Which Way to go

crossroads

http://cesletter.com – 24/05/2016

No matter which career path you take in life you will have to navigate multiple crossroads, times where you must decide which action is most ethical, which one will mean the lesser of two evils. As a builder this could be the choice between fixing the 20mm mistake you made or leaving it for the owners to find 10 years later when they go to renovate their house, in terms of Information Technology however, this will most likely relate to the solutions you offer your client or employer and the data you work with.

 

The Lesser of Two Evils

Where I have been working for the last 8 and a half years we have a large customer database and it is essential for our operation that we can access this information upon request, it is not uncommon for someone to ask us to access information about someone else, this is usually someone claiming to be their husband, wife, partner or sibling, but it is against both privacy laws and our company policy to divulge this information to anyone other than the account holder without prior consent, this can be a frustrating inconvenience to the genuine people but these laws and policies are in place to protect the sensitive information we store about the account holder and for good reason, as I learnt the hard way while I was still in my first week of being a trainee.

I once had a client ask me to search for an invoice for ‘their’ product to see if it was still inside of warranty, being new to the business and oblivious to the laws, policies and procedures I was happy to oblige and even though he could not provide a phone number (the easiest way to search the database) I managed to find the invoice via the surname he provided me, only the invoice was under a female’s name, the man reassured me that it was his wife’s name.

This is where I would now inform the client about the privacy laws and tell them I need consent from her first but being unaware of the laws and eager to be helpful I printed him the invoice at which time he noted that the address was ‘incorrect’ and asked which address and phone number we had in the system, I then told him what we had on file and he wrote them down, this was the first sign of something fishy, even for a newbie, I mean who has to write down their own address? It was very shortly after that I was made aware about why he would write it down and the gravity of the mistake I had made.

One of my colleges at the time knew both the man and his wife personally and although they were still legally married they had separated, badly. I learnt that the man had just been released from a 3-month prison term which he had earned by physically assaulting her multiple times, she had moved house and changed phone numbers so that he could not get in contact with her after his release, and with my lack of care and knowledge I had ruined that. I also learnt that the man was later arrested for breaching his bail conditions and vandalising not only his wife’s new house but her car as well.

To exactly what extent the vandalism was I still do not know but, being that her car was written off and replaced under her insurance, I can imagine it was fairly severe. I was lucky not to have any action taken against me personally but I remember feeling absolutely terrible and even being the immature 15-year-old that I was, I thought I should have known better.

I believe this experience falls into multiple categories, working with information, learning laws, making mistakes and learning to work with clients. I often deal with clients who become irritated and angry because I cannot provide them with the information they’re asking for, for some people this could become an ethical dilemma, knowing that you have the information right in front of you, there’s a 90% chance they’re honest and giving it to them would save them some time, do you help the person or continue telling them that you can’t? In times like this I reflect upon the experience I explained above and this ‘dilemma’ quickly becomes a no-brainer, no matter how much of a scene they make, how angry they get with me or how loud they yell.

 

How my Experience Relates to The Institute of Information Technology Professionals Tenets

jobs

http://www.hospa.org – 24/05/2016

The Institute of Information Technology Professionals in New Zealand have eight ethical tenets:

“Good faith – Members shall treat people with dignity, good faith and equality; without discrimination; and have consideration for the values and cultural sensitivities of all groups within the community affected by their work;

Integrity – Members shall act in the execution of their profession with integrity, dignity and honour to merit the trust of the community and the profession, and apply honesty, skill, judgement and initiative to contribute positively to the well-being of society;

Community-focus – Members’ responsibility for the welfare and rights of the community shall come before their responsibility to their profession, sectional or private interests or to other members;

Skills – Members shall apply their skills and knowledge in the interests of their clients or employers for whom they will act without compromising any other of these Tenets;

Continuous Development – Members shall develop their knowledge, skills and expertise continuously through their careers, contribute to the collective wisdom of the profession, and actively encourage their associates to do likewise;

Informed Consent – Members shall take reasonable steps to inform themselves, their clients or employers of the economic, social, environmental or legal consequences which may arise from their actions;

Managed Conflicts of Interest – Members shall inform their clients or employers of any interest which may be, or may be perceived as being, in conflict with the interests of their clients or employers, or which may affect the quality of service or impartial judgement;

Competence – Members shall follow recognised professional practice, and provide services and advice carefully and diligently only within their areas of competence.”

(http://iitp.nz/about/ethics – 24/05/2016)

I feel that my experience relates to the “Good Faith”, “Integrity”, “Community-focus” and “Informed Consent” tenets.

 

Which of These Tenets Are Most Important to Me?

The Institute of Information Technology Professionals (IITP) tenets are not listed in order of importance; I have been asked to list the three that I think are most important so in no particular order this is what I think and why.

 

Continuous Development

I believe this is extremely important in any industry and even more so in industries that are as fast paced as Technology and IT, one of my colleges completed their Bachelor of IT 5 years ago and the one piece of advice he threw at me over and over, and over, after he learnt I was going to study for my own Bachelor, was that I would need to continuously keep on top of the latest technologies and developments if I wanted to keep my qualification relevant, along with outlining the fact that almost everything he learnt during his studies is now obsolete.

 

Competence

As Simon mentioned, when it comes to family functions he is known as “the IT guy” and I can relate to this heavily, coming from a family where over 85 people can be considered “close relatives” there is only two of us, a cousin who lives in China and myself, who have, for as long as I can remember, been considered the “IT Guys” in the family. What the others do not quite understand is that asking someone like my cousin, who is a Project Manager, or myself who is, in their words, “good with computers” to fix the broken screen on their iPad is similar to asking an Auto Electrician to rewire their house, sure we have knowledge that kind of relates and we could probably figure it out, but it would still probably be best to talk to a technician/electrician.

For this reason, I think that it is important, for us as IT professionals, to be able to keep the “I can do anything” part of our egos in check and to be confident in drawing the line by telling people that the IT industry is much larger than they know along with advising them if something is beyond our abilities.

 

Good Faith

This should be self-explanatory, I think as humans this should be engrained into our nature at the very heart of our basic morals, I cannot claim to be a saint but over time and through many regrettable mistakes I have learnt that everyone deserves to be treated with dignity, good faith and equality.

 

The IITP and NMIT

NMIT and the IITP are, in a way, interconnected. Mary Proctor, Manager of Digital Technologies at NMIT is a part of the IITP – Nelson Committee, along with this the Bachelor of IT (BIT) at NMIT has been accredited by the IITP. Because the IITP are aligned with IT institutions from 54 other countries all students that graduate the BIT programme will receive an internationally recognised qualification, meaning their qualification will be valid in many different countries so they can travel and work in different countries all over the world.

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