Who are the Software Engineers of the Future? Do not miss this opportunity to learn the point of view of one of the most influential people in the History of Software Engineering!
The CCSL is pleased to invite you to a presentation by one og the key people in the History of Computing, David Parnas. Parnas is one of the creators of the concepts of modularization and encapsulation in programming and one of the pioneers of Software Engineering. In this presentation, he will speak about the birth of the Software Engineering field and of the difficulties that remain up until today in the area, over 40 years later.
The presentation is alreadty available!
Títle: Software Engineering, Why And What
Date: 09/26/2014
Time: 14:00h
Where: Building B, IME/USP, room B-5
Speaker: David Lorge Parnas (Middle Road Software, Inc.)
Abstract: In the 1960s many of the scientists and mathematicians who were interested in computer software observed that software development was a profession that had more in common with Engineering than it did with the fields in which they had been trained. Most of them had mastered a body of knowledge and been taught how to extend that knowledge. They had not been taught how to apply what they had learned when building products that would be used by strangers.
It was proposed that, in addition to "Computer Science", there was a need for a for a new Engineering discipline called "Software Engineering". Although some critics considered the new field, redundant and superfluous, time has proven that it is needed. Today we depend on software in the same way that previous generations depended on traditional engineering products.
While the early pioneers correctly sensed that a new field was needed, they did not succeed in defining the capabilities required of practitioners in the new field. More recently, there have been several efforts to identify a "body of knowledge" for Software Engineering. In my opinion, none have captured the essence of the field.
This talk approaches the subject by focussing on capabilities, i.e., by addressing the question, What should a Software Engineer be able to do? Starting with two historical characterizations of the field by the pioneers, it presents a set of capabilities required by today's "Software Engineers".
Bio: David Parnas is Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering by the Carnegie Mellon University and one of the pioneers in Software Engineering, having received several awards and three "Honoris Causa" Doctorate titles for his work on the field.
Annexes:
- Date
- September 26th, 2014 at 11h-12h