!! Please submit your final paper via email by April 7 - see guideline below !!

Prosim 2005 Workshop
You are invited to participate in the 6th International Workshop on Software Process Simulation and Modeling (ProSim 2005). The workshop will be held in conjunction with the 27th International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE 2005).

We anticipate a true workshop atmosphere where participants will be able to discuss topics and ideas in depth. As in previous years, papers from ProSim 2005 will be considered for inclusion in the Journal of Systems and Software.

The rest of the call for papers presents the motivation and goals for ProSim 2005 as well as provides instructions for authors interested in submitting papers to the workshop. We invite you to
see the web site for additional details and research presented at previous workshops.

Motivation and Goals of the Workshop
Workshop Theme and Topics of Interest
Information to Authors
Deadlines
General Chair
Program Co-Chairs
Steering Committee
Program Committee

Motivation and Goals of the Workshop
It is a truism that industrial software needs to be delivered more quickly and with higher levels of quality. These demands are set in a dynamic project environment of frequently changing technologies, short-staffed projects and globally distributed development teams. At the same time, global competition is forcing companies that develop software to cut cost significantly in order to compete.

Amid these pressures, new software development lifecycle process alternatives have emerged from agile methods (such as extreme programming) to well-planned product line development. Open source software development is ramping up. At the same time, many projects are being contracted out, either in whole or in part, and the software may be developed in multiple locations around the world resulting in a greater need for good communication and co-ordination. Security also is an issue that is getting increased attention.

Software process modeling and software process simulation are suitable means to successfully address these issues in many ways.

The goal of the workshop is to bring together academics and Practitioners interested in the area of software process modeling and simulation as well as important industrial issues related to cost estimation and business process design. ProSim 2005 will continue the tradition set in previous workshops as being an international forum for presenting current research themes and applications, and discussing various approaches to discover underlying similarities at both the applied and theoretical levels. In particular, this workshop will solicit research dealing with both the application of software process simulation research in addressing real-world problems, as well as advances being made which will provide the foundation for Software Process and Software Process Simulation Modeling in the future.

Workshop Theme and Topics of Interest
We invite position papers, research papers, and experience reports in all areas related to software process modeling and simulation, and using all applicable techniques and representations (including discrete event, system dynamics, knowledge-based systems, state-based modeling, Petri-nets, qualitative simulation, and other approaches).

In addition, based on positive experience from previous workshops, we also encourage submission of proposals for demos and poster presentations. Demos and poster presentations can be conducted in combination with a paper presentation or independently.

An initial set of topics related to software development includes (but is not limited to) the following:

• Process modeling and simulation of emergent issues in software development such as global software development (including issues related to acquisition, outsourcing or offshoring), open source development, software safety and security, agile methods, value-based software engineering, web services, soft factors, competence development, decision support and organizational learning.
• Advances in software process simulation modeling representations and methods.
• Applications of software process modeling and simulation approaches in industry, for example to improve business processes and/or to support financial and business case analyses.
• The use of simulation models for different stages of the software life-cycle: initial development, evolution, servicing and replacement.
• The use of software process modeling and simulation in promoting understanding, documentation, and dissemination of knowledge of software engineering and business processes.
• Practical benefits of software process modeling and simulation.
  Generalized and adaptable process simulation models.
  Feasibility of validating standard "plug and play" process model components, patterns or archetypes.
• Approaches/environments for supporting the integration of process representation, guidance, simulation, and execution capabilities for models of software processes.
• The role of empirical data in building and refining software process models and in the assessment of their validity.
• Cost-effective combination of simulation with empirical data.
• Evaluation of added value/ROI achieved from using process simulation and applying process management.
• Representation of uncertainty in simulation models and their data.
• The use of simulation models to form and refine theories of the software process.

Information to Authors
ProSim 2005 attendees can actively participate in the workshop by presenting a paper, a tool demo, or a poster.

Authors who plan to contribute with a paper are requested to submit a 3-4 page extended abstract. The abstracts will be reviewed by the Program Committee and selected for the workshop based upon their relevance to the field of Software Process Simulation and Modeling.

Authors who plan to conduct a demo or present a poster are requested to submit a one-page demo or poster proposal, respectively.

In order to help assign suitable reviewers and to better assess the scope of a paper, demo or poster, authors are also requested to fill in a short questionaire. In order to get a paper abstract, a demo proposal or a poster proposal accepted, it is mandatory for its authors to answer the following questions.

