Software testing is an integral and important part of the
software engineering (SE) discipline. Effective software
testing with reduced costs can be achieved through
automation. In the past decades, much research effort has been
spent on automated test case generation, automated test
selection, automated test oracles. Automation of software test
(AST) practice has also moved forward significantly with
many available software test tools. However, progress in AST
research is still required. Software systems have become more
and more complicated with components developed by
different vendors and using different techniques in different
programming languages and even running on different
platforms. The advent of agile methodology, continuous
integration and shorter development and delivery cycles have
posed new challenges and stricter constraints. Thus there is an
urgent requirement to improve test automation to scale up
productivity and quality in software development.
AST 2019 is the 14th edition of the successful AST series
held at ICSE conferences since 2006. It will provide
researchers and practitioners with a forum for exchanging
ideas, experiences, understanding of the problems, visions
for the future, and promising solutions.

WORKSHOP THEME
In addition to the broad AST theme and topics, every year
the workshop launches a special focus theme. For AST2019
the theme is
Testing and Continuous Deployment
Continuous deployment has become a major strategy even
for large software projects. As one of the main strategies in
modern DevOps environments, continuous deployment aims
to increase code velocity—the time between making a code
change and shipping the change to customers. At the same
time, DevOps and continuous deployment impose heavy
constraints onto testing: (a) testing must be completely
automated and act as the last safeguard against customer
incidents; (b) testing should be fast without slowing down
code velocity; and (c) testing is happening within the
engineering teams (DevOps) rather than dedicated testing
teams. In other words, test automation may have become
more wanted than ever before and we seek contributions to
highlight solutions, challenges, and problem statements for
test automation in a continuous deployment world.

TOPICS OF INTEREST
Submissions on the AST 2019 theme are especially
encouraged, but papers on other topics relevant to the
automation of software test are also welcome. We are
interested in the following aspects related to AST:
1) Problems identification. Analysis and specification of
requirements for AST, and elicitation of problems that
hamper wider adoption of AST.
2) Methodology. Novel methods and approaches for AST
in the context of up-to-date software development
methodologies.
3) Technology. Automation of various test techniques
and methods for test-related activities, as well as for
testing various types of software.
4) Tools and Environments. Issues and solutions in the
development, operation, maintenance and evolution of
tools and environments for AST, and their integration
with other types of tools and runtime support platforms.
5) Experiments, Empirical studies and Experience
reports. Real experiences in using automated testing
techniques, methods and tools in industry.
6) Visions of the future. Foresight and thoughtprovoking
ideas for AST that can inspire new powerful
research trends.

WORKSHOP FORMAT
AST 2019 will have a more condensed structure than in
the past editions as for logistic constraints we have to fit
into a single day. The program will include one keynote
talk, and, if space allows, the AST traditional charette
session focusing on the AST 2019 theme. As a novelty,
this year we have added industrial abstracts as a new kind
of submission. Test practitioners are especially
encouraged to contribute their experiences and insights,
choosing between the industrial case study paper or the
2-pages abstract talks.

SUBMISSIONS
Two types of submissions are invited: regular papers (up
to 7 pages) and industrial abstracts (up to 2 pages).
Submissions must be unpublished original work and
should not be under review or submitted elsewhere while
being under consideration.
Regular papers include both Research papers that present
research in the area of software test automation, and
Industrial Case Study papers that report on practical
applications of test automation.
Industrial abstract talks are specifically conceived to
promote industrial participation: We require all authors
of such papers to come from industry. Authors of
accepted papers get invited to give a talk with same time
length and within same sessions as regular papers.
The workshop submission website at the following URL:
https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=ast2019

PUBLICATION OF PAPERS
The accepted workshop papers including both regular
and case study papers, as well as the industrial abstracts,
will be published in the AST 2019 Proceedings and
included in the IEEE and ACM Digital Libraries.
Authors of accepted papers are required to register and
present the paper at the workshop in order for the paper
to be included in the proceedings and the Digital
Libraries.