European Professional Ethics Framework for the ICT Profession (EU ICT Ethics)

This document will provide an “European Professional Ethics Framework for the ICT Profession (EU ICT Ethics)” to support the vision of establishing a profession for the ICT workforce. It will thereby offer the possibility to coalesce other ethics focused initiatives around a common structure.
This ethics framework will be directly linked to EN 16234-1. It will incorporate the structural concept of EN 16234-1 and, in a comparable way, describe a blueprint of what is required and what competencies, skills and knowledge are needed to identify and address the ethical challenges that ICT professionals face in their work.
Therefore it will extend the ethics principles already described in the "Transversal Aspects of the e-Competence Framework" in such a way that concrete requirements and procedures can be defined and implemented in the respective context on the basis of the roles, methods and processes defined in the framework.
The Scope therefore is to crystalize ‘ICT Professional Ethics” into a manageable, structure “European Professional Ethics Framework for the ICT Profession” and to provide guidance on practical application provided by a methodology and application guide that will support the establishment of codes of ethics.

Europäischer berufsethischer Rahmen für den IKT-Beruf (EU ICT Ethics)

Evropski okvir poklicne etike za poklic IKT (etika EU ICT)

General Information

Status
Not Published
Public Enquiry End Date
31-May-2022
Technical Committee
Current Stage
5520 - Unique Acceptance Procedure (UAP) (Adopted Project)
Start Date
31-Mar-2022
Due Date
18-Aug-2022

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SLOVENSKI STANDARD
kSIST-TS FprCEN/TS 17834:2022
01-maj-2022
Evropski okvir poklicne etike za poklic IKT (etika EU ICT)
European Professional Ethics Framework for the ICT Profession (EU ICT Ethics)
Europäischer berufsethischer Rahmen für den IKT-Beruf (EU ICT Ethics)
Ta slovenski standard je istoveten z: FprCEN/TS 17834
ICS:
03.100.30 Vodenje ljudi Management of human
resources
35.020 Informacijska tehnika in Information technology (IT) in
tehnologija na splošno general
kSIST-TS FprCEN/TS 17834:2022 en,fr,de

2003-01.Slovenski inštitut za standardizacijo. Razmnoževanje celote ali delov tega standarda ni dovoljeno.

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kSIST-TS FprCEN/TS 17834:2022
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kSIST-TS FprCEN/TS 17834:2022
FINAL DRAFT
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION
FprCEN/TS 17834
SPÉCIFICATION TECHNIQUE
TECHNISCHE SPEZIFIKATION
March 2022
ICS 03.100.30; 35.020
English Version
European Professional Ethics Framework for the ICT
Profession (EU ICT Ethics)
Europäischer berufsethischer Rahmen für den IKT-
Beruf (EU ICT Ethics)

This draft Technical Specification is submitted to CEN members for Vote. It has been drawn up by the Technical Committee

CEN/TC 428.

CEN members are the national standards bodies of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia,

Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway,

Poland, Portugal, Republic of North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and

United Kingdom.

Recipients of this draft are invited to submit, with their comments, notification of any relevant patent rights of which they are

aware and to provide supporting documentation.

Warning : This document is not a Technical Specification. It is distributed for review and comments. It is subject to change

without notice and shall not be referred to as a Technical Specification.
EUROPEAN COMMITTEE FOR STANDARDIZATION
COMITÉ EUROPÉEN DE NORMALISATION
EUROPÄISCHES KOMITEE FÜR NORMUNG
CEN-CENELEC Management Centre: Rue de la Science 23, B-1040 Brussels

© 2022 CEN All rights of exploitation in any form and by any means reserved Ref. No. FprCEN/TS 17834:2022 E

worldwide for CEN national Members.
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kSIST-TS FprCEN/TS 17834:2022
FprCEN/TS 17834:2022 (E)
Contents

European foreword ...................................................................................................................................................... 5

Introduction .................................................................................................................................................................... 6

1 Scope ......................................................................................................................................................................... 7

2 Normative references ......................................................................................................................................... 8

3 Terms and definitions ......................................................................................................................................... 8

