****************REQUIREMENTS ENGINEERING NEWSLETTER******************** No. 30. Contents 1. 9th Knowledge Acquisition Workshop - Track on KA & RE (Rudi Studer) 2. CRIS 94 Methods And Associated Tools for the IS Life Cycle (Bill Olle) 3. Opportunity in SE R&D at Naval Research Lab (Connie Heitmeyer) 4. CAiSE 95 Call for Contributions (Erkki Lehtinen) 5. Nature Reports 1994 (Ralf Doemges) 6. Research Studentships in Requirements Engineering (Neil Maiden) 7. IEEE 1175 Standards Meeting - Pre-announcement (Carl Singer) If you have questions about particular items appearing in the newsletter - send them to the originators. If you wish to contribute send your material to: re-list@doc.ic.ac.uk (will be moderated). Subscription or Removal requests should be sent 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 The Requirements Engineering Newsletter and its archive is also accessible through WWW. The URL is: http://web.doc.ic.ac.uk/req-eng/index.html You may wish to link any Internet software engineering information resource you maintain to this and/or notify the manager of your local Web server by passing this message on to them. If you wish your requirements or software engineering ftp archive to be linked to the RE Newsletter archive please inform me. If you are unfamiliar with WWW you may wish to obtain a copy of the Mosaic public domain internet browser which is available for X-Windows, Macintosh or Microsoft Windows. The RE Newsletter can be conveniently accessed through the Imperial College, Department of Computing, United Kingdom, WWW Home Page (http://www.doc.ic.ac.uk/). Requirements Engineering Newsletter is published solely as an educational service. Copyright (c) 1994, Anthony Finkelstein; All Rights Reserved. ********************************************************************** From: studer@CAMIS.Stanford.EDU (Rudi Studer) Subject: RE/KA track at Banff'95 Call for Participation KAW'95 Ninth Knowledge Acquisition for Knowledge-Based Systems Workshop Banff, Canada, February 26-March 3, 1995 The objective of the annual knowledge-acquisition workshops is to provide a forum for those developing theories, methods, systems, and empirical studies that relate to the process of building intelligent systems of all kinds. To encourage vigorous interaction and exchange of ideas, the workshop will be kept small--to about 40 participants. The format is designed to develop extensive discussions and continuing collaboration on significant issues; thus, the majority of the workshop will be devoted to activities within small working groups that each will meet for one or two days, in parallel with other workshop activities over the course of the week. In plenary sessions, we will attempt to define the state of the art and future research needs. General attendance will be limited to those submitting their work, one author per paper. The meeting is structured to support specialist subgroups that will have their own working agendas, as well as plenary meetings for general knowledge exchange. In addition to the submission of papers, we welcome proposals for new specialist sessions and minitracks that may include a small number of invited participants who can help investigators in the area of knowledge acquisition to form bridges with other research communities. Eight sessions or minitracks have so far been scheduled for the workshop. The corresponding topics, and the organizers of the sessions, are as follows: 1. Shareable and reusable ontologies Tom Gruber gruber@hpp.Stanford.EDU (Stanford U) Doug Skuce doug@csi.UOttawa.CA (U of Ottawa) 2. Shareable and reusable problem-solving methods Bill Birmingham wpb@eecs.umich.edu (U of Michigan) Guus Schreiber guus@swi.psy.uva.nl (U of Amsterdam) 3. Knowledge acquisition from natural language Fernando Gomez gomez@eola.cs.ucf.edu (U Central Florida) 4. Knowledge, cognition and cyberspace - cognitive aspects of KA Walter van de Velde walter@arti17.vub.ac.be (Vrije U Brussel) 5. Knowledge acquisition and requirements engineering Rudi Studer studer@aifb.uni-karlsruhe.de (U of Karlsruhe) Bill Swartout swartout@isi.edu (ISI) 6. Knowledge acquisition using conceptual graphs Dickson Lukose lukose@peirce.une.edu.au (U of New England) Marie-Laure Mugnier mugnier@lirmm.fr (CNRS U Montpellier) 7. Evaluation of knowledge-acquisition methodologies John H. Gennari gennari@camis.stanford.edu (Stanford U) Paul Compton compton@cs.unsw.oz.au (U New South Wales) 8. System demonstrations -- Sun, Mac, PC and Internet Rob Kremer kremer@cpsc.ucalgary.ca (U Calgary) Individuals who feel they have a new perspective to offer which does not fit into a specialist session are also invited to submit papers. Such papers are especially welcome, but will be expected to offer significant new insights. Draft papers (up to 20 pages) should be sent electronically to Brian Gaines before September 30, 1994. Acceptance and revision notices will be e-mailed by November 15, 1994. Revised papers (20 pages) should be submitted by January 15, 1995, so that hardcopies may be bound together for distribution at the workshop. For KAW'95, submission and review of papers, and coordination of all aspects of the meeting will be through the Internet. Papers should be transmitted in postscript or common document processor format either by e-mail to gaines@cpsc.ucalgary.ca, or by ftp to ksi.cpsc.ucalgary.ca in directory /incoming (with an email note to gaines@cpsc.ucalgary.ca when the paper is transferred). Authors should indicate appropriate sessions/minitracks for each submission. If there is uncertainty regarding the optimum track for a paper, authors should contact the chairs of the track that seems closest, preferably in advance of the submission deadline. Depending on the range of papers received, some tracks may be collapsed whereas other tracks may be added in advance of the workshop. Demonstrations of mature software systens will be an important feature of the workshop, and a range of high-performance workstations will be provided. Authors submitting to this track should contact Rob Kremer about the logistics of setting up demonstrations and showing videos. Participation by graduate students is particularly encouraged. There will be a number of studentships at a reduced fee for full-time graduate students whose papers are accepted. If appropriate, please indicate that you wish to apply for such a studentship when you submit a paper. WWW, world wide web, will be used to coordinate the meeting and further details of the tracks, paper formats, conference arrangements, etc, will be post to the web through: http://ksi.cpsc.ucalgary.ca/KAW95.html Workshop Co-chairs: Brian R. Gaines Department of Computer Science University of Calgary 2500 University Dr. NW Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2N 1N4 (403) 220-5901 gaines@cpsc.ucalgary.ca Mark A. Musen Section on Medical Informatics Knowledge Systems Laboratory Stanford University Stanford CA, USA 94305-5479 (415) 723-6979 musen@camis.stanford.edu Track Knowledge Acquisition and Requirements Engineering, 9th Knowledge Acquisition for Knowledge-Based Systems Workshop (KAW'95), Banff, Canada, February 26 - March 3, 1995 When considering the activities in the knowledge acquisition, requirements engineering, and information systems engineering communities, one can easily recognize that similar problems are