CALL  FOR  PAPERS

           Workshop on Software Variability Management
     http://se.mm.fh-mannheim.de/Events/2003/ICSE-SVM/index.shtml

        International Conference on Software Engineering 2003
                http://cs.oregonstate.edu/icse2003/

                            May 3, 2003
                       Portland, Oregon, USA


Motivation
In a variety of approaches to software development, software 
artifacts are used in multiple contexts or for various purposes. The 
differences lead to so-called variation points in the software 
artifact. During recent years, the amount of variability that has to 
be supported by a software artifact is growing considerably and its 
management is developing as a main challenge during development, 
usage, and evolution of software artifacts.
So far, variability management is recognized as a crosscutting 
concept in software engineering that has a key role in various areas 
but that is poorly understood as an issue in its own right. In 
different facets, variability management is part of many recent 
development approaches, including but not limited to object-oriented 
frameworks, design pattern, domain-oriented languages, generative 
programming, generic components, domain and requirements analysis, 
and software product families (also called software product lines).
Successful management of variability in software artifacts leads to 
better customizable software products that are in turn likely to 
result in higher market success: in the information systems domain, 
the products are more easily adaptable to the needs of different user 
groups; in the embedded systems domain, the software can be more 
easily configured to work with different hardware and environmental 
constraints.


Goal of the Workshop
Co-located with the International Conference on Software Engineering 
(ICSE), the premier software engineering conference, this workshop 
intends to bring together people from industrial practice and from 
applied research in academia to present and discuss their respective 
experience with variability in software engineering.
The aim of the workshop is to study software variability management 
both from a 'problems' and from a 'solutions' perspective. The first 
part of the workshop is dedicated to identifying, classifying, and 
categorizing issues associated with software variability management 
for all phases in the lifecycle, as well as, in addition to 
technology, process and organizational aspects. Also issues 
associated with notation, assessment, design, and evolution will be 
discussed. 
The 'solutions' part of the workshop intends to study existing 
techniques and methods for managing software variability as well as 
proposals by workshop participants. Both existing and proposed 
technology will be assessed from a technical consistency perspective 
and evaluated for industrial applicability and feasibility.
Being a workshop, the format consists of four sessions, where the 
morning sessions start with very brief presentations followed by 
plenary discussions. The first session after lunch is devoted to 
breakout groups that focus on particular topics. During the last 
session, the results of the breakout groups are presented and 
integrated. 


Submission Guidelines
Submitted can be extended abstracts or position papers relevant to 
one or more of the issues mentioned in the Goal section.
Submit your paper in Adobe PDF (see instructions for submitting PDF 
files) via electronic submission.
Your paper must conform to the proceedings publication format and 
should not exceed six pages, including all text, references, 
appendices, and figures.
Send your paper as email attachment to Peter Knauber (p.knauber@fh-
mannheim.de) or Jan Bosch (Jan.Bosch@cs.rug.nl).
Submissions will be evaluated according to the relevance and 
originality of the work and to their ability to generate discussions 
between the participants of the workshop.
Additional and updated details are available at: 
 http://se.mm.fh-mannheim.de/Events/2003/ICSE-SVM/index.shtml.

The organizers intend to publish a report containing the results of 
the workshop in, e.g., Software Engineering Notes, as well as on the 
workshop web page.

Submission Due Dates
* Submission Date:         February 1, 2003
* Acceptance/rejection:    March 1, 2003
* Camera-ready Copy:       April 1, 2003


Workshop Chairs
* Jan Bosch, University of Groningen, The Netherlands. 
Jan.Bosch@cs.rug.nl
* Peter Knauber, University of Mannheim, Germany. P.Knauber@fh-
mannheim.de
Workshop Organizers
* Gert Florijn, SERC, The Netherlands. 
* Danny Greefhorst, IBM Global Services, The Netherlands. 
* Kai Koskimies, Tampere University of Technology, Finland. 
* Henk Obbink, Philips Research, The Netherlands. 
* Klaus Pohl, University of Essen, Germany. 
* Paul Sorenson, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.