【Team Homework 5】翻译Software Engineering Code of Ethics and Professional Practice的序言

翻译后的序言如下：

• 目前，计算机已经成为推动经济、工业、政治、医疗、教育、娱乐和整个社会发展的核心技术。而在这当中，软件工程师通过亲身参与或者教授软件系统的分析、说明、设计、开发、授权、维护和测试等实践工作，为社会做出了巨大贡献。正是由于他们在软件系统开发中起到的重要作用，软件工程师有很大的机会去造福或者危害社会，并有能力去促使或影响他人造福或者危害社会。为了尽可能确保这些影响是有利于社会的，软件工程师必须承诺自己所从事的职业能造福社会并且能够得到大众认可尊重。这一承诺要求软件工程师必须遵守下列《职业道德规范和实践标准》。
• 这一《规范》包括了有关职业软件工程师的行为和决断的八项准则，涉及软件工程方面的实际工作者、教育工作者、经理、主管、决策制定者以及相关的受训人员和学生。这些准则指出了个人、小组和团体参与软件工程的道德责任关系，以及这些关系中的主要责任。每一条原则都是对这些关系中的责任做出的说明。这些责任覆盖了软件工程师的人性，他们对那些受软件工程师工作影响的人们的特别关照，以及软件工程实践的独特因素。《规范》规定任何已经成为或者想成为软件工程师的人必须遵守这些原则。
• 本规范的每个部分都不应该被断章取义孤立使用去判断人们有意或无意犯下的错误。因此这些原则和条款并不是非常完善详尽的。在实际使用过程中，不应当将条款中的可接受部分和不可接受部分分开来讲。同时，《规范》也不是一个简单的道德算法，可以产生所有的道德上的决定。在某些情况下，一些标准可能会相互抵触或者与其他地方的标准相互抵触。在这种情况下，就要求软件工程师能够运用自己的道德判断能力，在特定的情况下做出最符合《规范》的行为。
• 解决道德冲突最好的方法是对基本原则进行全面的思考，而不是去盲目的依靠一些具体条目。这些原则应当会促使软件工程师们去更广泛的思考哪些人是他们工作的受众，去思考他和他的同事是否给予其他人足够的尊重，去思考对他们工作有足够了解的公众会如何看待他们的决定，去思考他们的决定如何影响最小，以及去思考他们的行为是否符合一名优秀的专业软件工程师的标准。在所有这些思考中，对公众健康、安全与福利的关注是最主要的。也就是说，“公众利益”是《规范》的核心。
• 由于软件工程这一行业的多变性与苛刻性，它需要一份相关的规范去应对自身不断出现的新情况。《规范》记录了这个行业的道德立场与标准。因此即使是对于这样普遍性的要求，《规范》依然为软件工程师以及他们的经理提供了支持。《规范》无论是对团队中的个人还是团队本身来说都提供了一个道德基础。《规范》也规定了那些对软件工程师或其团队来说道德上不正当的要求。
• 这份《规范》不仅仅能用来对那些遭到质疑的行为的性质进行判断，它还具有非常重要的教育功能。由于这份《规范》表达了这个行业对于职业道德的一致认识，因此它是教育公众和那些有抱负的专业人员有关软件工程师道德责任的一种工具。

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附原文如下：

PREAMBLE

Computers have a central and growing role in commerce, industry, government, medicine, education, entertainment and society at large. Software engineers are those who contribute by direct participation or by teaching, to the analysis, specification, design, development, certification, maintenance and testing of software systems.

Because of their roles in developing software systems, software engineers have significant opportunities to do good or cause harm, to enable others to do good or cause harm, or to influence others to do good or cause harm. To ensure, as much as possible, that their efforts will be used for good, software engineers must commit themselves to making software engineering a beneficial and respected profession. In accordance with that commitment, software engineers shall adhere to the following Code of Ethics and Professional Practice.

The Code contains eight Principles related to the behavior of and decisions made by professional software engineers, including practitioners, educators, managers, supervisors and policy makers, as well as trainees and students of the profession. The Principles identify the ethically responsible relationships in which individuals, groups, and organizations participate and the primary obligations within these relationships. The Clauses of each Principle are illustrations of some of the obligations included in these relationships. These obligations are founded in the software engineer’s humanity, in special care owed to people affected by the work of software engineers, and the unique elements of the practice of software engineering. The Code prescribes these as obligations of anyone claiming to be or aspiring to be a software engineer.

It is not intended that the individual parts of the Code be used in isolation to justify errors of omission or commission. The list of Principles and Clauses is not exhaustive. The Clauses should not be read as separating the acceptable from the unacceptable in professional conduct in all practical situations. The Code is not a simple ethical algorithm that generates ethical decisions. In some situations standards may be in tension with each other or with standards from other sources. These situations require the software engineer to use ethical judgment to act in a manner which is most consistent with the spirit of the Code of Ethics and Professional Practice, given the circumstances.

Ethical tensions can best be addressed by thoughtful consideration of fundamental principles, rather than blind reliance on detailed regulations. These Principles should influence software engineers to consider broadly who is affected by their work; to examine if they and their colleagues are treating other human beings with due respect; to consider how the public, if reasonably well informed, would view their decisions; to analyze how the least empowered will be affected by their decisions; and to consider whether their acts would be judged worthy of the ideal professional working as a software engineer. In all these judgments concern for the health, safety and welfare of the public is primary; that is, the "Public Interest" is central to this Code.

The dynamic and demanding context of software engineering requires a code that is adaptable and relevant to new situations as they occur. However, even in this generality, the Code provides support for software engineers and managers of software engineers who need to take positive action in a specific case by documenting the ethical stance of the profession. The Code provides an ethical foundation to which individuals within teams and the team as a whole can appeal. The Code helps to define those actions that are ethically improper to request of a software engineer or teams of software engineers.

The Code is not simply for adjudicating the nature of questionable acts; it also has an important educational function. As this Code expresses the consensus of the profession on ethical issues, it is a means to educate both the public and aspiring professionals about the ethical obligations of all software engineers.