** FINAL CALL FOR PAPERS ** SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGY AND ENGINEERING PRACTICE - STEP'97 8TH INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP (incorporating CASE'97) *** LATEST SUBMISSION DATE FOR PAPERS: 18th DECEMBER 1996 *** Holiday Inn, King's Cross, London, UK 14-18 July 1997 Sponsored by International Workshop on CASE British Telecommunications plc British Computer Society Institution of Electrical Engineers IEEE Computer Society's Technical Council on Software Engineering (pending) In co-operation with Australian Computer Society UMIST *** Latest information see our Web page: http://www.co.umist.ac.uk/STEP97 *** Software and systems development, evolution and management are undergoing dramatic change as we move into the 21st century. Economic pressures require systems to be built better, cheaper and faster. Increased IT awareness and the use of technologies such as object orientation are creating a new generation of system builders who do not necessarily have a traditional software development background. New communication technologies and co-operative working are forcing changes to working practices leading to distributed, 24-hour and global software development. The result is that the processes, skills and tools which support all aspects of software development will undergo dramatic change during the next few years. STEP (Software Technology and Engineering Practice) is a broad based workshop for practitioners, applied researchers and the software industry. It is the eighth international workshop concerned with software engineering processes, products, and personnel- the logical successor to the series of International Workshops on CASE (CASE'xx), subsuming CASE'97. It inherits the approach and style that has made that series unique and successful as a means for development of the software engineering discipline. This workshop aims at highlighting the lessons from practical software engineering, whilst seeking to develop a vision for software engineering over the next few years. This vision will need to identify the skills, techniques and support processes and tools which future developers will be using and what cost-effective transition path should be adopted. The workshop is the premier world event for drawing together practitioners and researchers concerned with supporting the software and systems development, evolution and management process. It provides a unique opportunity to report on the most important practical, applied, experimental and underpinning theoretical work being conducted. Experience reports, research papers, evaluations and surveys are invited on, but not limited to, the topics listed below. Experience papers which seek to draw out valuable lessons from practical software engineering are particularly welcome, as are research papers which take an innovative view of future software development processes and support tools. a. Process, method and tool support: requirements specification, system development methods, rapid application development, prototyping, complex databases, business process re-engineering, systems re-engineering, reverse engineering, design recovery, program understanding and analysis. b. Organisational issues: support for team working, distributed working, end-user computing, stakeholder and developer co-operative working, multi-site multi-team development and 24-hour global product development. c. Enabling technologies: architectures, networking, client/server, multimedia, repositories, OO database, tool integration mechanisms, groupware. d. Management processes: software process modelling, process assessment and improvement, software quality, software metrics, configuration management, product evaluation. e. Cultural and organisational issues: human resource management in software engineering, enabling creativity, ensuring business integrity, client-developer organisational structures. f. Software engineering education: form and content of software engineering laboratories, the role of support tools, needs of the software industry, teaching software development and evolution, experiences in group working and group working models. g. Time-to-market technology: processes for projecting products very quickly in to prospective markets, maintaining traditional quality under such conditions. h. Methods: improving practices for software development activities. i. Needs for the year 2000 onwards: tools, methods, processes, timing, difficulties with the transition to new systems, legacy code implications, program comprehension aspects. Workshop Structure The event will provide a combination of in-depth tutorials (half and full day), experience reports and practice papers, research results, panel sessions and interactive workshops. Each workshop produces a summary report which is made available to all attendees after the event. Exhibits will feature both commercial products and research prototypes. Co-located events organised by working groups, special interest