CALL FOR PARTICIPATION Third IEEE International Symposium on Requirements Engineering (RE'97) 5-8 January, 1997 Annapolis MD, USA Sponsored by the IEEE Computer Society (pending) In cooperation with ACM SIGSOFT (pending) and IFIP Working Group 2.9 (Software Requirements Engineering) OVERVIEW Requirements engineering is the branch of software engineering concerned with the real-world goals for, functions of, and constraints on software systems. It is also concerned with the relationship of these factors to precise specifications of software behavior, and to their evolution over time and across software families. This symposium, to be held in Annapolis, Maryland (located near the Washington D.C. metropolis) will bring together researchers and practitioners of requirements engineering for an exchange of ideas and experience. The program will consist of invited talks, paper presentations, panels, tutorials, working groups, demonstrations, and a doctoral consortium. In addition to the paper track, the program will include, for the first time in the RE symposia series, a parallel industrial track for developers, managers interested in products with potential near-term payoff, also researchers interested in industry-relevant problems or requirements technology. The industrial track will include invited talks and presentations on industrial experiences and upcoming commercial tools. Papers describing original research in any area of requirements engineering are invited for submission. Symposium organizers extend a special invitation for paper submission and participation to researchers and practitioners working in areas that have been under-represented in past symposia, including high assurance, safety- or mission-critical systems and formal approaches to requirements engineering. This call for participation is also available by anonymous ftp from ftp.cs.toronto.edu ( /dist/ISRE97/CFP ) or see the WWW page at http://www.itd.nrl.navy.mil/conf/ISRE97. INFORMATION FOR AUTHORS Papers on all aspects of requirements engineering are welcome. However, all submitted papers must be classified according to the problems they are addressing and the contributions they are making toward solving them. The official classification scheme for the symposium can be obtained by requesting it from the Program Chair or by anonymous FTP from host ftp.cs.toronto.edu (/dist/ISRE97/CFP). Papers will be evaluated according to criteria appropriate for their classifications. We encourage prospective authors to look at the classification scheme early, as it establishes a uniform context and may thus influence the presentation of their work. Authors must submit six copies of each full paper (no E-mail or FAX submissions) to the Program Chair. Papers should not exceed 6,000 words in length, and should be accompanied by full contact information including name, address, E-mail address, telephone number, and FAX number. Authors are also requested to submit the title, abstract, and classifications of each paper by E-mail to the Program Chair a month before the full paper is due (please include full contact information). All accepted papers will appear in the proceedings of the symposium, to be published by the IEEE Computer Society Press. The best papers will also be considered for publication in a special issue of the Requirements Engineering Journal. Important dates: 1 April 1996, title, abstract, and classifications requested; 1 May 1996, full papers due; 1 July 1996, notification of acceptance; 1 September 1996, camera-ready copy due. Program Committee: William Agresti MITRE (USA) Mark Ardis AT&T Bell Laboratories (USA) Joanne Atlee University of Waterloo (Canada) Daniel Berry Technion (Israel) Alex Borgida Rutgers University (USA) Pere Botella Universitat Politehcnica de Catalunya (Spain) Janis Bubenko The Royal Insitute of Technology (Sweden) Jaelson Castro Universidade Federal de Pernambuco (Brazil) Lawrence Chung University of Texas, Dallas (USA) Alan Davis University of Colorado (USA) Valeria di Antonellis Universita di Ancona (Italy) Eric Dubois University of Namur (Belgium) Stuart Faulk Kaman Sciences (USA) Martin Feather Jet Propulsion Laboratory (USA) Mark Feblowitz GTE Laboratories (USA) Stephen Fickas University of Oregon (USA) Anthony Finkelstein City University of London (UK) Carlo Ghezzi Politecnico di Milano (Italy) Sol Greenspan GTE Laboratories (USA) Michael Harrison University of York (UK) Ian Hayes University of Queensland (Australia) Mats Heimdahl Michigan State University (USA) Connie Heitmeyer U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (USA) Daniel Jackson Carnegie Mellon University (USA) Matthias Jarke RWTH Aachen (Germany) Jeff Kramer Imperial College (UK) Julio Cesar Leite PUC-Rio (Brazil) Peri Loucopoulos UMIST (UK) Robyn Lutz Jet Propulsion Laboratory (USA) Kalle Lyytinen University of Jyvaskyla (Finland) Neil Maiden City University of London (UK) Nazim Madhavji McGill University (Canada) John McDermid University of York (UK) Roland Mittermeir University of Klugenfurt (Austria) Bashar Nuseibeh Imperial College (UK) Andreas L. Opdahl University of Bergen (Norway) Barbara Pernici Politecnico di Milano (Italy) Klaus Pohl RWTH Aachen (Germany) Howard Reubenstein GTE Laboratories (USA) Collete Rolland Universite Paris I -- Sorbonne (France) Kevin Ryan University of Limerick (Ireland) Motoshi Saeki Tokyo Institute of Technology (Japan) Arne Solvberg University of Trondheim (Norway) Ian Sommerville Lancaster University (UK) Jeanine Souquieres CRIN-CNRS & INRIA-Lorraine (France) Alistair Sutcliffe City University of London (UK) Axel van Lamsweerde Universite Catholique de Louvain (Belgium) Eric Yu University of Toronto (Canada) Roel Wieringa Vrije Universiteit (The Netherlands) Pamela Zave AT&T Bell Laboratories (USA) INFORMATION FOR INDUSTRIAL TRACK PRESENTERS Presentations relevant to products, problems, or results in requirements engineering in industry are solicited including: o Reports by industrial system or software developers on results or lessons learned in applying advanced requirements technology. o Reports by industrial system or software developers on current problem areas in elicitation, specification, or use of requirements that are not adequately addressed by available technology. o Reports by researchers on results or lessons learned in application of advanced requirements technology in an industrial setting. o Short presentations and demonstrations by vendors of new CASE tools or other products supporting requirements engineering. Presentations should describe current tool capabilities and ongoing developments. Reports by industrial participants or researchers should be approximately 30 minutes in length; demonstrator presentations should be 10-15 minutes though full length presentations may be arranged on request. A paper is not required for industrial track presentations. Presenters should submit a title and abstract to the Industrial Track Chair. Selection criteria for this track include potential interest, relevance to the symposium and usability. Special consideration will be given to research/industry team presentations. Abstracts are due by 1 May 1996, while notifications of decision should be expected by 1 July 1996. INFORMATION FOR DOCTORAL STUDENTS Doctoral students in the area of Requirements Engineering are invited to submit an abstract of their dissertation research to the Doctoral Consortium to be held in conjunction with RE'97. The doctoral consortium will meet on Sunday, 5 January 1997. Special dates include: Deadline for submission of abstracts: 15 September 1996 Notification of acceptance: 1 November 1996 The consortium panel will include: M. Archer, Naval Research Laboratory, USA R. Bharadwaj, Naval Research Laboratory, USA S. Easterbrook, NASA, USA A. Finkelstein, City University, UK J. Gannon, University of Maryland, USA J. Kirby, Naval Research Laboratory, USA J. C. Leite, PUC-Rio, Brazil K. Ryan, University of Limerick, Ireland D. Till, City University, UK Students whose abstracts are accepted for presentation will present their work to the panel and other students, and then have private individual consultations with one or more experts from the panel, not to include the student's research supervisor. Student abstracts may be as much as 5000 words in length, but brevity is strongly encouraged. Abstracts should conform to the following outline: * A statement of the problem being studied. * A brief background sketch describing the context and importance of the problem. * The proposed approach to a solution. * A description of the original contributions that will result from the research. * A brief overview of progress made. Acceptance for presentation in the Doctoral Consortium will be based on a mixture of merit of the undertaking, interest of the work to others (students, in particular), and whether comments from disinterested experts could be of particular benefit to the student. To submit your abstract for consideration, send four copies to the Doctoral Consortium Chair. Electronic submissions in PostScript form are acceptable from locations outside the USA. Students attending the Consortium are expected to register for RE'97 (at the reduced student fee). Myla Archer, Doctoral Consortium Chair, RE'97 US Naval Research Laboratory, Code 5546 Washington D.C. 20375-5337 Email: archer@itd.nrl.navy.mil Phone: (202)404-6304 Fax: (202)404-7942 INFORMATION FOR POTENTIAL DEMONSTRATORS The symposium will provide free facilities for demonstration of selected tools. Potential demonstrators should submit a description of the system they propose to demonstrate, not to exceed 500 words, to Charles Payne Jr. by 1 July 1996. INFORMATION FOR TUTORIALS An invitation is extended for the presentation of tutorials on topics of general interest in requirements engineering. Please send tutorial proposals to John Marciniak, Tutorials Chair, by 1 August 1996. Provide the name or topic, a brief synopsis of the tutorial, the suggested length ( one half day or full day), and summary vita on the presenter(s). RE `97 ORGANIZING COMMITTEE General Chair: Connie Heitmeyer Code 5546 High Assurance Computing System Branch U.S. Naval Research Laboratory Washington, DC 20375 USA voice: +1-202-767-3596 fax: +1-202-767-9197 e-mail: heitmeyer@itd.nrl.navy.mil Industrial Track Chair: Stuart Faulk +1-202-404-6292 faulk@itd.nrl.navy.mil Doctoral Consortium Chair: Myla Archer +1-202-404-6304 archer@itd.nrl.navy.mil Social Events Chair: Janine Stone +1-202-767-2389 stone@itd.nrl.navy.mil Finance Chair: James Kirby Jr. +1-202-767-3107 kirby@itd.nrl.navy.mil Publicity Chair: Ralph Jeffords +1-202-404-8493 jeffords@itd.nrl.navy.mil Local Arrangements Chair: Ramesh Bharadwaj +1-202-767-3107 ramesh@itd.nrl.navy.mil Technical Arrangements Chair: Bruce Labaw +1-202-767-3249 labaw@itd.nrl.navy.mil Proceedings Chair: Carolyn Gasarch +1-202-404-6304 gasarch@itd.nrl.navy.mil all above at: Code 5546, U.S. Naval Research Laboratory Exhibits Co-Chairs: Charles Payne and Dwight Colby Secure Computing Corporation 2675 Long Lake Rd. Roseville, MN 