Transparency in software development

Transparency as a software development practice is disclosing what is happening ‘behind the scenes’ during the creation process of the software. This means having the methods, developers, and decisions that have been made along the way available to those who are affected by or invested in the software. These people can be referred to as stakeholders. Transparency is necessary for customers buying a piece of software so that they understand the product they are buying. If there is too much transparency with a piece of software, then another entity could unfairly use the code, processes, or ideas in another piece of software. Ethical issues arise when businesses must decide what information they will share about a piece of software and with whom it will be shared.

Methods

Open-source code

One method of keeping a piece of software transparent is by having the code be open-source. This means that one entity gives licenses to developers which involves the entire source code. The code can be modified by all of developers under the license . Even if customers do not modify the code, they can see exactly how the piece of software was implemented if they wish. This allows them to make informed decisions about how and when to use the software. This also ensures that the developers and copyright owners are held accountable to Another form of open-source code is free code and software available to anyone on the internet. An example would be public GitHub (insert link to GitHub) repositories. The owner of the repositories usually maintain the ability to approve or deny changes to the code base. The actual code can be seen by anyone. Ethics come up in these scenarios when people are deciding how they will use the code in their own personal or professional projects. They must decide how far they will go; whether they will only use the code as inspiration, or if they will copy and paste the code, with or without the owner’s permission, into their own work.