[ecoop-info] Reminder: CFP for IEEE Software - 1st Special Issue on Release Engineering

[Bram Adams]

[Apologies for duplicate reception of this CFP]


Reminder: IEEE SOFTWARE - 1ST SPECIAL ISSUE ON RELEASE ENGINEERING

Submission Deadline: 1 August 2014
Publication: March/April 2015

More Information: http://releng.polymtl.ca/RELENG2014/html/SI.html


Software used to be released in shrink-wrapped form, but the advent of agile
methodologies and the web has overhauled the landscape. For example, a project
like Mozilla Firefox releases every 6 weeks, generating updates for dozens of
existing versions on 5 desktop, 2 mobile and 3 mobile desktop platforms, each of
which for more than 80 locales. In other words, deployment of modern
applications requires coordinating the release of applications on multiple
mobile platforms, web platforms with centralized backend services, and native
desktop clients. Furthermore, concepts like continuous delivery of software are
no longer curiosities, but essential to retain a competitive edge.

Release engineering deals with all activities in between regular development and
actual usage of a software product by the end user, i.e., integration, build,
test execution, packaging and delivery of software. Although research on this
topic goes back for decades, the increasing heterogeneity and variability of
software products along with the recent trend to reduce the release cycle to
days or even hours starts to question some of the common beliefs and practices
of the field.

The IEEE Software Special Issue on Release Engineering solicits experience
reports and papers on tools, methods, practices and techniques to streamline
release engineering. We especially welcome submissions targeting recent
challenges like continuous delivery and heterogeneous platform support, but the
Special Issue is open to any of the following topics:

 * best practices for code movement (branching/integration)
 * continuous integration and testing
 * build and configuration of software
 * build system maintenance
 * testing and reporting infrastructures
 * package and dependency management
 * legal signoff and bill-of-materials
 * delivery and deployment of software
 * code signing and certificate management
 * continuous delivery, deployment, installation and software update
 * cloud provisioning and management
 * cloud service release management
 * interaction with app stores
 * mobile app release management
 * principles and automated techniques for release planning
 * release engineering for product line systems
 * devops and interaction with developers, end users, etc.
 * devops practices and tools
 * large-scale build and test farms
 * multi-platform build and test
 * feedback on continuous delivery and deployment


The goals for this Special Issue are three-fold:

 * making researchers aware of the challenges and research opportunities, and
    practitioners aware of research in release engineering
 * sharing experiences with practical approaches, tools, methods and techniques for
    release engineering
 * building connections between different communities involved in release engineering.


In an effort to engage with practitioners, one of the co-organizers of the
Special Issue is a release engineer at Mozilla and one half of the reviewers
will consist of release engineers, so we guarantee that each paper or abstract
submission receives at least one review from a practitioner.

Full submissions for the Special Issue must not exceed 5,400 words including
figures and tables, which count for 200 words each. Submissions in excess of
these limits may be rejected without refereeing. The articles we deem within the
theme and scope will be peer-reviewed and are subject to editing for magazine
style, clarity, organization, and space. We reserve the right to edit the title
of all submissions. Be sure to include the name of the theme or Special Issue
you are submitting for.

We also solicit short “practice” papers from practitioners that contain
experience reports. These papers do not need to make a research contribution,
but should instead present the experiences of a practitioner or practitioners by
describing things such as current release processes used, challenges faced,
solutions attempted, and/or results obtained. Practice papers should not exceed
3,500 words.

Articles should have a practical orientation and be written in a style
accessible to practitioners. Overly complex, purely research-oriented or
theoretical treatments are not appropriate. Articles should be novel. IEEE
Software does not republish material published previously in other venues,
including other periodicals and formal conference/workshop proceedings, whether
previous publication was in print or in electronic form.


For more information about the focus, please contact the Guest Editors:

 * Bram Adams (http://mcis.polymtl.ca/bram.html), Polytechnique Montréal, Canada
 * Stephany Bellomo (http://www.sei.cmu.edu/about/people/profile.cfm?id=bellomo_15351), SEI, USA
 * Christian Bird (http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/people/cbird/), Microsoft Research, USA
 * Foutse Khomh (http://www.khomh.net/), Polytechnique Montréal, Canada
 * Kim Moir (http://relengofthenerds.blogspot.com/), Mozilla, Canada

For general author guidelines: http://www.computer.org/software/author.htm
For submission details: software at computer.org
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