Title: Software Created by Humans: The Driving Function of Software Cost

Speaker: Professor Charles Knutson, Brigham Young University

Date/Time: Thursday, November 11, 2010, 2:00pm-3:30pm       

Location: CSRI Building/Room 90 (Sandia NM)

Brief Abstract: The driving function of the cost of software construction centers around this simple truth: Software is created by humans within the context of social structures. Unfortunately, research in software engineering largely ignores this reality. Researchers in the SEQuOIA Lab at Brigham Young University are locked in a life and death struggle with the mushiest aspects of an already elusive goal: The engineering of software. In this presentation, Lab Director Charles Knutson lays out a philosophy and strategy to reclaim the human aspects of software engineering research.

In this presentation we discuss relevant sociological and anthropological research methods as they apply to software engineering. We take an archaeological tour through project burial grounds and examine software pottery shards. We discuss the role of in vitro and in vivo observations using quantitative and qualitative methods. We also discuss the largely ignored but methodologically critical place of empirical replication in software engineering research. Finally we discuss the state of tools that assist us in our journey through the quagmire of software engineering empiricism.

Bio:  Dr. Charles Knutson is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Brigham Young University. He is the Director of the BYU SEQuOIA ("Software Engineering Quality: Observation, Insight, Analysis") Lab and the former Director of the BYU Mobile Computing Lab. Charles has 25 years of industry experience, including engineering and management positions at Hewlett-Packard and Novell, Inc. He was also Vice President of R&D at Counterpoint Systems Foundry, Inc. (now Sybase iAnywhere), the world's leading provider of IrDA and Bluetooth protocol stacks for embedded systems. Charles has more than 100 technical publications in areas including mobile computing, medical informatics, and software engineering. Charles holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Oregon State University, and B.S. and M.S. degrees in Computer Science from BYU.

CSRI POC: Jeremy D. Wendt, 505-844-0883