ITEQS 2019 - Call for Papers

3rd International Workshop on Testing Extra-Functional Properties and Quality Characteristics of Software Systems (ITEQS)
Co-located with the 12th IEEE International Conference on Software Testing, Verification and Validation (ICST 2019), Xi'an - China

Website: http://www.mrtc.mdh.se/ITEQS/2019/

SCOPE
=====
The rapid development towards increased integration of software with the social and physical world that we see today means that quality aspects such as performance, safety, security, and robustness become more important in an increasing number of the systems and devices, which we use and depend on. In this context, the success of a software product may not only depend on the logical correctness of its functions, but also on the system quality characteristics. Such system characteristics, which are referred to and captured as Extra-Functional Properties (EFPs) or Non-Functional Properties, are particularly important in resource constrained systems such as in the domains of real-time embedded and cyber-physical systems. Therefore, such systems need to be tested with a special attention to the EFPs. Testing EFPs is challenging and often requires different approaches compared to testing normal functionality. ITEQS provides a focused forum with the goal of bringing together researchers and practitioners to share ideas, identify challenges, propose solutions and techniques, and in general expand the state of the art in testing EFPs and quality characteristics of software systems and services. The workshop endorses contributions in a wide range of topics related to testing of EFPs in the form of full papers and short yet solid work-in-progress/position papers.

Note: The workshop does not accept papers that focus purely on functional testing!


TOPICS
======
- Model-based testing of EFPs; e.g., choice of modeling languages to capture EFPs and their role on testability, model-based test case generation, etc.
- Mutation-based testing for EFPs; e.g., application of mutation techniques for testing of EFPs particularly introduction of EFP-specific mutation operators
- Testing of AI and Machine Learning based solutions with respect to quality attributes; e.g., such as safety, security, and ethical concerns
- Search-based testing techniques for EFPs
- Testability, observability, controllability and the role of the platform; e.g., how the choice of operating system can impact testability of EFPs, for instance, a real-time operating system, introducing testability mechanisms into a platform, designing - middlewares for testing of EFPs
- Empirical studies and experience reports; e.g., on the importance of testing EFPs, evaluation of testing methods, case-study and reports on project failures due to EFPs, comparison of methods and techniques
- Quality assurance, standards, and their impact on testing EFPs
- Requirements and testing EFPs; e.g., identification and generation of test oracles for EFPs from requirements, requirements for testability, traceability
- Coverage criteria in testing EFPs
- Processes and their role in testing EFPs; e.g., agile and TDD
- Fault localization for EFPs and debugging
- Formal methods, model-checking, and reasoning about EFPs
- Parallelism, Concurrency, and Testing of multicore applications
- Performance, Robustness, and Security Testing
- Testing real-time, embedded, and cyber-physical systems, and their challenges
- Testing quality characteristics of distributed, mobile, and cloud applications


SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
=====================
Paper format: 1) full papers 6-10 pages, 2) solid work-in-progress and position papers 4 pages; in IEEE double column format.
Submission site: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=iteqs2019
Accepted papers will be published in IEEE Digital Library.


SPECIAL ISSUE on "Testing Extra-Functional Properties"
======================================================
We plan to invite selected best papers from the workshop to submit an extended version of their work to the Special Issue on "Testing Extra-Functional Properties" in the Software Testing, Verification and Reliability (STVR) Journal. The extended papers will undergo a new peer-reviewing process.


IMPORTANT DATES
===============
Submission deadline: January 15, 2019
Notifications: February 5, 2019
Workshop date: April 22, 2019


ORGANIZERS
==========
Mehrdad Saadatmand, RISE SICS Västerås, Sweden (mehrdad.saadatmand[at]ri.se)
Birgitta Lindström, University of Skövde, Sweden (birgitta.lindstrom[at]his.se)
Mohammad Reza Mousavi, University of Leicester, UK (mm789[at]leicester.ac.uk)
Eduard Enoiu, Mälardalen University, Sweden (eduard.paul.enoiu[at]mdh.se)

Contact: iteqs2019@easychair.org

PROGRAM COMMITTEE
=================
Antonia Bertolino, CNR (National Research Council), Italy
Brian Nielsen, Aalborg University, Denmark
Lionel Briand, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg
Vahid Garousi, Wageningen University, The Netherlands
Jeff Offutt, George Mason University, USA
Yvan Labiche, Carleton University, Canada
Shaukat Ali, Simula Research Laboratory, Norway
Björn Lisper, Mälardalen University, Sweden
Hadi Hemmati, University of Calgary, Canada
Bestoun S. Ahmed, Czech Technical University in Prague, Czech Republic
Jan Tretmans, TNO - ESI, The Netherlands
Wasif Afzal, Mälardalen University, Sweden
Bernhard K. Aichernig, Graz University of Technology, Austria