4 Structure of the Professional Ethics Framework ....................................................................................10

4.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................................ 10

4.2 Basic Definitions ................................................................................................................................................................... 10

4.2.1 How to define ICT professional ethics .......................................................................................................... 10

4.2.2 EN 16234-1 (e-CF) definitions of ICT and ICT professional ................................................................ 10

4.2.3 CEPIS definition of ICT professionals............................................................................................................ 11

4.2.4 IFIP and ACM definition of ICT professionals ............................................................................................ 11

4.2.5 Professionalism in related e-Skills projects ............................................................................................... 11

4.2.6 ICT professional ethics in related e-Skills projects ................................................................................. 11

4.2.7 Professional ethics ................................................................................................................................................ 12

4.2.8 ICT Professional ethics ........................................................................................................................................ 13

4.3 The history of the EC and European values in terms of ethics ........................................................................ 13

4.3.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................. 13

4.3.2 Human dignity ........................................................................................................................................................ 13

4.3.3 Freedom .................................................................................................................................................................... 14

4.3.4 Democracy ................................................................................................................................................................ 14

4.3.5 Equality ...................................................................................................................................................................... 14

4.3.6 Rule of law ................................................................................................................................................................ 14

4.3.7 Human rights........................................................................................................................................................... 14

4.4 European values of ICT ethics - prior research and policy work ................................................................... 14

4.5 Framework content and structure ............................................................................................................................... 17

4.6 ICT Professional Ethical Responsibilities .................................................................................................................. 20

4.7 Language and the Ethics Framework ........................................................................................................................ 21

4.8 Standards and frameworks, the liaison with ethics ............................................................................................. 22

5 Ethical theories, models and frameworks in ICT fields ........................................................................23

5.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................................ 23

5.2 Exploitation of theories, models and frameworks ................................................................................................ 24

5.2.1 Ethical theories and models .............................................................................................................................. 24

5.2.2 Ethical frameworks .............................................................................................................................................. 24

5.2.3 Methodology and scope ...................................................................................................................................... 25

5.2.4 Ethics reflection from theory to ICT practice, the role of Case Studies cases .............................. 25

5.3 Challenges and solutions to real settings implementation ............................................................................... 46

5.3.1 ICT related challenges ......................................................................................................................................... 47

5.3.2 Strengths and weaknesses of the implementation process ................................................................. 47

5.3.3 Effective components of the framework ..................................................................................................... 47

5.3.4 Professionalism and organisational ethics ................................................................................................. 48

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6 ICT professional ethics as part of competence and knowledge......................................................... 48

6.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................................................... 48

6.2 How to use with EN 16234-1 (e-CF) ............................................................................................................................ 49

6.3 How to use with CWA 16458 (EU Role Profiles) .................................................................................................... 49

6.4 How to use with other ethics codes.............................................................................................................................. 50

6.5 How to use with tools/methods ..................................................................................................................................... 50

7 Taking the framework into the organisation: context, culture and leadership .......................... 50

7.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................................................... 50

7.2 What is the value proposition? ...................................................................................................................................... 51

7.3 The five main ICT business areas and their connection to EN 16234-1 (e-CF) ....................................... 52

7.4 Organisational steps to implement ICT ethics within an organization ...................................................... 53

7.5 Implementation of the framework in the daily life of an organisation ...................................................... 54

7.5.1 Leadership and Organizational structure .................................................................................................... 54

7.5.2 Implementation method ..................................................................................................................................... 55

8 Implementation: ICT Ethics framework (ICTEF) in practice .............................................................. 56

8.1 ICTEF implementation guidelines ................................................................................................................................ 56

8.2 Guidelines for code of ethics implementation ......................................................................................................... 56

8.2.1 Drafting Code of Ethics ........................................................................................................................................ 57

8.3 Guidelines for Ethics Committee/Ethics Board Implementation .................................................................. 60

8.3.1 Scope ........................................................................................................................................................................... 60

8.3.2 Independence .......................................................................................................................................................... 61

8.3.3 Transparency ........................................................................................................................................................... 61

