Ethical Considerations in Software & Information Systems Engineering: The Case of a Local Hospital in Adamawa State of Nigeria

Abstract

For more than a decade now, Nigeria has been witnessing a continuous improvement and boom in the
application of Information and Communications Technology in all the vital sectors of her economy. There
is an increasing dependency on computer programs for critical infrastructures, business processes and
operations. This boom is not abating, and is resulting in a corresponding increase in the number of
companies and individuals who join an increasing population of software engineers, enterprise application
developers and programmers. But regrettably, the boom has given rise to a host of ethical issues. The
ability to make sound ethical judgement and decision is becoming very important as “half-baked” software
developers produce critical software that are supposed to run critical business functions and operations. To
compound this problem the few technical schools or colleges that produce the very needed programmers
and web designers do not have a clue that there is something negative creeping in from another angle;
they do not have qualified or versed instructors to arm their graduates with the basic foundation
knowledge in software professional ethics which is needed to effectively practise the art of software
engineering in the society at large.This paper investigates the state of software engineering ethics in the
face of Nigeria’s upwelling Information and Communications Technology and intention to produce and use
locally designed and implemented software. The paper calls attention to the nonchalance, dispassion and
mass negligence attendant to this issue. It further highlights and calls for adherence to sound ethics at all
levels of software production in the Nigerian society at large. The paper uses a case-study and scenario to
illustrate how to start doing so.