About

Just like software in general, software product lines are permanently subject to change. This introduces evolution as a second problem dimension in addition to variability, which is the primary phenomenon addressed by software product line engineering. Traditionally, the methods and tools applied for revision control and variant management are radically different and mutually disjoint, although research has already suggested that evolution and variability can be tackled in a holistic way. Concrete examples of integrating approaches include uniform or unified versioning, delta-orientation in connection with hyper feature models, evolution-aware clone-and-own, projectional SPL editing, and variation control systems.

VariVolution (the 5^th International Workshop on Variability and Evolution of Software-intensive Systems) aims at bringing together active researchers studying software evolution and variability from different angles as well as practitioners who encounter these phenomena in real-world applications and systems. The workshop offers a platform for exchanging new ideas and fostering future research collaborations and synergies.

Topics and Goals

VariVolution'22 welcomes contributions on any of the following (non-exhaustive) list of topics:

• Conceptual approaches and technical solutions towards uniform (chronological and logical) versioning

• Variation control systems and the like

• Concepts enabling software product line modernization

• Evolution problems concerning specific variability mechanisms (e.g., delta-oriented, annotation-based, transformational, clone-and-own)

• Tools and approaches supporting collaborative editing of variability-intensive systems

• Variability- and evolution-friendly software development processes (e.g., reactive, incremental, agile)

• Tools implementing previous listed concepts

• Investigation and classification of real-world problems caused by combination of variability and evolution

• Industrial challenges and lessons learnt

The workshop serves as a highly interactive platform for exchange, which is reflected by a diversity of submission formats ranging from original research papers over position papers to informal tool demonstrations or fully interactive sessions. The expected audience is not confined to the SPLC community; rather, we also welcome variability-relevant contributions from evolution-related fields such as software configuration management or software maintenance.

Program

VariVolution 2022 will be held as a workshop at SPLC 2022.

Keynote

We are happy to announce that Leopoldo Teixeira will give a keynote at VariVolution 2022.

From Products to Product Lines, From Revisions to Evolution-aware Techniques: A Brief Overview of Formal Theories for Product Line Analysis and Evolution

Software product lines (SPLs) usually are built from different artifacts, such as variability models and configuration knowledge, besides the code for implementing features. This poses challenges for analysis techniques, since there are many configurations which can be derived from an SPL. Moreover, they also evolve over time, which might also bring challenges for analysis techniques. In previous works, we established a theory of software product line refinement, which lifts refinement notions from products to product lines, and forms the basis for the notion of safe evolution of SPLs. Safe evolution considers evolution scenarios that must preserve the behaviour of the entire set of products in the SPL. However, many scenarios do not conform to this notion, such as feature removals and bug fixes. Therefore, in this talk, we present an extension of this theory that establishes the notion of partially safe evolution of SPLs, which considers evolution scenarios where only a subset of the existing products has its behaviour preserved. We will briefly present the main aspects of the theory, and then proceed to illustrate one of its applications, the use of templates to support SPL evolution. Moreover, we will also present recent results related to a formal framework for product line analysis, and initial results from evolution-aware reliability analysis techniques for software product lines.

Accepted Papers

• Antonio Germán Márquez Trujillo, José Ángel Galindo Duarte, Angel Jesús Varela-Vaca, María Teresa Gómez López and David Benavides Cuevas — Advisory: Vulnerability analysis in software development project dependencies

• Jan Willem Wittler, Thomas Kühn and Ralf Reussner — Towards an Integrated Approach for Managing the Variability and Evolution of both Software and Hardware Components

Detailed Program

We will join forces and merge with VM4MODERNTECH 2022.

• 14:00 - 14:15 Opening

• 14:15 - 15:00 Keynote Leopoldo Teixeira - Products to Product Lines, From Revisions to Evolution-aware Techniques: A Brief Overview of Formal Theories for Product Line Analysis and Evolution

• 15:00 - 15:25 Coffee Break

• 15:30 - 16:40 Talks

  • 15:35-15:55 — Gökhan Kahraman and Loek Cleophas: "A Tool for Modeling and Analysis of Relationships among Feature Model Views"

  • 15:55-16:15 — Antonio Germán Márquez Trujillo, José Ángel Galindo Duarte, Angel Jesús Varela-Vaca, María Teresa Gómez López and David Benavides Cuevas: "Advisory: Vulnerability analysis in software development project dependencies"

  • 16:15-16:30 — Jan Willem Wittler, Thomas Kühn and Ralf Reussner: "Towards an Integrated Approach for Managing the Variability and Evolution of both Software and Hardware Components"

• 16:30 - 16:40 Break

• 16:40 - 17:25 Keynote Mathieu Acher - Machine learning and deep software variability

• 17:25 - 17:30 Closing

How to Submit

Important Dates

The important dates for the workshop are aligned with the general workshop due dates of SPLC:

• Workshop paper (short, long) abstract deadline: June 20

• Workshop paper submission: June 14, 2022 June 22 (extended)

• Workshop paper notification: July 1, 2022

• Final version of papers: July 7, 2022 (strict)

All these times are AoE.

