Part 2 - Case Study

Part 2 : Case Study

Your team is to study the given scenario and critically address the questions that follow:

Case Study

            You are the senior software engineer at a start-up company developing an exciting new  product for handheld computers that will revolutionize the way nurses keep track of the hospitalized patients. Your company’s sales force has led hospital administrators to believe your product will be available next week. Unfortunately, at this point the package 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 erros.

            Because of the fierce competition in the medical software industry, it is critical that your company be the “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 release of the product next week?

2.      Who will benefit if the company follows your recommendation?

3.      Who will be harmed if the company follows your recommendation?

4.      Do you have an obligation to any group of people that may be affected by your decision?

5.      Identify and match the ACM code of ethics that relate to this scenario.