being investigated and that similar methods are being proposed to solve these problems. Notable examples of such problems are: - How to get an understanding of the application domain in which the software system will be embedded in? - How to establish a communication basis between the different types of people involved in the system development process, e.g. endusers, system developers, managers? - How to support the reuse of (parts of) already existing domain models, requirements specifications, or problem solutions? Examples of similar methodical approaches are: - Requirements engineering and knowledge acquisition are considered as modelling processes. - Similar modeling concepts for capturing system requirements, like e.g. the notions of classes/instances, of generalization and inheritance, or of agents, are used within the various proposed methods. - Proposed languages cover the complete range of informal, natural language oriented languages to formally defined languages. Format and Paper Submission: Objective of the track is to bring together researchers from the different communities in order to improve the mutual understanding of posed problems and proposed solutions. Submitted papers (which may be original or not) should either describe approaches to requirements engineering/knowledge acquisition, provide an overview of basic assumptions or general open problems in the respective field, or compare approaches from the different fields. All papers must be submitted directly to KAW'95 (see general call for participation KAW'95 for all the details). The track will be organized as a mixture of paper presentations and discussion sessions. Topics of the discussion sessions will be made known to the track participants well in advance. It is planned to have a two day track. Track Co-chairs: Rudi Studer (U of Karlsruhe) studer@aifb.uni-karlsruhe.de Bill Swartout (USC/ISI) swartout@isi.edu ********************************************************************** From: Bill Olle <100010.3176@compuserve.com> Subject: CRIS 94 Methods And Associated Tools for the IS Life Cycle IFIP WORKING GROUP 8.1 CONFERENCE IN THE CRIS SERIES - "CRIS'94" CALL FOR PARTICIPATION "METHODS AND ASSOCIATED TOOLS FOR THE INFORMATION SYSTEMS LIFE CYCLE" 26-28 September 1994 Maastricht, Netherlands *********************** Location -------- The conference will be held in the famous and historic town of Maastricht which is in the south east corner of the Netherlands near the border with Belgium and Germany. Maastricht has its own airport. Its unque location and, of course, the signing of the `Treaty of Maastricht' in 1991 give the city a distinctive European character. Themes ------ Following on the three successful conferences held in 1982, 1983, 1986 and 1988, CRIS 94 will also concentrate on the features and applications of methods (now regarded as a more correct term than methodologies). Methods have grown in acceptance since the earlier CRIS conferences and there has been considerable convergence in the basic techniques used by practitioners. CASE tools have continued to proliferate and there has been an emergence of tools which generate an operational system. There are two important areas in which both methods and CASE tools are lacking, namely the area of distributed systems and the area of access control. It is the aim of CRIS 94 to provide a platform for exploring the state of the art, the state of practice, the state of research and the state of harmoniz- ation work. With this in mind, three themes are identified within the overall area of methods and tools and each paper to be presented at the conference is related to one of the three themes. Ample time will be available for discussion of each paper and the discussion of each submitted paper will start with a short review by a member of the Programme Committee. Theme A: Comparative evaluation based on methods and associated tools ------------------------------------------------------------ Experience-based method evaluation and imporvement: a process modelling approach. Matthias Jarke, Klaus Pohl, University of Aachen, Germany. Colette Rolland, Jean Roche Schmidt, Universite de Paris. Discussant: Al Dale, University of Texas at Austin. Specification of business rules: a comparison of selected methodologies. H. Herbst, G. Knolmayer, T. Myrach and M. Schlesinger, University of Berne, Switzerland. :G7 eDiscussant: Alistair Sutcliffe, City University, London. Contribution of the evolution of information systems. Lina Al-Jadir, Andre Le Grand, Michel Leonard, Olivier Parchet, Universite de Geneve, Switzerland. Discussant: Alex Verrijn-Stuart, University of Leiden. Reusability based comparison of requirement specification methodologies. S. Castano, V. de Antonellis, C. Francalanci, B. Pernici, Politecnico di Milano, Italy. Discussant: Gordon Everest, University of Minnesota. Comparative analysis of six object oriented analysis methods. Juhani Iivari, University of Jyvaskyla, Finland. Discussant: Gerard Wijers, ID Research BV, Netherlands. Theme B: Standards and harmonization of methods and tools ------------------------------------------------ ISO Software Life Cycle Processes standard. Raghu Singh, Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command, Arlington, USA. US FIPS IDEF data and process modelling standard. Mary Laamanen, National Institute of Science and Technology, Gaithersburg, Md. USA. Euromethod. Marcel Franckson, SEMA Group, Paris. Harmonisation of information system modelling and specification techniques. Han Oei, University of Twente, Eckhard Falkenberg, University of Nijmegen, Netherlands. Discussant: Eva Lindencrona, SISU, Stockholm, Sweden. Situational method engineering for information system project approaches. Frank Harmsen, Sjaak Brinkkemper, Han Oei, University of Twente, Netherlands. Discussant: Jacques Hagelstein, SEMA Brussels, Belgium. Theme C: The shortcomings in existing methods ------------------------------------ Issues in design methodologies for distributed systems. Mark de Weger, Chris Vissers, University of Twente, Netherlands. Discussant: Yair Wand, University of British Columbia, Canada. Two level NIAM: a way to make it object-oriented. Peter Creasy, University of Queensland, Australia. Wolfgang Hesse, University of Marburg, Germany. Discussant: Antoni Olive, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, Barcelona. EMM/ODP: A methodology for federated and distributed systems. Richard Veryard, Ian Macdonald, TI Information Engineering, England. Discussant: Sophus Lie-Nielsen, Information Systems International, Norway. Poster Session -------------- Proposals are invited for a poster session to be held on the second day of the conference. Proposers should include the following in their proposals Author(s) of paper; name, address and email of author(s) presenting paper; :G7 e400 word synopsis of paper. Proposals should be sent to the CRIS Secretariat to arrive on or before 15 July 1994. A decision regarding acceptance or rejection of the proposal will be communicated by email to the author on or before 26 August 1994. Demonstration Facilities ------------------------ It is planned to have a demonstration area at CRIS 94. Those wishing to take advamtage of this will be charged a fee for demonstrating which includes the fee for two attendees at the technical sessions. Conference