"Wicked Problems - Have We Lost Control over IT Systems?" Talk & Discussion

Zoom Meeting: https://sba-research.zoom.us/j/93479217331?pwd=MUhmUGRRaWRaalUvSjNkcm9jSGttUT09
Password: 787247

"Wicked Problems -- Have We Lost Control over IT Systems?" by Alexander Schatten

• Talk -

In our current work environments and in society in general, tame, repetitive problems become less of an issue, but we increasingly face what experts call »wicked problems«. Situations, where even the description of the problem is hard to come by, they spread over organisations and hierarchies and solutions are hard to grasp. The project to »solve« a problem thus is rarely stopped because the problem is solved, but more often because we run out of resources or the problem got somewhat better.

When we loose control over our IT and software systems, security problems are one of the first obvious symptoms and indicators.

We will explore the idea of wicked problems, what we can do to handle it, and what this means for the expertise and skills required. What can we learn from it from an IT/software/security point of view? What role do agile practices, evolutionary architecture, educational practices, new ways of quality assurance like the chaos monkey and modern management styles play to keep the upper hand. Why is complexity in software architectures (e.g. object relational mapping, dependency hell, and potentially micro services) a recipe for failure.

• Discussion -

I will introduce the workshop with a presentation outlining some key ideas and then invite everyone to share experiences, ideas and contribute to a discussion:

• what does the increasing dominance of wicked problems mean for your personal career? (Guess which jobs will be automated in the future: jobs that deal with tame problems, or such that are wicked in nature?)
• what are your personal experiences with wicked problems
• what type of solution approaches have you experienced?
• what worked? what didn’t work?

Speaker:
Alexander Schatten (SBA Research)
Talk language: English

About the Speaker:
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Alexander worked for over 10 years at the TU Wien, focusing on software engineering, complex systems and sustainable development. He published more than 40 scientific papers and more than 40 articles in technical magazines and a textbook on Best-Practice-Software-Engineering. He then gained further experience as founding CEO of a startup company and as consultant with Deloitte. Eventually he was CTO of biac/ twinformatics (IT subsidiary of Vienna Insurance Group) for three years. He now wants to resume his research career and contribute his broad expertise to establish sustainable software systems.

Agenda
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18:00: Gathering
18:05: Talk "Wicked Problems -- Have We Lost Control over IT Systems?" by Alexander Schatten
18:30: Discussion

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Zoom Meeting: https://sba-research.zoom.us/j/93479217331?pwd=MUhmUGRRaWRaalUvSjNkcm9jSGttUT09
Password: 787247