Stephanie M. White, Ph.D.
Department of Computer Science & Management Engineering
C.W. Post Campus, Long Island University
Brookville, NY 11548
USA
Office Phone: 516-299-2293
Email: Stephanie.White@liu.edu


DVP term expires December 2013

Dr. Stephanie White, a Woodrow Wilson Fellow, is a professor and member of the doctoral committee in the College of Information and Computer Science at Long Island University; she teaches courses in computer science, software and systems engineering, and information studies. Her research interests are in software and systems engineering, with emphasis on requirements management, systems modeling and analysis, and the interaction among systems and software engineers. Previously she was Principal Engineer of Requirements and Architecture for the Northrop Grumman Advanced Technology and Development Center in Bethpage, New York. During her 20 year career at Grumman, she was Principal Investigator on a number of research contracts provided by Naval Research Laboratory and other agencies. Dr. White developed methods and published research on classifying system requirements, and on modeling and analyzing complex systems. She led an inter-divisional team solving system/software engineering interface issues and served on the Integrated Methods Technical Advisory Group at the Software Productivity Consortium. She transferred technology to Grumman aircraft programs, was software lead on Grumman proposals, and managed aerospace personnel responsible for software requirements and architecture on major aircraft and space contracts. Appointed by the National Research Council, she served for three years as a member of the Board on Assessment of NIST Programs, Panel for Information Technology. The Board submits an annual report to the United States Congress. White has been an active member of the IEEE Computer Society (CS) for many years, recently serving on the CS Board of Governors and as CS Vice President of Technical Activities. She is currently a member of the IEEE Thesaurus Editorial Board and Secretary of the IEEE Systems Council. Stephanie has an M.S. in mathematics from New York University (NYU), and an M.S. and Ph.D. in computer science from Polytechnic University (now Polytechnic Institute of NYU).


Improving the System/Software Engineering Interface For Complex System Development
This talk discusses the integrated system/software engineering process during the phases when system and software developers work most closely together. These phases are system problem definition, software requirements analysis and specification, system solution analysis, and process planning. Lessons learned during twenty years, while working with system and software engineers to define requirements and solutions on aerospace projects are summarized. During this time, problems were noted and their cause determined. As a result, advice is provided.

The Role of Knowledge Management in Requirements Management
Developers of software intensive systems have problems delivering systems within cost and schedule, and many of the delivered systems do not do what users really want. Inadequate requirements engineering is a major contributor to these problems.. There are a number of reasons why the set of specified requirements is not normally equivalent to the set of ‘true’ requirements, including: natural language is imprecise; different disciplines use inconsistent terminology; conflicts are not readily recognized and therefore not properly negotiated; and assumptions are not clearly documented. Also practitioners “use different representation schemes, even within a single discipline (drawings, tables, natural language, and semi-formal models), leading to inconsistencies and ambiguities that are not likely to be discovered until the system is operational. To address these problems, classification methods and cognitive theories are discussed.