Software Engineering Institute (SEI) Podcast Series
by Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute
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Description
The SEI Podcast Series is a production of the Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute, a federally funded research and development center located in Pittsburgh, Pa.
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CleanPredicting Quality Assurance with Software Metrics and Security Methods | To ensure software will function as intended and is free of vulnerabilities (aka software assurance), software engineers must consider security early in the lifecycle, when the system is being designed and architected. Recent research on vulnerabilities supports this claim: Nearly half the weaknesses identified in the Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) repository have been identified as design weaknesses. These weaknesses are introduced early in the lifecycle and cannot be patched away in later phases. They result from poor (or incomplete) security requirements, system designs, and architecture choices for which security has not been given appropriate priority. Effective use of metrics and methods that apply systematic consideration for security risk can highlight gaps earlier in the lifecycle before the impact is felt and when the cost of addressing these gaps is less. In this podcast, Dr. Carol Woody explores the connection between measurement, methods for software assurance, and security. | 10/13/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanNetwork Flow and Beyond | By the close of 2016, annual global IP traffic will pass the zettabyte ([ZB]; 1000 exabytes [EB]) threshold and will reach 2.3 ZBs per year by 2020, according to Cisco's Visual Networking Index. While capturing and evaluating network traffic enables defenders of large-scale organizational networks to generate security alerts and identify intrusions, operators of networks with even comparatively modest size struggle with building a full, comprehensive view of network activity. To make wise security decisions, operators need to understand the mission activity on their network and the threats to that activity (referred to as network situational awareness). In this podcast, Timothy Shimeall discusses approaches for analyzing network security using and going beyond network flow data to gain situational awareness to improve security. | 9/29/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanA Community College Curriculum for Secure Software Development | In this podcast, Girish Seshagiri discusses a two-year community college software assurance program that he developed and facilitated with SEI Fellow Nancy Mead at Illinois Community College. The two-year degree program in secure software development, which is based on the SEI’s software assurance curriculum, is the result of a collaboration between Central Illinois Center of Excellence for Secure Software and Illinois Central College. The program, which also incorporates an apprenticeship model, was developed in response to industry needs. | 9/15/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanSecurity and the Internet of Things | Internet-connected devices—from cars, insulin pumps, and baby monitors to thermostats and coffee makers—are growing in number and complexity. Most of these Internet of Things (IoT) devices weren’t built with connectivity and security in mind, leaving them vulnerable to attacks. In this podcast, CERT researcher Art Manion discusses work that his team is doing with the Department of Homeland Security to examine and secure IoT devices. | 8/25/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanThe SEI Fellow Series: Nancy Mead | The position of SEI Fellow is awarded to people who have made an outstanding contribution to the work of the SEI and from whom the SEI leadership may expect valuable advice for continued success in the institute's mission. Nancy Mead, a principal researcher in the SEI’s CERT Division, was named an SEI Fellow in 2013. This podcast is the first in a series highlighting interviews with SEI Fellows. | 8/10/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanAn Open Source Tool for Fault Tree Analysis | Safety-critical software must be analyzed and checked carefully. Each potential error, failure, or defect must be considered and evaluated before you release a new product. For example, if you are producing a quadcopter drone, you would like to know the probability of engine failure to evaluate the system's reliability. Safety analysis is hard. Standards such as ARP4761 mandate several analyses, such as Functional Hazard Assessment and Failure Mode and Effect Analysis. One popular type of safety analysis is Fault Tree Analysis (FTA), which provides a graphical representation of all contributors to a failure (e.g., error events and propagations). In this podcast, Julien Delange discusses the concepts of the FTA and introduce a new tool to design and analyze fault trees. | 7/28/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanEvolving Air Force Intelligence with Agile Techniques | In the past decade, the U.S. Air Force has built up great capability with the Distributed Common Ground System (AF DCGS), the Air Force’s primary weapon system for intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, planning, direction, collection, processing, exploitation, analysis, and dissemination. AF DCGS employs a global communications architecture that connects multiple intelligence platforms and sensors. In this podcast, Harry Levinson discusses the SEI’s work with the Air Force to further evolve the AF DCGS system using Agile techniques working in incremental, iterative approaches to deliver more frequent, more manageable deliveries of capability. | 5/26/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanThreat Modeling and the Internet of Things | Threat modeling, which has been popularized by Microsoft in the last decade, provides vulnerability analysts a means to analyze a system and identify various attack surfaces and use that knowledge to bolster a system against vulnerabilities. In this podcast, Art Manion and Allen Householder of CERT’s vulnerability analysis team, talk about threat modeling and its use in improving security of the Internet of Things. | 5/12/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanOpen Systems Architectures: When & Where to Be Closed | Due to advances in hardware and software technologies, Department of Defense (DoD) systems today are highly capable and complex. However, they also face increasing scale, computation, and security challenges. Compounding these challenges, DoD systems were historically designed using stove-piped architectures that lock the government into a small number of system integrators, each devising proprietary point solutions that are expensive to develop and sustain over the lifecycle. Although these stove-piped solutions have been problematic (and unsustainable) for years, the budget cuts occurring under sequestration are motivating the DoD to reinvigorate its focus on identifying alternative means to drive down costs, create more affordable acquisition choices, and improve acquisition program performance. A promising approach to meet these goals is open systems architecture (OSA). In this podcast, Don Firesmith discusses how acquisition professionals and system integrators can apply OSA practices to effectively decompose large monolithic business and technical architectures into manageable and modular solutions that can integrate innovation more rapidly and lower total ownership costs. | 4/14/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanEffective Reduction of Avoidable Complexity in Embedded Systems | Safety-critical systems are becoming extremely software-reliant. Software complexity can increase total acquisition costs as much as 16 percent. The Effective Reduction of Avoidable Complexity in Embedded Systems (ERACES) project aims to identify and remove complexity in software models. At the same time, safety-critical development is shifting from traditional programming (e.g., Ada, C) to modeling languages (e.g., Simulink, SCADE). In this podcast, Julien Delange discusses the Effective Reduction of Avoidable Complexity in Embedded Systems (ERACES) project, which aims to identify and remove complexity in software models. | 3/18/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanToward Efficient and Effective Software Sustainment | The Department of Defense (DoD) must focus on sustaining legacy weapons systems that are no longer in production, but are expected to remain a key component of our defense capability for decades to come. Despite the fact that these legacy systems are no longer in the acquisition phase, software upgrade cycles are needed to refresh their capabilities every 18 to 24 months. In addition, significant modernization can often be made by