible, and the answer is yes. This is because our company's sales
force, which led a major corporation, understood what could happen if the product was released early
with bugs; our sales force stated that why publish something that isn't strong enough to attract
customers, but instead attracts customers to complain about our product and compare it to our
competitor. This wills not only damage our company's reputation, but it will also result in a decrease in
customers because customers must wait for an update if one is available, and downloading the first
version is a bit scary for customers to use because it contains bugs and errors. According to the above
statement, our company's sales force has stated that they will complete and fix all bus and error, and
that if the product has been published, there will be an update so that customers can feel more at ease
and not be hesitant to purchase the first version product. When it comes to updates, if the first version
went well, customers will naturally become impatient and spread rumors about a new version of our
product, resulting in an increase in customer rate.

Evaluate the scenarios from:

a Kantian perspective.

an act utilitarian perspective.

 a rule utilitarian perspective.

 the perspective of social contract theory

the perspective of virtue ethics

Scenario 3  (10 points)

Alexis, a gifted high school student, wants to become a doctor. Because she comes from a poor family,
she will need a scholarship in order to attend college. Some of her classes require students to do extra
research projects in order to get an A. Her high school has a few older PCs, but there are always long
lines of students waiting to use them during the school day. After school, she usually works at a part-
time job to help support her family. One evening Alexis visits the library of a private college a few miles
from her family’s apartment, and she finds plenty of unused PCs connected to the Internet. She
surreptitiously looks over the shoulder of another student to learn a valid login/password combination.
Alexis returns to the library several times a week, and by using its PCs and printers she efficiently
completes the extra research projects, graduates from high school with straight A’s, and gets a full-ride
scholarship to attend a prestigious university.

Kantian Perspective

When Alexis used a student's login and password to gain access to the library's computers and
printers, she made a mistake.

Act Utilitarian Perspective

Alexis reaped a significant benefit. Others were only slightly harmed. Her actions were morally
correct.

Rule Utilitarian Perspective

A rule utilitarian is more than likely to follow it. "Getting access to another person's private
information is wrong," because people who are unable to protect confidential information like credit
card numbers can cause a great deal of harm. As a result, Alexis made a mistake by accessing the
library's computers and printers using someone else's login and password.

Social Contract Theory Perspective

Alexis used the private college's computers without permission, infringing on their property
rights. Her action was incorrect.

Virtue Ethics Perspective

“Virtue ethics undermines attempts to hold people responsible for their bad actions” where in in
this case, Alexis action is not morally right an action because being a virtuous person would act in
righteous act.
Scenario 4  (10 points)

You are the senior software engineer at a start-up company developing an exciting new product that will
allow salespeople to generate and email sales quotes and customer invoices from their smartphones.
Your company’s sales force has led a major corporation to believe your product will be available next
week. Unfortunately, at this point, the software still contains quite a few bugs. The leader of the testing
group has reported that all of the known bugs appear to be minor, but it will take another month of
testing for his team to be confident the product contains no catastrophic errors. Because of the fierce
competition in the smartphone software industry, it is critical that your company be “first to market.” To
the best of your knowledge, a well-established company will release a similar product in a few weeks. If
its product appears first, your start-up company will probably go out of business.

Kantian Perspective

It would be incorrect to release the software without informing potential users of any potential
bugs. A decision to release the product could be justified if the hospital staff was fully informed that it
was in beta testing.

Act Utilitarian Perspective

To conduct the analysis, we must weigh the potential benefits and harms to the patients,
nurses, hospital, and members of the start-up company for each course of action.

Rule Utilitarian Perspective

The company appears to be on safe ground as long as it fully discloses the product's status.

Social Contract Theory Perspective

The customer of a product has the right to expect the manufacturer to stand behind the
product's quality. It would be incorrect for the company to market the product as completely debugged
and 100% reliable in this case. The hospital, on the other hand, might be willing to beta test the device
in exchange for a reduced price or to assist the company in certifying its reliability. The company could
start shipping the device to hospitals that were aware of the software's current state.

Virtue Ethics Perspective

This case is not morally acceptable from a virtue standpoint. We all know that telling your target
customer about all possible outcomes for your product is essential in building trust between the
company and the customer. However, because this case demonstrates unethical business practices, a
company may decide not to enter the market.