[ecoop-info] CfP: VACE at ICSE 2017 - International Workshop on Variability and Complexity in Software Design

[Matthias Galster]

VACE 2017 - CALL FOR PAPERS
Second International Workshop on Variability and Complexity in Software
Design

May 27, 2017
Buenos Aires, Argentina
http://vaquita-workshop.org/vace2017/

Workshop held in conjunction with ICSE 2017
http://icse2017.gatech.edu

THEME AND GOAL
Today’s software systems must accommodate a wide range of usage and
deployment scenarios (e.g., product families, self-adaptive systems,
configurable or customizable single systems, open platforms, context-aware
apps, dynamic service-based systems). This variability can occur in
functionality and quality. Given the increasing size and heterogeneity of
software-intensive systems (e.g., ecosystems, systems of systems), new and
emerging application domains (e.g., unmanned vehicles), dynamic and
critical operating conditions (e.g., disaster monitoring and response
systems), fast moving and highly competitive markets (e.g., mobile apps),
and increasingly powerful/versatile hardware (e.g., Raspberry Pi), the
additional complexity in the design caused by variability becomes
increasingly difficult to handle. Variability has previously been targeted
in software engineering sub-communities (e.g., requirements, product lines,
architecture), domains and venues (e.g., MobileSoft, EMSoft). VACE offers
one venue for researchers, practitioners and educators from different
communities to come together to discuss experiences and synergies, forge
collaborations and explore innovative solutions to engineer high-quality
software for dynamic, flexible and variable environments. The theme of this
second edition of VACE is “Broadening Perspectives” to acknowledge the
multi- and cross-disciplinary nature of design complexity caused by
variability.

TOPICS
The workshop addresses software engineering issues related to requirements,
design, implementation, evaluation, deployment and maintenance of
variability-intensive systems. Topics include (but are not limited to):
*Flexible and lightweight approaches to support variability in problem and
solution space and to develop large-scale variability-intensive software
*Conflict between flexibility (agile / lean) and the need for bigger
up-front design and design space exploration
*Challenges to balance business value and effort spent on anticipating
variability
*Design solutions to enable continuous delivery of variability-intensive
systems
*DevOps for developing, deploying and maintaining variability-intensive
systems
*Ways to limit unintentional variability and to better scope intentional
variability to manage complexity
*Ways to “harness” design space complexity and to reason about design space
complexity
*Variability in new, emerging and maturing domains with potentially large
problem and design spaces
*Integration of functional and qualitative variability in general
development practices
*Mechanisms to model and handle variability across different life cycle
stages, from inception to operation
*Practices for requirements engineering, architecting, design,
implementation, testing and maintenance of variability-intensive systems
*Methods for quality assurance, process and product metrics for
variability-intensive systems
*Reference models/architectures/frameworks to reuse design knowledge when
designing for variability
*Training and tools

PAPER CATEGORIES
*Position and vision papers (2-4 pages): On-going research, new challenges
and emerging trends; novel solutions and inspiring, new ideas; directions
for future research.
*Full papers (6-7 pages): Innovative and original research, empirical
studies, systematic literature studies, etc.
*Industry and experience papers (up to 7 pages): Industrial experience,
case studies, challenges, problems and solutions.
*Education and training papers (up to 7 pages): Experiences, approaches and
tools for teaching topics in academic courses or industrial training (e.g.,
lesson plans, assignments).
*Artifact papers (2 pages): Architectures, designs, code, etc. of
variability-intensive systems to build a corpus for research and education.
Papers must include link to actual artifacts.

Papers must follow the formatting guidelines for ICSE 2017 submissions (
http://icse2017.gatech.edu/?q=submission-guidelines) and should be
submitted via EasyChair (https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=vace2017).

Each paper will be reviewed by three members of the program committee.
Accepted papers will be published as ICSE 2017 Workshop Proceedings and be
presented at the workshop. Papers must present novel material and not under
review elsewhere at the time of submission. The official publication date
of the workshop proceedings is the date the proceedings are made available
in the IEEE Digital Library. This date may be up to two weeks prior to the
first day of ICSE 2017. The official publication date affects the deadline
for any patent filings related to published work.

IMPORTANT DATES
Submission date: January 20, 2017
Notification: February 17, 2017
Camera-ready: February 27, 2017
Workshop: May 27, 2017

ORGANIZERS
Matthias Galster, University of Canterbury, New Zealand
Michael Goedicke, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany
Danny Weyns, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium
Uwe Zdun, University of Vienna, Austria