Call for Paper Conference

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Motivation
========
Numerous modularization techniques have been developed to cope with complexity
and increasing scale of software systems, such as Aspect-Oriented Software
Development (AOSD) and Feature-Oriented Programming (FOP). Using these advanced
modularization techniques, designers intend to achieve better changeability and
adaptability through improved modularity. However, it remains unclear to what
extent these new techniques have improved software productivity and
maintainability in practice. It is even more challenging to determine their
impact on closely-related emerging domains such as collaborative software
engineering, ultra-large systems, cyber-physical systems and cloud computing.
This workshop emphasizes the need for improving and pushing the boundaries on
the assessment of modern modularization techniques, especially in the emerging
domains of software development.

The purpose of this workshop is to (i) stimulate innovative ideas of new and more
effective modularity assessment methods to better evaluate contemporary
modularization techniques; (ii) solicit experience reports from practitioners
that help to better understand the impact of modularity assessment; (iii) discuss
the potential impact of assessment techniques; (iv) improve our understanding on
issues such as how to effectively differentiate the applicability of assessment
techniques in different circumstances; and (v) foster a collaborative environment
for both practitioners and researchers interested in the effective modularity
assessment from different levels and in different domains.

Goals
========
The main goal of this workshop is to put together researchers and practitioners
with different backgrounds in order to discuss open issues on the assessment of
contemporary modularization techniques, such as:

1. Do contemporary modularization techniques have a role to play in emerging
system domains? Can their benefits be assessed? How does the application of
contemporary modularization techniques to these domains affect assessment
strategies?

2. What attributes of these complex systems need to be measured and assessed?

3. Are current conventional metrics sufficient to assess software quality in
such domains? How can the validity of such metrics be measured?

4. What new assessment mechanisms are necessary to assess contemporary
heterogeneous modularization techniques in emerging system domains and to
accommodate the associated development practices?

5. What new modularization techniques or improvements to existing ones are
suggested by previous assessment results?

6. What resources and benchmarks are necessary to enable the effective and
efficient assessment of modularization techniques in emerging domains? How can
repeatability of studies be achieved over such complex domains?

The workshop also aims at: (i) bringing the attention of the software engineering
community the importance of rigorous evaluation of emerging modularization
techniques; (ii) motivating the expansion of research and practice associated with
assessment of emerging modularization technologies; and (iii) fostering a
collaborative environment for both practitioners and researchers interested in
effective assessment of new development techniques.

Topics of Interest
========
The workshop is intended to cover a wide range of topics, from theoretical
foundations to assessment frameworks and empirical studies involving contemporary
software modularity techniques. Topics of interest include the following
(but not limited to):

* Lessons learned from assessing new modularization techniques
* Assessment of emerging systems
* Empirical studies and industrial experiences
* Comparative studies between new modularization techniques and conventional ones
* Assessment frameworks
* Software metrics and estimation models
* Validation of assessment techniques and mechanisms
* Assessment techniques, methods and tools to different phases of the software lifecycle
* Development of predictive models of defect rates and reliability from real data
* Infrastructure issues, such as measurement theory, experimental design, and analysis approaches
* Improvement of modularization techniques based on assessment.

Workshop Format and Submissions
========
ACoM is a one-day long workshop and is strongly focused on discussion. Authors who
plan to contribute with a paper are requested to submit a position paper in PDF format.
The paper format must follow the ACM SIGPLAN (10pt) style guidelines. Papers must
be written in English and please see the workshop website
http://www.comp.lancs.ac.uk/computing/ACoM.09/ for submission instructions. All
accepted papers will be published on the website
http://www.comp.lancs.ac.uk/computing/ACoM.09/ prior to the workshop.

We are soliciting the submission of two categories of position papers:

1. Traditional position papers (up to 6 pages) related to workshop topics.

2. Very short position statement (1-2 pages), where the authors describe their
"innovative thoughts", lessons learned, or points of view with respect to one
or more workshop topics.

Papers in the category (1) will be refereed by at least three reviewers, and should
describe work that is not yet advanced enough for a full conference paper.
They are expected to have a more solid idea, even though it does not require strong
validation ingredients. Papers in the category (2) will be mainly reviewed for
topicality, i.e. checked if they fit into the workshop topics, including some
feedback from reviewers. Moreover we especially encourage authors to present their
experience and/or novel ideas on how to assess new modularization techniques
(shorter paper format).

Important Dates
========
Abstract Submission Deadline: 21st August 2009
Paper Submission Deadline: 28th August 2009
Notification of Acceptance: 1 week before OOPSLA early-registration cut-off
Camera-ready: 2nd October 2009
Workshop: 26th October 2009