more extensive, focused software upgrades with relatively modest hardware changes. In this podcast, Mike Phillips discusses effective sustainment engineering efforts in the Army and Air Force, using examples from across its software engineering centers. These examples are tied to SEI research on capability maturity models, agility, and the Architecture Analysis and Design Language (AADL) modeling notation. | 3/18/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanQuality Attribute Refinement and Allocation | We know from existing SEI work on attribute-driven design, Quality Attribute Workshops, and the Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Method that a focus on quality attributes prevents costly rework. Such a long-term perspective, however, can be hard to maintain in a high-tempo, agile delivery model, which is why the SEI continues to recommend an architecture-centric engineering approach, regardless of the software methodology chosen. As part of our work in value-driven incremental delivery, we conducted exploratory interviews with teams in these high-tempo environments to characterize how they managed architectural quality attribute requirements (QARs). These requirements—such as performance, security, and availability—have a profound impact on system architecture and design, yet are often hard to divide, or slice, into the iteration-sized user stories common to iterative and incremental development. This difficulty typically exists because some attributes, such as performance, touch multiple parts of the system. In this podcast, Neil Ernst discusses research on slicing (refining) performance in two production software systems and ratcheting (periodic increase of a specific response measure) of scenario components to allocate QAR work. | 3/8/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanIs Java More Secure Than C? | Whether Java is more secure than C is a simple question to ask, but a hard question to answer well. When researchers on the CERT Secure Coding Team began writing the SEI CERT Oracle Coding Standard for Java, they thought that Java would require fewer secure coding rules than the SEI CERT C Coding Standard because Java was designed with security in mind. They also assumed that a more secure language would need fewer rules than a less secure one. However, Java has 168 coding rules compared to just 116 for C. Why? Are there problems with our C or Java rules, or are Java programs, on average, just as susceptible to vulnerabilities as C programs? In this podcast, CERT researcher David Svoboda analyzes secure coding rules for both C and Java to determine if they indeed refute the conventional wisdom that Java is more secure than C. | 2/19/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanIdentifying the Architectural Roots of Vulnerabilities | In our studies of many large-scale software systems, we have observed that defective files seldom exist alone. They are usually architecturally connected, and their architectural structures exhibit significant design flaws that propagate bugginess among files. We call these flawed structures the architecture roots, a type of technical debt that incurs high maintenance penalties. Removing the architecture roots of bugginess requires refactoring, but the benefits of refactoring have historically been difficult for architects to quantify or justify. In this podcast, Rick Kazman and Carol Woody discuss an approach to model and analyze software architecture as a set of design rule spaces). Using data extracted from the project’s development artifacts, this approach identifies the files implicated in architecture flaws and suggest refactorings based on removing these flaws. | 2/4/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanAn Interview with Grady Booch | Grady Booch recently delivered a presentation as part of the SEI’s CTO Distinguished Speaker Series where he discussed his perspectives on the biggest challenges for the future of software engineering. During his visit to the SEI, he sat down for an interview with SEI Fellow Nancy Mead for the SEI Podcast Series. Booch will be a keynote speaker at SATURN 2016. Please click the related link below for additional details. | 1/12/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanA Field Study of Technical Debt | In their haste to deliver software capabilities, developers sometimes engage in less-than-optimal coding practices. If not addressed, these shortcuts can ultimately yield unexpected rework costs that offset the benefits of rapid delivery. Technical debt conceptualizes the tradeoff between the short-term benefits of rapid delivery and long-term value. Taking shortcuts to expedite the delivery of features in the short term incurs technical debt, analogous to financial debt, that must be paid off later to optimize long-term success. Managing technical debt is an increasingly critical aspect of producing cost-effective, timely, and high-quality software products, especially in projects that apply agile methods.A delicate balance is needed between the desire to release new software features rapidly to satisfy users and the desire to practice sound software engineering that reduces rework. Too often, however, technical debt focuses on coding issues when a broader perspective—one that incorporates software architectural concerns—is needed. In this podcast, Dr. Neil Ernst discusses the findings of a recent field study to assess the state of the practice and current thinking regarding technical debt and guide the development of a technical debt timeline. | 10/15/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanA Software Assurance Curriculum for Future Engineers | Modern society is deeply and irreversibly dependent on software systems of remarkable scope and complexity in areas that are essential for preserving our way of life. Software assurance is critical to ensuring our confidence in these systems and that they are free from vulnerabilities, function in the intended manner, and provide security capabilities appropriate to the threat environment. In this podcast, Dr. Nancy Mead discusses how, with support from Department of Homeland Security, SEI researchers developed software assurance curricula and programs for graduate, undergraduate, and community colleges. | 9/24/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanFour Types of Shift Left Testing | One of the most important and widely discussed trends within the software testing community is shift left testing, which simply means beginning testing as early as practical in the lifecycle. What is less widely known, both inside and outside the testing community, is that testers can employ four fundamentally-different approaches to shift testing to the left. Unfortunately, different people commonly use the generic term shift left to mean different approaches, which can lead to serious misunderstandings. In this post, SEI principal researcher Don Firesmith explains the importance of shift left testing and defines each of these four approaches using variants of the classic V model to illustrate them. | 9/10/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanToward Speed and Simplicity: Creating a Software Library for Graph Analytics | High performance computing is now central to the federal government and industry as evidenced by the shift from single-core and multi-core or homogeneous central processing units, also known as CPUs, to many core and heterogeneous systems that also include other types of processors like graphics processing units, also known as GPUs.In this podcast, Scott McMillan and Eric Werner of the SEI’s Emerging Technology Center discuss work to create a software library for graph analytics that would take advantage of these more powerful heterogeneous supercomputers to perform graph analytics at larger scales and more quickly, while making them simpler to program. Graph analytics are more complex, and thus, more difficult to program. These algorithms are used in the DoD-mission applications including intelligence analysis, knowledge representation and reasoning in autonomous systems, cyber intelligence and security, routing planning, and logistics optimization. | 8/27/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanImproving Quality Using Architecture Fault Analysis with Confidence Arguments | In this podcast, Peter Feiler discusses a case study that demonstrates how an analytical architecture fault-modeling approach can be combined with confidence arguments to diagnose a time-sensitive design error in a control system and to provide evidence that proposed changes to the system address the problem. The analytical approach, based on the SAE Architecture Analysis and Design Language for its well-defined timing and fault-behavior semantics, demonstrates that such hard-to-test errors can be discovered and corrected early in the lifecycle, thereby reducing rework cost. The case study