A Meta-Synthesis of Ethics-Aware Software Engineering Practice: A Preliminary Framework

Authors

  • Senyeki Milton Marebane Tshwane University of Technology, South Africa
  • Ernest Mnkandla University of South Africa, South Africa
Pages Icon

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.63158/journalisi.v8i3.1583

Keywords:

Ethics-aware software engineering, Software engineering ethics, Qualitative meta-synthesis, Meta-ethnography, framework development

Abstract

The use of evidence-based practice to inform ethical software development is important for all stakeholders to achieve successful software and address the ethical needs of those affected by it. Although research exists on various mechanisms for supporting ethical software development, their integration into a framework that enables expansive ethics awareness and adherence is lacking. This study fills this gap by conducting a qualitative metasynthesis of studies that implemented and evaluated mechanisms to support ethics in software development. Meta-ethnography methodology was followed and supported by the PRISMA reporting guidelines to achieve the study's objective.   Most of the mechanisms identified in the four selected studies are oriented toward supporting the integration of ethics into software development in the artificial intelligence domain, rather than the broader software engineering ethics spectrum. The study contributes a conceptual framework for ethics-aware software engineering practice. The proposed framework requires empirical validation. In addition, Further studies are required to explore other resources reporting on other transformative technologies to expand the framework for improving the software engineering practice.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

[1] M. Dorin and S. Montenegro, “Ethical Lapses Create Complicated and Problematic Software,” in 2021 IEEE/ACM 2nd International Workshop on Ethics in Software Engineering Research and Practice (SEthics), Universität Würzburg, Computer Science Viii, Würzurg, Germany: IEEE, 2021, pp. 1–4.

[2] S. Marebane and E. Mnkandla, “Analysing Selected South African e-Government Failures through the Theory of Unintended Consequences,” in IST-Africa 2023 Conference, M. Cunningham and P. Cunningham, Eds., Tshwane: IEEE, 2023, pp. 1–10. doi: 10.23919/IST-Africa60249.2023.10187874.

[3] F. B. Aydemir and F. Dalpiaz, “A Roadmap for Ethics-Aware Software Engineering,” in 2018 IEEE/ACM International Workshop on Software Fairness (FairWare), 2018, pp. 15–21. doi: 10.23919/FAIRWARE.2018.8452915.

[4] A. Rashid, J. Weckert, and R. Lucas, “Software engineering ethics in a digital world,” Computer (Long. Beach. Calif)., vol. 42, no. 6, pp. 34–41, 2009, doi: 10.1109/MC.2009.200.

[5] S. Rogerson, K. W. Miller, J. S. Winter, and D. Larson, “Information systems ethics – challenges and opportunities,” J. Information, Commun. Ethics Soc., vol. 17, no. 1, pp. 87–97, 2019, doi: 10.1108/JICES-07-2017-0041.

[6] V. Garousi, A. Coşkunçay, A. Betin-Can, and O. Demirörs, “A survey of software engineering practices in Turkey,” J. Syst. Softw., vol. 108, pp. 148–177–148–177, 2015.

[7] D. Gotterbarn, “Software engineering ethics,” Encycl. Softw. Eng., pp. 1–13, 2002.

[8] S. J. Lunn, I. Hazewindus, and P. Prasad, “Ethical Issues In Software Engineering,” in The Routledge International Handbook of Engineering Ethics Education, Routledge, 2025, ch. 18, pp. 321–338. doi: 10.4324/9781003464259-22.

[9] A. Pant, R. Hoda, and P. Mcintosh, “Raising AI Ethics Awareness : Insights from a Quiz-Based Workshop with Software Practitioners – An Experience Report,” in IEEE/ACM International Workshop on Responsible AI Engineering (RAIE), IEEE, 2025, pp. 53–60. doi: 10.1109/RAIE66699.2025.00014.

[10] W. Hussain et al., “How Can Human Values Be Addressed in AgileMethods A Case Study on SAFe,” IEEE Trans. Softw. Eng., vol. 48, no. 12, pp. 5158–5175, 2022, Accessed: Aug. 12, 2022.

[11] L. Mbangula, A. Alexander, A. Boch, and C. Lütge, “Operationalising AI ethics through the agile software development lifecycle : a case study of AI ‑ enabled mobile health applications,” AI Ethics, vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 227–244, 2025, doi: 10.1007/s43681-023-00331-3.

[12] J. Gogoll, N. Zuber, S. Kacianka, T. Greger, A. Pretschner, and J. Nida-Rümelin, “Ethics in the Software Development Process: from Codes of Conduct to Ethical Deliberation,” Philos. Technol., vol. 34, no. 4, pp. 1–19, 2021, doi: 10.1007/s13347-021-00451-w.

