Elliot J. Chikofsky


    Elliot Chikofsky is EM&I Fellow at Engineering, Management & Integration (EM&I), headquartered in Herndon, Virginia. He assists and coaches government agencies, commercial enterprises, and non-profit organizations on information technology (IT) and business management, particularly in areas of IT Portfolio Management, enterprise architecture, IT investments, and systems reengineering.  Specialties include business process reengineering (BPR), enterprise IT strategy, life cycle management, performance measures, technical architecture, systems engineering strategies, reengineering and reverse engineering, and software process & tools.  He resides in Burlington, Massachusetts.
     
    Chikofsky was recognized with the 2010 Award for Outstanding Government Partner by the CPIC Forum (Capital Planning & Investment Control) government-industry conference.  He was nominated by the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS).
     
    As an adjunct faculty member, Chikofsky is now serving as the Program Coodinator for Computer Engineering Technology for Northeastern University's College of Professional Studies in Boston.  He also teaches commercial IT Portfolio Management seminars for Intervista Institute, and is on the faculty of University of Phoenix's Boston-area campus in information technology and business management.  His teaching for Northeastern University's Graduate School of Engineering (1987-2006) in information systems and software engineering included courses televised on the National Technological University (NTU) and Network Northeastern distribution networks.  In 2002, he received the Martin Essigmann Outstanding Teaching Award from Northeastern University's College of Engineering.  He received NTU's Outstanding Instructor Award in each of 2000, 2001, and 2002.
     
    Chikofsky is Chairman of Information Services & Technology for the Grand Lodge of Masons in Massachusetts, which awarded him the Joseph Warren Distinguished Service Medal in September 2013.  He designed and implemented the internet-based, self-service information center integrating all aspects of the organization's services for 35,000 members.  He also developed the state-wide instructor curriculum and online training facilities.
     
    Prior to joining EM&I, he was a director in Meta Group's enterprise architecture and technology strategies consulting practice and in its performance engineering and measurement strategies service.  At DMR Consulting Group (consulting services division of Amdahl Corporation and Fujitsu), he was associate director, specializing in business reengineering, information technology, and software architecture and reengineering for clients that included the U.S. Air Force and the FAA.
     
    Chikofsky recently served as Vice Chair of the IEEE Computer Society's Technical and Conference Activities Board.  He is on the international executive committee of the IEEE Technical Council on Software Engineering (TCSE) and was awarded the 2010 TCSE Software Engineering Distinguished Service Award.  He served as TCSE Chair (1993-1996) and Executive Secretary (2000-2005).
     
    In 2000, Chikofsky received the IEEE Computer Society Distinguished Service Award "for outstanding and unparalleled service in founding five Software Engineering conferences, establishing TCSE, initiating new programs, reactivating others, and mentoring volunteers".  He also received the IEEE Third Millennium Medal.   He has been a member of the IEEE-CS Board of Governors (1993-1998), chair of the selection committee for the IEEE Computer Entrepreneur Award (1994-2000), and chair of the IEEE Task Force on Information Technology for Business Applications (1997-2000).
     
    Chikofsky was the director of research and technology at Index Technology Corporation (maker of the Excelerator CASE products), and a development director at Progress Software (4GL).   He was co-founder and vice president (chief operating officer) of an early 1980s CASE spin-off from the University of Michigan. At Michigan, he was a lead developer on the mainframe CASE and Repository tool set PSL/PSA and led its commercialization as an IBM Program Offering.   He has also been an independent consultant and proprietor of Radius Systems Inc. (PathBridge®).
     
    Chikofsky chairs the Reengineering Forum industry association (REF).  He founded the premier juried research Working Conference on Reverse Engineering (WCRE) and served more than 10 years as the only North American on the steering committee of the European Conference on Software Maintenance and Reengineering (CSMR).  He is co-author of the frequently-cited 1990 taxonomy on reverse engineering and reengineering (Chikofsky & Cross, IEEE Software, January 1990).   In 1997-98, he directed the Reverse Engineering Demonstration Project, an international cooperative study among commercial and non-commercial research groups and product organizations.
     
    Chikofsky has also served as chair of the award selection committee for the Stevens Award (Stevens Lecture on Software Development Methods) and as executive secretary of the IWCASE industry association (International Workshop on CASE).   He was associate editor-in-chief of IEEE Software magazine through May 1992, and was founding editor of its software management column.
     
    He is described in the Encyclopedia of Software Engineering (Wiley, 1994) as "a developer, organizer, and evangelist of software engineering automation, and is most known for his advocacy of reverse engineering and CASE technologies.   He is a consultant on management issues regarding the application of software technology to solving business problems, as well as on information systems development methods, tools, and design techniques."   He is also profiled in Chapter 5 of Ivars Peterson's book Fatal Defect: Chasing Killer Computer Bugs (Times Books, 1995), describing Chikofsky's work on reverse engineering and on the year 2000 computing date crisis.  
     
    Chikofsky was an elected Town Meeting Member (10 years) and an elected Library Trustee in the Burlington, Massachusetts town government.   He is a senior member of IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers) and a member of ACM.   He is also Past Master of Masonic Lodges in Michigan and Massachusetts and is a senior member of the Masonic Education committee of the Massachusetts Grand Lodge.  He received an M.S. in industrial and operations engineering and a B.S. in computer and communications science, both from the University of Michigan.
     


     
    Selected Bibliography
     


     
    Elliot Chikofsky
    75 Lexington Street
    Burlington, MA 01803 USA
     
    tel +1 781-272-0049
     
    e.chikofsky@computer.org
    Elliot.Chikofsky@em-i.com
    chikofsky@neu.edu
    chikofsky@email.phoenix.edu
     
    1 August 2014
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Copyright © 2025 Elliot Chikofsky
    All rights reserved.