[aosd-announce] CFP: Workshop on Managing Variability for Software Product Lines

[Paul C. Clements]

***Call for Workshop Participation***

Second Workshop on Managing Variability for Software Product Lines:
Working With Variation Mechanisms

10 September 2007, Kyoto
In conjunction with the 11th International Software Product Line 
Conference (SPLC 2007)


Managing variability is the essence of software product line practice. 
Variability enters the product line picture through the need for 
different features, deployment on different platforms, the desire for 
different quality attributes, and the accommodation of different 
deployment scenarios. Eventually, every need for variability manifests 
itself in one way or another in the actual artifacts that populate a 
product line’s core asset base, whether those core assets are software, 
documents, tools, or some other form.

“Variation mechanisms” is the name we give to the constructs that 
achieve variation at the artifact level. Catalogs of these mechanisms 
have been published, and they come in a bewildering variety. They may be
• requirements-level (such as the use of feature models, use case 
extensions, etc.)
• application-level (such as the use of configurators or program generators)
• architectural (such as plug-ins; or component replacement, omission, 
or replication)
• design-level (such as aspects), or
• implementation-level constructs (such as inheritance or parameterization)
• runtime variation (such as reflective programming or conditionals)

Selecting the correct variation mechanism(s) can have a dramatic effect 
on the cost to deploy new products, react to evolutionary pressures, and 
in general maintain and grow the product line. But selection remains an 
ad hoc process in nearly all product line organizations.

This workshop series is intended to fill the void between variability 
requirements visible to those who deal with features and other 
product-level concerns, and the variation mechanisms visible to creators 
and consumers of a product line’s core assets. The goal of the workshop 
series is to codify a body of knowledge for the informed and purposeful 
selection of variation mechanisms to use in a software product line’s 
core assets.

The workshop will be highly interactive and focused on making tangible 
progress towards answering specific questions relating to best practices 
in variability management. During the morning session there will be 
short presentations of selected papers. The bulk of the workshop will be 
reserved for discussions and overall conclusions. Participants will be 
assigned to groups that reflect specific topics. After the workshop, the 
leader of teach working group will be asked to write a summary of the 
working group’s discussion and (especially) its conclusions.

Topics of interest for the workshop include, but are not limited to:
• Reasoning frameworks for variability selection
• Factors that affect the selection of variability mechanisms
• Cost models to enable reasoned selection of variability mechanisms
• Variability mechanisms especially suited for non-software artifacts
• Binding time issues from an strategic or economic viewpoint

Submission instructions

Prospective participants are required to either
(1) Submit a 3-6 page position paper. All submissions will be reviewed 
by members of the program committee for quality and relevance. Accepted 
papers will become part of the workshop proceedings. Three or four 
papers will be chosen to be presented during the workshop to foment 
discussion. Submit your paper in PDF form to clements at sei.cmu.edu or 
Dirk.Muthig at iese.fraunhofer.de by August 1, 2007.
(2) Submit a variation mechanism pattern at the workshop’s wiki site, 
www.softwareproductlines.com/wiki. A variation mechanism pattern is a 
{problem, solution} pair that provides a variation pattern and the 
conditions under which product line engineers should (or should not) use 
it. Use the pattern template provided at the site.

Notifications of paper and pattern acceptance will be sent by August 15, 
2007.

(end)

-- 
==============================
Paul C. Clements
Software Engineering Institute
Carnegie Mellon University
clements at sei.cmu.edu

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