Organization ----------------------- SERC (Software Engineering Research Centre) is the local sponsor for the conference. The University of Limburg is the local organizer. This conference is held under the aegis of IFIP Working Group 8.1, the title of which is "Design and Evaluation of Information Systems". The conference is the fifth in the series of CRIS conferences (CRIS was originally an acronym of Comparative Review of Information Systems Methodologies) The proceedings of CRIS 94 will be published by Elsevier - North Holland. A copy of the hard cover edition will be available to all persons registering for the conference. General Conference Chairman Alex Verrijn Stuart University of Leiden, Netherlands Program Committee chairman Bill Olle T.William Olle Associates, Ltd Walton on Thames, Surrey, England Program Committee members Al Dale, University of Texas at Austin, USA Gordon Everest, University of Minnesota, USA Jacques Hagelstein, SEMA Group Brsussels, Belgium Hannu Kangassalo, University of Tampere, Finland Sophus Lie-Nielsen, ISI, Oslo, Norway Eva Lindencrona, SISU, Stockhaolm, Sweden Antoni Olive, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, Spain Witek Staniszkis, Rodan System, Warsaw, Poland Alistair Sutcliffe, City University, London, UK Roland Traunmueller, University of Linz, Austria Gerard Wijers, ID Research, Leusden, Netherlands Frans van Assche, Consultant, Boutersem, Belgium Alex Verrijn-Stuart, University of Leiden, Netherlands Yair Wand, University of British Columbia, Canada Organizing Committee Chairman Jan Dietz University of Limburg Maastricht, Netherlands Conference Secretariat ---------------------- CRIS 94 Conference Secretariat Mrs Mieke van Zutphen P.O. Box 616 6200 MD MAASTRICHT Netherlands Phone: +31 - 43 - 883656 Fax: +31 - 43 - 258495 Email: cris94@mw.rulimburg.nl Registration fee ---------------- In accordance with IFIP practice, any person who belongs to an IFIP member society is entitled to a reduced registration fee for the conference. Persons who are not a member of such a society are required to pay the full registration fee. The Registration Fee for the conference includes the following: 1. Participation in all technical sessions, the poster session and the Demon- stration area. 2. Lunches, morning coffee and afternoon tea on each of the three days of the conference. 3. A drink at the opening get-together on Sunday 25 September. 4. A copy of the conference proceedings. A receipt for the Dutch value added tax (BTW) can be supplied on request. Accomodation ------------ The Conference Secretariat will arrange hotel accomodation for the partici- pants. Hotel reservations should be made on the registration form. A deposit of Dfl 150,- per room has to be made in advance together with the registration fee. The hotel deposit will be forwarded to the hotel, and it will be deducted from your final bill. < cut here > ---------------------------------------------------- < cut here > CRIS 94 REGISTRATION FROM (to be returned to the Conference Secretariat) Personal details ---------------- Title (prof/Dr/Mr/Ms)_________________________________________ Surname ______________________________________________________ Given Names __________________________________________________ Affiliation __________________________________________________ Address ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ City _________________________ Post code ___________________ Country ______________________________________________________ Phone number _________________ Fax number __________________ Email ________________________________________________________ Special dietary requirements ________________________________ Conference registration (mark relevant cell) ----------------------- Early (until 1 Aug) Late (after 1 Aug) Full registration Dfl 950,- Dfl 1100,- IFIP member Dfl 800,- Dfl 950,- Full time student Dfl 400,- Dfl 500,- Students are requested to enclose a photocopy of their student ID or documents certifying their full-time student status. Accomodation ------------ Hotels (price range per night): Single room Double room Category A: **** Dfl 285,-/325,- Dfl 385,-/430,- Category B: ***(*) Dfl 185,-/205,- Dfl 195,-/235,- Category C: ** Dfl 140,-/185,- Dfl 165,-/195,- Category D: * Dfl 110,-/140,- Dfl 120,-/165,- All prices are per night and include breakfast and taxes. Please reserve the following accomodation for me: Name(s) _________________________________________________________________ Single room(s) __________________________ Category _____________________ Double room(s) __________________________ Category _____________________ Date of arrival _________________ Dat of departure _____________________ Special wishes _________________________________________________________ A hotel deposit of Dfl 150 per room os required. This amount must be remitted in advance. Upon receipt of the hotel deposit, the reservation will be made. Should a category be fully booked, we reserve the right to book a room in another category. Please state alternative choice: _____ Summary of payment ------------------ Registration fee Dfl __________ Hotel deposit Dfl __________ Total Dfl __________ You will receive confirmation of your regsitration and hotel reservation. Cancellations ------------- All cancellations should be made in writing to the Conference Secretariat. The registration fee, less handling fee of Dfl 75,- , will be refunded if notice is received before Agust 15, 1994. A refund of 50 percent will be paid if notice is received between Agust 15 and September 5, 1994. The hotel deposit, less bank charges, wi;; be refunded if notic is received before September 5, 1994. There will be no refund for cancellations made after September 5, 1994. Payment (mark box) ------- [ ] Payment by credit card. The following cards are accepted: VISA, Eurocard/Mastercard, American Express. Please specify: Total amount: Dfl ________________________________________ Credit card: American Express / Eurocard-Mastercard / VISA Credit card number: _____________________________________________ Expiry date: _____________________________________________ Address of card holder: ______________________________________________ Signature: ______________________________________________ [ ] by bank Transfer, free of transfer charge, stating "CRIS 94 Conference" and name of participant to bank ABN AMRO, Stationsstraat 1, 6202 NA Maastricht The Netherlands, account number 57 70 18 876 [ ] by eurocheque; eurocheques will be accepted if the amount does not exceed Dfl 300,- . To avoid supplementary charges you are advised to send several cheques, each for an amount not exceeding Dfl 300,- . Personal cheques cannot be accepted. [ ] by cheque (prefaeably drawn on a Dutch bank) for the attention of CRIS 94 Conference Secretariat Ms Mike van Zutphen, University of Limburg, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, P.O. Box 616, 6200 MD Maastricht, The Netherlands. Date: ____________________ Signature: __________________________________ ********************************************************************** From: heitmeyer@nrl.itd.navy.mil (Connie Heitmeyer) Subject: Opportunity in Software Engineering R&D at Naval Research Lab R&D in formal methods and CASE tools supporting the specification and analysis of system and software requirements. The job