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Contents 1 Special Issue of EMPIRICAL SOFTWARE ENGINEERING journal 1.1 Empirical Studies in Software Architecture: Opportunities, Approaches, and Challenges 1.2 Guest Editors 1.3 Special Issue Theme 1.4 Kinds of Submissions and Topics 1.5 Important Dates 1.6 Preparation and Submission 1.7 Further Information 1.8 Related Events 1.9 Some Useful References

Special Issue of EMPIRICAL SOFTWARE ENGINEERING journal

Empirical Studies in Software Architecture: Opportunities, Approaches, and Challenges

Spring / Summer - 2010

Guest Editors

• M. Ali Babar, IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
• Patricia Lago, VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands
• Arie van Deursen, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands

Special Issue Theme

In recent years, software architecture community (i.e., researchers and practitioners) have developed many methods, techniques, and tools to support software architecture design, documentation, and evaluation activities. However, apart from a few exceptions, there has been little effort to gather and use empirical evidence to support the claims of efficacy or capabilities of different methods and techniques developed for supporting the software architecture process. The aim of this special issue is to provide an authoritative reference on systematically selecting and rigorously applying suitable empirical methods for evaluating methods, techniques, and tools developed for supporting the software architecture process.

This issue is particularly interested in carefully designed and rigorously conducted empirical studies to demonstrate the strengths and weaknesses of different methods, techniques, tools (e.g., ADLs, design methods, analysis tools) developed to support the software architecture process (i.e., design, description, and evaluation). The editors of this special issue have made some example papers and relevant guidelines published in software engineering literature available on this Wiki. Although it is not required, we strongly encourage the authors interested in submitting their work to carefully examine these papers and give full considerations to the guidelines papers while preparing their manuscripts for this special issue.

Kinds of Submissions and Topics

Articles on the following topics are of interest. In all cases appropriateness of the empirical research design and reliability and validity of the achieved results should be emphasized:

1. Empirical analysis of the benefits and limitations of different architecture design methods
2. Empirical comparisons of different Architectural Description Languages (ADLs) and architectural modeling tools
3. Empirical analyses of contemporary and emerging approaches to architecting (e.g., aspect-oriented, model-driven, and service-oriented)
4. Empirical studies illustrating benefits and limitations of technologies for architectural knowledge and rationale management
5. Empirical studies aimed at clarifying the misconceptions and false hopes of applying architectural styles and patterns
6. Experience reports or empirical case studies, particularly those that demonstrate the scope and limitations of architecture design, description, and evaluation approaches.
7. Papers describing the failures in using certain approaches will be of as much interest as the papers of success stories.
8. Empirical studies describing the social, organizational, and economic aspects of institutionalizing architectural practices
9. Survey papers that presents either the state-of-the-art or the state-of-the-practice of examine and compare past results in this area, particularly survey papers focusing on limitations. Particular interest will be paid to surveys using published results to assess the strength of evidence provided and illustrate the limitations of the studied approaches.

Important Dates

• Deadline for submission: 30 November 2009
• Please Note that the deadline shown on the following link has been extended to 30 November 2009.

http://www.springer.com/computer/programming/journal/10664

• Date of notification to authors (first round): 15 February 2010
• Proposed date of publication: Tentatively in Summer/Autumn 2010

Preparation and Submission

All manuscripts should be compliant with the journal's submission guidelines, which can be accessed by visiting journal's website (http://www.springer.com/computer/programming/journal/10664 ) and must not have been published previously or be currently under consideration for publication in any other journals or conferences. Significant extensions to substantive papers published in conferences are also welcome, provided that the editors are made aware of the previous publications.

