Ethics Bistro

• Accountability and responsibility: When AI systems are used for decision-making, it is challenging to assign accountability if something goes wrong. AI agents are not members of the project team; they are a tool that should augment human capabilities. Project managers need to establish clear lines of responsibility for the outcomes of AI-driven projects.
• Bias and fairness: AI is still in its infancy, and finding large volumes of good-quality data that can be used to train AI models is difficult. AI models can inherit biases from the data they are trained on, leading to unfair or discriminatory outcomes in areas like task assignment or performance evaluation. These biases can reinforce existing societal prejudices related to factors like gender, race, or socioeconomic status, potentially leading to workplace discrimination and legal penalties.
• Transparency and explainability: The "black box" nature of some AI algorithms makes it difficult to understand how they reach a decision. This lack of transparency can erode trust and make it hard for project managers to oversee, troubleshoot, or validate AI-driven recommendations.
• Over-reliance on AI agents and lack of human oversight: At any point in the project, the control should remain with humans and avoid over-reliance on AI. Lack of knowledge and practice can lead to a decline in critical thinking and human judgment among team members.

• Contextual application: The principles and the code are designed to be applied within the context of project work. Ethical dilemmas are often encountered when balancing conflicting needs, and the framework provides guidance for decision-making.
• Performance domains: Ethical dilemmas can arise in any of the performance domains (e.g., Stakeholders, Delivery, Performance). The principles and the code provide the tools for navigating these situations and making responsible choices.
• Focus on value: Ethical considerations are a crucial part of focusing on long-term value, rather than just short-term outputs, ensuring that projects are conducted in a responsible and sustainable way. 

• The principles in the PMBOK 8th Edition align with and reinforce the values in the PMI Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct, which are honesty, responsibility, respect, and fairness.
• Project managers are expected to apply these principles in their daily work to make ethical choices that lead to positive results and maintain trust. 
• The PMI Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct remains the primary source for detailed ethical guidelines.
• ProjectManagement.com offers webinars that discuss the connection between PMBOK 7 principles and the Code of Ethics. 

The end of the year is a generous time when we all expect to give and receive, to go over the year’s achievements and to prepare for the New Year.

For project managers, and for all professionals involved in management of projects, programs and portfolios, the month of December 2016 brought a historical and ground breaking development. The U.S. President Barack Obama signed bill S.1550, the Program Management Improvement and Accountability Act of 2015 (PMIAA).

With this law in place, the CxO class (CEOs, CIOs and CFOs) in the agencies of the U.S. federal government are now directed to use and apply project and program standards in their work. This is a major shift in management practices, with direct social and economic impact, not only in the United States but also around the world.

The Project Management Institute (PMI) has been a strong advocate for the professionalization and recognition of project and program management as an occupation. This cause has been pursued since the late 1960s, and the support now offered by the U.S. federal government is the crowning achievement of over five decades of professional advocacy. The message is clear not only for the professionals in private and public sector in the United States: Project management brings professionalism, accountability, efficiency and ultimately success to any management agenda. Our hope is that the impact and implications will serve as the basis for similar government initiatives around the world.

Let’s examine this monumental achievement, which supports the process of professionalization of project and program management, and see how ethics comes into play.

PMI and others have exerted intense and prolonged efforts to move toward the professionalization of project and program management. These efforts have combined creation of standards, education in project and program management, defining the right skill sets and suggesting, via thought leadership, ways to improve business practices. But these practices must go hand in hand with ethics and high integrity, as they are the nexus of business and strategy for any value-based professional activity.

Sharing the responsibility for benefits in the field of professional project, program and portfolio management requires ethics, as well as “values” in the form of general ethical principles on how professionals should treat the people they work with and what sorts of actions are regarded as right or wrong.

 With the PMIAA, the CxO class is called upon to engage their businesses in  ethical practices in a desire to do the right thing, and convince stakeholders of  their capability of doing the right thing, thus achieving the right thing!

 The ability to “do the right thing” should be enabled internationally with the    appropriate regulatory support and legislation being enacted by additional    governments world-wide.

We applaud the efforts and support of the United States federal government, and hope more jurisdictions will follow their lead.