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Department of Informatics and Computing Engineering

16 de maio de 2019

Code of Ethics for Developers

With the increasing number of software applications that people use in their daily lives, software developers have a huge impact on the world. With power comes the responsibility to protect privacy and to create secure applications. Therefore, there should be created a Code of Ethics much like the Hippocratic Oath taken by physicians. However, one problem with these kind of ethical codes is that they only work when embraced by the majority of the developers and when becoming a part of educational training.

In the following lines, there are some points we consider that should be in the Code of Ethics for developers. Obviously, a Code of Ethics needs to be written by a group of professionals.

Focus of the developer:

• I create software for users and not for managers;
• I will share my knowledge with other developers and help them grow, much like other developers helped me;
• I will treat the people in my team as I would like to be treated by them;
• I will guide others to embrace and adhere to these principles;

Create transparency:

• I will help to make the work for product transparent so that we can make informed decisions about what still needs to be done and in what order;
• I will help to prioritize work for a product based on the value it has for the business, not on my personal preferences;
• I will ask for help when I’m stuck and keep motivating others to do the same;
• I will help shorten the feedback cycle for our product wherever I can, so that we can learn faster;

Product quality:

• I will not write code that I know is going to hurt the business in the long term unless there are strong business reasons to do so;
• I will help make technical dept transparent in whatever ways possible so that informed decisions can be made on paying back technical debt as soon as possible;
• I will always help to find a balance between the need for urgency and the need for quality, but never in a way which damages the product, the users or the reputation of the company I work for;

Starlight Software

By Luís Saraiva

Department of Informatics and Computing Engineering

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