Call for Participation

Workshop on Software Assessment (WOSA 2006)

6 November, 2006 – Raleigh, NC USA

Dear Colleagues,

We would like to invite you to participate in the 6th Workshop on Software Assessment (WOSA 2006). As in the past, WOSA will be held jointly with IEEE’s International Symposium on Software Reliability Engineering (ISSRE). These events are sponsored by the Computer Society and the Reliability Society. To find out more, go to issre.org).

The purpose of WOSA is to provide a forum for the detailed exchange of ideas among researchers - both from academe and industry - about quantitative models, data analysis, and tools.

Participants will have from 45 to 60 minutes to speak. During and after the presentations, other participants will be encouraged to comment on the presentation, and to offer suggestions or alternative views. Tracks will be organized by topics that represent competing views. For example, there might be a track on classical reliability growth models versus software metrics models as predictors of software quality. Other examples include principal components analysis versus Boolean discriminant functions versus logistic regression as predictors of fault prone modules, and relationships between structural measurements of a software system's specification or design and the quality of the implemented system. Key topics of interest include software engineering standards, reliability modeling, system architecture and engineering, IT security, cyber-security, software metrics, economic considerations concerning techniques and tools, software testing, and software engineering standards.

WOSA is geared to participants who:

1. Wish to present their quantitative methods in detail and get feedback from their peers.
2. Would like to participate in sessions where competing models and methods can be explained, compared, and critiqued.
3. Are willing to present data to back up their claims and believe in validating models.
4. Are not afraid of equations.
5. Are not trying to sell a service or product during WOSA.

Important dates

• Deadline for presentation interest: October 1, 2006
• Deadline for paper submission: October 7, 2006
• Notification of acceptance: October 14, 2006
• Deadline for final contributions for the Workshop Proceedings: October 25, 2006
• Workshop at WOSA 2006: November 6, 2006

We hope you'll be able to attend WOSA 2006. If you'd like to make a presentation, please send email containing the title of your presentation to both Program Co-Chairs by Friday, October 1, 2006. By October 7, 2006, please prepare a summary, limited to 500 words, and e-mail it to Dr. James Bret Michael (bmichael@nps.edu). Please make sure the summary contains the following information:

1. Purpose of research, including motivation.
2. Problem being tackled.
3. Methodology, including rationale, model construction, alternate approaches, and limitations.
4. Data collected and process of data collection.
5. Model validation.
6. Applications.
7. Lessons learned.
8. Optional: description of model tools and computer demos.

Watch the ISSRE 2006 web site for information on WOSA 2006 as the program develops. If you have any questions, or suggestions for the program, we'd like to hear from you.