VACE 2017 - Second International Workshop on Variability and Complexity in Software Design

Many of today’s software systems must accommodate a wide range of usage and deployment scenarios (e.g., product lines/families, self-adaptive systems, configurable or customizable single systems, open platforms, context-aware mobile apps, dynamic service-based systems). This variability can occur in software functionality and quality. Given the increasing size of software-intensive systems (e.g., ecosystems, systems of systems), emerging application domains (e.g., unmanned aerial vehicles, software-defined networking), dynamic and critical operating conditions (e.g., disaster monitoring and response systems), fast moving and highly competitive markets (e.g., mobile apps), and increasingly powerful and versatile hardware (e.g., Raspberry Pi), the additional complexity in the design caused by variability becomes increasingly difficult to handle. Variability has previously been targeted within software engineering sub-communities (e.g., requirements engineering, product lines, architecture), domains and venues (e.g., MobileSoft, EMSoft). VACE aims at offering one venue to jointly discuss experiences and potential synergies, forge new collaborations and discuss innovative solutions that address engineering high-quality software for dynamic, flexible and variable environments. This second edition of the VACE workshop has the theme “Broadening Perspectives” to acknowledge the multi- and cross-disciplinary nature of problems and solutions.
Topics
The workshop addresses software engineering issues related to requirements, design, implementation, evaluation, deployment and maintenance of variability-intensive systems. Topics include (but are not limited to):
Flexible and lightweight approaches to support variability in problem and solution space and to develop large-scale variability-intensive software
Conflict between flexibility (agile / lean) and the need for bigger up-front design and design space exploration
Challenges to balance business value and effort spent on anticipating variability
Design solutions to enable continuous delivery of variability-intensive systems
DevOps for developing, deploying and maintaining variability-intensive systems
Ways to limit unintentional variability and to better scope intentional variability to manage complexity
Variability in emerging and maturing domains with potentially large problem and design spaces
Integration of functional and qualitative variability in general development practices
Mechanisms to model and handle variability across different life cycle stages, from inception to operation
Practices for requirements engineering, architecting, design, implementation, testing and maintenance of variability-intensive systems
Methods for quality assurance, process and product metrics for variability-intensive systems
Reference models/architectures/frameworks to reuse design knowledge when designing for variability
Training and tools