Date: Tue, 21 Dec 93 11:33:58 GMT To: re-world@doc.ic.ac.uk From: acwf@doc.ic.ac.uk (Anthony Finkelstein) X-Sender: acwf@gummo.doc.ic.ac.uk Subject: REQUIREMENTS ENGINEERING NEWSLETTER (17 - XMAS Edition) ****************REQUIREMENTS ENGINEERING NEWSLETTER******************** No. 17. Contents 1. Papers from 7th IEEE International Workshop on Software Specification & Design 2. CFP 4th European-Japanese Seminar on Information Modelling & Knowledge Bases (Hannu Kangasslo) 3. CFC 4th Irvine Software Symposium (Testing Techniques Newsletter) 4. Universitat Zurich Technical Report (Anthony Finkelstein) ---ANNOUNCEMENTS & ABSTRACTS OF TECHNICAL REPORTS ARE PARTICULARLY WELCOME!--- Contributions to: re-list@doc.ic.ac.uk (will be moderated) Subscription or Removal to: re-request@doc.ic.ac.uk Back issues can be obtained via anonymous ftp from ftp-host: dse.doc.ic.ac.uk (IP number: 146.169.2.20). Directory: requirements. Files are called renl1, renl2, etc. If you cannot use ftp then you can get any back issues using email. Send email containing the following to ftpmail@doc.ic.ac.uk open dse.doc.ic.ac.uk cd requirements get quit ********************************************************************** Subject: Papers from 7th IEEE International Workshop on Software Specification & Design The following papers appear in the Proceedings of the 7th IEEE International Workshop on Software Specification & Design held in Redondo Beach December 1993 and published by IEEE CS Press. Many will be of interest to Requirements Engineers though particularly those marked as RE Track. Requirements Elicitation and Formalization Through External Design and Object-Oriented Specification Barros TRACK: RE Related Specifications Reuse Wolff TRACK: FR Specifying Reactive Systems with Attributed Finite State Machines Ding & Katayama TRACK: RT Fine-Grain Process Modelling Nuseibeh & Finkelstein & Kramer TRACK: DS Design and Validation of a Message-Passing System Lin TRACK: CD A Framework for Program Development Based on Schematic Proof Basin & Bundy & Kraan & Matthews TRACK: FR Using Design Fragments to Modularize the Design of Communications in Concurrent Systems Boyd & Karam TRACK: DS A Taxonomy of Inheritance Semantics Faulstich-Brady TRACK: DS Specification and Refinement of a Message Router Cunningham & Cai TRACK: CD An Empirical Approach to Software Architectures Soni & Nord & Hsu TRACK: DS Modular Reasoning about Open Systems: A Case Study of Distributed Commit Das & Fekete TRACK: FR Specifying Reactive Systems by Abstract Events Astesiano & Reggio TRACK: CD Reflective Specification: Applying A Reflective Language to Formal Specification Saeki & Hiroi TRACK: DS Predicting operational behaviour of abstract programs during their formal developments Ait-Ameur TRACK: FR Specifications Approaches Express Different World Hypothesis Marca & McGowan TRACK: DS A Pragmatic Basis for the Formal Development of Distributed Systems Wood TRACK: CD Bridging the Requirements gap: policies, goals and domains Sutcliffe & Maiden TRACK: RE Identical Tasks and Counter Variables in an Integer Programming Based Approach to Verification Corbett TRACK: RT An Active Hypertext Model for System Requirements Potts & Takahashi TRACK: RE Hierarchy-Based Incremental Reachability Analysis of Distributed Programs Tai & Koppol TRACK: CD MERLOT: A Tool for Analysis of Real-Time Specifications Bellettini & Felder & Pezze TRACK: RT A Petri Net-Based Approach to Real-Time Program Analysis Buy & Sloan TRACK: RT Towards Extensible Graphical Formalisms Ghezzi & Pezze TRACK: RE ********************************************************************** From: hk@cs.uta.fi Subject: CALL-FOR-PAPERS to the 4th European-Japanese Seminar on Information Modelling and Knowledge Bases CALL FOR PAPERS THE 4rd EUROPEAN - JAPANESE SEMINAR ON INFORMATION MODELLING AND KNOWLEDGE BASES May 31- June 3, 1994, Memory Hotel, Kista, Stockholm, SWEDEN The 4th European-Japanese Seminar on Information Modelling and Knowledge Bases will take place on May 31- June 3, 1994, Memory Hotel, in Kista, Stockholm, Sweden. This event will continue and extend the series of Seminars on Information Modelling and Knowledge Bases arranged earlier in Budapest, in Tampere, and in Fujiyoshida. WORKING PRINCIPLES OF THE SEMINAR: - The total number of participants is limited to 45, of which about 15 will be from Japan, and 30 from European countries. Some participants may come from other countries, too. - In order to improve connections between young researchers and experienced researchers some places are reserved for young researchers. - There will be about 30 - 35 presentations