[13] A. Mitchell, D. Balasubramaniam, and J. Fletcher, “Incorporating Ethics in Software Engineering: Challenges and Opportunities,” Proc. - Asia-Pacific Softw. Eng. Conf. APSEC, vol. 2022-Decem, pp. 90–98, 2022, doi: 10.1109/APSEC57359.2022.00021.

[14] R. Godfrey, “Social issues in software engineering,” in Proceedings 1996 International Conference Software Engineering: Education and Practice, IEEE, 1996.

[15] K. I. Bricknell and J. F. Cohen, “Codes of ethics and the information technology employee: the impact of code institutionalisation, awareness, understanding and enforcement,” South. African Bus. Rev., vol. 9, no. 3, pp. 54–65, 2005.

[16] T. L. Adams, “Interprofessional relations and the emergence of a new profession: Software engineering in the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada,” Sociol. Q., vol. 48, no. 3, pp. 507–532, 2007, doi: 10.1111/j.1533-8525.2007.00087.x.

[17] P. Bourque and R. E. Fairley, “SWEBOK Guide V3.0 Guide to the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge,” 2014. doi: 10.1234/12345678.

[18] B. Berenbach and M. Broy, “Professional and ethical dilemmans in software engineering,” Computer (Long. Beach. Calif)., vol. 42, no. 1, pp. 74–80, 2009, doi: 10.1109/MC.2009.22.

[19] K. Munro and J. Cohen, “Ethical Behavior and Information Systems Codes : The Effects of Code Communication, Awareness, Understanding, and Enforcement,” in International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS ) 2004, 2004.

[20] R. T. Hans, S. Marebane, and J. Coosner, “The importance of software engineering code of ethics in a university of technology teaching environment,” South African J. High. Educ., vol. 37, no. 4, pp. 141–162, 2023, doi: 10.20853/37-4-5282.

[21] L. K. Treviño, L. P. Hartman, and M. Brown, “Moral person and moral manager: How executives develop a reputation for ethical leadership,” Calif. Manage. Rev., vol. 42, no. 4, 2000.

[22] D. Zheng et al., “Effects of ethical leadership on emotional exhaustion in high moral intensity situations,” Leadersh. Q., vol. 26, no. 5, pp. 732–748, 2015, doi: 10.1016/j.leaqua.2015.01.006.

[23] T. R. Wotruba, L. B. Chonko, and T. W. Loe, “The impact of ethics code familiarity on manager behavior,” J. Bus. Ethics, vol. 33, no. 1, pp. 59–69, 2001, doi: 10.1023/A:1011925009588.

[24] A. Rashid, J. Weckert, and R. Lucas, “Software engineering ethics in a digital world,” Computer (Long. Beach. Calif)., vol. 41, no. 6, pp. 34–41, 2009, doi: 10.1109/MC.2009.200.

[25] X. Huang, H. Zhang, X. Zhou, M. A. Babar, and S. Yang, “Synthesizing Qualitative Research in Software Engineering : A Critical Review,” in 2018 IEEE/ACM 40th International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE), 2018, pp. 1207–1218.

[26] D. L. Finfgeld, “Metasynthesis: The state of the art - So far,” Qual. Health Res., vol. 13, no. 7, pp. 893–904, 2003, doi: 10.1177/1049732303253462.

[27] M. J. Grant and A. Booth, “A typology of reviews: An analysis of 14 review types and associated methodologies,” Health Info. Libr. J., vol. 26, no. 2, pp. 91–108, 2009, doi: 10.1111/j.1471-1842.2009.00848.x.

[28] L. Zimmer, “Qualitative meta-synthesis: a question of dialoguing with text,” J. Adv. Nurs., vol. 53, no. 3, pp. 311–318, 2006, doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2648.2006.03721.x.

[29] S. Thorne, B. Paterson, S. Acorn, C. Canam, G. Joachim, and C. Jillings, “Chronic illness experience: Insights from a metastudy,” Qual. Health Res., vol. 12, no. 4, pp. 437–452, 2002, doi: 10.1177/104973202129120007.

[30] B. Kitchenham, “Procedures for performing systematic reviews,” Tech. Rep. TR/SE-0401, Keele Univ. Tech. Rep. 0400011T.1, NICTA, p. 28, 2004.

[31] A. Miller, B. Moon, S. Anders, R. Walden, S. Brown, and D. Montella, “Integrating computerized clinical decision support systems into clinical work: A meta-synthesis of qualitative research,” Int. J. Med. Inform., vol. 84, no. 12, pp. 1009–1018, 2015, doi: 10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2015.09.005.

