Workshop on Modularization, Composition and Generative Techniques for Product Line Engineering

in conjuction with
GPCE / OOPSLA 2008,
Nashville, Tennessee, October 19-23, 2008

Abstract

Product Line Engineering (PLE) is an increasingly important paradigm in software development whereby commonalities and variations among similar systems are systematically identified and exploited. PLE covers a large spectrum of activities, from domain analysis to product validation and testing. Variability is manifested throughout this spectrum in artifacts such as requirements, models, code and documentation and it is often of crosscutting nature. These characteristics promote different kinds of modularization and composition techniques (e.g. objects, components, aspects, features, subjects, frames, etc.) as suitable candidates to manage variability. Prior work on Generative Programming (GP) and Component Engineering (CE) has shown their successful applicability to PLE and the potential benefits of different modularization and composition techniques.

This workshop aims at expanding and capitalizing on the increasing interest of researchers from these communities. It builds on the success of the Aspect-oriented Product Line (AOPLE) workshop which has run consecutively at GPCE for the past two years. AOPLE established an initial community and formulated a first joint research agenda. The main goal of the workshop is to broaden this agenda and strengthen the established collaborations, to share and discussed ideas, identify research opportunities and foster collaboration to tackle the challenges these opportunities may bring about.

Each submitted paper will be reviewed by at least three committee members. Accepted papers will be posted on the web and attendants will be requested to read them in advance. The workshop will last a full day to give time for short paper presentations, and "Open Space" discussions on topics distilled from the presentations.

Goals

Work on software modularization and composition concepts and techniques when applied to Software Product Line Engineering has shown promising results. These results can be further strengthened when Generative Programming and Component Engineering techniques are applied in concert. The main goal of the workshop is to foster and strengthen the collaboration between the different software composition and modularization techniques, PLE and generative research communities by identifying common interests and research venues. The new workshop builds on the success of the aspect-oriented product line engineering (AOPLE) workshops that established an initial community of researchers, but focuses on a broader range of issues, techniques and approaches.

We expect the following results from the workshop:

Workshop Format

The workshop is scheduled as a full day workshop. Participants are expected to read the papers accepted beforehand to be able to contribute to lively discussions about approaches and ideas presented. The morning session will consist of short presentations of the most representative papers. Interesting discussion topics will be collected for the afternoon session. In the afternoon we will use the "Open Space" format in order to discuss topics of interest that might be related but not restricted to the papers presented in the morning. The results of the discussion groups will be presented in the last half hour of the workshop.

The papers and a summary of the discussions will be compiled into a technical report that will be posted on the workshop's website. If we receive a significant amount of submissions of high quality, we will consider submitting them to a special issue of some journal.

Workshop Program

The workshop program is now online.

Proceedings

The proceedings of the workshop are published as a technical report of the Department of Informatics and Mathematics of the University of Passau, Germany:

Neil Loughran, Iris Groher, Roberto Lopez-Herrejon, Sven Apel, and Christa Schwanninger, editors. Workshop on Modularization, Composition, and Generative Techniques for Product Line Engineering, Proceedings, Nashville, TN, October 23, 2008, number MIP-0804. Department of Informatics and Mathematics, University of Passau, October 2008.

Important Dates

Paper submission deadline: August 22, 2008 (extended)
Notification: September 4, 2008
Camera ready: October 3, 2008
Workshop: October 23, 2008

Submissions

We invite submissions of 2 to 6 pages long in ACM or IEEE format. The papers will be reviewed by at least three members of the program committee and the organization committee. The authors will be notified about acceptance before the early registration deadline.

We are looking for contributions in the following topics but not limited to:

Submit your paper as a PDF or Postcript file to

Organizers

If you require further information on the paper submission or have any problems submitting your paper, please feel free to contact any of the organizers.

Program Committee

Abstract
Goals
Workshop Format
Workshop Program
Proceedings
Important Dates
Submissions
Organizers
Program Committee

GPCE 2008
OOPSLA 2008