groups, standards bodies and other technical groups are invited to join the workshop. Submissions Submit 5 copies of papers, experience reports, workshop, tutorial or panel proposals in English to one of the Program Co-Chairs by 18th December 1996. Submissions will be refereed by an international program committee for their applicability and relevance to the software engineering community. Notification of acceptance or rejection of all submissions will be made by 15th February 1997. Final papers will be due by 30th March 1997. For research and experience papers, submit 3000-5000 words, which have not previously been published elsewhere. Please include on the first page the title, all authors' names, complete contact information of the lead author (address, telephone, FAX and email), a short abstract not exceeding 250 words, a list of descriptive keywords and a specification of submission type (experience report or research paper). Research papers will be evaluated for originality, significance, soundness and clarity. Experience reports should emphasise outcomes, insights gained and lessons learned. Workshop proposals should include a title, the proposed chair or co-chairs, the tentative list of invited speakers, proposed duration (half day or full day), a description of the workshop subject and a supporting rationale. Panel proposals should include a title, the proposed chair, the tentative list of panel members, a brief description of the panel session subject and a supporting rationale. Tutorial proposals should address broad issues of software engineering practice. Proposals for full-day or half-day tutorials should include a detailed outline of the material, a description of past experience with the tutorial (if given), an assessment of the material's maturity and credentials of the proposed instructor. Tools Fair and Exhibition Proposals for inclusion in the tools fair should include a 1-2 page description of the tool or environment, its applicability to software engineering in practice, an outline of the proposed demonstration and an outline of the amount of space required. Clearly identify the submission as commercially available tool or research prototype. Proposals should be submitted to the Tools Fair chair. Publication and Awards Accepted papers will appear in a conference volume published by the IEEE Computer Society Press. A selection of the best papers will also be selected to appear in `Automated Software Engineering', published by Kluwer Academic, USA. BT (British Telecommunications plc) will be awarding a prize for the paper which presents the most innovative idea in software engineering methods, techniques or process, while the British Computer Society will be awarding a prize for the paper which presents the most creative use of software technology. Location The Workshop will be held within easy reach of Central London, located at the Holiday Inn in the King's Cross/ Bloomsbury district of London. The London theatre district, Oxford Street and Regent Street shopping areas and well known sites such as the Tower of London and Buckingham Palace are within easy reach of the venue. London is also an ideal base for a follow-on trip to Scotland, Ireland or mainland Europe. Additional Information Latest information see Web page: http://www.co.umist.ac.uk/STEP97 Email queries to: STEP97@umist.ac.uk Organising Committee General Chair Professor Paul Layzell UMIST PO Box 88 Manchester M60 1QD United Kingdom Voice: +44 161 200 3338 FAX: +44 161 200 3745 Email: P.Layzell@umist.ac.uk Program Co-Chairs Professor David Budgen Keele University Keele Staffordshire ST5 5BG United Kingdom Voice: +44 1782 583081 FAX: +44 1782 713082 Email: db@cs.keele.ac.uk Gene Hoffnagle IBM Corporation 82-205 PO Box 218, Route 134 Yorktown Heights New York 10598-0218 USA Voice: +1 914 945 3831 FAX: +1 914 945 2018 Email: g.hoffnagle@computer.org Dr Jos Trienekens Technical University Eindhoven PO Box 513 MB Eindhoven 5600 Netherlands Voice: +31 40 472 290 FAX: +31 40 451 275 Email: j.j.m.trienekens@bdk.tue.nl Tutorial Chair Kathy Spurr ADC International 41 Lyndhurst Road Chichester PO19 2LE United Kingdom Voice: +44 1243 775890 FAX: +44 1243 536053 Email: kspurr@adcon.demon.co.uk Tools Fair and Exhibition Chair Professor Roger Phillips Department of Computer Science University of Hull Hull HU6 7RX United Kingdom Voice: +44 1482 465680 FAX: +44 1482 466666 Email: r.phillips@dcs.hull.ac.uk Publicity Chair Alan Brown Object Technology Branch Texas Instruments Inc PO Box 655303, M/S 8373 Dallas Texas 75265 USA Voice: +1 214 997 5950 FAX: +1 214 997 5568 Email: awb@csc.ti.com Local Arrangements Chair Dr John Jenkins School of Informatics City University Northampton Square London EC1V 0HB Voice: +44 171 477 8410 FAX: +44 171 477 8588 Email: j.o.jenkins@city.ac.uk Publications Chair Dr Shirley Williams University of Reading PO Box 225 Whiteknights Reading RG8 2AY United Kingdom Voice: +44 1734 318613 FAX: +44 1734 751822 Email: shirley.williams@reading.ac.uk