For paper submission:
[Q1] To which of the following categories does your paper belong?
--> Position paper
--> Full technical paper - research
--> Full technical paper - experience report
[Q2] What is the scope of your paper?
--> Process modeling - focus on process modeling methodology
--> Process modeling - focus on process model implementation
--> Simulation modeling - focus on simulation modeling methodology
--> Simulation modeling - focus on simulation model implementation
[Q3] Is your paper related to one or more of the topics listed above in the section "Workshop Theme and Topics of Interest"?
--> no (please describe the topic in one sentence)
--> yes (please list the topic(s))
[Q4] Provide 3-5 keywords that characterize the content of your paper

For demo submission:
[Q1] What is the scope of your demo?
--> Process modeling tool support - focus on model building/analysis
--> Process modeling application - focus on problem analysis
--> Simulation modeling tool support - focus on model building/analysis
--> Simulation modeling application - focus on problem analysis
[Q2] Is your demo related to one or more of the topics listed above in the section "Workshop Theme and Topics of Interest"?
--> no (please describe the topic in one sentence)
--> yes (please list the topic(s))
[Q3] Provide 3-5 keywords that characterize thentent of your demo.

For poster submission:
[Q1] What is the scope of your poster?
--> Process modeling tool support - focus on model building/analysis
--> Process modeling application (focus on problem analysis
--> Simulation modeling tool support - focus on model building/analysis
--> Simulation modeling application - focus on problem analysis
[Q2] Is your poster related to one or more of the topics listed above in the section "Workshop Theme and Topics of Interest"?
--> no (please describe the topic in one sentence)
--> yes (please list the topic(s))
[Q3] Provide 3-5 keywords that characterize the content of your poster.

Authors of accepted abstracts will have a choice to provide either a full technical paper (8-10 pages, approximately 5,000 words) or a position paper (4-5 pages, approximately 2,500 words) to be published in the workshop proceedings. Presenters of accepted demos or posters will be asked to provide a 1-page description of their demo or poster to be published in the proceedings.

Workshop proceedings will be provided to workshop participants.

According to the workshop tradition, revised and enhanced ProSim 2005 papers will be considered for inclusion in a special issue of the Journal of Systems and Software. The selection process will involve peer reviews and reviews by program committee members.

Deadlines

January 31, 2005 >> February 7, 2005
Submission of extended abstracts, demo and poster proposals

February 28, 2005
Notification of acceptance for the workshop

April 7, 2005
Final camera ready versions of full papers (8-10 pages) and position papers (4-5 pages) are due, in the IEEE proceedings format.

June 30, 2005
Invitation to develop a journal paper (based on discussion and feedback during the workshop)

Final Paper Submission Guideline

Please submit final paper directly to:

Dietmar Pfahl (mailto:pfahl@iese.fhg.de) with copy to Ioana Rus (mailto:irus@fc-md.umd.edu).

Formatting: Please use the IEEE formatting guidelines. Please use A4 format (not Letter).

Please send two files: one in PDF format, and one in Word format.

Deadline for sending your final paper is April 7, 2005.

If you have questions about submission, please contact:

Dr. Dietmar Pfahl
Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering (IESE)
e-mail: pfahl@iese.fraunhofer.de

General Chair
David Raffo, Portland State University, USA

Program Co-Chairs
Dietmar Pfahl, Fraunhofer IESE, Germany
Ioana Rus, Fraunhofer Center Maryland, USA

Steering Committee
Dietmar Pfahl, Fraunhofer IESE, Germany
David Raffo, Portland State University, USA
Ioana Rus, Fraunhofer Center Maryland, USA
Paul Wernick, University of Hertsfordshire, UK

Program Committee
Thomas Birkhoelzer, University of Applied Sciences Konstanz, Germany
James Collofello, Arizona State University, USA
Paolo Donzelli, University of Maryland, USA
Volker Gruhn, University of Leipzig, Germany
Ross Jeffery, UNSW and NICTA, Australia
Dan Houston, Honeywell, USA
Marc Kellner, Software Engineering Institute, CMU, USA
Marek Leszak, Lucent Technologies Bell Labs, Germany
Ray Madachy, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA
Bob Martin, Software Management Consulting, USA
Jurgen Munch, Fraunhofer IESE, Germany
Leon Osterweil, University of Massachusetts, USA
Dewayne Perry, University of Texas, Austin, USA
Dietmar Pfahl, Fraunhofer IESE, Germany
Antony Powell, University of York, UK
David Raffo, Portland State University, USA
Juan F. Ramil, The Open University, UK
Guenther Ruhe, University of Calgary, Canada
Mercedes Ruiz Carreira, University of Cadiz, Spain
Ioana Rus, Fraunhofer Center Maryland, USA
Walt Scacchi, University of California, Irvine, USA
Thomas Thelin, Lund University, Sweden
Paul Wernick, University of Hertfordshire, UK