SCOPE

The special session focuses on the readability and comprehensibility of formal methods, especially taking into account the groving importance of collaborative aspects. Successful collaboration and communication between stakeholders are key factors in the development of complex software systems. The use of formal methods in this context offers rigor and precision, while reducing ambiguity and inconsistency. However problems of readability and comprehensibility pose objective barriers hindering the adoption of formal methods in industry. These aspects become even more crucial in large-scale projects, where professionals with different technical and cultural backgrounds have to collaborate. The aim of this special session is to initiate a discourse on bridging the gap between the usefulness and applicability of formal methods in innovative Software Engineering.


Topics:
• Collaborative aspects of formal methods in conceptual modelling, specification, and design
• Collaborative aspects of testing, verification and validation of systems
• Collaborative aspects of global requirements engineering
• Formal methods in global requirements engineering
• Standardisation of formal methods
• Formal methods in/for cloud computing
• Formal ontologies for software engineering
• Comprehensibility and readability of formal methods in software engineering
• Formal methods for handling uncertainty, vagueness, inconsistency
• Usability, scalability and complexity hiding of formal methods tools
• Formal methods for cyber-physical systems
• Formal methods for sustainability
• Cross-disciplinary automation of formal methods
• Innovations and improvements of formal methods and tools
• Industrial application of formal methods
• Successful case studies on formal methods in collaborative projects
• Teaching of formal methods and collaborative aspects thereof

IMPORTANT DATES

SPECIAL SESSION PROGRAM COMMITTEE

KEYNOTE SPEAKER

Understanding user needs: combining TDD with CTD

Eitan Farchi IBM Haifa Research Lab Israel

Brief Bio
Dr. Eitan Farchi is a leader of the Software Quality research teams at the IBM Haifa Research Laboratory and a member of the IBM Academy of Technology. He has been appointed to the role of IBM Senior Technical Staff Member (STSM) for his many contributions in the fields of software quality and reliability. Dr. Farchi holds B.Sc., M.Sc. degree in mathematics from the Hebrew University and a PhD degree in mathematics from the Haifa University, where he also thought for many years. He is the author of more than 80 papers and numerous patents, and routinely provides consulting on software quality to IBM customers and business units across the globe.

Abstract
IBM design thinking (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXtN4y3O35M), is combined with agile, and is meant to help focus on the end user and quickly create solutions that matter and bring the greatest possible value. The first and most crucial step in design thinking is UNDERSTANDING the end user needs. Discussion is a starting point but how do we validate that our understanding is correct? The next step requires prototyping, or modeling. Essentially we are moving to a formal model that can execute or simulate but it is required to interface with the end user in such a way that the user will be able to provide feedback and help the designer correct their understanding. The model needs to be cheap and we should be able to create it quickly, the user should easily and quickly interact with the model to provide feedback, and the feedback should be translated to some guaranties that we correctly understood the user. In this talk we will discuss how Test Driven Development combined with Combinatorial Test Design can be utilized to achieve the above goal and share some experience on deploying these techniques in software organizations.

Two open collaboration papers are planned to be written collectively by special session participants and PC members. The papers will then be submitted to the special session in the Position Paper category and undergo a standard reviewing process.

1. Formal Modelling of Collaboration Processes
Collaborative projects might benefit not only from using formal methods as a communication tool but also from formal analysis of many aspects of collaboration. In this paper we are going to discuss aspects that influence successful collaboration, as well as existing approaches on formalisation of collaboration processes.
Please contact Maria (maria.spichkova@rmit.edu.au) if you want to contribute.

2. Using Formal Methods in Collaborative Projects
This paper will review a collection of case studies from collaborative and distributed projects in which formal methods were used. It will highlight success and failure factors for the use of formal methods in collaboration.
Please contact Anna (annazam@is.haifa.ac.il) if you want to contribute.

If you are interested in participating in one of the open collaboration papers described above, please send the special session chairs an expression of interest, consisting of a 1 page proposed outline of your planned contribution at your earliest convenience, and no later than December 22, 2015.

PAPER SUBMISSION

Prospective authors are invited to submit papers in any of the topics listed above.
Instructions for preparing the manuscript (in Word and Latex formats) are available at: Paper Templates
Please also check the Guidelines.
Papers must be submitted electronically via the web-based submission system using the appropriated button on this page.

PUBLICATIONS

After thorough reviewing by the special session program committee, all accepted papers will be published in a special section of the conference proceedings book - under an ISBN reference and on digital support - and submitted for indexation by DBLP, Web of Science / Conference Proceedings Citation Index, EI and SCOPUS.
SCITEPRESS is a member of CrossRef (http://www.crossref.org/) and every paper is given a DOI (Digital Object Identifier).
All papers presented at the conference venue will be available at the SCITEPRESS Digital Library

AUTHOR'S KIT

Guidelines
Templates
Glossary
Norms and Plagiarism

SECRETARIAT CONTACTS

ENASE Special Sessions - COLAFORM 2016
e-mail: enase.secretariat@insticc.org