involves design, documentation, and implementation of prototype toolset based on formal methods and software engineering principles. The employee will work with the existing staff of the SCR (Software Cost Reduction) Requirements Toolset project in their research activities. The position is a permanent one. Qualifications: - MS in Computer Science required. Ph.D. and an emphasis on Software Engineering and Requirements Engineering preferred. - Need significant programming skills in C++. Prior use of Motif and prior experience in user interface design are strong pluses. - U.S. citizenship preferred but not required. The Naval Research Laboratory is the premier Navy research laboratory and conducts both basic and applied research. Located in Washington, DC, the laboratory is an equal opportunity employer. Please send resume (e-mail preferred) to: Connie Heitmeyer Code 5546 Naval Research Laboratory Washington, DC 20375 e-mail: heitmeyer@nrl.itd.navy.mil fax: (202) 767-9197 ********************************************************************** From: Erkki Lehtinen Subject: CAiSE 95 Call for Contributions *********************************** ************ CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS ************ *********************************** ********************************************************************* * * * CAiSE*95 * * * * The 7th Conference on Advanced Information Systems Engineering * * * * * * 12-16 June 1995 Jyvaskyla, Finland * * * ********************************************************************* MAIN ORGANIZER: University of Jyvaskyla: Department of Computer Science and Information Systems & Jyvaskyla Congresses ************************************** * * * CONFERENCE AIMS AND OBJECTIVES * * * ************************************** The CAiSE*95 conference is the seventh in the series of CAiSE conferences. It provides a forum for presentation and exchange of research results and practical experiences withinthe field of Information Systems Engineering (ISE). The ISE field can be characterized by the two terms of information systems and engineering. Information Systems implies that computer-based systems are designed so that they provide adequate and timely information to their users in organizations. Engineering is concerned with the application of a rigourous set of problem-solving approaches analogous to those found in traditional engineering disciplines. CAiSE*95 aims at bringing together researchers and practitioners in the ISE field. In addition to offering a three-day scientific programme, CAiSE*95 also features a specific industrial programme containing tutorials, as well as technical presentations of innovative products. The scientific programme consists of workshops, paper presentations and interactive panel sessions. The workshops and tutorials during the first two days of the conference will cover prominent topics in the area of Information Systems Engineering. The conference will also include a commercial exhibition of ISE products and a non-commercial poster track. ************************* * * * CONFERENCE TOPICS * * * ************************* The general theme of CAiSE*95 is Information Systems Engineering: Current Practice and Future Prospects. Concerning the current practice, CAiSE*95 aims specifically at soliciting empirical contributions describing and evaluating the current adoption and diffusion of ISE technologies (methods and tools) in practice. As regards the future prospects, CAiSE*95 invites contributions introducing new emerging ISE technologies, methods and tools, such as AI-support for ISE, CASE technologies, methodology engineering, hypermedia and ISE, object-oriented technologies, ISE process modelling, etc. More specifically, the topics addressed in the CAiSE*95 conference include, but are not limited to the following: AI-supported ISE Business process reengineering CASE Cognitive aspects of the design process Dynamic modelling Enterprise modelling GIS Groupware design Information management and planning Information modelling Knowledge acquisition Maintenance and reverse engineering Meta-CASE Method engineering Multi-media information systems Object-oriented analysis and design Object-oriented database design Prototyping Quality management Requirements engineering Reuse Software process modelling and support Temporal information systems User interface design Workflow management ********************************** * * * STRUCTURE OF THE CONFERENCE * * * ********************************** The conference takes place from 12 to 16 June 1995 . The first two days (12 and 13 June) are reserved for workshops. The conference itself starts on Wednesday, 14 June, with both scientific and industrial tracks running in parallel. The academic track consists of invited speakers, parallel paper presentations and panel discussions. The academic activities have been widened in scope to provide opportunities for arranging poster sessions and tool demonstrations. The industrial track contains both tutorials and product presentations. Products can include methods as well as tools, handbooks, etc. The industrial track also includes an exhibition. ********************* * * * CALL FOR PAPERS * * * ********************* The conference organizers solicit papers within, but not restricted to, the conference topics listed above. Please, send five copies of your paper (max 5000 words) to Juhani Iivari, Programme Chair for CAiSE*95. The exact word count (exclusive references) should be indicated on the title page. All papers will be blind refereed prior to acceptance. To facilitate the blind refereeing process, the authors' names and affiliations should appear only on a separate title page. Papers submitted must be original, and not submitted to or accepted by any other conference or journal. The language of the Conference is English. Accepted papers will be published in CAiSE*95 Proceedings in the Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science Series. Proceedings are available at the conference site. The proceedings for CAiSE*94, CAiSE*93, CAiSE*92, CAiSE*91 and CAiSE*90 are also available in this series. The best papers of the conference will be submitted for a review to be published in a special issue of Information Systems by Pergamon Press. Important Dates: Deadline for Papers: 30 November 1994 Notification of acceptance: 1 February 1995 Camera-ready copy due: 1 March 1995 Conference dates: 12-16 June 1995 ****************************** * * * CALL FOR PANEL PROPOSALS * * * ****************************** The Programme Committee invites proposals for panels that focus on innovative, controversial or otherwise provocative issues of ISE. Proposals should conform to the instructions for the format of panel proposals, which can be obtained from the Conference secretariat. A panel proposal should be submitted by the panel chairperson, who will be responsible for coordinating the panel. The proposal should include a brief summary of the topic to be covered and the names and affiliations of two or three panelists who have made a commitment to participate. Panelists are expected to register for the conference. The proposals will be evaluated by members of the CAiSE*95 Programme Committee. The Committee reserves the right to modify panel proposals in order to complement other parts of the conference programme. It