The 2nd IEEE International Workshop Towards Stable and
Adaptable Software Architectures

SASA 2007

Las Vegas, USA, August 13-15, 2007
(in conjunction with IEEE IRI 2007)

http://www.sis.pitt.edu/~iri07/ (IEEE IRI 2007 Link)
http://www.sis.pitt.edu/~iri07/wkshpCFP2.html (Workshop Link 1)
http://www.engr.sjsu.edu/~fayad/workshops/SASA07 (Workshop Link 2)
http://www.vrlsoft.com/workshops/SASA07 (Workshop Link 3)

It is doubtless that the field of software engineering, like any other engineering fields, has really helped to make our lives, what they are today.  With software programs controlling countless number of equipments and becoming an integral and inalienable part of our lives, the field of software engineering is turning to be very important as well as critical.  However, products that are produced through software engineering are largely intangible while compared to products manufactured by other engineering fields. Further, software products are unlikely to remain stable over a long period of time unlike products of other engineering field.

In hardware engineering, the failure rates for products often start on a high, then drop to a low, and then climb up high again.  Very early in a hardware product's lifecycle, a number of problems with the system still exist.  When these problems are fixed and repaired, the failure rate for the hardware product drops to their lowest level.  But, as hardware system gets aged, its subsequent  physical deterioration causes a possible failure.  In simple words, the hardware system gradually wears out and the failure rate for it steeply rises.

On the other hand, software system is not subject to the same degree of wear and tear that a hardware system undergoes in its lifetime.   No environmental factors can cause software to break or fail.  Software is a set of special instructions, or a systematic recipe, especially designed for a piece of hardware to follow.  There are no moving or wear-out parts in given software.  There is absolutely nothing that can physically deteriorate a software system.  Software is not supposed wear out, but unfortunately it does.  Innumerable authors in the field of software engineering have detected and identified this peculiar problem.  However, the software engineering techniques that are outlined by many software-engineering authors are yet to achieve an acceptable level of stability in their software projects.

This problem is more than just an ordinary inconvenience for software engineers and software users.  The reengineering process that is required for all these software products does not come without a price.  Not uncommonly, these reengineered projects usually cost hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars.  This does not take into consideration the invaluable time that is spent and wasted by the continual reengineering process. Software system defects and "deterioration" are usually caused by changes in the software architecture.  Many of these changes cannot be avoided at all.  However, these changes can definitely be minimized. As of now, when a change needs to be incorporate in to a software program, the entire program must undergo a reengineering process.  It does not really matter, if the change required is due to an emergency of a new technology or due to a change in clientele.  This reengineering process is ridiculous and preposterous.  The core purpose of the software product has not changed and may never change.  If so, why then, must the entire project be reengineered to incorporate a few changes?

The ensuing workshop will debate in length several issues that are related to stability, such as how to build stable software systems and generate stable model-based architectures.  We want researchers, framework developers, and application developers to answer the following questions:

1.      What are the exact relationships between software architecture and software that  have been found to be stable over a period of time?

2.      What are the exact relationships between management workflow and software that have been stable over a period of time?

3.      How can one achieve software stability over a period of time and thereby extend the lifespan of software products?

4.      What are the levels of relationships between software that has been found to be stable over time and business objects?

5.      What are the exact roles of object-oriented techniques and technologies of making software stable over time?

6.      What are the real approaches to making software stable over time?

7.      What is the relationship between software stability and various other new technologies, such as aspect-oriented architecture and programming, constraints programming, multi-agent-oriented software developments, component-based software developments and others?

8.      What is the relationship between application frameworks and software stability?

9.      What are the impacts of software stability on understanding the customers’ needs?

10.  What is the impact of software stability on scalability, customizability, extensibility, integratability, and configurability?

In addition to the above themes, we also invite research papers on both theoretical and practical aspects that are relevant to software stability. Topics include (but are not restricted to):

·      Theories of software stability

·      Stable software architectures

·      Model-based software reuse

·      Impact of stability on reuse

·      Case studies of the building stable software

·      Stability patterns

More information will be available at:

http://www.sis.pitt.edu/~iri07/wkshpCFP2.html (Main Link)

http://www.engr.sjsu.edu/~fayad/workshops/SASA07 (Workshop Link 2)

http://www.vrlsoft.com/workshops/SASA07 (Workshop Link 3)

Detailed instructions for electronic paper submission and review process can be found at http://www.sis.pitt.edu/~iri07/submit.html. People interested in participating in this workshop are requested to submit a short position paper (3-5 pages) or a regular workshop paper (limited to 6-15 pages, double spaced, including figures), representing views and experiences that are relevant to the discussion topic of the workshop and, possibly, answering some of the questions raised above. The title page must include a maximum 150-word abstract, five keywords, full mailing address, e-mail address, phone number, fax number, and a designated contact author. Papers will be selected depending on their originality, quality and relevance to the workshop.  All submitted papers will also be evaluated according to its originality, significance, correctness, presentation and relevance. Papers should be submitted electronically at:

 http://www.sis.pitt.edu/~iri07/submit.html. Please follow the instructions given on the web page. Camera Ready manuscripts must be submitted, following IEEE conference proceedings style and guidelines. We also encourage authors to present novel and fresh ideas, critique of existing work, and practical studies.

Each accepted paper must be presented in person and live, by the author or one of the authors.  To foster and promote, lively and productive discussions, each author is encouraged to present open questions to the forum and one or two main statements for discussion at the workshop.  Submissions must be either MS-Word or RTF formats (please, DO NOT compress files).