shows that by combining the analytical approach with confidence maps, we can present a structured argument that system requirements have been met and problems in the design have been addressed adequately—increasing our confidence in the system quality. The case study analyzes an aircraft engine control system that manages fuel flow with a stepper motor. The original design was developed and verified in a commercial model-based development environment without discovering the potential for missed step commanding. During system tests, actual fuel flow did not correspond to the desired fuel flow under certain circumstances. The problem was traced to missed execution of commanded steps due to variation in execution time. | 8/13/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanA Taxonomy of Testing Types | A surprisingly large number of different types of testing exist and are used during the development and operation of software-reliant systems. While most testers, test managers, and other testing stakeholders are quite knowledgeable about a relatively small number of testing types, many people know very little about most of them and are unaware that others even exist. Understanding these different types of testing is important because different types of testing tend to uncover different types of defects and multiple testing types are needed to achieve sufficiently low levels of residual defects. Whereas not all of these testing types are relevant on all projects, a complete taxonomy can be used to help discover the ones that are appropriate and ensure than no relevant types of testing are accidentally overlooked. Such a taxonomy can also be useful as a way to organize and prioritize one’s study of testing.In this podcast, Donald Firesmith introduces the taxonomy of testing types he created to help testers and testing stakeholders select the appropriate types of testing to for their specific needs. | 7/30/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanReducing Complexity in Software & Systems | Systems are increasingly software-reliant and interconnected, making design, analysis and evaluation harder than in the past. While new capabilities are welcome, they require more thorough validation. Complexity could mean that design flaws or defects could lead to hazardous conditions that are undiscovered and unresolved. In this podcast, Dr. Sarah Sheard discusses a two-year research project to investigate the nature of complexity, how it manifests in software-reliant systems, such as avionics, how to measure it, and how to tell when too much complexity might lead to safety and certifiability problems. | 7/16/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanDesigning Security Into Software-Reliant Systems | Software is a growing component of modern business- and mission-critical systems. As organizations become more dependent on software, security-related risks to their organizational missions are also increasing. Traditional security-engineering approaches rely on addressing security risks during the operation and maintenance of software-reliant systems. However, the costs required to control security risks increase significantly when organizations wait until systems are deployed to address those risks. It is more cost effective to address software security risks as early in the lifecycle as possible. As a result, researchers from the CERT Division of the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) have started investigating early lifecycle security risk analysis (i.e., during requirements, architecture, and design). In this podcast, CERT researcher Christopher Alberts introduces the Security Engineering Risk Analysis (SERA) Framework, a systematic approach for analyzing complex security risks in software-reliant systems and systems of systems early in the lifecycle. The framework integrates system and software engineering with operational security by requiring engineers to analyze operational security risks as software-reliant systems are acquired and developed. Initial research activities have focused on specifying security requirements for these systems. | 6/25/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanAgile Methods in Air Force Sustainment | For several years, the Software Engineering Institute has researched the viability of Agile software development methods within Department of Defense programs and barriers to the adoption of those methods. In this podcast, SEI researcher Eileen Wrubel discusses how software sustainers leverage Agile methods and avoid barriers to using Agile methods. | 6/11/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanDefect Prioritization With the Risk Priority Number | Most software systems have some "defects" that are identified by users. Some of these are truly defects in that the requirements were not properly implemented; some are caused by changes made to other systems; still others are requests for enhancement – improvements that would improve the users' experience. These "defects" are generally stored in a database and are worked off in a series of incrementally delivered updates. For most systems, it is not financially feasible to fix all of the concerns in the near term, and indeed some issues may never be addressed. The government program office has an obligation to choose wisely among a set of competing defects to be implemented, especially in a financially constrained environment. In this podcast, Will Hayes and Julie Cohen discuss a generalized technique that could be used with any type of system to assist the program office in addressing and resolving the conflicting views and creating a better value system for defining releases. | 5/28/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanSEI-HCII Collaboration Explores Context-Aware Computing for Soldiers | As the number of sensors on smart phones continues to grow, these devices can automatically track data from the user's environment, including geolocation, time of day, movement, and other sensor data. Making sense of this data in an ethical manner that respects the privacy of smartphone users is just one of the many challenges faced by researchers. In this podcast, Dr. Anind Dey, director of the Human Computer Interaction Institute (HCII) at CMU, and Dr. Jeff Boleng, principal researcher at the SEI, introduce context-aware computing and discuss a collaboration to help dismounted soldiers using context derived from sensors on them and their mobile devices, to ensure that they have the information and sensor support they need to optimize their mission performance. | 5/14/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanAn Introduction to Context-Aware Computing | As the number of sensors on smart phones continues to grow, these devices can automatically track data from the user's environment, including geolocation, time of day, movement, and other sensor data. Making sense of this data in an ethical manner that respects the privacy of smartphone users is just one of the many challenges faced by researchers. In this podcast, the first in a two-part series, Dr. Anind Dey and Dr. Jeff Boleng introduce context-aware computing and explore other issues related to sensor-fueled data in the internet of things. | 4/23/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanData Driven Software Assurance | Software vulnerabilities are defects or weaknesses in a software system that, if exploited, can lead to compromise of the control of a system or the information it contains. The problem of vulnerabilities in fielded software is pervasive and serious. In 2012, SEI researchers began investigating vulnerabilities reported to the SEI's CERT Division and determined that a large number of significant and pernicious software vulnerabilities likely had their origins early in the software development lifecycle in the requirements and design phases.In this podcast, SEI researchers Mike Konrad and Art Mansion discuss a project that was launched to investigate design-related vulnerabilities and quantify their effects. | 4/9/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanApplying Agile in the DoD: Twelfth Principle | 15.00 Normal 0 false false false EN-US JA X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;} In this episode, the 12th and final podcast in a series by Suzanne Miller and Mary Ann Lapham exploring the application of Agile principles in the Department of Defense, the two researchers discuss the application of the 12th principle: at regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly. | 3/26/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanIntroduction to the Mission Thread Workshop | In Department of Defense programs, a system of systems (SoS) is integrated to accomplish a number of missions that involve cooperation among individual systems. Understanding the activities conducted within each system and how they interoperate to accomplish the missions of the