Bevan Rudge JavaScript and web technologist

This is an answer to a question I wrote for an old 1st year computer science paper in preparation for an exam. I put a fair bit of effort into and thought it was worth sharing. The Question was something a long the lines of "Give your opinions on the following statement; Employers should require software engineers to accept a code of ethics and professional conduct."

Software Engineers, can not be forced and should not be expected to accept any code of ethics or code of professional conduct.

It is not necessary that SEs accept such a code. Any such code, as objective as it may be intended, is - by nature - subjective. Therefore it is to be expected that SEs as individuals shall disagree on details of such a code.

Further, it is unfair to expect an individual SE to conform to a code they disagree with. Such an expectation should only be placed on any individual by trusted authorities through laws that aim to provide for a safe and fair society.

Agreement on the majority of such a code by the majority of SEs, is however a fair expectation, if and only if such a code is as objective as reasonable possibly. By this, an objective code will have been contributed to by a wide diversity of SEs.

Disagreement with the parts code of does not make the SE bad, irresponsible or incompetent. However the more a SE disagrees with an objective code, the more their ability to take responsibility for their efforts and their competence as a SE is questionable.