Kevin Ryan: Do we still Require Requirements Engineering?

Description

Speaker: Kevin T Ryan

Abstract

Recent developments in Software Engineering, such as Agile Methods, Artificial Intelligence and Search Based SE have led some people to dismiss RE as 'no longer relevant'. Ultimately, the argument goes, machines will surpass human intelligence and will be able to establish their own requirements. These arguments are baseless for a number of reasons; scientific, social and ultimately philosophical. Worse, they ignore the hard won lessons of nearly 30 years of RE research. In fact the more complex and software dependent our society becomes, the more we will need appropriate RE.

Presenter bio

Professor Kevin Ryan is emeritus Professor of Information Technology at the University of Limerick (UL) and was founding Director of Lero - the Irish Software Engineering Research Centre. (www.lero.ie). Kevin holds degrees of BA (Maths & Economics), BAI (Engineering) and PhD (Computer Science) from Trinity College Dublin and is a Fellow of both the Irish Computer Society and the Institute of Engineers of Ireland. Over the past 40 years he has lectured and researched on software topics in universities and industry in Ireland, the UK, the USA, Africa and Sweden. He is a founding member of the IFIP Working Group 2.9 (Requirements Engineering) and chaired it for 6 years. He has been a director of a number of start-up software companies.

Host: John Grundy

Tea, coffee, and snacks will be available at the primary venue for the audience after the talk.