Honesty and Integrity in Software Engineering
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This is the second article in the series “After 15 years in software engineering I have won the stress. You don’t need to wait — start it now! “, in which I will share my personal experience of overcoming stress after 15 years of working in the software industry.
Since I’ve been working in this industry for quite some time, I’ve realized that stress is an unavoidable aspect of the job. However, I have developed a number of strategies and techniques that have enabled me to effectively manage it.
I hope that my insights will be beneficial to anyone who is currently dealing with stress in the software industry or any other field. In this article, I will explain why honesty and integrity are among the most crucial factors in this field.
As software engineers, it is our responsibility to maintain the highest level of ethical conduct in our work, including principles such as transparency, fairness, honesty, and integrity.
Reliable Conduct
When working as a team, demonstrating reliability and trustworthiness is essential for establishing positive relationships and earning the respect of others. To be viewed as trustworthy, it is essential to consistently fulfil your obligations, to be honest, transparent, and reliable, to communicate effectively, to be respectful, to maintain confidentiality, and to accept responsibility for your actions.
To meet your obligations, you have to keep your promises and agreements. Being open and honest about your actions, plans, and mistakes is what honesty and transparency are all about. Here we run into a big problem: it’s hard to say for sure when something will be done. If you don’t know how long a particular task will take, my advice is to ask for a day to think about it.
For example, imagine this task: “A notification alert system” — this could be a very complex task, if we consider how the notification system works. But if we need integration with existing systems, then more or less we just need to review documentation and make PoC.
One day of analysis can prevent rewriting code for days or weeks. Also, imagine having a critical production error and not knowing what’s going on. This is one of the most stressful things you can go through. So, be honest with yourself first, then with other people, and ask for time to think. If you don’t get that time, make it loud and clear what will happen if you don’t.
This way of doing things will make you reliable, which means you’ll always meet deadlines and do a good job. On the other hand, if you want to avoid misunderstandings, you need to talk clearly and openly.
If you want to be treated with respect, you have to show respect and kindness to everyone, no matter who they are or what they do. And being responsible means taking ownership of your actions and decisions, which shows that you care about being honest. By always acting in these ways, you can build a reputation as a professional who can be counted on. This can help you in both your personal and professional life.
Maintaining Confidentiality & Protecting Sensitive Information
Respecting privacy is a key part of keeping people’s trust and keeping sensitive information safe. To do this, it is important to understand the confidentiality agreement, limit access to confidential information, be aware of your surroundings, use secure communication methods, document and store confidential information securely, respect the privacy of others, and know any laws or rules about confidentiality.
By knowing what information is considered confidential and what the agreement says about it, you can make sure that you only share it with people who need it to do their jobs, and that it is protected with the right security measures.
When talking about private information, being aware of your surroundings and using secure ways to talk can help keep the information from being overheard or stolen. Keeping private information in a safe place, like a locked cabinet or secure cloud storage, can help keep it from getting into the wrong hands. Also, it’s important to respect the privacy of others and be aware of any laws or rules about privacy to make sure you’re following them.
Resisting Improper Influence
To keep your professional integrity and avoid a big chunk of stress, it’s important to say no to bad influences. To do this, you need to know what improper influence is, find out where the influence is coming from, stay objective, communicate clearly, write down any instances of improper influence, ask for help and support, and report any illegal or unethical behavior.
If you know what kinds of pressure or influence are wrong, like bribery, fraud, or coercion, you will be better able to tell when you are being subjected to them. You can also get a better idea of what’s going on by trying to figure out who is having the most influence on you and why.
Keeping an objective point of view and being clear about where you stand on the issue can help you stand up to the influence. Keeping detailed records of any times you were influenced in a bad way, including the source, the kind of influence, and what you did to fight it, can be helpful if you need to report the behaviour or ask for help.
You can also resist the influence by asking for help from a boss, coworkers, or a professional group. Also, if the influence is illegal or against the rules, it is important to tell the right people. By doing these things, you’ll be able to stand up to bad influences and keep your professional integrity and reduce stress in case you are under pressure.
How to avoid conflicts of interest at work and keep things honest
It’s important to avoid conflicts of interest if you want to be honest at work. When your personal or financial goals get in the way of making good decisions, this is often called a conflict of interest.
You can make sure your decisions are fair and keep your reputation as a trustworthy professional if you are aware of and deal with conflicts of interest.
Finally
The last thing we can say about consequences is that they are the results or outcomes of an action or choice. In terms of professional ethics, it’s important to think about what might happen if you break ethical rules or standards.
This can include damage to a person’s reputation and credibility, loss of business, bad effects on the public, and bad effects on the organization or industry, all of which are clear signs of a very uncomfortable position that can make stress worse.
If you break the rules of professional ethics, it can hurt your reputation and make it hard to build trust and good relationships in the future. It can also hurt the reputation and credibility of an organization, industry, or person as a whole, making it harder to get and keep customers, clients, or funding.
Professionals need to be aware of these possible, unfavourable outcomes, and they need to work hard to company with ethical principles and standards in order to avoid them.
P.S. If you believe I can help with something, don’t hesitate to contact me, and I will reach you as soon as possible. admir.mujkic@infinitymesh.com
Cheers! 👋
