SoDIS Project AuditorTM
4.0
A decision support
tool using the SoDIS
process
What is SoDIS?
“Software Development Impact Statement”
Developed by experts in Computer Ethics



Don Gotterbarn of East Tennessee State
University and
Simon Rogerson of DeMontfort University in the
UK., in conjunction with
SEERI the Software Engineering Ethics Research
Institute
Overview


Software development failures are
common and expensive (eg,
INSYS)
Minimising the risk of failure in
software projects can be managed
in two ways
1.
2.
Improved project management
Analysis of the impact of the process
on stakeholders
Project Management



Widely studied and understood
Builds on existing engineering knowledge
Many standards and tools available



PMBOK
MSProject, Gantt charts etc
Defined methodologies (eg, SDLC, CMM)
Stakeholder Impact Analysis

???
Successful software
Does what it is designed to do
 Timely
 Affordable

Excellent software

Positive effect on stakeholders
What is a stakeholder?
Those directly and indirectly
affected by the project
and its product
SoDIS

uses stakeholder impact analysis to identify, evaluate
and mitigate risks in the software development process.

encourages the developer to think of
• people,
• groups, or
• organizations
related to the project and how they are related to the
proposed project and its products or deliverables.
The SoDIS Project Auditor

TM
a software package that uses
SoDIS to facilitate the process
of auditing projects.
SoDIS Project Phases
1.
2.
3.
Feasibility Analysis
Requirements Analysis
Detailed Analysis
1. Feasibility
Environment section
 Task Analysis Section
 Stakeholder Analysis Section
 Stakeholder/Task Analysis Section

1. Feasibility
Environment
Section

Asks about the presence of those things
that will improve the chances for a
successful project.
Methodology defined
 Project team selected
 Deliverables defined
 Stakeholders identified

1. Feasibility

Task Analysis Section
Allows user to evaluate the tasks in the
project plan
Deliverables defined
 Agreement among stakeholders
 Risk plan

1. Feasibility
Stakeholder Analysis Section
Asks about items related to the various
stakeholders in a project.
 The stakeholders in a project need to first
be identified.

Is project plan acceptable to stakeholder?
 Is project understood by stakeholder?

1. Feasibility

Stakeholder/Task Analysis Section
Asks questions about the relationship
between each task and each stakeholder.
Does this task have an impact that is
acceptable to this stakeholder?
 Etc for all tasks, all stakeholders

2. Requirements Analysis

The purpose of the Analysis form is to
help identify every requirement where
there is an ethical issue potentially
compromised for some stakeholder by the
completion of that requirement.
2. Requirements Analysis
2. Requirements Analysis


Questions are formed for each
requirement-issue-stakeholder triple.
This form is designed to help identify
every requirement where there is a
potential ethical issue compromised for
some stakeholder by the completion of
that requirement
.
Requirements Analysis
2. Requirements Analysis

Having identified any risks
Enter concerns/solutions
 Generate reports for discussion/action

3. Detailed Analysis


Considers the impact of the project on
stakeholders using a Work Breakdown
Structure (WBS) eg MS Project
Similar process to Requirements Analysis
but in more detail



Stakeholder identification
Task breakdown
SoDIS analysis
Conclusion
Most software projects are run on an ad
hoc basis.
Rigorous stakeholder analysis is a new
concept for software engineering.
SoDIS can
 help avoid software development failures
 help produce better software