Call for papers: Industrial systems and software product lines

Software and systems product-line engineering is increasingly adopted across the industry. Over the last decades, organizations have taken advantage of product-line practices to capitalize on significant business benefits by improving customizability and quality while significantly reducing time-to-market and costs of engineering software-intensive products. However, applying product-line engineering encounters a wide range of challenges that hinder their success and adoption in the industry. For instance, the emergence of Industry 4.0 and new technologies including artificial intelligence, digital twins, the blockchain, and cyber-security technologies are posing new challenges. Organizations need increased automation for achieving continuous integration and deployment, as well as they need to understand the AI technologies and how to benefit from them in product-line efforts. We seek contributions from industrial and academic researchers on applying product line engineering in the industry, sharing challenges, successes, and specifics of existing practices in all stages of technology readiness levels of industrial systems. 

IMPORTANT DATES (AOE TIME):

• Abstract submission: June 4, 2021
• Paper submission: June 11, 2021
• Notification: June 25, 2021
• Camera-ready paper: July 9, 2021
• Conference: September 6-11, 2021

Topics:

We solicit papers on the following topics (but not limited to):

• Adopting or migrating to product-line engineering
• Scoping of product/solution portfolios and assets
• Architecture, design, and implementation of product lines
• Process aspects, e.g., DevOps and agile processes
• Variability management across all lifecycle stages
• Organizational and business aspects, e.g., business ecosystems
• Continuous integration and deployment
• Artificial intelligence, including deep and machine learning technologies
• Cyber security and blockchain technologies
• Other novel technologies, e.g., digital twins, quantum computing, HPC, Exascale computing, Cloud/Edge/IoT computing
• Quality and non-functional properties
• Software ecosystems, e.g., Android apps
• Tools and methods for guidance and governance
• Comparison and assessment of tools in the industry
• Product line testing, verification, and validation
• Version and configuration management
• Disruptive innovations and their effects on product lines

Submissions:

Full papers – Reporting experience from industrial applications and projects. The papers in this category must provide sufficient context of the problems identified or addressed, describe clear requirements and/or experiences in solving them, provide an assessment of benefits and drawbacks or other lessons learned, and explain why the contribution is innovative or valuable for others.

Short papers – Describing, from an industrial perspective, early returns on new product line and software ecosystem applications and projects, or other shorter industry topics of interest.

Industrial Presentations – A short abstract from the industry for a presentation on any of the topics mentioned above from the industrial practice.

The page limit is 10 pages for full papers, and 5 pages for short papers, not including references (2 extra pages maximum). The abstract for industrial presentation shall be on 1 page. Submissions must follow the 20XX ACM Master Article Template and will be reviewed by at least 3 members of the program committee for the Industrial Systems and Software Product Lines Track. 

PROGRAM COMMITTEE

• Martin Becker, Fraunhofer IESE Kaiserslautern, DE
• Lodewijk Bergmans, Software Improvement Group, NL
• Paul Clements, BigLever Software, Inc., USA
• Lidia Fuentes, University of Málaga, ES
• Sebastien Gerard, CEA, LIST, FR
• Paul Grünbacher, Johannes Kepler University Linz, AT
• Sten Grüner, ABB Corporate Research Germany, DE
• Iris Groher Johannes, Kepler University Linz, AT
• Jean-Marc Jézéquel, University of Rennes, FR
• Luisa Rincon, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, CO
• Mehrdad Saadatmand, RISE SICS Västerås, SE
• Bran Selic, Malina Software Corp., CA
• Juha-Pekka Tolvanen, MetaCase, FI
• Hironori Washizaki, Waseda University, JP

Sponsors