on new topics or ongoing projects. Some possible fields of research are listed below. - The authors give a talk and distribute a copy of the full paper at the seminar. The final text can be polished for publication after the seminar. Only actually presented papers will be published. - The proceedings will be published by an international publisher, probably by the IOS Press in Amsterdam. HOW TO SUBMIT: Send four copies of your paper (an extended abstract about 8-10 pages or a full paper) to Hannu Kangassalo by January 25, 1994. The selection of papers is made on the basis of review, by the program committee. The acceptance will be based on the originality of work, on the suitability of the topic to the seminar and on the overall quality of your submission. The acceptance letters will be sent by 30th March. In the case of acceptance, you are expected to send your full paper for the seminar to arrive no later than May 15, 1994. The text must be ready for publication by the end of August 1994. TOPICS: Modelling is an important activity in all design, whether the conceptual one or technical one. In some sense one can even say that design is modelling. Often modelling is a necessary prerequisition for maintenance of systems, too. Concept modelling is needed in applications in which one has to comprehend and manage complex concept structures, either in machines or in human thinking. It is often the key to new innovations in the design. One form of concept modelling appears in natural language understanding, in which we have to describe the meaning of words. Conceptual modelling and knowledge representation techniques are widely used as communication means in the design of complex systems. Often concept modelling and conceptual modelling are used before or together with other types of modelling techniques which emphasize e.g. dynamic features of algorithms, some logical features of data in data bases, or abstract functional or behavioural features of software or industrial end-products. After having made these rather abstract models more concrete and specialised models may be developed from which the system can be implemented. In some areas the notion of modelling doesn't contain only the modelling of the end-product, but the whole process on how the end-product is accomplished. In this seminar the interest is focused on modelling and the development and use of models in information systems of various kinds. Some interesting applications of modelling can be found in other fields, too. We also attempt to find new aspects of modelling to which more attention should be paid. Scientific or technical papers of high quality are sought on topics including, but not limited to the following. The highest priority will be given to papers which are strongly related to different aspects of modelling. 1. Concept Modelling and Conceptual Modelling - Theoretical and philosophical basis of concept modelling and conceptual modelling - Concept formation and concept learning - a basis for modelling - Conceptual organization, belief systems and epistemic change - Approaches, tools and methods for conceptual modelling 2. Information Requirements and Modelling - Acquisition and elicitation of modelling knowledge - Acquisition of knowledge from the data base - Intelligent support systems for modelling and knowledge engineering 3. Models in Intelligent Activity - Meta-modelling - Model building process - Modelling in problem solving - Modelling in information systems design 4. Data Base Design, Knowledge Base Design, and Software Engineering as Modelling - Data base theory - SE environments as modelling tools - Design methodologies and design tools - Validation of specifications 5. Modelling in Multimedia Data Bases, Design Data Bases, or Object Oriented Data Bases - Interfaces to multimedia data bases and knowledge bases - Multimedia data bases and knowledge bases - Object-oriented data bases - Design data bases as modelling tools 6. Applications of modelling - Applications in education - Applications in technology - Applications in humanities - Applications in AI and cognitive science SEMINAR SITE: The seminar will be located at Memory Hotel in Kista between Arlanda airport and Stockholm City. The hotel has splendid conference facilities, very nice and reasonable priced rooms (appr USD 100), a good restaurant and fast connections with the city (subway, 20 min). Stockholm, generally consid ered one of the most beautiful cities on earth, is situated on a set of islands located just where Sweden's third biggest lake, Malaren, via a short stream runs out into the Baltic. Outside