Let's Test Ethical!
A tester is a not a robot just checking correctness.
A good tester also helps bridge the gap between business and code, questioning requirements so we deliver software customers actually need.
An even better tester digs deeper and asks: Is there no harm done? Are we increasing goodness in the world? Great questions. But how to decide what is good?
In this talk I will shed light on how to make ethical questions part of your way of working.
People have been pondering questions of goodness for thousands of years. There is not one right answer – there is not even one right way to ask such questions. I will introduce three types of ethical theories that can help you approach goodness (warning: some philosophers will be mentioned) - illustrated by ethical statements from our industry (warning: some tech bro's will be mentioned).
We will then see those three approaches in action by applying an ethical decision making framework to cases you could encounter. Along the way you will be invited to participate on your phone to help me come up with different types of arguments and reach a final decision.
This talk will give you tools to spark and enrich ethical debates within your team and to test your software for goodness.
The three main types of ethical theories that we will examine are:
- Utilitarianism - goodness of the outcome (Peter Singer)
- Deontology - goodness of the action (Immanuel Kant)
- Virtue ethics - goodness of the actor (Confucius)