is up to the panelists to decide the form of the panel. It is, however, encouraged that the panels be structured as debates, giving opportunities for audience participation. Panel proposals should be mailed to Juhani Iivari, the Programme Chair. Important dates: Deadline for panel proposals: 30 November 1994 Notification of panel acceptance: 1 February 1995 ************************* * * * CALL FOR TUTORIALS * * * ************************* Proposals are solicited for tutorials that will be held in sessions preceding or parallel to the conference. Tutorials can last for half a day (3 hours) or a full day (6 hours). They can be introductory, intermediate or advanced and should be of interest to industrial as well as academic participants. Each tutorial proposal should mention the topic and objectives of the tutorial, its relevance to industrial and academic participants, and relation to the state of the art in the field. Suggestions for instructors are also appreciated. Proposals should conform to the instructions for the format of tutorial proposals, which can be obtained from the Conference Secretariat. The proposals will be evaluated by members of the CAiSE*95 Programme Committee. There will be an honorarium for the instructors and a small reimbursement for the travel costs. Tutorial proposals should be sent to Seppo Puuronen, the Tutorial Chair. Important dates: Deadline for tutorial proposals: 30 November 1994 Notification of tutorial acceptance: 1 February 1995 Camera-ready tutorial notes due: 1 March 1995 Tutorial dates: 12-16 June 1995 ************************ * * * CALL FOR WORKSHOPS * * * ************************ Preceding the CAISE*95 conference a series of workshops will take place. They are meant to facilitate the exchange of ideas and experiences between researchers. Workshop topics will be in line with the main conference topics. The CAISE*95 Organizing Committee invites prospective workshop organizers to submit proposals stating topic and goals of the workshop. Proposals should conform to the instructions for the format of workshop proposals, which can be obtained from the workshop chair. The deadline for proposals is 30 October. Proposals will be reviewed by the Organizing Committee, and notification of acceptance will be sent by 1 December 1994. Workshops can last for one or two days. It is encouraged that participation in each workshop is limited to about 25 persons. The format of the individual workshops is left to the discretion of the organizers, but position papers solicited from would-be participants are encouraged in order to enhance active participation. All participants are expected to attend the main conference. Proposals for workshops can be sent to the Workshop Chair, Matti Rossi: Important dates: Deadline for workshop proposals: 30 October 1994 Notification of workshop acceptance: 1 December 1994 Workshop dates: 12-13 June 1995 *********************** * * * CALL FOR POSTERS * * * *********************** During the CAiSE*95 conference, a special room will be reserved for poster sessions. Scientific or industrial research projects of any scale are invited to illustrate innovative concepts, theories or prototype systems on a poster. Poster proposals should include title, outline and names of presenters. More elaborate instructions for posters can be obtained from the Poster Chair. Descriptions of posters should be sent to the Poster Chair, Matti Rossi. Important dates: Deadline for poster descriptions: 1 March 1995 Notification of poster acceptance: 1 April 1995 ******************************************* * * * EXHIBITION AND PRODUCT PRESENTATIONS * * * ******************************************* The conference will be accompanied by a commercial exhibition and presentation sessions of innovative products. Those organizations interested in demonstrating their products either at the exhibition or during a specific presentation session should contact the Exhibition Chair, Matti Rossi: ********************** * * * CONFERENCE VENUE * * * ********************** The CAiSE*95 conference will be held in Jyvaskyla, Finland. The City of Jyvaskyla is located about 250 km north of Helsinki in the heart of the Finnish lake district. The conference takes place on the University Campus, which is within walking distance from the city centre. The daily connections to Jyvaskyla are good by air, rail and road from Helsinki and other major cities in Finland. June in Finland is the month of the Midnight Sun, with long, light nights for scientific discussions and leisure activities. A special social programme with various activities and tours will be provided for the conference participants and accompanying persons, to introduce them to Finnish cultural life and the Jyvaskyla surroundings. Pre- and post- conference tours to Lapland and St. Petersburg will also be arranged. The Jyvaskyla weather in mid-June is normally pleasant, the temperature varying between 15 - 25 C. ********************** * * * OFFICIAL CARRIER * * * ********************** Finnair is the Official Carrier for the conference. Finnair offices throughout the world will be happy to assist in your travel arrangements. ****************************** * * * CONFERENCE ORGANIZATION * * * ****************************** General Conference Chair: Kalle Lyytinen Department of Computer Science and Information Systems University of Jyvaskyla P.O. Box 35 FIN-40351 Jyvaskyla, Finland Tel: +358-41-603025 Fax: +358-41-603011 e-mail : kalle@jytko.jyu.fi Advisory Committee: Janis Bubenko, Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden Arne Solvberg, University of Trondheim, Norway Programme Chair: Juhani Iivari, University of Jyvaskyla, Finland Department of Computer Science and Information Systems University of Jyvaskyla P.O. Box 35 FIN-40351 Jyvaskyla, Finland Tel: +358-41-603015 Fax: +358-41-603011 e-mail : jiivari@cs.jyu.fi Organizing Chair: Anna-Liisa Takkinen University of Jyvaskyla Jyvaskyla Congresses P.O. Box 35 FIN-40351 Jyvaskyla, Finland Tel: +358-41-603660 Fax: +358-41-603621 e-mail: takkinen@jyu.fi Tutorial Chair: Seppo Puuronen University of Jyvaskyla, Finland Department of Computer Science and Information Systems University of Jyvaskyla P.O. Box 35 FIN-40351 Jyvaskyla, Finland Tel: +358-41-603028 Fax: +358-41-603011 e-mail : sepi@jytko.jyu.fi Exhibition, Poster and Workshop Chair: Matti Rossi METAPHOR Project Department of Computer Science and Information Systems University of Jyvaskyla P.O. Box 35 FIN-40351 Jyvaskyla, Finland Tel: +358-41-603030 Fax: +358-41-603011 e-mail: mor@jyu.fi Industrial Liaison: Risto Nevalainen Information Technology Development Center Salomonkatu 17 A FIN-00100 Helsinki, Finland Tel: +358-0-6851200 Fax: +358-0-6851616 e-mail: ron@cs.hut.fi Public Relations: Erkki Lehtinen Continuing Education Centre University of Jyvaskyla P.O. Box 35 FIN-40351 Jyvaskyla, Finland Tel: +358-41-603025 Fax: +358-41-603621 e-mail: erkkil@jyu.fi Conference Secretariat: Taru-Maija Heilala University of Jyvaskyla Jyvaskyla Congresses P.O. Box 35 FIN-40351 Jyvaskyla, Finland Tel: +358-41-603663 Fax: +358-41-603621 e-mail: heilala@jyu.fi *************************** * * * PROGRAMME COMMITTEE * * * *************************** Rudolf Andersen, Norway Richard Baskerville, U.S.A. Sjaak Brinkkemper, The Netherlands Janis Bubenko, Sweden Sue Conger, U.S.A. Panos