Guest lecture: Software Requirements in the 21st Century: Current Practice & Emerging Trends
by Professor Kalle Lyytinen (Case Western Reserve University)
on Tuesday, May 6, 2008 at 12.15 in C222.
Abstract: Requirements have remained one of the grand challenges in the design of software intensive systems. In this talk we review the main strands of requirements research over the past two decades and identify persistent and new challenges. Based on a field study that involved interviews of over 30 leading IT professionals involved in large and complex software design and implementation initiatives we review the current state-of-the-art in design requirements management. We observe significant progress in the deployment of modeling methods, tools, risk-driven design, and user involvement. We note nine emerging themes and challenges in the requirement management arena: 1) business process focus, 2) systems transparency, 3) integration focus, 4) distributed requirements, 5) layered requirements, 6) criticality of information architectures, 7) increased deployment of COTS and software components, 8) design fluidity and 9) interdependent complexity. Several research challenges and new avenues for research are noted in the discovery, specification, and validation of requirements in light of these requirements features.
About the lecturer: Kalle Lyytinen is Iris S. Wolstein professor at Case Western Reserve University, USA, adjunct professor at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland, and visiting professor at Helsinki School of Economics. He serves currently on the editorial boards of several leading information systems and requirements engineering journals including Journal of AIS (Editor-in-Chief), Journal of Strategic Information Systems, Information&Organization, Requirements Engineering Journal, Information Systems Journal, Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems, and Information Technology and People, among others. He is AIS fellow (2004), and the former chairperson of IFIP 8.2 and a founding member of SIGSAND. He also led the research team that developed and implemented MetaEdit+ which is the leading domain modeling and metaCASE platform globally. He has published over 180 scientific articles and conference papers and edited or written eleven books on topics related to nature of IS discipline, system design, method engineering, organizational implementation, risk assessment, computer supported cooperative work, standardization, and ubiquitous computing. He is currently involved in research projects that looks at the IT induced radical innovation in software development, IT innovation in architecture, engineering and construction industry, requirements discovery and modeling for large scale systems, and the adoption of broadband wireless services in the U.K., South Korea and the U.S.
Welcome!