System processes are software too

This talk explores the application of software engineering tools, technologies, and approaches to developing and continuously improving systems by focusing on the systems' processes. The systems addressed are those that are complex coordinations of the efforts of humans, hardware devices, and software subsystems, where humans are on the “inside”, playing critical roles in the functioning of the system and its processes. The talk suggests that in such cases, the collection of processes that use the system is tantamount to being the system itself, suggesting that improving the system's processes amounts to improving the system. Examples of systems from a variety of different domains that have been addressed and improved in this way will be presented and explored. The talk will suggest some additional untried software engineering ideas that seem promising as vehicles for supporting system development and improvement, and additional system domains that seem ripe for the application of this kind of software-based process technology. The talk will emphasize that these applications of software engineering approaches to systems has also had the desirable effect of adding to our understandings of software engineering. These understandings have created a software engineering research agenda that is complementary to, and synergistic with, agendas for applying software engineering to system development and improvement.