Constantopoulos, Greece Valeria De Antonellis, Italy Jan Dietz, The Netherlands Eric Dubois, Belgium Eckhard Falkenberg, The Netherlands Anthony Finkelstein, United Kingdom Goran Goldkuhl, Sweden Hele-Mai Haav, Estonia Terry Halpin, Australia Igor Hawryszkiewycz, Australia Matthias Jarke, Germany Keith Jeffery, United Kingdom Paul Johannesson, Sweden Hannu Kangassalo, Finland Pentti Kerola, Finland Rob Kusters, The Netherlands Eva Lindecrona, Sweden Frederick Lochovsky, Hong Kong Pericles Loucopoulos, United Kingdom Pertti Marttiin, Finland Lars Mathiassen, Denmark Robert Meersman, The Netherlands David Monarchi, U.S.A. John Mylopoulos, Canada Ron Norman, U.S.A. Antoni Olive, Spain Andreas L. Opdahl, Norway Terttu Orci, Sweden Barbara Pernici, Italy Naveen Prakash, India Colette Rolland, France Gunter Saake, Germany Amilcar Sernadas, Portugal Henk Sol, The Netherlands Arne Solvberg, Norway Stefano Spaccapietra, Switzerland Bernhard Thalheim, Germany Costantino Thanos, Italy Babis Theodoulidis, United Kingdom Juha Pekka Tolvanen, Finland Aimo Torn, Finland Yair Wand, Canada Benkt Wangler, Sweden Roel Wieringa, The Netherlands Gerard Wijers, The Netherlands Stanislaw Wrycza, Poland Roberto Zicari, Germany ************************** * * * FURTHER INFORMATION * * * ************************** If you have any further questions about the conference or its organization, please contact: Taru-Maija Heilala (local arrangements) University of Jyvaskyla Jyvaskyla Congresses P.O. Box 35 FIN-40351 Jyvaskyla, Finland Tel: 358-41-603663 Fax: 358-41-603621 e-mail: heilala@jyu.fi or Matti Rossi (programme) METAPHOR Project Department of Computer Science and Information Systems University of Jyvaskyla P.O. Box 35 FIN-40351 Jyvaskyla, Finland Tel: +358-41-603030 Fax: +358-41-603011 e-mail: mor@jyu.fi ********************** * * * IMPORTANT DATES * * * ********************** Deadline for workshop proposals (to Matti Rossi): 30 October 1994 Deadline for papers (to Juhani Iivari): 30 November 1994 Deadline for panel proposals (to Juhani Iivari): 30 November 1994 Deadline for tutorial proposals (to Seppo Puuronen): 30 November 1994 Deadline for poster descriptions (to Matti Rossi): 1 March 1995 Notification of workshop acceptance: 1 December 1994 Notification of paper acceptance : 1 February 1995 Notification of tutorial acceptance: 1 February 1995 Notification of panel acceptance 1 March 1995 Notification of poster acceptance: 1 April 1995 Camera-ready copy of paper due : 1 March 1995 Camera-ready tutorial notes due: 1 March 1995 Workshop dates: 12-13 June 1995 Conference dates: 14-16 June 1995 Tutorial dates: 12-16 June 1995 All e-mail inquiries can also be addressed to: caise95@jyu.fi ********************************************************************** From: Ralf Doemges Subject: NATURE report series NATURE Lehrstuhl fuer Informatik V RWTH Aachen (Technical University of Aachen), Germany Department of Computer Science Anonymous ftp address: ftp.informatik.rwth-aachen.de (137.226.112.172) Directory: /pub/NATURE World Wide Web (WWW) remote file: file://ftp.informatik.rwth-aachen.de/pub/packages/NATURE/ NATURE Report Series -------------------- This file contains an overview of (electronically) 1994 technical reports (author(s), title, published in, abstract) of the NATURE project (Novel Approaches to Theories Underlying Requirements). The project is funded by ESPRIT as Basic Research Project 6353. The reports are stored in compressed PostScript-Format. To get a specific report, transfer the desired file in binary mode and uncompress it. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- NATURE reports 1994 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- NATURE-94-01.ps.Z M. Jarke, H. Nissen, K. Pohl Tool Integration in Evolving Information Systems Environments PUBLISHED IN: 3rd GI Workshop Information Systems and Artificial Intelligence: Administration and Processing of Complex Structures, Hamburg, Germany, February 1994 ABSTRACT: Evolution is a fact of life in information systems. Not only systems evolve but also their development processes. IS environments must therefore be designed for accommodating and managing change. The management of process meta models in repositories is one important step; we show how process traceability models and process guidance models can be developed and related in a standard repository framework. In addition, the currently available tool integration along the presentation, data, and control perspectives have to be augmented for process integration. In our process-adaptable and interoperable tool concept, tool behavior is directly influenced by the process guidance model and automatically traced according to the traceability model. The approach is demonstrated with a prototype requirements engineering environment developed in ESPRIT project NATURE. NATURE-94-02.ps.Z N.A.M. Maiden, A.G. Sutcliffe Requirements Critiquing Using Domain Abstractions PUBLISHED IN: Intl. Conf. on Requirements Engineering, Colorado-Springs, Colorado, USA, April 1994 ABSTRACT: Reusing domain abstractions representing key domain features has been shown to aid requirement specification, however their role in requirements engineering has not been investigated thoroughly. This paper proposes domain abstractions to aid requirements critiquing as well as specification, thus maximising the payoff from retrieving domain abstractions. The requirements critic is part of a prototype intelligent requirements engineering toolkit being developed as part of the NATURE project, ESPRIT basic research action 6353. The critic retrieves domain abstractions to validate requirement specifications for problems including incompleteness, inconsistencies and ambiguities. Intelligent, mixed initiative dialogue between the critic and requirements engineer permits requirements critiquing at the right time and level of abstraction. NATURE-94-03.ps.Z C. Rolland Modeling the evolution of artifacts PUBLISHED IN: Intl. Conf. on Requirements Engineering, Colorado-Springs, Colorado, USA, April 1994 ABSTRACT: The particular Requirements Engineering (RE) process modeling approach being presented in this paper advocates the capture of the history of RE artifacts. An artifact is viewed as an Evolutionary Object which evolves as the RE process proceeds. The paper proposes a classification of the various kinds of evolution of artifacts and presents a generic model, the Evolutionary Object Model, to structure the RE history kept in the artifact's memory according to this classification. It emphasises the role of RE decisions in the evolutionary process and shows how the rationale of an artifact evolution can be expressed in terms of decisions and stored in the evolutionary object history. NATURE-94-04.ps.Z C. Rolland A Contextual Approach for the Requirements Engineering Process PUBLISHED IN 6th Intl. Conf. of Software Engineering and Knowledge Engineering, Jurmala, Latvia, June, 1994 ABSTRACT: Requirements specification methods and techniques have hitherto mainly been concerned with promoting various representation formalisms for formally describing information systems. However the emphasis on system modelling is shifting to process modelling. Our concern is the modelling of the Requirements Engineering (RE) process. The particular RE process modelling approach presented in the paper emphasises