Real-Life Decision Making
Triton Bank has just decided to join the computer age and offer online
banking to its customers. The manager has hired you, a software engineer,
to come up with a program that will offer services to their customers in an
efficient and safe manner.
"Because we are a bank, our key concern is the safety of the transactions,"
says Jane, the manager at the bank. "If the transactions aren't secure
and hackers got into the site, this could mean a significant loss of money
and personal information."
With this request in mind, you begin to design a program for online users.
You develop a program that you believe no hacker could ever get into. Excited
about the new program, you continue to design all of the other banking features.
With the program, users will be able to pay bills, transfer funds, purchase
stocks and review their account statements. Satisfied that the program has
met all the customer's requirements, you're set to head off to see
the manager.
But before you go, your co-worker does a run-through of the program. "It
looks good," she says. "But it practically takes a half hour
for each transaction!"
You nod your head. "Yes, the speed is slower because optimum security is
required."
Your co-worker shakes her head. "I don't know. Maybe you should go
for a bit less security and speed up the program."
What do you do?