Depending on the total number and spread of contributions, the scope may be narrowed  down to ensure an effective communication and information sharing. Accepted position papers will be distributed to the participants before the workshop and will also be made generally available through the WWW and FTP.   Accepted papers will be published in the Proceedings of the 2007 IEEE International Conference on Information Reuse and Integration (IEEE IRI-07). At least one of the authors of each accepted paper must register as a full delegate in the workshop, to get the paper published in the Proceedings of IEEE IRI 2007. Best papers selected in the workshop will be published in online Journal of International Journal Of Patterns (IJOP).

People who are not interested in submitting their papers are also welcome. They are requested to fill out the participation form and e-mail to the any of workshop chairs.

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PARTICIPATION FORM:

Name and Affiliation:

Position: 

Address:

E-mail:

URL:

Areas of interest:

Reasons for Participating?

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Please note that workshop registration is mandatory, in order to participate in this workshop.  An early registration discount is also available for all participants.  An overhead projector and a flipchart will be available to the participants.   

For more information and workshop details, please visit any of the following websites:

http://www.sis.pitt.edu/~iri07/wkshpCFP2.html (Main Link)

http://www.engr.sjsu.edu/~fayad/workshops/SASA07 (Workshop Link 2)

http://www.vrlsoft.com/workshops/SASA07 (Workshop Link 3)

You may also contact the organizers either by e mail or by phone.

1. Welcome and introduction of participants. The organizers will first provide a short overview of all open issues and of the main arguments arising out of the position papers. (Estimated time: 20-30 minutes)

2. Selected authors (representing the main trends) will be allotted 20 minutes to explain how their position relates to other positions, and what each of then sees as the three major issues. We expect about 5-10 position papers in this workshop.  (Estimated time: 120-130 minutes)

3. The organizers will propose an identification process of the major issues, and the participants will then discuss, choose and select what they perceive are the hottest issues to be examined. (Estimated time: 10-15 minutes)

4. The participants will then work for 70-95 minutes in small groups, with a designated moderator assigned for each group. The groups will then individually deal with two different, identified hot issues, and will produce a summary note in the form of points and counterpoints, displaying, either how several views are irreducibly opposed or how they are complementary.  The number of groups will depend mainly on the number of participants and number of issues selected; ideally there should be 3-5 p people in each group. (Estimated time: 60-70 minutes)

5. Each group will be allotted 10-15 minutes to present its findings to the workshop.   A closing discussion will then follow. The workshop report will be composed on the basis of these findings and will include a well defined agenda for future exploration and cooperation; it will be made available through the WWW and FTP. (Estimated time: 50-60 minutes for five teams)

(Total estimated time: 285-315 minutes, i.e. about five hours +/- 15 minutes; lunch and breaks are not included.)

Dr. M.E. Fayad (Chair)

Professor of Computer Engineering

Computer Engineering Dept., College of Engineering

San José State University

One Washington Square, San José, CA 95192-0180

Ph: (408) 924-7364, Fax: (408) 924-4153

E-mail: m.fayad@sjsu.edu, mfayad@vrlsoft.com

URL: http://www.engr.sjsu.edu/fayad

Dr. Rami Bahsoon (Co-Chair)

School of Engineering and Applied Science

Dept of Computer Science

Aston University, Aston Triangle

Birmingham B4 7ET, United Kingdom

Ph: +44(0)1212043464

E-mail: r.bahsoon@aston.ac.uk

URL: http://www-users.aston.ac.uk/~bahsoonr/

Dr. Tarek Helmy (Co-Chair)

College of computer science and engineering,

Department of Information and Computer Science,

King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals,

Dhahran 31261, Mail Box. 413, Saudi Arabia.

Ph: 9663-860-1967 (Office)

E-mail: helmy@ccse.kfupm.edu.sa

Eduardo M. Segura (Co-Chair)

vrlSoft, Inc.

2065 Martin Ave., Suite 103

Santa Clara, CA 95050-2707

Phone/Fax: (408) 654-8972

E-mail: esegura@vrlsoft.com

URL: http://www.vrlsoft.com

Rami Bahsoon, Aston University in Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom

Rafael Capilla, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos,  Madrid, Spain

Toacy Cavalcante de Oliveira, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

Chia-Chu Chiang, University of Arkansas, Little Rock, USA

Antonio Cisternino, Università di Pisa, Pisa, Italy

M.E. Fayad. San Jose State University & vrlSoft, Inc., Silicon Valley, USA

João Miguel Fernandes, Universidade do Minho, Braga, Portugal

Flavius Frasincar, Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands

Rosario Girardi, Federal University of Maranhão, São Luís, Brasil

Tarek Helmy, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

Pilar Herrero, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain

Hoda Hosny, The American University in Cairo, Egypt

Debasish Jana, Anshin Software Pvt Ltd, India

Dae-Kyoo Kim, Oakland University, USA

Ricardo J. Machado, Universidade do Minho, Guimaraes, Portugal

Aime Mokhoo Mbobi, Ecole Supérieure d'Electricité, France

Flavio Oquendo, University of South Brittany, France

Michael Oudshoorn, Montana State University, USA

Fuhrer Patrik, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland

Elke Pulvermueller, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg

Philippe Roose, Laboratoire d'Informatique de l'Université de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour, France

Christian Schlegel, University of Applied Sciences Ulm, Germany

Eduardo Segura, San Jose State University & vrlSoft, Inc., Silicon Valley, USA

Nary Subramanian, University of Texas at Tyler, USA

Srini Ramaswamy, University of Arkansas, Little Rock, USA

Emiliano Tramontana, Universita' di Catania, Catania, Italy

Manolis Tzagarakis, University of Patras Campus, Greece

Jaroslav Zendulka, Brno University of Technology, Czech Republic