UNIVERSITY OF HERTFORDSHIRE

    COMPUTER SCIENCE RESEARCH COLLOQUIUM


		presents

      "Theory Building (or Why I think
	  what I think I think)"


		speaker:

	   Prof. Martin Loomes 
          Computer Science Dept.  
        University of Hertfordshire


	 5 March 2003 (Wednesday)

	  Lecture Theatre E351
	    Hatfield Campus
		3 - 4 pm


 Coffee/tea and biscuits will be available.


	Everyone is Welcome to Attend
	    [Space Permitting]


Abstract:

This seminar was first presented 15 years ago, at a time when formal
methods and soft-systems methodologies were constantly in conflict. It
is interesting that, although the technological basis of Computer
Science has changed dramatically in the intervening 15 years, the
fundamental issues addressed in this seminar seem just as relevant now
as they did many years ago.

The seminar is really more of a manifesto (in the sense that the "dada
manifesto" in the development of art presented as a reaction to the
current state of affairs in art) than an opportunity to present
"results" from a specific study. Whilst there have been many studies
carried out that have refined the manifesto in subtle ways, these have
been, of necessity, posed in more conventional terms (the establishment
is not usually minded to fund revolutionary manifestos).

The central theme of the manifesto is that Computer Science (or
Software Engineering) has become dominated by a view of the development
process that is incapable of supporting the proper development of the
discipline, but this has happened in such a way that rejection of the
view is politically difficult. The theory building view is presented as
one way in which the status quo can be disturbed by the introduction of
an alternative view which can be seen as politically acceptable to at
least two of the major stake-holding groups within the discipline.

----- 
Hertfordshire Computer Science Research Colloquium Abstracts
On-line: http://homepages.feis.herts.ac.uk/~nehaniv/colloq/