[aosd-announce] Myths in Software Engineering (MythSE)

[Tom Zimmermann]

CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS

MythSE - Myths in Software Engineering

Wiki: http://mythse.wikispaces.com/

Working Session @ ICSM: October 4, 2007, afternoon, Paris, France

SCOPE AND TOPICS

Myths and urban legends have become integrated into our daily lives.  
TV shows, such as MythBusters, tackle myths through experiments,  
which attempt to either debunk these myths or to explain the facts  
behind these myths. Myths exist also in science and hinder the  
progress of knowledge. For instance, the annual Workshop on  
Duplicating, Deconstructing, and Debunking provides a forum to  
“deconstruct prior findings by providing greater, in-depth insight  
into causal relationships or correlations” in the computer  
architecture domain.

Software Engineering (SE) contains its own set of myths and urban  
legends. The experience gained by researchers in the software  
maintenance community should be valuable in studying various SE myths  
and in separating myths from facts. The goal of this half-day working  
session is to increase awareness of many SE myths and to offer an  
open venue to discuss and understand them.

WIKI

The organizers are collecting popular SE myths online through a Wiki.  
Please participate, even if you don't pan to attend the working  
session at ICSM. Also feel free to add any additional myth candidates.

http://mythse.wikispaces.com/

You can participate as follows:
- submit a 2 page position paper about a potential myth
- add references to your papers in the area of a potential myth
- provide empirical facts and experiences
- discuss potential myths

The participants of the Wiki will have the opportunity to present  
their ideas and research at an ICSM working session (see below).

WORKING SESSION

The organizers will select two myths for discussion in a working  
session at ICSM 2007 on October 4, 2007. For each myth, they will  
invite advocates and opponents to facilitate the discussion. The  
deliverable of the working session will be a collection of arguments  
and facts (e.g., published studies and experience reports) for each  
myth. Additionally, the audience will be polled before and after the  
session on each myth to decide if it is myth or fact.

PROPOSED MYTHS

The following list of myths was collected among participants of ICSE  
2007. The myths in the list are phrased in a provocative tone on  
purpose (in order to encourage the participation of advocates and  
opponents):

* Clones are evil.
For a long time code cloning was considered harmful; however, recent  
studies show that cloning might even be beneficial and desirable.

* Bugs reside in complex code.
In the quest for metrics that predict bugs, many tools report various  
code complexity metrics; however, recent studies show that most  
complexity metrics correlate with just LOC. Is it really complexity  
that makes programs fail?

* Aspect-oriented programs are easy to maintain.
Aspect-oriented programming seems to be a story of successes;  
however, after ten years of active research (including its own  
conference), it is not clear whether aspect-oriented programs are any  
easier to maintain than traditional programs.

IMPORTANT DATES

Working Session: October 4, 2007, afternoon
(No paper submission required, but Wiki participation appreciated.)

ORGANIZERS

Ahmed E. Hassan, University of Victoria, Canada
Thomas Zimmermann, Saarland University, Germany


--
Thomas Zimmermann, zimmerth at cs.uni-sb.de
http://www.st.cs.uni-sb.de/~zimmerth/


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