SoS is of vital importance. A mission thread is a sequence of end-to-end activities and events, given as a series of steps, that accomplish the execution of one or more capabilities that the SoS supports. However, listing the steps and describing them do not reveal all the important concerns associated with cooperation among the systems to accomplish the mission; understanding the architectural and engineering considerations associated with each mission thread is also essential. In this podcast, Michael Gagliardi introduces the Mission Thread Workshop (MTW), a facilitated, stakeholder-centric workshop whose purpose is to elicit and refine end-to-end quality attribute, capability, and engineering considerations for SoS mission threads. | 3/12/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanApplying Agile in the DoD: Eleventh Principle | In this episode, the 11th in a series by Suzanne Miller and Mary Ann Lapham exploring the application of Agile principles in the Department of Defense, the two researchers discuss the application of the 11th principle: the best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams. | 2/26/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanApplying Agile in the DoD: Tenth Principle | In this episode, the tenth in a series by Suzanne Miller and Mary Ann Lapham exploring the application of Agile principles in the Department of Defense, the two researchers discuss the application of the tenth principle: Simplicity—the art of maximizing the amount of work not done—is essential. | 2/12/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanPredicting Software Assurance Using Quality and Reliability Measures | Security vulnerabilities are defects that enable an external party to compromise a system. Our research indicates that improving software quality by reducing the number of errors also reduces the number of vulnerabilities and hence improves software security. Some portion of security vulnerabilities (maybe over half of them) are also quality defects. Can quality defect models that predict quality results be applied to security to predict security results? Simple defect models focus on an enumeration of development errors after they have occurred and do not relate directly to operational security vulnerabilities, except when the cause is quality related. In this podcast, Carol Woody and Bill Nichols discuss how a combination of software development and quality techniques can improve software security. | 1/29/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanApplying Agile in the DoD: Ninth Principle | Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;} In this episode, the ninth in a series by Suzanne Miller and Mary Ann Lapham exploring the application of Agile principles in the Department of Defense, the two researchers discuss the application of the ninth principle: continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances Agile. | 1/16/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanAADL and Dassault Aviation | In 2013, the AADL Standards meeting was held at SEI headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pa. The SEI Podcast Series team was there, and we interviewed several members of the AADL Standards Committee. This podcast is the fourth in a series based on these interviews. | 12/18/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanTactical Cloudlets | Soldiers in battle or emergency workers responding to a disaster often find themselves in environments with limited computing resources, rapidly-changing mission requirements, high levels of stress, and limited connectivity, which are often referred to as “tactical edge environments.” These types of scenarios make it hard to use mobile software applications that would be of value to soldiers or emergency personnel, including speech and image recognition, natural language processing, and situational awareness, because these computation-intensive tasks take a heavy toll on a mobile device’s battery power and computing resources. Researchers in the Advanced Mobile Systems Initiative at the SEI focus on cyber foraging, which uses discoverable, forward-deployed servers to extend the capabilities of mobile devices by offloading battery-draining computations to these more powerful resources, or for staging data particular to a mission. In this podcast, Grace Lewis discusses five approaches that her team developed and tested for using tactical cloudlets as a strategy for providing infrastructure to support computation offload and data staging at the tactical edge. | 12/4/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanAgile Software Teams and How They Engage with Systems Engineering on DoD Acquisition Programs | Part of a series exploring Agile in the Department of Defense, this podcast addresses key issues that occur when Agile software teams engage with systems engineering functions in the development and acquisition of software-reliant systems. Published acquisition guidance still largely focuses on a system perspective, and fundamental differences exist between systems engineering and software engineering approaches. Those differences are compounded when Agile becomes a part of the mix, rather than adhering to more traditional "waterfall"-based development lifecycles. In this research, the SEI gathered more data from users of Agile methods in the DoD and delved deeper into the existing body of knowledge about Agile and systems engineering before addressing them. In this podcast, Acquisition researchers Eileen Wrubel and Suzanne Miller offer insight into how systems engineers and Agile software engineers can better collaborate when taking advantage of Agile as they deliver incremental mission capability. | 11/27/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanCoding with AADL | Given that up to 70 percent of system errors are introduced during the design phase, stakeholders need a modeling language that will ensure both requirements enforcement during the development process and the correct implementation of these requirements. Previous work demonstrates that using the Architecture Analysis and Design Language (AADL) early in the development process not only helps detect design errors before implementation but also supports implementation efforts and produces high-quality code. Previous research has demonstrated how AADL can identify potential design errors and avoid propagating them through the development process. Verified specifications, however, are still implemented manually. This manual process is labor intensive and error prone, and it introduces errors that might break previously verified assumptions and requirements. For these reasons, code production should be automated to preserve system specifications throughout the development process. In this podcast, Julien Delange summarizes different perspectives on research related to code generation from software architecture models. | 11/13/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanThe State of Agile | In September 2014, Alistair Cockburn met with researchers at the SEI headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pa. The SEI Podcast Series team was there as Cockburn sat down with Suzanne Miller to discuss his unique perspective as one of the creators of the Agile manifesto and his viewpoint on the current state of Agile adoption. | 10/30/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanApplying Agile in the DoD: Eighth Principle | In this episode, the eighth in a series by Suzanne Miller and Mary Ann Lapham exploring the application of Agile principles in the Department of Defense, the two researchers discuss the application of the eighth principle: Agile processes promotes sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely. | 10/9/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanAgile Metrics | As the prevalence of suppliers using Agile methods grows, these professionals supporting the acquisition and maintenance of software-reliant systems are witnessing large portions of the industry moving away from so-called "traditional waterfall" lifecycle processes. The existing infrastructure supporting the work of acquisition professionals has been shaped by the experience of the industry—which up until recently has tended to follow a waterfall process. The industry is finding that the methods geared toward legacy life cycle processes must be realigned with new ways of doing business. In this podcast Will Hayes and Suzanne Miller discuss research intended to aid U. S. Department of Defense acquisition professionals in the use of Agile software development methods. | 9/25/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanFour Principles for Engineering Scalable, Big Data Systems | In this podcast, Ian Gorton describes four general principles that hold for any scalable, big data system. These principles can help architects continually validate major design decisions across development iterations, and hence provide a guide through the complex collection of design trade-offs all big data systems require. | 9/11/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanAn Appraisal of Systems Engineering: Defense v. Non-Defense | In this podcast, Joseph Elm analyzes differences in systems-engineering activities for defense and non-defense projects and finds differences in both deployment and effectiveness. This research is the result analysis of data collected from the 2011 Systems Engineering (SE) Effectiveness Survey performed by the National Defense Industrial Association Systems Engineering Division, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Aerospace and Electronic Systems Society, and the SEI. This analysis examined the differences in the deployment and impact of SE activities between defense-domain projects and non-defense projects. The analysis found significant differences in both the deployment of SE in the two domains and the effectiveness of the SE. The report identifies specific process areas where effectiveness in one domain is noticeably higher than in the other. Further research to understand these differences will benefit both domains by enabling them to share best practices. | 8/28/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanHTML5 for Mobile Apps at the Edge | Many warfighters and first responders operate at what we call "the tactical edge," where users are constrained by limited communication connectivity, storage availability, processing power, and battery life. In these environments, onboard sensors are used to capture data on behalf of mobile applications to perform tasks such as face recognition, speech recognition, natural language translation, and situational awareness. These applications then rely on network interfaces to send the data to nearby servers or the cloud, if local processing resources are inadequate. While software developers have traditionally used native mobile technologies to develop these applications, the approach has some drawbacks, such as limited portability. In contrast, HTML5 has been touted for its portability across mobile device platforms as well an ability to access functionality without having to download and install applications. In this podcast, Grace Lewis describes research aimed at evaluating the feasibility of using HTML5 to develop applications that can meet tactical edge requirements. | 8/14/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanApplying Agile in the DoD: Seventh Principle | In this episode, the seventh in a series by Suzanne Miller and Mary Ann Lapham exploring the application of Agile principles in the Department of Defense, the two researchers discuss the application of the seventh principle: Working software is the primary measure of progress. | 7/24/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanAADL and Edgewater | In 2013, the AADL Standards meeting was held at SEI headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pa. The SEI Podcast Series team was there, and we interviewed several members of the AADL Standards Committee. This podcast is the third in a series based on these interviews. | 7/10/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanSecurity and Wireless Emergency Alerts | The Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) service depends on information technology (IT)—computer systems and networks—to convey potentially life-saving information to the public in a timely manner. However, like other cyber-enabled services, the WEA service is susceptible to risks that may enable an attacker to disseminate unauthorized alerts or to delay, modify, or destroy valid alerts. Successful attacks on the alerting process may result in property destruction, financial loss, infrastructure disruption, injury, or death. Such attacks may damage WEA credibility to the extent that users ignore future alerts or disable alerting on their mobile devices. In this podcast, Carol Woody and Christopher Alberts discuss guidelines that they developed to ensure that the WEA service remains robust and resilient against cyber attacks. | 6/26/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanSafety and Behavior Specification Using the Architecture Analysis and Design Language | In this podcast, Julien Delange discusses two extensions to the Architecture Analysis and Design Language: the behavior annex and the error-model annex. The behavior annex represents the functional logic of AADL components and interacts with the other system elements. SEI researchers are currently participating in the ongoing improvements of this extension of the AADL by connecting it to other analysis tools. The error model annex augments the architecture description by specifying safety concerns of the system (error propagation, error behavior, etc.). The language is the foundation of new analysis tools that provide qualitative and quantitative assessment of system safety and reliability. SEI researches have defined new tools that analyze the model and produces safety validation documents, such as the one required by safety standard such as the SAE ARP4761. | 6/12/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanApplying Agile in the DoD: Sixth Principle | In this episode, the sixth in a series by Suzanne Miller and Mary Ann Lapham exploring the application of Agile principles in the Department of Defense (DoD), the two researchers discuss the application of the sixth principle,The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation. | 5/29/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanUsing Quality Attributes to Improve Acquisition | In the acquisition of a software-intensive system, the relationship between the software architecture and the acquisition strategy is typically not examined. Although software is increasingly important to the success of government programs, there is often little consideration given to its impact on early key program decisions. The Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute (SEI) is conducting a multi-phase research initiative aimed at answering the question: is the probability of a program's success improved through deliberately producing a program acquisition strategy and software architecture that are mutually constrained and aligned? Moreover, can we develop a method that helps government program offices produce such alignment? In this podcast, Patrick Place describes research aimed at determining how acquisition quality attributes can be expressed and used to facilitate alignment among the software architecture and acquisition strategy. | 5/15/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanBest Practices for Trust in the Wireless Emergency Alerts Service | Trust is a key factor in the effectiveness of the Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) service. Alert originators at emergency management agencies must trust WEA to deliver alerts to the public in an accurate and timely manner. The public must also trust the WEA service before they will act on the alerts that they receive. Managing trust in WEA is a responsibility shared among many stakeholders who are engaged with WEA. In this podcast, Robert Ellison and Carol Woody discuss research aimed at developing recommendations for alert originators, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, commercial mobile service providers, and suppliers of message-generation software that would enhance both alert originators' trust in the WEA service and the public's trust in the alerts that they receive. | 4/29/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanThree Variations on the V Model for System and Software Testing | The importance of verification and validation (especially testing) is a major reason that the traditional waterfall development cycle underwent a minor modification to create the V model that links early development activities to their corresponding later testing activities. In this podcast, Don Firesmith introduces three variants on the V model of system or software development that make it more useful to testers, quality engineers, and other stakeholders interested in the use of testing as a verification and validation method. | 4/10/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanAdapting the PSP to Incorporate Verified Design by Contract | The Personal Software Process promotes the use of careful procedures during all stages of development with the aim of increasing an individual's productivity and producing high quality final products. Formal methods use the same methodological strategy as the PSP: emphasizing care in development procedures as opposed to relying on testing and debugging. They also establish the radical requirement of proving mathematically that the programs produced satisfy their specifications. Design by Contract is a technique for designing components of a software system by establishing their conditions of use and behavioral requirements in a formal language. When appropriate techniques and tools are incorporated to prove that the components satisfy the established requirements, the method is called Verified Design by Contract (VDbC). In this podcast, Bill Nichols discusses a proposal for integrating VDbC into PSP to reduce the number of defects present at the unit-esting phase, while preserving or improving productivity. The resulting adaptation of the PSP, called PSPVDC, incorporates new phases, modifies others, and adds new scripts and checklists to the infrastructure. Specifically, the phases of formal specification, formal specification review, formal specification compile, test case construct, pseudo code, pseudo code review, and proof are added. | 3/27/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanAADL and Aerospace | In 2013, the AADL Standards meeting was held at SEI headquarters in Pittsburgh, PA. The SEI Podcast Series team was there, and we interviewed several members of the AADL Standards Committee. This podcast is the second in a series based on those interviews. | 3/13/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanAssuring Open Source Software | The SEI has seen increased interest and adoption of OSS products across the federal government, including the Department of Defense, the intelligence community, and the Department of Homeland Security. The catalyst for this increase has been innovators in government seeking creative solutions to rapidly field urgently needed technologies. While the rise of OSS adoption signals a new approach for government t acquirers, it is not without risks that, it is not without risks that must be acknowledged and addressed, particularly given current certification and accreditation (C&A) techniques. In this podcast, Kate Ambrose Sereno and Naomi Anderson discuss research aimed at developing adoptable, evidence-based, data-driven approaches to evaluating (open source) software. | 2/27/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanSecurity Pattern Assurance through Roundtrip Engineering | The process of designing and analyzing software architectures is complex. Architectural design is a minimally constrained search through a vast multi-dimensional space of possibilities. The end result is that architects are seldom confident that they have done the job optimally, or even satisfactorily. Over the past two decades, practitioners and researchers have used architectural patterns to expedite sound software design. Architectural patterns are prepackaged chunks of design that provide proven structural solutions for achieving particular software system quality attributes, such as scalability or modifiability. While use of patterns has simplified the architectural design process somewhat, key challenges remain. In this podcast, Rick Kazman discusses these challenges and a solution he has developed for achieving system security qualities through use of patterns. | 2/13/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanApplying Agile in the DoD: Fifth Principle | In this episode, the fifth in a series by Suzanne Miller and Mary Ann Lapham exploring the application of Agile principles in the Department of Defense (DoD), the two researchers discuss the application of the fifth principle, Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done. | 1/30/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanSoftware Assurance Cases | From the braking system in automobiles to the software that controls aircraft, safety-critical systems are ubiquitous. Showing that such systems meet their safety requirements has become a critical area of work for software and systems engineers. The SEI is addressing this issue with a significant research program into assurance cases. In this podcast, the first in a series on assurance cases and confidence, Charles Weinstock introduces the concept of assurance cases and discusses how they can be used to assure that complex software-based systems meet certain kinds of requirements such as safety, security, and reliability. | 1/16/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanAADL and Télécom Paris Tech | In 2013, the AADL Standards meeting was held at SEI headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pa. The SEI Podcast Series team was there, and we interviewed several members of the AADL Standards Committee. This podcast, with Peter Feiler and Etienne Borde of Télécom Paris Tech, is the first in a series based on these interviews. | 12/26/2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanFrom Process to Performance-Based Improvement | In this podcast, Tim Chick and Gene Miluk discuss methodology and outputs of the Checkpoint Diagnostic, a tool that provides organizations with actionable performance related information and analysis closely linked to business value. The Checkpoint Diagnostic utilizes process models, data mapping, and quantitative analytics to provide organizations with qualitative process baselines, quantitative performance baselines, benchmark performance comparison, and a prioritized listing of improvement opportunities. | 12/12/2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanAn Approach to Managing the Software Engineering Challenges of Big Data | In this episode, Ian Gorton and John Klein discuss big data and the challenges it presents for software engineers. With help from fellow SEI researchers, the two have developed a lightweight risk reduction approach to help software engineers manage the challenges of big data. Called Lightweight Evaluation and Architecture Prototyping (for Big Data), the approach is based on principles drawn from proven architecture and technology analysis and evaluation techniques to help the Department of Defense (DoD) and other enterprises including avionics, communications, and healthcare develop and evolve systems to manage big data. | 11/27/2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanSituational Awareness Mashups | In this podcast Soumya Simanta describes research aimed at creating the Edge Mission-Oriented Tactical App Generator (eMontage), a software prototype that allows warfighters and first responders to rapidly integrate or mash geo-tagged situational awareness data from multiple remote data sources. | 11/14/2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanApplying Agile in the DoD: Fourth Principle | In this episode, the fourth in a series by Suzanne Miller and Mary Ann Lapham exploring the application of agile principles in the Department of Defense (DoD), the two researchers discuss the application of the fourth principle, "Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project." | 10/31/2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanArchitecting Systems of the Future | In this episode, Eric Werner discusses research that he and several of his colleagues are conducting to help software developers create systems for the many-core central processing units in massively parallel computing environments. Eric and his team are creating a software library that can exploit the heterogeneous parallel computers of the future and allow developers to create systems that are more efficient at computation and power consumption. | 10/17/2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanAcquisition Archetypes | In this episode, Bill Novak talks about his work with acquisition archetypes and how they can be used to help government programs avoid problems in software development and systems acquisition. Acquisition archetypes are developed based on experiences with actual programs, and they use concepts from systems thinking to characterize and analyze dynamics. | 9/26/2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanHuman-in-the-Loop Autonomy | In this episode, James Edmondson discusses his research on autonomous systems, specifically robotic systems and autonomous systems for robotic systems. In particular, his research focuses on partial autonomy with an aim of complementing human users and extending their reach and capabilities in mission- critical environments. | 9/12/2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanMobile Applications for Emergency Managers | In late June 2013, a team of SEI researchers attended a four-day music festival at the invitation of Adam Miller, director of the Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, Emergency Management Agency. The festival typically draws close to 100,000 concert goers to a rural farm in Pennsylvania that lacks significant infrastructure and is accessible only by a two-lane highway. Miller is charged with ensuring the public safety, so it seemed like a good match to partner with researchers from the SEI's Advanced Mobile Systems Team, which supports emergency responders and soldiers in the field who work in situations with limited computer resources, poor connections with networks, and highly diverse missions. This podcast highlights an interview that Bill Pollak, communication and transition manager in the SEI Software Solutions Division, conducted with Miller. | 8/29/2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanApplying Agile in the DoD: Third Principle | In this episode, the third in a series by Suzanne Miller and Mary Ann Lapham exploring the application of agile principles in the Department of Defense (DoD), the two researchers discuss the application of the third principle, "Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale." | 8/15/2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanApplication Virtualization as a Strategy for Cyber Foraging | Modern mobile devices create new opportunities to interact with their surrounding environment, but their computational power and battery capacity is limited. Code offloading to external servers located in clouds or data centers can help overcome these limitations. However, in hostile environments it is not possible to guarantee reliable networks. Consequently, stable cloud access is not available. Cyber foraging is a technique for offloading resource-intensive tasks from mobile devices to resource-rich surrogate machines in close wireless proximity. One type of surrogate machine is a cloudlet--a generic server that runs one or more virtual machines (VMs) located in single-hop distance to the mobile device. Cloudlet-based cyber foraging can compensate for missing cloud access in hostile environments. One strategy for cloudlet provisioning is VM synthesis. Unfortunately, this method is time consuming and battery draining because it requires large file transfers. In this podcast, researcher Grace Lewis discusses application virtualization as a more lightweight alternative to VM synthesis for cloudlet provisioning. | 7/25/2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanCommon Testing Problems: Pitfalls to Prevent and Mitigate | The National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST) reports that inadequate testing methods and tools annually cost the U.S. economy between $22.2 billion and $59.5 billion, with roughly half of these costs borne by software developers in the form of extra testing and half by software users in the form of failure avoidance and mitigation efforts. The same study notes that between 25 percent and 90 percent of software development budgets are often spent on testing. In this episode, SEI researcher Don Firesmith discusses problems that commonly occur during testing as well as his development of a framework that lists potential symptoms by which each can be recognized, potential negative consequences, and potential causes, and makes recommendations for preventing them or mitigating their effects. | 7/11/2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanJoint Programs and Social Dilemmas | In this episode, SEI researcher Bill Novak discusses joint programs and social dilemmas, which have become increasingly common in defense acquisition, and the ways in joint program outcomes can be affected by their underlying structure. | 6/27/2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanApplying Agile in the DoD: Second Principle | In this episode, the second in a series by Suzanne Miller and Mary Ann Lapham exploring the application of agile principles in the Department of Defense (DoD), the two researchers discuss the application of the second principle, "Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer's competitive advantage." | 6/13/2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanReliability Validation and Improvement Framework | In this episode, Peter Feiler discusses his recent work to improve the quality of software-reliant systems through an approach known as the Reliability Validation and Improvement Framework. The purpose of the framework is to facilitate early defect discovery and incremental end-to-end validation. | 5/23/2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanThe Business Case for Systems Engineering | In this podcast, Joe Elm discusses the results of a recent technical report, The Business Case for Systems Engineering, which establishes clear links between the application of systems engineering (SE) best practices to projects and programs and the performance of those projects and programs. The report clearly shows that projects that do more SE perform better in terms of meeting budgets, schedules, and technical requirements. The survey population consisted of projects and programs executed by system developers reached through the National Defense Industrial Association Systems Engineering Division, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Aerospace and Electronic Systems Society, and the International Council on Systems Engineering. | 5/9/2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanApplying Agile in the DoD: First Principle | In this episode, the first in a series by Suzanne Miller and Mary Ann Lapham exploring the application of agile principles in the Department of Defense (DoD), the two researchers discuss the application of the first principle, "Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software." | 4/18/2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanThe Evolution of a Science Project | Analysis work by the SEI on data collected from more than 100 independent technical assessments (ITAs) of software-reliant acquisition programs has produced insights into some of the most common ways that programs encounter difficulties. In this episode, Bill Novak and Andy Moore describe a recent technical report, The Evolution of a Science Project, which is based on these insights, and intends to mitigate the effects of both misaligned acquisition program organizational incentives, and adverse software-reliant acquisition structural dynamics, by improving acquisition staff decision-making. | 4/4/2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanWhat's New With Version 2 of the AADL Standard? | In this episode, Peter Feiler, primary author of the Architecture Analysis & Design Language (AADL) standard, discusses the latest changes to the standard, the second version of which was released in January 2009. First published in 2004 by SAE International, AADL is a modeling notation that employs both a textual and graphical representation to provide modeling concepts to describe the runtime architecture of application systems in terms of concurrent tasks, their interactions, and their mapping onto an execution platform. Development organizations use AADL to conduct lightweight, rigorous, yet comparatively inexpensive analyses of critical real-time factors such as performance, dependability, security, and data integrity. | 3/21/2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanThe State of the Practice of Cyber Intelligence | In 2012, representatives from the government approached the SEI Innovation Center about conducting research to assess the state of the practice of cyber intelligence. The overall intent is to expose industry to the best practices in capabilities and methodologies developed by the government, and for the government to learn from the process efficiencies and tools used in industry. In areas where both the government and industry are experiencing challenges, the SEI can leverage its expertise to develop and prototype innovative technologies and processes that can benefit all participants in the program. In this podcast, Troy Townsend and Jay McAllister discuss their findings with Suzanne Miller, a researcher at the SEI. | 3/7/2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanTechnology Readiness Assessments | In this podcast, Michael Bandor discusses technology readiness assessments, which the Department of Defense defines as a formal, systematic, metrics-based process and accompanying report that assess the maturity of critical hardware and software technologies to be used in systems. In a discussion with fellow researcher Suzanne Miller, Bandor discusses the latest developments with TRAs and his experiences. | 2/21/2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanStandards in Cloud Computing Interoperability | Organizations that use the cloud want the ability to easily move workloads and data from one cloud provider to another or between private and public clouds. A common tactic for enabling interoperability is the use of open standards, and many cloud standardization projects are developing standards for the cloud. In this podcast, Grace Lewis discusses her latest research exploring the role of standards in cloud-computing interoperability, which covers cloud-computing basics, standard-related efforts, cloud-interoperability use cases, and provides some recommendations for moving forward with cloud-computing adoption regardless of the maturity of standards for the cloud. | 2/7/2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanThe Latest Developments in AADL | In this episode, Julien Delange and Peter