Software Engineering Institute (SEI) Podcast Series

In this SEI Podcast, Nickolas Guertin, a senior systems engineer with the SEI's Software Solutions Division, and Douglas Schmidt, associate provost of research at Vanderbilt University and former chief technical officer at the SEI, discuss strategies for creating architectures for large-scale, complex systems that comprise functions with a wide range of requirements. This is one of the most challenging areas in U.S. Department of Defense acquisition, and this approach and the strategies discussed are important to the future of our large systems.

Mismatches between the perspectives and practices of the roles involved in the development and fielding of ML systems—data scientists, software engineers, and operations personnel—can affect the ability of systems to achieve their intended missions. In this SEI Podcast, Grace Lewis, a principal researcher and lead for the Tactical and AI-Enabled Systems Initiative, and Ipek Ozkaya, technical director of Engineering Intelligent Software Systems, discuss their research into characterizing, codifying, and mitigating such mismatches.

In this SEI Podcast, Mike Konrad, a principal researcher in the SEI's Software Solutions Division, talks with 2020 IEEE Computer Society SEI Watts Humphrey Software Quality Award winner Rajendra Prasad of Accenture about automation and how SEI-developed process improvement methods and tools provided the foundation for his leadership role.

Organic software sustainment organizations within the Department of Defense are expanding beyond their traditional purview of software maintenance into software engineering and development. Instead of repairing and maintaining legacy software in already deployed systems, software sustainment teams must now shift to designing and implementing new software architectures and code. Unfortunately, many of these sustainment teams are taking on these new responsibilities without proper guidance and an understanding of the people, process, and technology issues that must first be addressed in these new roles. In this podcast, Thomas Evans, a senior software architect at the SEI, and Douglas C. Schmidt, associate provost of research at Vanderbilt University and former chief technical officer at the SEI, discuss the challenges that software sustainment teams face while making this transition and strategies for success.

The global supply chain touches every aspect of our lives, from fuel prices to the availability of computer chips and supermarket products. In out latest podcast, Matt Butkovic, technical director of risk and resilience at Carnegie Mellon University's Software Engineering Institute, discusses with Suzanne Miller the supply chain's silver thread of cyber, specifically how cyber both underpins the cyber supply chain and the broader supply chain. Butkovic's team recently engaged with the World Economic Forum to create an online transformation map, a set of connected topics defining a specific domain of interest. In this episode, Butkovic also discusses work on this map, the importance of cyber resilience, and how to determine the resilience your organization needs and the resilience it currently possesses.

In this SEI Podcast, Bill Nichols and Hasan Yasar, both with the Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute, discuss DevSecOps metrics with Suzanne Miller. DevSecOps practices, made possible by improvements in underlying technology that automate the development-to-production pipeline, can generate more information about development and operational performance than has ever been readily available before. Nichols and Yasar discuss the ways in which DevSecOps practices yield valuable information about software performance that is likely to lead to innovations in software engineering metrics.

In this podcast from the Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute, Carol Smith, a senior research scientist in human-machine interaction, and Jonathan Spring, a senior vulnerability researcher, discuss the hidden sources of bias in artificial intelligence (AI) systems and how systems developers can raise their awareness of bias, mitigate consequences, and reduce risks.

The rapid pace of change in software development, in business, and in the world has many organizations struggling to execute daily operations, wrangle big projects, and feel confident that there is a long-term strategy at play. Incorporating agile principles into strategic planning and execution is a highly effective way to drive strategy development, strategy execution, data-driven decision making, and results. In this SEI Podcast, Linda Parker Gates, initiative lead, Software Acquisition Pathways, and Suzanne Miller, principal researcher in the SEI's Software Solutions Division, discuss the principles of Agile Strategic Planning and methods for success.

In this SEI Podcast, Dr. Leigh Metcalf and Dr. Jonathan Spring, both researchers with the Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute's CERT Division, discuss the application of scientific methods to cybersecurity. As described in their recently published book, Using Science in Cybersecurity, Metcalf and Spring describe a common-sense approach and practical tools for applying scientific rigor to the field of cybersecurity.

Zero trust adoption is a security initiative that an enterprise must understand, interpret, and implement. Enterprise security initiatives are never simple, and their goal to improve cybersecurity posture requires the alignment of multiple stakeholders, systems, acquisitions, and exponentially changing technology. This alignment is always a complex undertaking and requires cybersecurity strategy and engineering to succeed. In this SEI Podcast, Geoff Sanders, a senior network defense analyst in the CERT Division at Carnegie Mellon University's Software Engineering Institute, discusses zero trust adoption and its benefits, applications, and available resources.