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Value-based engineering

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Value-based Engineering

Value-based Engineering (VBE) is a system development and innovation approach standardized in IEEE St. 7000 “Model Process for Addressing Ethical Concerns during System Design”, released in 2021.[1] The approach and the IEEE standard were developed over a five-year period based on the initial work published in "Ethical IT innovation: A value-based system design approach" published in 2015.[2] In the fall of 2022 it has been adopted by ISO as ISO/IEC/IEEE 24748-7000.[3] Value-based Engineering aims to foster innovation as well as to protect ethical concerns. It achieves this by considering the values and virtues relevant for direct and indirect stakeholders through an ethically founded elicitation of values and a translation into organizational and technical requirements, called ethical value requirements (EVRs), and the specification of corresponding system requirements.[4] VBE follows a sociotechnical perspective on system development.[5] VBE has a philosophical foundation in the value ontology of Max Scheler’s Material Value Ethics and in post-phenomenology. This means a commitment to a value definition of: “phenomena disclosing  the degree of desirability of something or someone, influencing the selection of available modes, means and ends of action.”[4] Following Max Scheler's value ontology, three ethical investigations are used to identify value clusters consisting of core values that are central to the system context and related value qualities (referred to in IEEE St. 7000TM as "value demonstrators") that are expressions of a core value. Among other things, it is this commitment to material value ethics and ethical investigation that distinguishes VBE from similar approaches such as value sensitive design. To ensure successful implementation of proposed VBE processes, a new role called Value Lead has been created which shall provide “… expertise and facilitative skills, bridging the gap between engineering, management, and ethical values in a constructive way.”[1] As a complement to IEEE St. 7000TM, VBE presents ten principles considered essential to ethical system design, as well as two risk-based pathways for specifying system requirements.[4]

VBE integrates insights from fields such as information design, systems engineering, value sensitive design, participatory design, privacy by design, human–computer interaction, material value ethics by Max Scheler, utilitarianism, deontology, virtue ethics and risk assessment into a comprehensive approach to ethical system design.

Engineering Process

In VBE, ethical system design is achieved through four processes aligned with ISO/IEC 15288 processes.

  • Concept of Operation and Context Exploration Process: This process aims to gain an initial understanding of the context, relevant stakeholders, legal, social, environmental, and ethical feasibility, and control over the intended external partners of a proposed system, and to develop a tangible concept of operations.[4]
  • Ethical Values Elicitation and Prioritization Process: The impact of a proposed system, if implemented on a large scale, on values and virtues is investigated using a utilitarian, virtue ethics, duty ethics, as well as a culture-specific perspective.[4] While the utilitarian perspective helps identify harms and benefits to the direct and indirect stakeholders identified earlier, the virtue ethics perspective identifies potentially harmful virtue effects, and the duty ethics perspective asks about the impact of the system on duty ethics principles.[4] In this process, identified core values that need to be protected or promoted by the system are grouped into value clusters, prioritized, and conceptualized by adding additional value qualities.
  • Ethically Aligned Design Process: During the first step of this process core values and their value qualities are translated into so called “Ethical Value Requirements” which are then specified into system requirements.[4] Unique to VBE is that either a threat analysis (low risk) or an impact assessment (high risk) is used for specifying system requirements, depending on the damage potential and probability of occurrence.[4] In a second step, a design is defined according to the previously defined requirements. In IEEE St. 7000TM, these two steps are separate processes related to software requirement specification and software design description.
  • Transparency and Information Management Process: This process accompanies the entire SDLC and aims primarily at creating transparency about the prioritized core values and their logical chain to the system requirements.

The Ten Principles

VBE complements IEEE St. 7000TM by introducing ten principles essential for  addressing ethical concerns during system design.[4]

  1. Ecosystem Responsibility: An organizations shall take responsibility for their ecosystem and therefore forgo services over which they have no control.
  2. Willingness to Renounce Investment: An organizations shall actively consider not investing in a system if there are ethical reasons for not doing so.
  3. Stakeholder Inclusiveness: A system shall be developed in open collaboration with the direct and indirect stakeholders or their representatives.
  4. Use Moral Philosophies: Ethical investigations shall be used to elicit values.
  5. Context Sensitivity: The system’s implementation context  shall be understood and potential impact anticipated.
  6. Respect for Regional Laws and International Agreements: An organization is recommended to respect the ethical principles of the laws and signed agreements in its target market region.
  7. Leadership Engagement: The management of an organization shall make a public and personal commitment to the chosen core values.
  8. Transparency of the Value Mission: An organization shall provide transparency on prioritized core values and their linkage to system requirements.
  9. Understanding Values in Depth:  A core value shall be understood in depth through conceptualization and its associated value qualities.
  10. Using Risk-Analysis for System Requirements Elicitation: EVRs shall be specified into system requirements through either a threat analysis (low risk) or an impact assessment (high risk).

See Also

References

  1. ^ a b "IEEE P7000 Working Group | IEEE-SA P7000 WG". sagroups.ieee.org. Retrieved 2022-11-01.
  2. ^ Spiekermann, Sarah (2016). Ethical IT innovation : a value-based system design approach. Boca Raton, FL. ISBN 978-1-4822-2636-2. OCLC 945217422.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  3. ^ "ISO/IEC/IEEE 24748-7000". ISO. Retrieved 2022-11-01.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Spiekermann, Sarah (2023). Value-Based Engineering: A Guide to Building Ethical Technology for Humanity. De Gruyter. ISBN 9783110793369.
  5. ^ Spiekermann, S. (2021). "What to Expect From IEEE 7000: The First Standard for Building Ethical Systems". IEEE Technology and Society Magazine. 40 (3): 99–100. doi:10.1109/MTS.2021.3104386. ISSN 0278-0097.
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