Stockholm is a vast archipelago comprising of some 24 000 islands. The weather in May-June is usually quite warm and sunny, although this may differ from one year to the other. SEMINAR FEE: The registration fee of approx. USD 400 will include the preprints, 4 lunches, refreshments in coffee breaks, reception at SISU, conference dinner, and the cost for the final proceedings. Program Committee: Setsuo Ohsuga, (Co-Chairman), RCAST, University of Tokyo, Japan Hannu Kangassalo (Co-Chairman), University of Tampere, Finland Aart Bijl, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom Tiziana Catarci, University of Rome, 'La Sapienza', Italy Eckhard D. Falkenberg, University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands Jaak Henno, Tallinn Technical University, Estonia Koichi Hori, RCAST, University of Tokyo, Japan Juhani Iivari, University of Jyvaskyla, Finland Paul Johannesson, Stockholm University, Sweden Gerti Kappel, University of Vienna, Austria Yahiko Kambayashi, Kyoto University, Japan Eiji Kawaguchi, Kyushu Institute of Technology, Japan Jorgen Fisher Nilsson, Technical University of Denmark, Denmark Colette Rolland, University of Paris I, France Cristina Sernadas, Cristina Sernadas IST/INESC Lisbon, Portugal Tibor Vamos, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Hungary Masatoshi Yoshikawa, Nara Institute of Science and Technology, Japan THE LIST OF PC MEMBERS IS NOT COMPLETE, YET. Organizing Committee Benkt Wangler (Chairman), SISU, Sweden Hannu Jaakkola, Tampere University of Technology, Finland Tadahiro Kitahashi, University of Osaka, Japan Terttu Orci, Stockholm University, Sweden Addresses: Hannu Kangassalo University of Tampere Department of Computer Science P.O.Box 607 SF-33101 Tampere Finland Tel: +358-31-2156778 Fax: +358-31-2156070 E-mail: hk@cs.uta.fi Benkt Wangler Swedish Institute for Systems Development Electrum 212, S-164 40 Kista, Sweden Tel: +46 8 752 16 44 Fax: +46 8 752 68 00 E-mail: benkt@sisu.se ********************************************************************** From: ttn@soft.com (Testing Techniques Newsletter) 4TH IRVINE SOFTWARE SYMPOSIUM (ISS'94) APRIL 8, 1994 -- CALL FOR PAPERS -- LOCATION: Student Center - Monarch Bay A & B University of California, Irvine Irvine, California The Irvine Research Unit in Software (IRUS), a software research alliance centered at the University of California, Irvine, was established to promote interaction between research and industry on current software issues, to facilitate cooperative problem-solving groups, and to provide information sharing in the field of software engineering. IRUS is sponsoring the fourth in a series of annual meetings on software engineering. The purpose of this symposium is to bring together researchers and practitioners to share ideas and experiences through paper presentations and panel discussions. Emphasis will be on early dissemination of new ideas and empirical evaluation and experience with software techniques on actual projects. Abstracts and panel proposals are invited on new approaches and experiences. NOTE: An abstract need not be submitted in order to attend ISS'94. SUBMISSION INFORMATION: Abstracts of 1000-2000 words should present enough information to evaluate the contribution of the full paper. Authors should label the abstract as being submitted to ISS'94 and The program committee will review all submissions for quality and relevance. Authors will be notified of acceptance by February 15, 1994. Final versions of papers for the proceedings will be due no later than March 11, 1994. The proceedings will not be copyrighted. Submit to: Prof. Richard Selby: ISS'94 Department of Information and Computer Science University of California - Irvine, Irvine, CA 92717 Office: 714-856-6326; FAX: 714-856-4056 E-mail: selby@ics.uci.edu Contact: Debra Brodbeck or Kim Luu: IRUS Dept. of Information and Computer Science University of California - Irvine Irvine, CA 92717 Office: 714-725-2260 or 714-856-7444 FAX: 714-856-4056 E-mail: iss@ics.uci.edu ********************************************************************** From: acwf@doc.ic.ac.uk (Anthony Finkelstein) Subject: Unviversitat Zurich Technical Report A Technical Report is distributed by the Institut fur Informatik der Universitat Zurich. Requirements Engineering: a survey of methods and tools by Hubert F. Hofmann (Report No: 93.05). The author can be contacted by email at: hofmann@ifi.unizh.ch The report contains a useful bibliography and discussusion of issues which might be of particular interest to students. **********************************************************************