How Can Software be so Hard?

How can it be possible for teenagers to write smartphone apps that make them multi-millionaires when many commercial and Government IT projects fail, despite employing the skills and resources of international IT companies? What is software and how is it developed? How confident do we need to be that it is sufficiently correct, reliable, usable, safe or secure? What evidence would we need? The main reasons why software projects overrun, get cancelled, or deliver inadequate software will be explored, using examples of project failures and the litigations that often result.

This is a free public lecture by Martyn Thomas, IT Livery Company Professor of Information Technology.

There is no need to book in advance for this lecture. It runs on a first come first served basis.