8.3.4 Composition ............................................................................................................................................................. 61

8.3.5 Ethics Committee - Tasks ................................................................................................................................... 62

8.4 Guidelines for the Ethical Dialogue ............................................................................................................................. 62

8.5 Guidelines for Ethics Canvas ........................................................................................................................................... 63

8.6 Guidelines to use ICT Ethics framework in an ICT Professional body ......................................................... 65

8.7 Procedures............................................................................................................................................................................... 65

8.7.1 Internal procedure to trigger ICT ethics issues ......................................................................................... 66

8.7.2 Public procedure to trigger ICT ethics issues............................................................................................. 66

8.8 Register ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 67

8.9 Ethics by design tools ......................................................................................................................................................... 67

8.9.1 The life cycle of technology: The entire value chain ................................................................................ 67

8.9.2 Ethical Operating System OS Toolkit (Ethical OS Toolkit) .................................................................... 68

8.10 How to use with other frameworks ............................................................................................................................. 69

9 How to use ICT Professional Ethics Framework in education and training.................................. 70

10 Assessment of the development and engagement with ICT ethics ................................................... 71

10.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................................................... 71

10.2 Ethics assessment in ICT Professionalism................................................................................................................. 71

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10.2.1 European initiatives of e-competences’ assessment ......................................................................... 72

10.2.2 Specific indicators of ethics performance in ICT professional environments ........................ 74

10.2.3 Design of a Life Cycle Readiness Assessments ..................................................................................... 80

10.3 The benefit of digital toolkits for ICT ethics competences and skills’ assessment ................................. 81

10.4 Specific ICT Use case development as a “proof of concept” for assessment toolkits ............................. 82

10.4.1 Use Cases for assessment .............................................................................................................................. 82

11 Ethics in ICT Professional roles .....................................................................................................................86

11.1 Benefits of thinking ethically in ICT professional environments ................................................................... 86

11.2 ICT profiles aligned to ethical attitudes: factors affecting this alignment ............................................... 87

Annex A (informative) Overview of EN 16234-1 (e-CF) competences compared with Berlin

Declaration ethics values .........................................................................................................................................89

Bibliography .................................................................................................................................................................98

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kSIST-TS FprCEN/TS 17834:2022
FprCEN/TS 17834:2022 (E)
European foreword

This document (FprCEN/TS 17834:2022) has been prepared by Technical Committee CEN/TC 428 “ICT

Professionalism and Digital Competences”, the secretariat of which is held by UNI.

This document is currently submitted to the Vote on TS.
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kSIST-TS FprCEN/TS 17834:2022
FprCEN/TS 17834:2022 (E)
Introduction

The current document, the European Professional Ethics Framework for the ICT Profession (EU ICT

Ethics), provides a foundation for defining practical guidelines to improve ethics for different

organisations across all technical areas. In addition, it provides a basis for aligning existing guidelines and

initiatives and establishing comparisons to support the vision of an ICT professional workforce. It offers

the possibility to coalesce other ethics focused initiatives around a common structure.

Professional ethics is an essential component of any profession; mutual understanding leads to improved

outcomes and differentiates professions from jobs. A professional ICT workforce across European society

and industry (founded on the four building blocks of ICT professionalism: Professional Ethics; Education

and training; Bodies of Knowledge; Competences) will support and enhance the exchange of ICT

resources and services throughout Europe and internationally.

This document is related to EN 16234-1 e-Competence Framework (e-CF) – A common European

Framework for ICT Professionals in all sectors – Part 1: Framework and incorporates its structural

concept. It describes a blueprint of requirements and highlights connections to the competences, skills

and knowledge required to identify and address the ethical challenges that ICT professionals face in daily

activities.

This strong association with the EN 16234-1 (e-CF) naturally extends to the ethics principles described

in the Transversal Aspects of the EN 16234-1 (e-CF) and enables ethics related requirements and

procedures to be defined and implemented in the context of specific ICT professional roles and

environments.