Submission Guidelines

The workshop seeks submissions of different types and degrees of maturity in order to be inclusive of both researchers and practitioners and provide a lively platform for discussion also for early concepts and ideas.

Submissions must follow the ACM Master Article Template: https://www.acm.org/publications/proceedings-template

Latex users are indicated to use the “sigconf” option, so they are recommended to use the template that can be found in “sample-sigconf.tex”. In this way, the following code can be placed at the start of the latex document:

\documentclass[sigconf,review]{acmart}

\acmConference[SPLC’22]{26th ACM International Systems and Software Product Lines Conference}{12-16 September, 2022}{Graz, Austria}

Submission link: https://easychair.org/my/conference?conf=splc2022

This year, you submit via the SPLC EasyChair instance. Click on New Submission and select the "5th W. on Variability and Evolution of Software-intensive Systems" to submit to this workshop.

Paper Categories (Maturity of Presented Work)

The workshop allows submissions at different levels of maturity. Make sure that you select the correct category on the submission page. Papers should range from 4 to 8 pages, with at most 2 more pages only for references (i.e., 4-8 +2).

• Full papers: Papers containing original work and research results. Full papers should at least present a preliminary evaluation of the contributed results. Accepted papers will be published in Volume 2 of the official SPLC proceedings.

• Short papers: Papers describing ongoing work and research. Accepted papers will be published in Volume 2 of the official SPLC proceedings.

• Position papers: Papers of up to one page which present an arguable opinion on a relevant topic. Accepted contributions will be presented and discussed at the workshop but will not be published in the official proceedings.

• Industrial Challenges and Lessons Learnt (ICLL) papers: This type of contribution explicitly targets industry. A dedicated workshop session is reserved for presentations of industrial challenges and lessons learnt, both connected with variability and evolution. The aim of this session is to make academic researchers aware of real-world problems. Accepted presentations will not be published in the proceedings. For submission, we expect a one-page abstract.

• Tool demos: Informal tool demos shall be submitted through a one page abstract of the planned demonstration which will not be published in the official proceedings. The submission may include links to supplementary online material such as downloadable software and/or tool screencasts.

Review Process

Full and short papers will be peer-reviewed by at least three program committee members. Position papers, ICLL papers, and tool demos will not be peer-reviewed; the workshop organizers decide whether they are accepted or not, primarily based on their potential to stimulate interesting discussions. All accepted submissions, regardless of their level of maturity, will be given a presentation slot at the workshop.

The workshop follows a single-blind review process.

Committees

Organizing Committee

• Sandra Greiner (University ofBayreuth, Germany)

• Kristof Meixner (TU Wien, Austria)

• Gabriela Karoline Michelon (Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria)

• Philippe Collet (Université Côte d'Azur, France)

Program Committee

• Aitor Arrieta, Mondragon University

• Chico Sundermann, University of Ulm

• Clement Quinton, Université de Lille

• Djamel Khelladi, Université de Rennes

• Djamel Seriai, Université de Montpellier

• Lea Gerling, University of Hildesheim

• Mahsa Varshosaz, IT University of Copenhagen

• Leopoldo Teixeira, Federal University of Pernambuco

• Li Yi, Nanyang Technological University

• Lidia Fuentes, Universidad de Málaga

• Natsuko Noda, Shibaura Institute of Technology

• Paul Gazzillo, University of Central Florida

• Rick Rabiser, JKU Linz

• Wesley Assunção, JKU Linz

• Xhevahire Ternava, Université de Rennes

Steering Committee

• Thorsten Berger (Chalmers | University of Gothenburg, SE)

• Timo Kehrer (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, DE)

• Klaus Schmid (University of Hildesheim, DE)

Previous Edition

• VariVolution2021

Contact

For further questions about the workshop, feel free to contact the workshop organizers:

Sandra Greiner, Kristof Meixner, Gabriela Karoline Michelon Philippe Collet

Photo: Graz, Murinsel und Schloßberg mit Uhrturm, Ralf Roletschek shared under CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons