Software Engineering Institute

February 27, 2013—The Software Engineering Institute (SEI) will co-sponsor the 2013 edition of the Software Technology Conference (STC 2013). This year marks the 25th anniversary of the conference, and the first to be organized by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Computer Society. The conference takes place April 8 - 10 in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Paul D. Nielsen, director and chief executive officer of the SEI, will provide a keynote address. "We're excited to co-sponsor this year' software Technology Conference in Salt Lake City," said Nielsen. "We've supported this premier defense software conference throughout its 25 years. This year, with IEEE taking over the conference, it seemed appropriate for the SEI, as a DoD Science and Technology FFRDC, to take on a more prominent role."

Also speaking at STC 2013 will be William Scherlis, director of the Institute for Software Research (ISR) in Carnegie Mellon University's School of Computer Science. Scherlis, former acting chief technology officer at the SEI, will deliver a dinner keynote presentation. In addition to the keynotes by Nielsen and Scherlis, the SEI will be well represented by members of its technical staff. "The SEI is contributing a large number of speakers covering the wide areas of SEI research," noted Nielsen. SEI presentations and panels include the following:

• Robert C. Seacord: "RPI All-stars Secure Coding Review Part 2: Secure Coding Standards and Conformance Testing"
• Mary Beth Chrissis: "Ensuring Your Development Processes Meet Today's Cyber Challenges"
• Lisa Brownsword and Pat Place: "Patterns of Failure in DoD Acquisition and How to Recognize Them"
• Mary Ann Lapham and Suzanne M. Miller: "Ready & Fit: Understanding Agile Adoption Risks in DoD and other Regulated Settings":
  
• Richard E. Barbour : "Improving Operational Resilience Processes"
• Robert L. Nord and Michael Gagliardi: "Agile Architecting Methods for Large Scale Agile Software Development"
• Kenneth E. Nidiffer: "Enabling Mission Success through Software Technology and Agile Methods via Favorable Contributions to the Rapid Acquisition of IT Systems in Support of Public Law 111"
• Michael Gagliardi and William G. Wood: "Mission Thread Workshops - Lessons Learned"
• Dr. Carol Woody: "Software Assurance v. Security Compliance: why is compliance not enough?"
• Robert L. Nord and James McHale: "Integrate End-to-End Early and Often: Driving Out Technical Risk by Blending Architecture and Process Discipline"
• Mr. William E. Novak and Mr. Andrew P. Moore: "Understanding the Drivers Behind Software Acquisition Program Performance: Enabling Mission Success through Improved Software Decision-Making"

"The theme of STC 2013 is 'Back to the Future: Enabling Mission Success through Software Technology,'" said Nielsen. "It's an important theme because software often has the dominant role in mission success today." Nielsen noted that the STC 2013 schedule features many leaders in the field. "The conference has a great cast of keynotes," he said, "including [STC founder] Lloyd Mosemann, Barry Boehm, Vic Basili, Gene Kim, Bill Scherlis, and Walker Royce. These are people we all know that have contributed so much to software engineering. Overall, this should be a great venue for the SEI to present its work and to learn from the other conference speakers."

The STC was founded in 1989 by the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition (Communications, Computers and Support Systems), Lloyd Mosemann, to provide information and training on software engineering issues and technologies. This year, re-emerging as the IEEE Software Technology Conference, the conference seeks to return attendees to their workplace more knowledgeable of emerging technologies and methodologies and more capable of solving tomorrow's challenges. The conference also provides a forum for software and software intensive systems enterprise leaders from government, industry, and technology research organizations to share their vision and perspective directly with practitioners, managers, engineers, and innovators.