Feiler discuss the latest developments with the Architecture Analysis and Design Language (AADL) standard. First published in 2004 by SAE International, AADL is a modeling notation that employs both a textual and graphical representation. AADL provides modeling concepts to describe the runtime architecture of application systems in terms of concurrent tasks, their interactions, and their mapping onto an execution platform. Development organizations use AADL to conduct lightweight, rigorous, yet comparatively inexpensive analyses of critical real-time factors such as performance, dependability, security, and data integrity. | 1/17/2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanThe Fundamentals of Agile | In today's fast-paced, global economy, industry and government customers demand innovation coupled with the ability to adapt products and systems to rapidly changing needs. At the same time, the time frame for developing software continues to shorten. As a result, agile software development processes like Scrum and Extreme Programming, with their emphasis on releasing new software capabilities rapidly, are increasing in popularity beyond small teams and individual projects. In this episode, Tim Chick, a senior member of the technical staff in the Team Software Process (TSP) initiative, discusses the fundamentals of agile, specifically what it means for an organization to be agile and provides three criteria for organizations seeking to implement agile. | 1/3/2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanSoftware for Soldiers who use Smartphones | Whether soldiers are on the battlefield or providing humanitarian relief effort, they need to capture and process a wide range of text, image, and map-based information. To support soldiers in this effort, the Department of Defense is beginning to equip soldiers with smartphones to allow them to manage that vast array and amount of information they encounter while in the field. Whether the information gets correctly conveyed up the chain of command depends, in part, on the soldier's ability to capture accurate data while in the field. In this episode, Ed Morris describes research to create a software application for smartphones that allows soldier end-users to program their smartphones to provide an interface tailored to the information they need for a specific mission. | 12/20/2012 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanArchitecting Service-Oriented Systems | A common misconception is that developers using a service-oriented architecture can achieve system qualities such as interoperability and modifiability by simply integrating a set of vendor products that provide an infrastructure. Developers often believe they may then use this infrastructure to expose a set of reusable services to build systems. In reality, developers need to make many architectural decisions. In this episode, Grace Lewis discusses general guidelines for architecting service-oriented systems, how common service-oriented system components support these principles, and the effect these principles and their implementation have on system quality attributes. | 12/6/2012 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanThe SEI Strategic Plan | In this podcast, Bill discusses the development of the long-term, technical strategic plan of the SEI to advance the practice of software engineering for the Department of Defense (DoD) through research and technology transition involving the DoD, federal agencies, industry, and academia. | 11/15/2012 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanQuantifying Uncertainty in Early Lifecycle Cost Estimation | By law, major defense acquisition programs are now required to prepare cost estimates earlier in the acquisition lifecycle, including pre-Milestone A, well before concrete technical information is available on the program being developed. Estimates are therefore often based on a desired capability-or even on an abstract concept-rather than a concrete technical solution plan to achieve the desired capability. Hence the role and modeling of assumptions becomes more challenging. In today's podcast episode, Jim McCurley and Robert Stoddard discuss a new method developed by the SEI's Software Engineering Measurement and Analysis (SEMA) team, Quantifying Uncertainty in Early Lifecycle Cost Estimation (QUELCE). QUELCE is a method for improving pre-Milestone A software cost estimates through research designed to improve judgment regarding uncertainty in key assumptions (called "program change drivers"), the relationships among the program change drivers, and their impact on cost. | 11/1/2012 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanArchitecting a Financial System with TSP | The SEI recently worked with Bursatec to create a reliable and fast new trading system for Groupo Bolsa Mexicana de Valores, the Mexican Stock Exchange. This project combined elements of the SEI's Architecture Centric Engineering (ACE) method, which requires effective use of software architecture to guide system development, with its Team Software Process (TSP), which is a team-centric approach to developing software that enables organizations to better plan and measure their work. In this episode, Felix Bachmann and James McHale discuss their work on the project. | 10/18/2012 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanThe Importance of Data Quality | Organizations rely on valid data to make informed decisions. When data integrity is compromised, the veracity of the decision-making process is likewise threatened. In this episode, Dave Zubrow discusses the importance of data quality and research that his team is undertaking in this area. | 10/4/2012 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanMisaligned Incentives | In this episode, Novak discusses misaligned incentives, misaligned people incentives in software acquisition programs, and how the wrong incentives can undermine acquisition programs and produce poor outcomes. | 9/20/2012 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanHow a Disciplined Process Enhances & Enables Agility | Typically, people who believe themselves to be Agile, believe that developers realize the best results when they focus on empowered teams, collaboration with stakeholders, avoiding unnecessary work, and receiving frequent feedback. Agilests hate the term "process" because they use the word somewhat differently than we do. The word "process," however, can be defined as something done repeatedly, with some discipline, and to achieve an end. In this podcast, Bill Nichols discusses how a disciplined process enables and enhances agility. | 9/4/2012 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanAgile Acquisition | The SEI is focused on reducing the DoD information technology (IT) development cycle currently as long as 81 months to short, incremental approaches that yield results more quickly. One complicating factor is that DoD acquisition programs (like other highly-regulated commercial environments) have a prescribed vision of how IT systems are developed. This podcast explores the SEI's research and work to assist the DoD in Agile acquisition. | 9/4/2012 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanAn Architecture-Focused Measurement Framework for Managing Technical Debt | Managing technical debt, which refers to the rework and degraded quality resulting from overly hasty delivery of software capabilities to users, is an increasingly critical aspect of producing cost-effective, timely, and high-quality software products. A delicate balance is needed between the desire to release new software capabilities rapidly to satisfy users and the desire to practice sound software engineering that reduces rework. In this podcast, Ipek Ozkaya discusses the SEI's research on the strategic management of technical debt, which involves decisions made to defer necessary work during the planning or execution of a software project. | 9/4/2012 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanCloud Computing for the Battlefield | Soldiers can use handheld mobile computing devices (aka smart-phones) to help with various tasks, such as speech and image recognition, natural language processing, decision making and mission planning. There are challenges to achieving these capabilities such as unreliable networks and bandwidth, lack of computational power, and the toll that computation-intensive tasks take on battery power. In this episode, Grace discusses research that she is leading to overcome these challenges by using cloudlets, which are localized, lightweight servers running one or more virtual machines on which soldiers can offload expensive computations from their handheld mobile devices, thereby providing greater processing capacity and helping conserve battery power. | 9/4/2012 | Free | View in iTunes |
| 93 Items |
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