[32] H. reza Bazi, A. Hassanzadeh, and A. Moeini, “A comprehensive framework for cloud computing migration using Meta-synthesis approach,” J. Syst. Softw., vol. 128, pp. 87–105, 2017, doi: 10.1016/j.jss.2017.02.049.

[33] S. Moyo and E. Mnkandla, “A Metasynthesis of Solo Software Development Methodologies,” in International Multidisciplinary Information Technology and Engineering Conference, IMITEC 2019, IEEE, 2019. doi: 10.1109/IMITEC45504.2019.9015867.

[34] Y. Lurie and S. Mark, “Professional Ethics of Software Engineers: An Ethical Framework,” Sci. Eng. Ethics, vol. 22, no. 2, pp. 417–434, 2016, doi: 10.1007/s11948-015-9665-x.

[35] T. Bondas and E. O. C. Hall, “Challenges in approaching meta synthesis research,” Qual. Health Res., vol. 17, no. 1, pp. 113–121, 2007, doi: 10.1177/1049732306295879.

[36] K. Abuabara, E. E. Freeman, and R. Dellavalle, “The role of systematic reviews and meta-analysis in dermatology,” J. Invest. Dermatol., vol. 132, no. 11, pp. 1–5, 2012, doi: 10.1038/jid.2012.392.

[37] M. Templier and G. Paré, “A framework for guiding and evaluating literature reviews,” Commun. Assoc. Inf. Syst., vol. 37, pp. 112–137, 2015, doi: 10.17705/1cais.03706.

[38] G. W. Noblit and R. Hare, Meta-ethnography: Synthesizing Qualitative Studies. Stage Publication, 1988.

[39] E. F. France et al., “Improving reporting of meta-ethnography : the eMERGe reporting guidance,” BMC Med. Res. Methodol., vol. 19, no. 25, pp. 1–13, 2019.

[40] M. J. Page et al., “The PRISMA 2020 statement: An updated guideline for reporting systematic reviews,” BMJ, vol. 372, 2021, doi: 10.1136/bmj.n71.

[41] Y. Xiao and M. Watson, “Guidance on Conducting a Systematic Literature Review,” J. Plan. Educ. Res., vol. 39, no. 1, pp. 93–112, 2019, doi: 10.1177/0739456X17723971.

[42] A. Cavacini, “What is the best database for computer science journal articles?,” Scientometrics, vol. 102, no. 3, pp. 2059–2071, 2015, doi: 10.1007/s11192-014-1506-1.

[43] N. R. Haddaway, M. J. Page, C. C. Pritchard, and L. A. McGuinness, “PRISMA2020: An R package and Shiny app for producing PRISMA 2020-compliant flow diagrams, with interactivity for optimised digital transparency and Open Synthesis,” Campbell Syst. Rev., vol. 18, no. 2, p. e1230, Jun. 2022, doi: 10.1002/cl2.1230.

[44] F. Toye, K. Seers, N. Allcock, M. Briggs, E. Carr, and K. Barker, “Meta-ethnography 25 years on : challenges and insights for synthesising a large number of qualitative studies,” BMC Biomed. Res. Methodol., vol. 14, no. 1, p. 80, 2014, doi: 10.1186/1471-2288-14-80.

[45] P. Afshari and S. Yazdani, “Meta-Ethnography , a Method for the Synthesis of Qualitative Research : A Narrative Review,” J. Qual. Res. Heal. Sci., vol. 13, no. 2, pp. 111–117, 2024, doi: 10.34172/jqr.2024.16.

[46] E. F. France et al., “Protocol-developing meta-ethnography reporting guidelines (eMERGe),” BMC Med. Res. Methodol., vol. 15, no. 1, p. 103, 2015, doi: 10.1186/s12874-015-0068-0.

[47] R. Sattar, R. Lawton, M. Panagioti, and J. Johnson, “Meta-ethnography in healthcare research : a guide to using a meta-ethnographic approach for literature synthesis,” BMC Health Serv. Res., vol. 21, no. 1, p. 50, 2021, doi: 10.1186/s12913-020-06049-w (2021).

[48] A. Soundy and N. R. Heneghan, “Meta-ethnography,” Int. Rev. Sport Exerc. Psychol., vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 266–286, 2022, doi: 10.1080/1750984X.2021.1966822.

[49] V. Vakkuri, K.-K. Kemell, and P. Abrahamsson, “Ethically Aligned Design: An Empirical Evaluation of the RESOLVEDD-Strategy in Software and Systems Development Context,” in 45th Euromicro Conference on Software Engineering and Advanced Applications (SEAA), IEEE, 2019, pp. 46–50.

