CALL-FOR-PAPERS AST 2011 Sixth IEEE/ACM International Workshop on Automation of Software Test http://ast2011.isti.cnr.it At ICSE 2011 (http://2011.icse-conferences.org/) Waikiki, Honolulu, Hawaii, within 21-28 May 2011 IMPORTANT DATES: Submission deadline: 21 January 2011 Notification of acceptance: 17 February 2010 Camera-Ready version: 10 March 2010 Workshop dates: Within 21-28 May 2010 ORGANIZERS: Workshop PC Co-Chairs Prof. Antonia Bertolino, ISTI-CNR, Italy, antonia.bertolino@isti.cnr.it Dr. Howard Foster, City University London, UK, Howard.Foster.1@city.ac.uk Dr. Jenny Li, Avaya Labs Research, USA, jjli@research.avayalabs.com Steering Committee Prof. Hong Zhu (Chair) Oxford Brookes University, UK hzhu@brookes.ac.uk Prof. Shing-chi Cheung The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong Dr. Jenny Li Avaya Labs Research, USA Prof. Fevzi Belli Paderborn University, Germany Prof. Eric Wong University of Texas at Dallas, USA Dr. Steve Masticola Siemens Corporation, Corporate Research, USA Please see workshop website for more details and the workshop Program Committee. In software development practice, testing accounts for as much as 50% of the total development effort. It is therefore imperative to reduce the cost and improve the effectiveness of software testing by automating the testing process. In the past decades, a great amount of research effort has been spent on automatic test case generation, automatic test oracles, etc. Test automation is also becoming an important part of software testing practice. The workshop is the sixth edition of the successful AST workshops held at ICSE 2006-2010. It will provide researchers and practitioners with a forum for exchanging ideas, experiences, understanding of the problems, visions for the future, and promising solutions to the problems. The workshop will also provide a platform for researchers and developers of testing tools to work together to identify the problems in the theory and practice of software test automation and to set an agenda and lay the foundation for future development. TOPICS OF INTEREST The workshop focuses on bridging the gap between the theories and practice of software test automation. The topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following: 1) Methodology: Software test automation in the context of various software development methodologies, such as in model-driven, component-based, agile, test-driven, product lines, service-oriented, agent-oriented, and aspect-oriented methodologies, and in evolutionary development. 2) Technology: Automation of test techniques and methods used in test-related activities, support for software testing methods, and applications to specific types of software in different application domains. 3) Software testing tools and environments: Issues in the development, operation, maintenance and evolution of software testing tools and environments. 4) Experiments, empirical studies and experience reports and vision of the future of software test automation. Aligned with the ICSE conference theme of “Software by Design”, the AST 2011 workshop focuses on a special theme on Relating Software Design to Test Automation. Submissions on this topic are especially encouraged, but papers on other topics are also welcome. CHARETTE DISCUSSIONS The workshop continues the successful charette discussions of the previous years. This year, the topic of the charette discussion sessions will focus on the special theme Relating Software Design to Test Automation. It is concerned with questions like: how to design software systems to enable test automation, how to document software design for testers reference, how to design software that are more testable, the design of test automation systems, etc. INDUSTRIAL CASE STUDIES There will also be an Industrial Case Studies session at the workshop, with presentations reporting the real state of the practice in automation of software testing. Test practitioners are especially encouraged to contribute their experiences and insights on test automation in this session. Submissions to this session do not have to conform to the main theme of the workshop. Topics for this session include, but are not limited to, the following: new tools, new best practices, process innovations related to test automation, gaps in existing vendor toolsets, ideas and visions for near-term research work. SUBMISSIONS Two types of submissions are invited: regular papers and industrial case study papers. The former is to report research in the area of software test automation, while the latter to report on practical applications of test automation. Both types of papers are limited to 7 pages in ACM SIG Proceedings format. All papers submitted to the workshop must be unpublished original work and should not be under review or submitted elsewhere while being under consideration. Please see ACM’s Plagiarism Policy at the following URL: http://www.acm.org/publications/policies/plagiarism_policy. All submissions must be in English and in either PDF or postscript format through online upload to the workshop submission website at the following URL: http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=AST2011 All submissions will be reviewed by three PC members. Regular papers will be judged on the basis of their clarity, relevance, originality, and contribution. Case study papers will be judged on the basis of their clarity, relevance, and interest to the workshop participants. PUBLICATION OF PAPERS The accepted workshop papers including both regular and case study papers will be published in the ICSE 2010 Proceedings and included in the IEEE/ACM Digital Libraries. Workshop attendees will receive a memory stick with both ICSE 2011 and AST 2011 proceedings on it. The presentations slides will be published on the AST 2011 website. Authors of accepted papers are required to register for the workshop and present the paper at the workshop in order for the paper to be included in the proceedings and Digital Libraries. A special issue with Journal of System and Software will publish revised and extended versions of selected best papers.