This document organises Professional Ethics into a manageable structure and provides guidance on

practical use through a methodology and application guide to support implementation through a range

of methods and contexts. It also provides a platform for universities and vocational training institutions

to design and improve ICT ethics courses specifically for ICT professionals. This makes qualification

attainment more transparent in European internal markets and, in addition, it offers input into

accreditation processes provided by relevant national ICT professional bodies.

The European Professional Ethics Framework for the ICT Profession benefits all ICT Professionals and all

stakeholders reliant upon the capability of ICT Professionals. This includes wider society and a trusted,

ethical and professional ICT workforce that contributes to enabling the goal of an economically vibrant,

socially just and sustainable Europe.

The document is based on a fixed structure, which is intended to ensure the uniformity of such CEN

documents and their reliable placement in the context of other standards, specifications and reports.

The following recommendations are given to support the readability of the document.

• Newbie / Beginner: If new to the topic of professional ethics and for example an ICT professional

or a manager in an organisation primarily interested in the basic aspects, it is recommended to

first read clauses 4.3 and 4.4 as an introduction. Then read clause 5.2.4 and especially the Case

Studies in clause 5.2.5 before reading clause 5 in total and the rest of the document from the start.

• ICT Ethics in the European Context: If interested in the embedding of the Framework in the

European context, then read clause 4.4 before reading the rest of clause 4 in context.

• Ethics and organisational culture: If interested in the connection between organisational

culture and ICT ethics and want to know how you can implement this topic in your organisation,

it is recommended to jump directly to clause 7.

• Practical application: If already on the way to take some practical first steps in the field of ICT

professional ethics in an organisation and you are interested in practical help and tools, it is

recommended to jump directly to clause 8.
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1 Scope

This document contains basic information and fundamental considerations on embedding ICT in

European values. It includes concepts and structures for using the framework and practical suggestions

for the concrete implementation of organisational and individual aspects as scoped by the European ICT

Professionalism framework and its basic underlying references.

The scope of occupations associated with Information and Communication Technology is very wide and

therefore, to define a boundary, this document is based upon the target audience of the EN 16234-1 “e-

Competence Framework (e-CF) – A common European Framework for ICT Professionals in all sectors –

Part 1: Framework”.

Beneficiaries and users of this document include educational institutions embracing universities and

VET, public and private, certification providers, industry, including HR departments, large companies and

SMEs, and the ICT professional community.

An extended benefit of a common ethics framework is the enhanced perception of ICT as a ‘professional’

career. The overall attractiveness of employment within ICT from the perspective of potential employees

will be improved by the establishment of a recognised ICT Profession in which ethics play a significant

role.

EN 16234-1 (e-CF) is the starting point and guiding document for this technical publication, being closely

connected with the other deliverables and references for a shared European language for ICT

professional development.
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FprCEN/TS 17834:2022 (E)
2 Normative references

The following documents are referred to in the text in such a way that some or all of their content

constitutes requirements of this document. For dated references, only the edition cited applies. For

undated references, the latest edition of the referenced document (including any amendments) applies.

EN 16234-1:2019, e-Competence Framework (e-CF) – A common European Framework for ICT

Professionals in all sectors – Part 1: Framework

FprCEN/TS 17699:2021, Guidelines for developing ICT Professional Curricula as scoped by EN16234-1 (e-

CF)
3 Terms and definitions
For the purposes of this document, the following terms and definitions apply.

ISO and IEC maintain terminological databases for use in standardization at the following addresses:

• IEC Electropedia: available at http://www.electropedia.org/
• ISO Online browsing platform: available at http://www.iso.org/obp
3.1
Information and Communication Technology (ICT)

digital computers and internet (communication) systems, including software, hardware and

networks
[SOURCE: EN 16234-1:2019, definition 3.1]
3.2
Information and Communication Technology (ICT)

cross sector of enterprises, including manufacturers, product suppliers or

service providers relating to the ICT field
[SOURCE: EN 16234-1:2019, definition 3.2]
3.3
ICT professional

Person having the competence to plan, build, run, enable and/or manage ICT and having a professional

ICT qualification and/or ICT occupational experience; they include both employees of ICT companies and

ICT employees of organisations in all other sectors; they are all in the scope of this document