the notion of RE decision within the context in which it is taken. The context of decision is defined as a means to proceed locally as well as globally in the RE process. The paper concentrates on the presentation of the contextual approach and its illustration through examples extracted from the case studies developed in the Esprit project F3 where this approach is defined and experienced in user companies projects. NATURE-94-05.ps.Z N.A.M. Maiden, D.E. Tyndale Reuse of domain Knowledge during Requirements Engineering: an Explanation is Required PUBLISHED IN: (Submitted to) Behavior & Information Technology ABSTRACT: Requirements engineering is the most complex and error-prone phase of software development. Reusing domain abstractions representing the fundamental features of all instances of a class of software engineering domain has been shown to aid requirement specification, however domain abstractions are difficult to understand. A controlled experimentinvestigated the effectiveness of domain abstraction reuse on performance of inexperienced software engineers during a requirements engineering task. Reuse was aided by presentation of spatial diagrams and prototypical examples, to examine their effect on recognition, understanding and adaptation of domain abstractions. Results were surprising and revealed that effective domain abstraction reuse may not be straightforward. Implications are reported for design of tools which encourage reuse during requirements engineering. The reported study demonstrates benefits which arise from evaluating designs of software engineering environments before their implementation. NATURE-94-06.ps.Z P. Johannesson, M. Hasan Jamil Semantic Interoperability - Context, Issues, and Research Directions PUBLISHED IN: 2nd Intl. Conf. on Cooperating Information Systems, Toronto, Canada, May 1994. ABSTRACT: An increasing dependence and cooperation between organisations has created a need for many enterprises to access remote as well as local information sources. Thus, it becomes important to be able to interconnect, heterogeneous information systems. One form of heterogeneity is semantic heterogeneity, which occurs when there is a disagreement regarding the interpretation and intended use of related information, or when the same phenomenon in a Universe of Discourse is modelled in different ways in two systems. In this paper, we survey the basic problems caused by semantic heterogeneity and suggest a number of research directions that address these problems. NATURE-94-07.ps.Z K. Pohl, P. Assenova, R. Doemges, P. Johannesson, N.A.M. Maiden, V. Plihon, J.-R. Schmitt, G. Spanoudakis Applying AI Techniques to Requirements Engineering: The NATURE Prototype PUBLISHED IN: ICSE-Workshop on Research Issues in the Intersection Between Software Engineering and Artificial Intelligence, Sorrento, Italy, May 1994 ABSTRACT: Requirements Engineering (RE) is a critical part of software engineering. Within the NATURE (Novel Approaches to Theories Underlying Requirements Engineering) project we have developed and implemented five theories which are based on AI techniques for supporting and improving the requirements engineering process. For making the results comparable we have used the well known library example. Our contibution demonstrates that * requirements engineering can be essentially improved by applying AI techniques * combining AI techniques has positive synergy effects on requirements engineering NATURE-94-08.ps.Z N.A.M. Maiden, A.G. Sutcliffe Computational Mechanisms for Reuse of Domain Knowledge during Requirements Engineering PUBLISHED IN: ICSE-Workshop on Research Issues in the Intersection Between Software Engineering and Artificial Intelligence, Sorrento, Italy, May 1994 NATURE-94-09.ps.Z M. Moreno, C. Rolland, C. Soureyet A Generic Approach to Support a Way-of-Working Defintion PUBLISHED IN: 6th Intl. Conf. on Advanced Information Systems Engineering, Utrecht, Netherlands, June 1994 ABSTRACT: Information System Engineering has made the assumption that an Information System is supposed to capture some excerpt of the real world history and hence has concentrated on systems modelling. Very little attention has been paid to the conceptual modelling process. However the emphasis on system modelling is shifting to process modelling. The particular process modelling approach being presented in this paper advocates the definition of a way-of-working (i.e. process models) to control and guide developers. The paper introduces a classification of the various kinds of evolution of objects and presents a decision-oriented process meta model to structure ways-of-working. We also describe some guidelines, related to our classification of object evolutions, to support method engineers in the task to define a way-of-working. NATURE-94-10.ps.Z P. Holm The COMMODIOUS Method-Communication Modelling as an Aid to Illustrate the Organizational Use of Software PUBLISHED IN: 6th Intl. Conf. of Software Engineering and Knowledge Engineering, Jurmala, Latvia, June 1994 ABSTRACT: This paper proposes a method for requirements capture, called the COMMODIOUS method. The basic idea is to produce an abstract model of organisational communication as a basis when formulating requirements on a software system. The user of the method should also specify how the software system is going to be used in this communication. Moreover the paper describes a support tool for this method, called the COMMODIOUS tool. The tool supports its users by using an extended version of the generic schema for communication for action, developed by Winograd and Flores, et al. The support is limited to situations where the software is meant to support communication between a customer and a supplier. The tool can check a model of communication sessions (discourses) for completeness and suggest standard solutions, i.e. what communicative actions (speech acts) that exist and how they may precede each other. It is also shown how parts of the information model are derivable from an abstract model of the discourse. NATURE-94-11.ps.Z G. Spanoudakis, P. Constantopoulos Estimating Similarity Between Software Artifacts PUBLISHED IN: 6th Intl. Conf. of Software Engineering and Knowledge Engineering, Jurmala, Latvia, June 1994 ABSTRACT: This paper presents a model of estimating the similarity of software artifacts so as to promote their analogical reuse. The model permits comparisons between artifacts developed at the various stages of the software development (i.e specifications, designs, and code) from conceptual descriptions of these artifacts. This is achieved by using metrics measuring the distance between such descriptions with respect to general conceptual modeling abstractions (i.e the classification, the generalization, and the attribution) underlying them. Similarity estimates are influenced by measures of salience of the involved attributes. Salience is measured as belief on three domain independent properties of attributes (i.e the charactericity, the abstractness and, the causality), suggested as predictive of their significance. A prototype of the model is presented together with an example of using similarity to support the specification of requirements by reuse. NATURE-94-12.ps.Z C. Nellborn, P. Holm Capturing Information Systems Requirements Through Enterprise and Speech