[50] N. S. A. Karim, F. Al Ammar, and R. Aziz, “Ethical Software: Integrating Code of Ethics into Software Development Life Cycle,” in 2017 International Conference on Computer and Applications (ICCA), IEEE, 2017, pp. 290–298.

[51] A. Nussbaumer, A. Pope, and K. Neville, “A framework for applying ethics-by-design to decision support systems for emergency management,” Inf. Syst. J., vol. 33, no. 1, pp. 1–22, 2021, doi: 10.1111/isj.12350.

[52] V. Vakkuri, K.-K. Kemell, M. Jantunen, E. Halme, and P. Abrahamsson, “ECCOLA - A method for implementing ethically aligned AI systems,” J. Syst. Softw., vol. 182, Dec. 2021, doi: 10.1016/j.jss.2021.111067.

[53] T. P. Cronan, L. N. K. Leonard, and J. Kreie, “An empirical validation of perceived importance and behavior intention in IT ethics,” J. Bus. Ethics, vol. 56, no. 3, pp. 231–238, 2005, doi: 10.1007/s10551-004-2727-7.

[54] V. Taajamaa, A. Majanoja, D. Bairaktarova, A. Airola, T. Pahikkala, and E. Sutinen, “How engineers perceive the importance of ethics in Finland,” Eur. J. Eng. Educ., vol. 43, no. 1, pp. 90–98, 2018, doi: 10.1080/03043797.2017.1313198.

[55] M. A. Pierce and J. W. Henry, “Computer ethics: The role of personal, informal, and formal codes,” J. Bus. Ethics, vol. 15, no. 4, pp. 425–437, 1996, doi: 10.1007/BF00380363.

[56] A. Singhapakdi, “Perceived importance of ethics and ethical decisions in marketing,” J. Bus. Res., vol. 45, no. 1, pp. 89–99, 1999, doi: 10.1016/S0148-2963(98)00069-1.

[57] D. Gordon et al., “Perspectives on computing ethics : a multi-stakeholder analysis,” J. Information, Commun. Ethics Soc., vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 72–90, 2026, doi: 10.1108/JICES-12-2020-0127.

[58] L. B. G. Figueiredo Filho, M. Bouzon, and D. de C. Fettermann, “An analysis of the effects of stakeholders management on IT project risks using Delphi and design of experiments methods,” Benchmarking An Int. J., vol. 29, no. 3, pp. 713–734, 2022, doi: 10.1108/BIJ-10-2020-0549.

[59] S. Marebane and E. Mnkandla, “Stakeholder Analysis for enhancing ethics in software development : A scoping review,” vol. 7, no. 4, pp. 3749–3774, 2025.

[60] I. Nitta, K. Ohashi, S. Shiga, and S. Onodera, “AI Ethics Impact Assessment based on Requirement Engineering,” in Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Requirements Engineering, IEEE, 2022, pp. 152–161. doi: 10.1109/REW56159.2022.00037.

[61] C. D. Raab, “Information privacy, impact assessment, and the place of ethics ⁎,” Comput. Law Secur. Rev., vol. 37, pp. 1–16, 2020, doi: 10.1016/j.clsr.2020.105404.

Downloads

Published

2026-06-22

Issue

Vol. 8 No. 3 (2026): June

Section

Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2026 Journal of Information Systems and Informatics

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Authors Declaration

  1. The Authors certify that they have read, understood, and agreed to the Journal of Information Systems and Informatics (JournalISI) submission guidelines, policies, and submission declaration. The submission has been prepared using the provided template.
  2. The Authors certify that all authors have approved the publication of this manuscript and that there is no conflict of interest.
  3. The Authors confirm that the manuscript is their original work, has not received prior publication, is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, and has not been previously published.
  4. The Authors confirm that all authors listed on the title page have contributed significantly to the work, have read the manuscript, attest to the validity and legitimacy of the data and its interpretation, and agree to its submission.
  5. The Authors confirm that the manuscript is not copied from or plagiarized from any other published work.
  6. The Authors declare that the manuscript will not be submitted for publication in any other journal or magazine until a decision is made by the journal editors.
  7. If the manuscript is finally accepted for publication, the Authors confirm that they will either proceed with publication immediately or withdraw the manuscript in accordance with the journal’s withdrawal policies.
  8. The Authors agree that, upon publication of the manuscript in this journal, they transfer copyright or assign exclusive rights to the publisher, including commercial rights

Most read articles by the same author(s)