Hi, welcome everyone. My name is Kristin Walcott-Justice and I am an Assistant Professor at the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs. I'm also the Program Director of the Masters of Engineering in Software Engineering and I deal with the Software Engineering Certificate and the Engineering Secure Software Certificate at UCCS. I am so very excited to be presenting this course to you, in Software Requirements and Specifications. I love programming and developing Software ever since I was about 14 years old. Basically, I needed a science fair project and my dad said "Hey, let's take this math game that you really like and learn how to program together. We'll create a computerized version of your favorite game." It was awesome and I won first prize. Ever since then, I took Computer Programming Courses and learned more and more about the field of Software Engineering as a whole. I went to Allegheny College, which is an absolutely amazing little liberal arts school in Northwestern Pennsylvania, where there I double majored in Computer Science and Mathematics. And as is the style of liberal arts, I minored in French, took some classes in Econ, took some classes in Political Science and did a lot of dancing. There, I also met my mentor Gregory Kapfhammer. Doctor Kapfhammer really inspired me, and I especially enjoyed his class in Software Engineering. That class was the first time that I go to work in a group of teams, not just on a team, but with groups of teams, and to see how the teams work together to create a big product. In that class, I really learned the importance of Communication, Documentation and Testing and also Product Maintenance. It was truly an eye opening experience, and thankfully, overall successful. While I was in college, I also interned and worked at an Educational Software Development company, where I ended up leading a Development team to try to recreate an existing product. In these experiences, I learned the ever important lesson in software requirements that if someone says, "I want exactly this product, but a little bit different" they're probably wrong. They may want something similar, but it was really dangerous for me to think of the product as the product I knew already, and just work to convert it. After three months, my team and I learned that that wasn't what was wanted or needed at all. We didn't know the list of requirements well and we definitely neglected learning about the new platforms and the new domain, well enough to properly negotiate, analyze, and prioritize our work. Because of all of this, the product ended up failing. However, I like to think that this experience really helped me learn my lesson. Around the same time, I started grad school at the University of Virginia, in beautiful Charlottesville Virginia, where I delved much deeper into Software Engineering. I also explored topics such as Computer Architecture, Graphics and Parallel Computing, both in class and in research. My masters project was in the area of Computer Architecture, entitled Dynamic Prediction of Architectural Vulnerability from Microarchitectural State. I realized that, I didn't like architecture all that much. I finally found myself back in Software Engineering. And, when I did, I realized how very important it was for me to have a well-rounded view of not only software engineering, or software requirements, but of computing as a whole. These aren't just traditional software engineering projects that we're working with. I was able to see most of the levels of programs that we were trying to design, and I had a much clearer understanding of what we were looking at with the hardware at the architectural levels, and also in the security domains, in which I was working. About this time, I also became fascinated with tools available in software engineering, and the lack thereof. I especially enjoyed the testing process, which ties much like software requirements to every step of the Software Development Lifecycle. While many tools exist, there are so many more that could be created to improve productivity. My Ph.D., conducted under the wonderful advisement of Dr. Mary Lou Soffa, focused on testing in resource-constrained environments such as mobile devices and embedded systems. Now, I'm working more on creating more automated testing tools and debugging tools, for these types of systems, in addition to IoT and CPS devices. I'm also interested in addressing security concerns at all parts of the Software Development Lifecycle, creating tools for better transitioning from the software requirements to other parts of the development process. In this specialization, I hope to help you expand your knowledge, of the huge role that software requirements plays in every part of the Software Development Lifecycle. And, also be providing you with many techniques, that will help you to efficiently and effectively, act as a liaison between your stakeholders, and all others on the software team. While you do this, you're creating a living document that can lead to successful application. And thank you for joining me.
