Software Productivity and Reliability: Tools and Techniques

A Half Day ISSRE Tutorial

Organizer: Suraj C. Kothari

This tutorial will benefit software engineers and managers who are involved in the development and maintenance of large software. We will discuss and demonstrate techniques and the state-of-the-art tools for improving productivity and reliability of large software. We will cover:

• Important facets of the productivity and quality problems and their solutions: defects and security vulnerabilities, program comprehension, static and dynamic analysis techniques, and testing.
• Limitations of testing and how to overcome them.
• Implications of adopting tools technology in the context of: documentation of software, leveraging knowledge of software experts, outsourcing, and training of new engineers.
• Things you must know if you really want to benefit from inspection and defect analysis tools.

In the medical profession, doctors use medical instruments and surgical tools to observe the internals of complex body structures and to make minimally invasive changes to correct the functioning of the body. Similarly, software engineers need tools to observe the internals of complex software, to make fast and accurate software modifications, to enhance productivity, and to correct defects. The tutorial will provide a glimpse of this emerging reality by demonstrating a new generation of tools and their applicability.

About the Organizer:
Dr. Kothari is currently Professor and Chair of the Software Systems Group in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Iowa State University. Previously, he has worked at AT&T Bell Laboratory. In 2002, he founded EnSoft Corp., a company that provides domain-specific software tools and tool-based services to multinational companies. His research on knowledge-centric software tools technology has been funded by DARPA, EPA, and several companies. He has published numerous technical articles in leading computer science journals and conferences and he holds three patents. Dr. Kothari has also served as a Distinguished ACM Lecturer.