Requirements Engineering for Sociotechnical Systems

"The Information Society" that we live in today is largely driven by the products and services that either contain software as a core element, or are themselves software. At the very least, it is likely that most of those same products and services were manufactured with the help of some type of sophisticated software applications. Because of that, as well as the stresses of navigating through a truly global economy, the skills of software developers and engineers are being pushed to the limit. As a result of those growing complexities, it has become imperative that software engineers and developers understand the methods, tools and techniques for identifying, documenting and validating the requirements of complex systems. In turn, more emphasis is now being placed on Requirements Engineering and the role it plays in today‘s Information Society. Because of that, Requirements Engineering has now transcended its traditional role within software development and become an integral part of product and systems engineering. Requirements Engineering for Socio–Technical Systems provides a comprehensive view of many of the system requirements for some of the hottest areas in development today. In addition, readers with understanding of human factors and social issues embedded within the development of socio–technical systems.

About the Author:

Dr. Luis Mat is a Full Professor of computer sciences and artificial intelligence at the Universidad Polit cnica de Madrid (UPM) and is, at present, Viceprovost of the University. He has also served as Dean of UPM‘s School of Computer Science. He received his Telecommunications Engineering degree and the Ph.D. from the UPM. He uses his work on information system design to advise several Spanish and international institutions, including the upper and lower houses of the Spanish Parliament. He is author of several books and papers related to the integration of software and knowledge engineering and in the field of learning environments.

Dr. Andr s Silva is a Lecturer of Software Engineering at Universidad Polit cnica de Madrid (UPM), where he is responsible for teaching Requirements Engineering. He has three years of industrial experience in software development and has worked at the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission. In 2001 he received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the UPM. His research interests are Requirements Engineering and Knowledge Management. He is an author of several conference and journal papers in requirements engineering.