55113 USA +1-612-628-1594 (fax) +1-612-628-2701 cpayne@sctc.com colby@sctc.com Tutorials Chair: John Marciniak Kaman Sciences Corporation 2560 Huntington Ave. Alexandria VA 22303-1410 USA +1-703-329-7368 (fax) +1-703-329-7197 marcin-alx1@kaman.com Program Chair: John Mylopoulos Dept. of Computer Science University of Toronto 6 King's College Rd., rm. 283 Toronto, Ontario CANADA M5S 3H5 voice: +1-416-978-5180 fax: +1-416-978-1455 e-mail: jm@cs.toronto.edu ********************************************************************** SYMPOSIUM CLASSIFICATION SCHEME FOR SUBMITTED PAPERS Research in requirements engineering can be characterized in many different ways, including the task being addressed (e.g., elicitation, specification or analysis), the type of software being developed (e.g., information systems, middleware, real-time systems, high assurance or mission critical systems). The proposed classification scheme (prepared by Pamela Zave, AT&T) classifies research according to the problems being addressed and the nature of the proposed solution. Note that a problem is different from a requirements-engineering task such as elicitation or specification, because not all tasks are problematic, and some problems affect many tasks. 1. Problems of investigating the goals, functions, and constraints of a software system 1.1. Overcoming barriers to communication 1.2. Generating strategies for converting vague goals (e.g., "user-friendliness," "security," "reliability") into specific properties or behavior 1.3. Generating strategies for allocating requirements among the system and the various agents of its environment 1.4. Understanding priorities and ranges of satisfaction 1.5. Estimating costs, risks, and schedules 1.6. Ensuring completeness 2. Problems of specifying software system behavior 2.1. Integrating multiple views and representations 2.2. Evaluating alternative strategies for satisfying requirements 2.3. Choosing which optional requirements to satisfy 2.4. Obtaining complete, consistent, and unambiguous specifications 2.5. Checking that the specified system will satisfy the requirements 2.6. Obtaining specifications that are well-suited for design and implementation activities 3. Problems of managing evolution of systems and families of systems 3.1. Reusing requirements engineering during evolutionary phases 3.2. Reusing requirements engineering for developing similar systems 3.3 Reconstructing requirements 4. Other (please specify) Research in requirements engineering can also be classified according to its contribution(s) to a solution. Note the implicit assumption that, as software engineers, we can seek to understand social factors but we can only hope to influence technical practices. A. Report on the state of practice B. Analysis of cultural, political, organizational, and economic factors relevant to a problem C. Proposed process-oriented solution (an orderly method for making decisions or accomplishing a task) D. Proposed product-oriented solution (focusing on the representations used and produced by tasks, and algorithmic manipulations of these representations) E. Case study applying a proposed solution to a substantial example (for the purpose of gaining experience and preparing for a more systematic evaluation) F. Evaluation or comparison of proposed solutions G. Proposed measurement-oriented solution H. Other (please specify) INSTRUCTIONS ON USING THIS CLASSIFICATION SCHEME The author(s) of each paper must classify their submission by providing two lists of classifications, one for the problem attacked, the other for the contribution (e.g., [2.2, 1.1, 1.2] [C]). The elements of each list should be arranged in decreasing order of importance to the paper. Placement decisions about the paper will be made on the basis of these lists, and will inevitably be influenced by primarily the leading elements of these lists. More details on the classification scheme, including fuller explanations of categories and examples of its use, can be found in http://www.research.att.com/orgs/ssr/people/pamela. The classification scheme is unusual in some respects, so please apply it thoughtfully. Accurate and consistent classifications will help the program committee understand each paper's proper role, and provide a uniform context for the symposium program. EXAMPLES Research on prototyping user interfaces would be classified 1.2, because it is addressing the problem of how to make a system user-friendly. As an example of the difference between C and D, if the research emphasizes representation and automation of interface choices and policies, then it would be a contribution of type D. If the research emphasizes working with users to determine their preferences, then it would be a contribution of type C. Some examples of solutions to problem 3.1 are traceability (recording the relationship between aspects of system behavior and the requirements that motivated them) and specification modularity. One example of a solution to problem 3.2 is conceptual modeling of an entire application domain. Another example is separation of user-interface concerns from other concerns, so that the same "look and feel" can be provided across a product line. Metrics (contributions of type G) can address many different problems. Measurements of previous development projects help solve problem 1.5. Measurements of customer satisfaction help solve problems 1.1, 1.2, 2.2 and 2.3. Completeness and consistency metrics help solve problem 2.4. A readability metric helps solve problem 2.5.