Exploring ethical values in software systems: A systematic literature review

Context: Ethics has attracted considerable attention in the field of software engineering. The prevalence of software-intensive systems and how they become an integral part of people's lives makes it essential for software engineers to care about the potential impacts and injustice of software systems on people. The social and ethical implications on individuals and society play an important role in the study of software engineering ethics. Objective: The general aim of this paper is to study the state of the art in ethics in software engineering and to understand ethical considerations in software design and development. Method: We conducted a systematic literature review (SLR) with an initial sample of 623 articles, of which 85 articles were selected as primary studies. Result: We created a body of knowledge on stakeholders and software engineering ethical values. More specifically, we provided a stakeholders map to identify different types of system stakeholders and presented a value model to categorize ethical values and recognize value relations. Conclusion: This SLR sheds light on the state of software engineering ethics. It highlights challenges such as the identification of indirect stakeholders, the lack of attention to their concerns, and the need for a stakeholder classification. The review emphasizes the importance of considering stakeholders’ concerns to uncover ethical values and discusses methods for value extraction, with a focus on the value model. There are needs to address particular ethical values, resolve value conflicts, and operationalize ethical values in software design. These findings offer valuable insights for future research and practice, encouraging a comprehensive integration of ethical aspects into software engineering.