Professional responsibility, legal obligations, and the effect of software on the people who use it.
These are the statements the Software Design and Development syllabus makes about Ethics, Law and Social Impact. Dux records each one against the questions you answer, so you can see which of them you have actually been tested on and which have never been asked.
The effect of software on work, access and privacy, and the responsibilities of a developer.
Professional standards, conflicts of interest and the obligation to report a harmful system.
Data protection, licensing and ownership of code, and the practical consequences of each.
How automation changes work, and the difference between displacing a task and displacing a person.
Consequences of failure in safety-critical systems, and the assurance practices they demand.
Designing for users with disability, and the standards that make accessibility testable.
HSC Software Design and Development - Examination Shape is 100 marks in 180 minutes. Questions on Ethics, Law and Social Impact are not one shape repeated: the command word decides what the marker is looking for, and the mark value decides how much of it. These are the ones Software Design and Development uses.
Dux writes practice for this module in exactly these shapes, so the drill is the same task the paper sets — not a general knowledge quiz with the module name on it.
Ethics, Law and Social Impact is module 4 of 4 in Software Design and Development. Students routinely lose marks because a question spans two modules, so the neighbouring modules are worth reading next to this one.
Dux diagnoses Software Design and Development dot point by dot point, then writes questions in the shape this course marks. Written answers come back marked against the bands.