Call for Papers NEXTA 2020

NEXTA 2020 - 3rd IEEE Workshop on NEXt level of Test Automation
http://www.testomatproject.eu/nexta2020

March 23rd, 2020, Porto, Portugal
Co-located with IEEE International Conference on Software Testing, Verification and Validation (ICST 2020)

+++ Important Dates +++

Abstract Submission: January 6, 2020
Submission: January 13, 2020
Notification: January 27, 2020
Camera ready: February 4, 2020
Workshop: March 23, 2020

+++ Theme and Goals +++

NEXTA'20 is the third edition of the IEEE Workshop on Test Automation - highly relevant for both research and industry. Thus, NEXTA aims to attract both academic researchers and industry practitioners.
Test automation has been an acknowledged software engineering best practice for years. However, the topic involves more than the repeated execution of test cases that often comes first to mind. Simply running test cases using a unit testing framework is no longer enough for test automation to keep up with the ever-shorter release cycles driven by continuous deployment and technological innovations such as microservices and DevOps pipelines. Now test automation needs to rise to the next level by going beyond mere test execution.
The NEXTA workshop will explore how to advance test automation to further contribute to software quality in the context of tomorrow's rapid release cycles. Take-aways for industry practitioners and academic researchers will encompass test case generation, automated test result analysis, test suite assessment and maintenance, and infrastructure for the future of test automation.

+++ Topics of Interest +++

NEXTA solicits contributions targeting all aspects of test automation, from initial test design to automated verdict analysis. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

+ Test execution automation
+ Test case generation
+ Automatic test design generation
+ Analytics, learning and big data in relation to test automation
+ Automatic aspects management in test, progress, reporting, planning etc.
+ Visualization of test
+ Evolution of test automation
+ Test suite architecture and infrastructure
+ Test environment, simulation, and other contextual issues for automated testing
+ Test tools, frameworks, and general support for test automation
+ Testing in an agile and continuous integration context, and testing within DevOps
+ Orchestration of test
+ Metrics, benchmarks, and estimation on any type of test automation
+ Any type of test technologies relying on automation of test
+ Process improvements and assessments related to test automation
+ Test automation maturity and experience reports on test automation
+ Automatic retrieval of test data and test preparation aspect
+ Maintainability, monitoring and refactoring of automated test suites
+ Training and education on automated testing
+ Automated test for product lines and high-variability systems
+ Test automation patterns
+ Automated test oracle

+++ Submission and Proceedings +++

NEXTA solicits the following types of original papers:

+ Technical Papers (max. 8 pages in IEEE format). Full papers presenting research results or industrial practices related to the next generation of test automation.
+ Position and Experience Papers (max. 4 pages in IEEE format). Short papers introducing challenges, visions, positions or preliminary results within the scope of the workshop. Experience reports and papers on open challenges in industry are especially welcome.
+ Tool Papers (max. 4 pages in IEEE format). Tool papers introduce tools that implement an approach to support the transition to the next generation of test automation. A tool paper submission must include either 1) a URL to a screencast of the tool in action, or 2) a runnable version of the tool for evaluation by the program committee.

Authors should submit a PDF version of their paper through the NEXTA 2020 paper submission site: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=nexta2020.
All accepted papers will be part of the ICST joint workshop proceedings published in the IEEE Digital Library.


+++ Organization and Contact +++

+ Serge Demeyer, University of Antwerp, Belgium, General Chair
+ Adnan Causevic, Mälardalen University (MDH), Sweden, (Program Co-Chair)
+ Pasqualina Potena, RISE Research Institutes of Sweden AB, Sweden (Program Co-Chair)
+ Kristian Wiklund, Ericsson AB, Sweden (Program Co-Chair)

If you have any questions or require more information on NEXTA 2019, please visit http://www.testomatproject.eu/nexta2020 or write to nexta2020@easychair.org.


+++ Program Committee (to be extended) +++

+ Adnan Causevic, Mälardalen University, Sweden
+ Pasqualina Potena, RISE Research Institutes of Sweden AB, Sweden
+ Kristian Wiklund, Ericsson AB, Sweden
+ Markus Borg, RISE Research Institutes of Sweden AB, Sweden
+ Sigrid Eldh, Ericsson AB, Sweden
+ Serge Demeyer, University of Antwerp, Belgium
+ Tanja Vos, Universidad Politecnica Valencia, Spain and Open University Netherlands
+ Marc-Florian Wendland, Fraunhofer Fokus, Germany
+ Michael van der Bijl, Axini, Netherlands
+ Leire Etxeberria Elorza, University de Mondragon, Spain
+ Karl Meinke, The Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden
+ Mika Mantyla, University of Oulu
+ Peter M. Krause; Expleo, Germany
+ Magnus C Ohlsson, System Verification, Sweden
+ Pekka Aho, VTT, Finland Rix Groenboom, Parasoft, Germany