Software Engineering Institute (SEI) Podcast Series

Latest Episodes:

A Workshop on Measuring What Matters Feb 20, 2015

Show notes

This podcast summarizes the inaugural Measuring What Matters Workshop conducted in November 2014, and the team's experiences in planning and executing the workshop, and identifying improvements for future offerings. The Measuring What Matters Workshop introduces the Goal-Question-Indicator-Metric (GQIM) approach that enables users to derive meaningful metrics for managing cybersecurity risks from strategic and business objectives. This approach helps ensure that organizational leaders have better information to make decisions, take action, and change behaviors. Katie Stewart, Michelle Valdez, Lisa Young, and Julia Allen, the developers and facilitators of this workshop, are all members of CERT's Cyber Resilience Management team. Further details about this workshop can be found in our workshop report. Listen on Apple Podcasts.

Applying Agile in the DoD: Tenth Principle Feb 12, 2015

Show notes

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. Listen on Apple Podcasts.

Predicting Software Assurance Using Quality and Reliability Measures Jan 29, 2015

Show notes

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. Listen on Apple Podcasts.

Applying Agile in the DoD: Ninth Principle Jan 16, 2015

Show notes

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. Listen on Apple Podcasts.

Cyber Insurance and Its Role in Mitigating Cybersecurity Risk Jan 08, 2015

Show notes

The goal of any cybersecurity investment is to reduce the potential impact from cyber risk. Initial investments should be in capability development—the implementation of controls to protect and sustain operations that depend on technology. As capability increases, additional capability investments produce diminishing returns—the curve flattens. At that point, investment in cyber insurance becomes an efficient means to further reduce risk.In this podcast, Jim Cebula, the Technical Manager of CERT's Cybersecurity Risk Management Team, and David White, Chief Knowledge Officer with Axio Global, discuss cyber insurance, its potential role in reducing operational and cybersecurity risk, and how organizations are using it today. We also discuss ongoing CERT research on this topic. Listen on Apple Podcasts.

AADL and Dassault Aviation Dec 18, 2014

Show notes

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. Listen on Apple Podcasts.

Tactical Cloudlets Dec 04, 2014

Show notes

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. Listen on Apple Podcasts.

Agile Software Teams and How They Engage with Systems Engineering on DoD Acquisition Programs Nov 27, 2014

Show notes

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. Listen on Apple Podcasts.

Coding with AADL Nov 13, 2014

Show notes

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. Listen on Apple Podcasts.

The State of Agile Oct 30, 2014

Show notes

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. Listen on Apple Podcasts.

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Software Engineering Institute (SEI) Podcast Series

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected