[Forwarded from Christine Hofmeister, from SEWORLD --- rh]


Call for Papers
QoSA 2006
2nd International Conference on the Quality of Software
Architectures
June 27-29, 2006
Mälardalen University, Västerås near Stockholm, Sweden

Although the quality of a system's software architecture is one of the
critical factors in its overall quality, the architecture is simply a
means to an end, the end being the implemented system. Thus the
ultimate measure of the quality of the software architecture lies in
the implemented system, in how well it satisfies the requirements and
constraints of the project and whether it can be maintained and evolved
successfully. But in order to treat design as science rather than an
art, we need the ability to address the quality of the software
architecture directly, not simply as it is reflected in the implemented
system.

This is the goal of QoSA: to address software architecture quality
directly by addressing the problems of:
* designing software architectures of good quality,
* defining, measuring, evaluating architecture quality, and
* managing architecture quality, tying it upstream to requirements and
downstream to implementation, and preserving architecture quality
throughout the lifetime of the system.

Cross-cutting these problems is the question of the nature of software
architecture. Software architecture organizes a system, partitioning it
into elements and defining relationships among the elements. For this
we often use multiple views, each with a different organizing
principle.

But software architecture must also support properties that are
emergent, that cannot be ascribed to particular elements. For this we
often use the language of quality attributes. Quality attributes cover
both internal properties, exhibited only in the development process
(e.g. maintainability, portability, testability, etc.), and external
properties, exhibited in the executing system (e.g. performance,
resource consumption, availability, etc.). Quality attributes cover
properties that are emergent, that have a pervasive impact, that are
difficult to reverse, and that interact, thereby precluding or
constraining other properties.

Thus QoSA also aims to investigate quality attributes in the context of
the problems of the design, evaluation, and management of software
architecture. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

Architecture Design:
* Design decisions and their influence on the quality of software
architecture
* Organizational issues and processes that influence architecture
quality
* Architectural patterns and their quality impacts
* Architectural standards and reference architectures
* Integration of COTS components

Architecture evaluation
* Lessons learned and empirical validation of theories and frameworks
on architecture quality
* Empirical validation of testing, prototyping, simulation for
assessing architecture quality
* Models and specification techniques to evaluate the quality
attributes of software architectures
* Processes for evaluating architecture quality
* Evaluation of COTS components

Architecture management
* Coordination of business architecture, business processes, and
software architecture
* Documentation of software architecture, including design rationale
* Assessment and enforcement of architectural conformance
* Traceability of software architecture to requirements and
implementation
* Assessment of COTS components
* Integration of heterogeneous software architectures

QoSA welcomes both long and short papers. Long papers are up to 16
pages LNCS style, and can describe both research contributions and
experience reports. Short papers are up to 8 pages LNCS style, and can
describe experience, ongoing work, and new ideas.

LNCS style guidelines: <http://www.springer.de/comp/lncs/authors.html>

Important dates:
April 1, 2006 Papers due
May 8, 2006 Notification of acceptance
June 5, 2006 Camera-ready papers due
June 27-29, 2006 QoSA
June 29-July 1, 2006 CBSE (co-located with QoSA)

Please see the QoSA 2006 website for further details:
<http://www.qosa.informatik.uni-oldenburg.de>

General Chair:
Ivica Crnkovic, Mälardalen University, Sweden
ivica.crnkovic@...

Program Committee Chair:
Christine Hofmeister, Lehigh University, USA
crh@...

Steering Committee:
Ralf Reussner, University of Karlsruhe, Germany
Judith Stafford, Tufts University, USA
Sven Overhage, Augsburg University, Germany
Steffen Becker, University of Karlsruhe, Germany

Program committee:
Colin Atkinson, University of Mannheim, Germany
Len Bass, Software Engineering Institute, USA
Don Batory, University of Texas at Austin, USA
PerOlof Bengtsson, University of Karlskrona/Ronneby, Sweden
Jan Bosch, Nokia Research Center, The Netherlands
Michel Chaudron, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven, The Netherlands
Viktoria Firus, University of Oldenburg, Germany
Hassan Gomaa, George Mason University, USA
Ian Gorton, National ICT, Australia
Volker Gruhn, University of Leipzig, Germany
Wilhelm Hasselbring, University of Oldenburg / OFFIS, Germany
Jean-Marc Jezequel, University of Rennes / INRIA, France
Philippe Kruchten, University of British Columbia, Canada
Patricia Lago, Vrije Universiteit, The Netherlands
Nicole Levy, University of Versailles, France
Tomi Mannisto, Helsinki University of Technology, Finland
Raffaela Mirandola, Politecnico di Milano, Italy
Robert Nord, Software Engineering Institute, USA
Frantisek Plasil, Charles University, Czech Republic
Iman Poernomo, King's College, United Kingdom
Sasikumar Punnekkat, Märlardalen University, Sweden
Andreas Rausch, University of Kaiserslautern, Germany
Matthias Riebisch, University of Oldenburg, Germany
Bernhard Rumpe, University of Technology Braunschweig, Germany
Chris Salzmann, BMW Car-IT
Jean-Guy Schneider, Swinburne University, Australia
Michael Stal, Siemens, Germany
Clemens Szyperski, Microsoft, USA
Hans van Vliet, Vrije Universiteit, The Netherlands
Wolfgang Weck, Independent Software Architect, Switzerland

============================================================


--
_________________________________
Pablo Fernando Sanchez, MIEEE
p.sanchez@...

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
IEEE Región 9, América Latina y el Caribe
Regional Communications Committee Chair
www.noticieeero.org

Fax: +1 240 255 7572
Skype: pfsanchez
MSN Messenger: p.sanchez@...
Yahoo! Messenger: p_f_sanchez
ICQ: 8703027
AIM: ChanzesKland