S2ESC Webinar Series: Part 1 - Technical Debt in Critical Systems

Abstract This four-part webinar series from the IEEE Computer Society's Software & Systems Engineering Standards Committee brings together experts from all areas to explore practical approaches for building safe, reliable, secure, and trustworthy intelligent systems. Across the product and service lifecycle, the series connects standards, systems engineering, governance, and organizational learning with better decisions, responsible innovation, and workforce readiness. The first webinar will focus on technical debt which rarely begins as a major problem. Technical debt accumulates across the product and service lifecycle through incomplete requirements, design compromises, deferred modernization, aging architectures, temporary fixes, workarounds and decisions that once made sense but were never revisited. In safety-critical, mission-critical and infrastructure environments, that accumulated debt can increase cybersecurity exposure, operational risk, maintenance costs and system complexity. It can also undermine interoperability, standards conformance, assurance and the organization's ability to adopt emerging technologies responsibly. This executive panel will bring together perspectives from academia, commercial organizations and the nonprofit sector to examine how technical debt can be recognized, governed and reduced across requirements, design, development, acquisition, integration, deployment, operations, sustainment, and retirement. Panelists will explore how leaders can distinguish manageable debt from dangerous debt, make informed modernization and investment decisions, and use standards, systems engineering, AI and lifecycle governance to prevent hidden risk from becoming operational failure. The discussion will also consider how universities, employers and professional organizations can better prepare students, emerging professionals and current leaders to manage technical debt as an enterprise responsibility. Key takeaway: Technical debt is accumulated lifecycle risk. Standards, disciplined engineering practices and cross-sector learning help organizations make that risk visible, governable and actionable before it becomes mission failure. Speakers: Shubhojit Chowdhury, Solution Architect, IBM Erik Shamsedeen, FTC Robot Educator/Robotics Coach Taiye Lambo, Founder & Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer, HISPI & Project Cerebellum Max Mao, Founder & Chief Transformation Architect, Triforce Strategies Aparna Krishna Penumatcha, Commerce Architect, IBM As per IEEE Standards Association Standards Board Operation Manual, any individual presenting information on IEEE Standards shall make it clear that their views should be considered as their personal views rather than the formal position, explanation, or interpretation of the IEEE. This event is in partnership with IEEE Computer Society and the IEEE Standards Association (IEEE-S2ESC)