Addressing Ethical Concerns: Guidelines for Quality Requirements in Requirements Engineering
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Journal Title
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Volume Title
Perustieteiden korkeakoulu |
Master's thesis
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Authors
Date
2024-05-20
Department
Major/Subject
Computer Science
Mcode
SCI3042
Degree programme
Master’s Programme in Computer, Communication and Information Sciences
Language
en
Pages
63+3
Series
Abstract
Ethical concerns play an important role in shaping decisions in software develop- ment. However, existing literature tends to address certain ethical concerns more comprehensively than others. Specifically, quality requirements such as privacy and security receive more extensive attention compared to transparency and fairness. This underscores a notable gap in research, particularly concerning ethical concerns regarding quality requirements within RE. The goal of this thesis was to identify guidelines to address ethical concerns in the RE process, focusing on privacy, security, transparency, and fairness. In the literature review, the thesis identifies and synthe- sizes ethical guidelines to address these concerns. Furthermore, the thesis utilizes empirical research, conducted through eight semi-structured interviews, to provide supplementary insights and guidelines alongside the findings synthesized from the literature review. The guidelines derived for privacy highlight the need for explicit user consent and GDPR compliance, while security guidelines prioritize encryption for data protection and reliability. Transparency guidelines emphasize informing customers about data usage to build trust, focusing on accessibility of information to both users and stakeholders. Fairness guidelines stress using diverse data to mitigate bias and implementing mechanisms to evaluate algorithms to ensure fairness. The conclusion highlights that transparency and fairness are relatively understudied quality requirements in RE, despite holding significant importance. It also highlights that institutional resistance to change and limited understanding of emerging technologies impede the effective adoption of fairness measures.Description
Supervisor
Kauppinen, MarjoThesis advisor
Balasubramaniam, NagadivyaKeywords
requirements engineering, ethics, software engineering, ethical concerns, quality requirements