Benefits

• Network with people from inside and outside the traditional software engineering industry;
• Find out what has and hasn't worked in the past;
• Learn how your organisation can better employ programmers and produce/use better software;
• How to make software engineering easier in a complex world;
• Help shape Technology Strategy Board support in this area.

Who should attend

• Software Developers;
• Software Design companies;
• Embeded System designers;
• Hardware designers;
  
• Computer programmers;
• Experts who rely on software but are not ICT specialists (e.g. transport planners, gene researchers, etc.);
• Anyone looking to commission software for a specific field of work;
• Social Scientists & Humanities graduates who have an interest in working with the Software Industry;
• Systems Design companies;
• Anyone who has skills in building multi-disciplinarily teams.

Background

The Technology Strategy Board is looking into how it can support better software engineering in the UK. All UK companies rely on software to work and Specialist workers increasingly rely on software to support their work.

We recognise that both agile and waterfall techniques have good practise in them that take into account user preferences. However, we are also aware that many software development companies do not employ this good practice in the development process.

Thinking in; developing easy to understand user requirements and Human Computer Interaction has moved greatly beyond current established practice; and there is widespread agreement that to have better software development, we will need to bring in under-user disciplines and peoples with other points of view.

We would like to help to create the environment where better software could be made and tailored for specialists in multi-disciplinary teams- comprising, for example, anthropologists, ethnographers, artists and psychologists. We are holding a workshop in Edinburgh and would like the following people to attend: Software developers, programmers, but also those domain experts who rely on software but are not ICT specialists themselves (e.g. transport planners, gene researchers, etc.) systems design companies, and any businesses who have skills in building multi-disciplinarily teams. The workshop will be one day and will be filled with stimulating talks and abilities to network between participants and help the TSB develop an effective package of support in this area.

Agenda

9:30 – 9:50    Tea & coffee, registration

9:50-10:00     Introduction: Sarbjit Bakhshi, Co-lead Technologist, ICT, Technology Strategy Board and Robin Williams, Director, Institute for the Study of Science, Technology and Innovation at Edinburgh University.

10:00-10:20     Louise Downe, Senior Service Designer, Engine Service Design. "Designing porous networks: Using Service Design to inform better programming"

10:20-10:40     Imogen Casebourne, Director of Learning Epic. "A Software Developer's guide to having less work and making better software."

10:40-11:00     Nathalie Nahai, Board Member of #Ogilvychange. "Using psychological techniques to make impactful code."

11:00-11:30     Claudia Pagliari, PhD, FRCP Edinb. "'From small to large companies: Case studies of interdisciplinary approaches in software design."

11:30-12:00     Q&A

12:00-13:30     Buffet lunch and networking

13:30-14:30     Table Work: What's stopping multi-disciplinary design teams? 

14:30-15:30     Table Work: How would you design software in imagined scenarios?

15:30-16:30     Present back

16:30-16:50     Discussion: What the TSB can do to encourage multidisciplinary software design?

16:50-17:00     Round up; Sarbjit Bakhshi and Jonathan Mitchener, Co-lead Technologist, ICT

17:00-18:00     Drinks and networking

About the speakers 

Imogen Casebourne

Imogen is the Director of Learning at Epic. Epic is an award-winning bespoke e-learning company with a 25-year track record in solutions that embed real skills and deliver proven business benefits.

Epic design and develop e-learning and blended solutions specific to clients’ needs in a range of sectors and subjects - induction, product knowledge, health and safety, systems, compliance, equality and diversity, management and soft skills.

Epic are privately owned, have no debt and employ over 120 staff at our Head Office in Brighton. This sustained success is built on sound partnerships with clients.

 Louise Downe

Louise Downe is a designer and thinker at Engine Service Design working in sustainable human-system design.

She is a serial pattern spotter, futurist and former producer at Tate where she made everything from documentary films to games and interactive installations, including the Guardian MEGA award-winning Tate Trumps and Magic Tate Ball.

She’s helped numerous social and cultural organizations create human centered enterprise strategies, and has worked with clients as diverse as Vodafone, BBC, Channel 4, Visa and O2 to anticipate the world of tomorrow and create new services that can thrive within it.

Nathalie Nahai  

Nathalie Nahai a Web Psychologist and speaker, whose book 'Webs of Influence: The Psychology of Online Persuasion' is due out with Pearson this October.

With a background in psychology and digital strategy, she helps businesses to psychologically optimise for better engagement online.

She lectures regularly on the subject of Web Psychology and digital strategy (clients include Goldman Sachs and Southampton University), and she is a board member of #OgilvyChange - a new Behavioural Sciences Practice that utilises the latest thinking in cognitive psychology, social psychology and behavioural economics to create behavioural interventions in the real world.

Cladia Pagliari PhD, FRCP Edinb

Dr Pagliari is a senior researcher, educator and consultant in Health Informatics and Health Services Research. Originally trained as a psychologist, she has been engaged in health technology assessment for over 15 years, with a particular focus on the study and evaluation of innovations in eHealth. She leads the Edinburgh Interdisciplinary Research Network in eHealth and the MSc programme in Health Informatics. She is a grant holder on major projects sponsored by British and European research funding agencies and is a member of several national steering committees in the area of digital health. Her research uses a range of approaches to examine sociotechnical aspects of the design, implementation and adoption of technologies, as well as clinical and economic impacts, including innovations in consumer eHealth, electronic health record systems, telehealthcare and mHealth. She has a long-standing interest in interdisciplinary research paradigms, international eHealth policy, user engagement and industry-academia collaboration in technology design and evaluation.

University web page: http://tinyurl.com/c3kzauc

LinkedIn: www.uk.linkedin.com/pub/claudia-pagliari/6/32/a53