[SOURCE: EN 16234-1:2019, definition 3.3]
3.4
competence

demonstrated ability to apply knowledge, skills and attitudes for achieving observable results

[SOURCE: EN 16234-1:2019, definition 3.5]
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kSIST-TS FprCEN/TS 17834:2022
FprCEN/TS 17834:2022 (E)
3.5
knowledge

a body of facts which can be applied in a field of work or study (know what to do)

[SOURCE: EN 16234-1:2019, definition 3.6]
3.6
skill

ability to carry out managerial or technical activities and tasks, and this may be cognitive or practical

(know how to do it)
[SOURCE: EN 16234-1:2019, definition 3.7]
3.7
attitude

representing the human element of an e-competence and reflecting the way a Person integrates

knowledge and skills and applies them in a contextually appropriate manner
[SOURCE: EN 16234-1:2019, definition 3.8]
3.8
transversal aspects

cross-cutting topics that are relevant to all competences defined by the EN 16234-1 (e-CF); each

transversal aspect is provided by a title and a generic description that may be applied, dependent upon

context by, ‘being aware of’ or ‘behaving proactively’ with regard to the transversal aspect description;

awareness and proactivity influence attitude linking with knowledge and skills as applied in the

definition of competence in EN 16234-1 (e-CF)
[SOURCE: EN 16234-1:2019, definition 3.9]
3.9
behavioural skills

interactive skills used to successfully engage with situations in the workplace, they may refer to work

quality, social interaction or emotion. Examples include, communication, empathy, attention to detail and

integrity
[SOURCE: EN 16234-1:2019, definition 3.10]
3.10
learning level

level indicating a grading and may be represented by a formal qualification; they generally derive from

an education system or indicate a grading in a taxonomy of intellectual or learning behaviours (like

memorising, applying, interpreting) and have a relationship with proficiency levels but are to be

distinguished from these
[SOURCE: EN 16234-1:2019, definition 3.12]
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kSIST-TS FprCEN/TS 17834:2022
FprCEN/TS 17834:2022 (E)
4 Structure of the Professional Ethics Framework
4.1 Introduction

This clause provides an overview of the key components of the ICT Professional Ethics Framework.

Firstly, it provides some definitions and contextual information on the history of the European

Community and European values in terms of ethics; further it explains the more recent Berlin Declaration

[1] on Digital Society and Value-based Digital Government and other international contributions on ICT

and ethics. It then provides Table 3 showing how these foundational documents can be adapted and

refined to develop clear ethical guidance for ICT professionals by articulating the nature of ICT

professional ethical obligations into more detailed ethical knowledge items (EKIs).

4.2 Basic Definitions
4.2.1 How to define ICT professional ethics

This requires definition firstly of ethics and then of the ICT profession. Ethics is generally understood as

normative value-based activity or discussion i.e. what should be done, what is the ‘right’ thing to do, what

values should be used to guide action? It is not purely descriptive. Ethics is often quite closely connected

to regulations and the law e.g. the General Data Protection Regulation reflects the ethical value placed on

privacy and the ethical disapproval of the misuse of personal data. Ethics, though, is distinct from the law

as it includes personal conscience and values. The law can only imperfectly capture these and can indeed

contradict them in some cases. It is possible for the law to be unethical (e.g. racial segregation is unethical

but it has been legal in the past). Claiming a law is unethical in terms of flouting commonly, even if not

necessarily universally agreed, ethical values of, for example, equality is not in itself a legal defence if one

breaks the law though it would count as a valid ethical position. Law also has the power of state sanction

which ethical guidelines generally do not or only in quite a weak form. In terms of professional ethics this

varies quite considerably between professions. A doctor can be struck off the medical register and no

longer allowed to practise but an IT professional cannot.

The ICT Profession must then also be defined followed by an elaboration of how this can be defined in

terms of ethical aspects. The following clause reiterates the definition in the EN 16234-1 (e-CF) and

includes additional detail from CEDEFOP, CEPIS. CEDEFOP and CEPIS are included as additional

important contributors to discussion on ICT skills and professionalism within the European context.

...

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