Working IEEE/IFIP Conference on Software Architecture

Software engineering researchers and practitioners have been increasingly emphasizing the importance of gathering and disseminating empirical evidence to help researchers to assess current research, identify the promising areas of research and practitioners to make informed decisions for selecting a suitable method, technique, or tool for supporting a particular software development activity. However, there has been relatively little effort to gather and use empirical evidence to support the claims of efficacy or capabilities of different methods, techniques, and tools proposed for developing software. In order to improve this situation, there has been growing recognition of the importance of providing community-based forums to debate the need and value of comparative evaluation of technologies proposed to support software development activities using evidence-based approaches. The evidence-based paradigm provides an objective and structured means of assembling and analysing the available data in order to answer research questions.

The aim of the proposed workshop is to debate the importance, benefits, and limitations of rigorously assessing software architecture research outcomes by utilizing the methods and approaches from the evidence-based paradigm. The workshop will provide attendees with an opportunity to critically discuss the suitability of different assessment mechanisms, techniques and methods for software architecture discipline. The workshop participants are expected to propose and debate several questions related to the assessment of software architecture technologies. Some of the questions to be discussed are:

• How are the software architecture technologies evaluated?
• How should software architecture research outcomes be assessed to support technology transfer?
• What are the most appropriate mechanisms and methods to assess and compare software architecture deign and evaluation technologies (methods, techniques, and tools)?
• What is the role of empirical methods for software architecture research and practice?
• How to empirically assess the usability and usefulness of software architecture technologies (e.g., Architectural description languages) within industrial settings and considering cost bounds?
• How to support the quality assessment of software architecture technologies during the different phases of the software lifecycle?
• To what extend software architects and project managers should rely on existing software metrics and traditional quality indicators?