*** Call for Chapter Proposals ***

We invite high-quality proposals to contribute a chapter to

"System Quality and Software Architecture (SQSA)"

A book to be published by Elsevier (pending final approval of contents and format)and edited by:

Ivan Mistrík, Independent Consultant(Germany)
Peter Eeles, IBM (United Kingdom)
Rami Bahsoon, University of Birmingham (United Kingdom)
Michael Stal, Siemens AG (Germany) and
University of Groningen (The Netherlands)}

OVERVIEW
According to the Webster’s Dictionary, “quality” is “a degree of excellence; a distinguishing attribute.” That is, quality is the degree to which a software product lives up to the modifiability, availability, durability, interoperability, portability, security, predictability, and other attributes that a customer expects to receive when purchasing this product. These quality attribute drivers are a key to quality software architecture and, therefore, to quality software.
As the field of Software Architecture enters its third decade of formal study it finds itself moving from its traditional and foundational focus on the nature of an architecture in terms of its structure and behavior, to the more general notion of software architecture as the set of design decisions made to ensure the software requirements will be met. Consistent with this view is the trend toward focusing software architecture documentation in meeting stakeholder needs and communicating how the software solution addresses their concerns. Often, a software system is not isolated, but a part of a larger system. When making decisions, not only is the quality of the software architecture itself important, but a consideration of the overall quality of the system is warranted. For example, quality attributes such as performance and reliability can only be realized through a combination of software and hardware (and, if relevant to the system, people).
Our goal in this book is to expand the quality aspects of software architecture, focusing broadly on quality-related characteristics and how these relate to the design of software architectures. We are including three additional directions that distinguish our book from "classical publications on Quality of Software Architectures":
1) We are focusing on Qualities and Software Architecture (not only Software Qualities and Software Architecture. For example, it also includes enterprise and system aspects such as: Business Goals, RoI, Economics and Value Creation, to ensure a comprehensive consideration of quality, thereby supporting the concept of “total quality management”.
2) System Quality Requirements (Modifiability, Availability, Security, Interoperability, Portability, Predictability, etc.) and not just software quality requirements. Their consideration ensures that the resulting software product addresses these quality attributes, which are strongly influenced by the architecture of the software.
3) From the perspective of technology platforms, we are including recent interest in “disruptive” technologies and approaches. In particular, we are including cloud, mobile and ultra-large-scale/internet-scale architecture as an application focus of this book.
This book will collect state-of-the-art knowledge on: how to intertwine business goals and software quality requirements with software architectures; how quality attributes are exhibited by the architecture of the system; what basic techniques are required to achieve quality management in software architecting; the best way to apply these techniques effectively in various application domains (especially in cloud, mobile and ultra-large-scale/internet-scale architecture); and the approaches that can be employed to assess the value of total quality management in a software development process, with an emphasis on architecture.
BACKGROUND TOPICS
We invite chapters on all aspects of quality in system/software architecture, including novel and high-quality research related approaches that relate the quality of software architecture to system requirements, system architecture and enterprise-architecture. All chapters should consider the practical application of the topic through case studies, experiments, empirical validation, or systematic comparisons with other approaches already in practice. Topics of interest include, but are not limited, to: quality attributes of system/software architectures; aligning enterprise, system, and software architecture from the point of view of total quality; design decisions and their influence on the quality of system/software architecture; methods and processes for evaluating architecture quality; quality assessment of legacy systems and third party applications; lessons learned and empirical validation of theories and frameworks on architectural quality; empirical validation and testing for assessing architecture quality.

FORMAT

We invite proposals for chapters that synthesize existing knowledge on
relevant background topics and application areas in relating system quality and system/software architecture. Chapters should be accessible to senior undergraduate students and graduate students with a background in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Software Architecture, Systems Engineering or related disciplines. Chapters are not expected to correspond to the description of a single research project or technique. The proposed Indicative Contents offers suggestions for target topics.

INDICATIVE CONTENTS

Chapter 1: Introduction to System Quality and Software Architecture (editorial chapter)

Part I: System Quality Attributes
Software quality, by definition, is the degree to which software possesses a desired combination of attributes [IEEE 19921]. To improve system quality, we must focus our attention on system quality attributes, such as those given here:
• Usability
• Maintainability
• Flexibility
• Reliability
• Reusability
• Agility
• Interoperability
• Performance
• Scalability
• Security
• Testability
• Supportability
Part II: Defining Quality Requirements
An oft-cited reason for failed software projects is incomplete and/or unclear requirements. This is especially true of non-functional requirements and quality requirements in particular. This part is focused on:
• Techniques for defining quality requirements.
• Taxonomies (classifications) of quality attributes.
• Stakeholder interaction when gathering quality requirements.
• Approaches for prioritizing requirements.
Part III: Addressing System Qualities
This part discusses how quality requirements are addressed in the solution. This part is focused on:
• System Patterns that Improve Quality. This encompasses tactics for meeting specific quality requirements.
• System Anti-patterns that Degrade Quality.
• The tradeoffs necessary when addressing quality requirements (the classic case being a tradeoff between system performance and system flexibility).
• Different project lifecycles and how they contribute to ensuring that quality attributes are met. Waterfall, iterative, agile and disciplined agile are examples of project lifecycles.

Part IV: Assessing System Qualities
Parts I, II, and III define a plan of how to implement system quality. This part will define the metrics relating to system quality and how these are monitored and tracked throughout the software-development life cycle. The purpose of using metrics is to reduce subjectivity during monitoring activities and provide quantitative data for analysis. This part is focused on:
• Approaches for assessing different quality attributes.
• Metrics relevant to an assessment of quality attributes. The IEEE Software Quality Metrics Methodology [IEEE 1992] is a framework for defining and monitoring system-quality metrics.
• Analysis of measurements gathered through the implementation of metrics.
Part V: Current Challenges and Future Directions
This part discusses, based on practical experience and evidence, the challenges faced by organizations in capturing and realizing quality requirements, and explores the basis of future work in this area.

PROCEDURE AND IMPORTANT DATES

To submit a chapter proposal, please submit a detailed abstract
(text only) presenting an overview of the proposed content, to

https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=sqsa2013

To submit, enter the required information, the overview of the
proposed content in the "abstract" field, and select the "abstract
only" check-box.

Proposals will be reviewed by the five co-editors. The authors
participating in this book project will also be asked to review
chapters by other contributors.

Chapter Proposals: on or before 1 December 2012
Finalization of Contents and Format: on or before 15 January 2013
Notification of Acceptance: on or before 15 February 2013
Full chapters: on or before 15 May 2013
First round of reviews: on or before 15 June 2013
Revisions: on or before 15 July 2013
Second round of reviews: on or before 1 September 2013
Final Submission to Editors: on or before 15 November 2013
Camera Ready Submission: on or before 15 December 2013

For any inquiries please contact:

Ivan Mistrík
i.j.mistrik@t-online.de