The paper submissions via the online submission system at http://www.editorialmanager.com/emse/

Further Information

For more information about the focus, contact the Guest Editors:

• M. Ali Babar, malibaba "AT" itu "Dot" dk
• Patricia Lago, patricia "AT" cs "Dot" vu "Dot" nl
• Arie van Deursen, Arie "Dot" vanDeursen "AT" tudelft "Dot" nl

Related Events

• Workshop on Empirical Assessment in Software Architecture
• WICSA/ECSA 2009
• International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement

Some Useful References

• V.R. Basili, R.W. Selby, and D.H. Hutchens, Experimentation in Software Engineering, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, 1986. 12(7): pp. 733-743.
• B.A. Kitchenham, et al., Preliminary guidelines for empirical research in software engineering, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, , 2002. 28(8): pp. 721-734.
• A. Jedlitschka and D. Pfahl, Reporting Guidelines for Controlled Experiments in Software Engineering, Proceedings of the International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering, 2005.
• B. Kitchenham, et al., Evaluating guidelines for reporting empirical software engineering studies, Empirical Software Engineering, 2008. 13(1): pp. 219-221.
• C.B. Seaman, Qualitative methods in empirical studies of software engineering, Software Engineering, IEEE Transactions on, 1999. 25(4): pp. 557-572.
• B. Kitchenham and S. Charters, Guidelines for Performing Systematic Literature Reviews in Software Engineering, Tech Report EBSE-2007-1, Keele University, UK, 2007.
• B. Kitchenham and S.L. Pfleeger, Personal Opinion Surveys, in F. Shull, J. Singer & D. Sjøberg (Eds.), Guide to Advanced Empirical Software Engineering, Springer-Verlag, 2008, pp. 63-92.
• M. Montesi and P. Lago, Software Engineering Article Types: An Analysis of the Literature. Journal of Systems and Software, Vol. 81(10), 2008, pp. 1694-1714.
• D. Perry, S.E. Sim, and S. Easterbrook, Case Studies for Software Engineers, Proc. of the 26th Int'l Conference on Software Engineering, 2004.
• B. Kitchenham, L. Pickard, and S.L. Pfleeger, Case Studies for Method and Tool Evaluation, IEEE Software, 1995. 12(4): pp. 52-62.
• J. Singer and N.G. Vinson, Ethical Issues in Empirical Studies of Software Engineering, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, 2002. 28(12): pp. 1171-1180.
• T.C. Lethbridge, S.E. Sim, and J. Singer, Studying Software Engineers: Data Collection Techniques for Software Field Studies, Empirical Software Engineering, 2005. 10: pp. 311-341.
• P. Brereton, et al., Lessons from applying the systematic literature review process within the software engineering domain, Journal of Systems and Software, 2007. 80: pp. 571-583.
• D. Sjøberg, T. Dybå and M. Jørgensen, The Future of Empirical Methods in Software Engineering Research, 29th International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE'07), Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, 20-26 May, Future of Software Engineering (FoSE’07), in L. Briand and A. Wolf (Eds.), IEEE Computer Society Press, 2007, pp. 358-378.
• T. Dybå, B. Kitchenham and M. Jørgensen, Evidence-based Software Engineering for Practitioners, IEEE Software, 2005, 22(1): pp. 58-65.
• B. Kitchenham and S.L. Pfleeger, Principles of Survey Research, Parts 1 to 6, Software Engineering Notes, 2001-2002.
• F. Shull, J. Singer and D. Sjøberg (Eds.), Guide to Advanced Empirical Software Engineering, Springer-Verlag, London, 2008.
• Walter F. Tichy, Hints for Reviewing Empirical Work in Software Engineering, Empirical Software Engineering (ESE), 5(4):309–312, 2000.
• C. Wohlin, et al., Experimentation in Software Engineering: An Introduction. 2000: Kluwer Academic Publications.
• R. K. Yin. Case Study Research: Design and Methods. SAGE Publications Inc, 3d edition, 2003.
• B.J. Oates, Researching Information Systems and Computing, Sage Publications, London, 2006.
• Elspeth Golden, Bonnie E. John, Len Bass: The value of a usability-supporting architectural pattern in software architecture design: a controlled experiment. ICSE 2005: 460-469