Act Modeling PUBLISHED IN: 6th Intl. Conf. on Advanced Information Systems Engineering, Utrecht, Netherlands, June 1994 ABSTRACT: Enterprise modelling is a technique for capturing and validating information systems requirements. The validity depends on how well the requirements reflect the real needs of the enterprise and how well they are understood by both requirements holder and requirements engineer. In the F3 project, enterprise models are designed for modelling goals, activities, concepts and actors and linking them to information system requirements. Speech act modelling can improve traditional process and activity models, since it introduces a richer terminology in how people use information. The speech act modelling method, developed within the NATURE project, also introduces a classification of the organisational use of software. In this paper we illustrate how these two methods developed within the F3 and the NATURE project can be combined for improving the capture and validation of business process related information system requirements. We show this by applying the methods to a common example. NATURE-94-13.ps.Z K. Pohl, S. Jacobs Traceability between Cross-Functional-Teams PUBLISHED IN: 1st Intl. Conf. on Concurrent Engineering, Research and Application, Pittsburgh, USA, August 1994 ABSTRACT: Traceability between different views, which exist in cross-functional teams, is essential for concurrent engineering. The views (products) of the various teams must be interrelated to each other and presented in a suitable way to emphasize inconsistencies, conflicts, different opportunities. Moreover, decisions together with their rationales must be made explicit. We have developed and implemented a concurrent engineering environment which is based on four basic ideas: (1) record, use, and main tain product interrelations during the concurrent engineering process; (2) capture the decisions and their rationale made during the process; (3) use formal product models to enable product interrelation; (4) provide suitable computer supported tools which hide the formal models and automate the recording of interrelations. First experiences show, that the use of our environment enables traceability of the product interrelations and the decision made within a concurrent engineering process and leads to improved and more consistent process results (products). NATURE-94-14.ps.Z S. Jacobs, S. Kethers Improving Communication and Decision Making within Quality Function Deployment PUBLISHED IN: 1st Intl. Conf. on Concurrent Engineering, Research and Application, Pittsburgh, USA, August 1994 ABSTRACT: One of the main problems within concurrent engineering is the visibility of activities and knowledge across perspectives. Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is a method to enhance communication between developers of different views. It is based on reconciled planning and communication procedures arranged around a form called House-of-Quality (HoQ). Descriptions like "Listening to the Voice of the Customer" or "A Method for Guaranteeing Communication" emphasize the importance of communication. Most of todays QFD implementations neglect its communication aspects. Improving QFD with approaches used in the area of Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) as well as Group Decision Support Systems (GDSS) are leading to a new generation of QFD tools. This paper introduces the integration of two techniques Argumentation Systems and Electronic Meeting Systems into a QFD-tool. NATURE-94-15.ps.Z M. Jarke, K. Pohl, C. Rolland, J.-R. Schmitt Experience-Based Method Evaluation and Improvement: A Process Modeling Approach PUBLISHED IN: IFIP WG 8.1 Conf. CRIS '94, Maastricht, Netherlands, September 1994 ABSTRACT: Little is known about the actual usage and evaluation of methods especially in the early phases of information systems engineering. This paper therefore advocates an experience-based approach in which methods and tools can be defined, applied, evaluated, and gradually improved. We argue that this requires three ingredients: * a process meta model which can deal with many different situations in a flexible, decision-oriented manner; * a process repository that links process and product traces, guidance, and improvement through carefully defined concept mappings; * a tool interoperability concept in which tool behavior adapts to the present process definition and situation, and where tools automatically trace their own behavior. The interplay of these ingredients is demonstrated in the NATURE requirements engineering environment ********************************************************************** From: N.A.M.Maiden@city.ac.uk Subject: Research Studentships in Requirements Engineering RESEARCH STUDENTSHIPS IN REQUIREMENTS ENGINEERING CITY UNIVERSITY, LONDON, UK Several research studentships are available in requirements engineering at City University, starting in October 1994. Accepted candidates will join a major requirements engineering group established jointly by the Centre for Human-Computer Interface Design and the Department of Computer Science at City with interests in many areas including: - requirements reuse and domain modeling for requirement engineering; - studies of all apsects of the requirements engineering process; - social and cognitive issues in requirements engineering; - application of AI techniques in intelligent requirements engineering toolkits; - requirements elicitation techniques; - multiple viewpoints on requirements; - requirements traceability. Current requirements engineering projects at City include the ESPRIT III 6353 'Nature' project. Studentships are funded by City University and are equivalent to ESPRC research studentships. Candidates are expected to have 2.1 Honours Degree in computer science, software engineering or similar degree. Candidates with 2.1 Honours Degree in cognitive science, social science and artificial intelligence will also be considered. Contact Professor Alistair Sutcliffe 071-477-8411, E-Mail: A.G.Sutcliffe@city.ac.uk or Dr Neil Maiden 071-477-8412 E-Mail: N.A.M.Maiden@city.ac.uk Centre for Human-Computer Interface Design City University, Northampton Square London, EC1V OHB. ********************************************************************** From: singer@cc.bellcore.com (Carl Singer) Subject: IEEE 1175 Standards Meeting - Pre-announcement The IEEE 1175 Standards Committee will be holding a working meeting in Vienna, VA (Suburban Washington, DC) On October 17th & 18th, 1994. For those of you unfamiliar with 1175 it is (in a nutshell) the IEEE Trial-Use Standard Reference Model for Computing System Tool Interconnections and includes a Semantic Transfer Language (STL) that is both parsable and "English-readible". It was approved as a trial use standard in December of 1991 and has gotten good comments. Current work includes more explicit incorporation of object oriented constructs, and better interfacing with other standards activities. This pre-announcement is to let those of you who are interested set aside these dates, etc. A detailed agenda, hotel information, etc., will follow in due course. A mail list is being established for people interested in 1175 if you wish to be added to that list, please let me know. **********************************************************************