IEEE Standard Model Process for Addressing Ethical Concerns during System Design

Abstract

A set of processes by which organizations can include consideration of ethical values throughout the stages of concept exploration and development is established by this standard. Management and engineering in transparent communication with selected stakeholders for ethical values elicitation and prioritization is supported by this standard, involving traceability of ethical values through an operational concept, value propositions, and value dispositions in the system design. Processes that provide for traceability of ethical values in the concept of operations, ethical requirements, and ethical risk-based design are described in the standard. All sizes and types of organizations using their own life cycle models are relevant to this standard. © Copyright 2022 IEEE

Scope

The standard establishes a set of processes by which engineers and technologists can include consideration of ethical values throughout the stages of concept exploration and development, which encompass system initiation, analysis, and design. This standard provides engineers and technologists with an implementable process aligning innovation management processes, system design approaches, and software engineering methods to help address ethical concerns or risks during system design. IEEE Std 7 000(TM) does not give specific guidance on the design of algorithms to apply ethical values such as fairness and privacy. © IEEE 2022 All rights reserved.

Purpose

The goal of this standard is to enable organizations to design systems with explicit consideration of individual and societal ethical values, such as transparency, sustainability, privacy, fairness, and accountability, as well as values typically considered in system engineering, such as efficiency and effectiveness. Projects conforming to IEEE Std 7000 balance management commitments for time and budget constraints with the long-term values of social responsiveness and accountability. To enable this, the commitment of top executives to establish and uphold organizational values is important. © IEEE 2022 All rights reserved.

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