Research Papers | Industry Papers | Workshops | Ph.D. Symposium

We are entering a golden age of software testing and validation. The amount of new and exciting research is growing quickly with new scientists joining the field, more research projects starting, and numerous recent workshops on various testing research topics. In addition to research into software testing, the increasing competitiveness of software, the growing dominance of web-based software, the ubiquitous nature of embedded software, and the growth in security vulnerabilities caused by software problems, is causing industry to spend dramatically more resources on testing.

The IEEE International Conference on Software Testing Verification and Validation (ICST) is the premier conference in all areas related to software quality and the success of the first edition in 2008 demonstrated the growth of the field: 214 submitted papers, 52 full length papers, and over 200 attendees.

The second edition will build on the success of ICST 2008 and leverage the many exciting advances in software testing to create dynamic exchanges of new ideas and industrial applications. The theme of ICST 2009 is comprehensive testing, which means that we view testing in a holistic way and encourage contributions on all facets of testing:

Topics

• Developer unit testing
• Integration testing
• End-to-end testing
• Validation and verification
• System testing
• Regression testing
• Model-based testing
• Usability testing
• Security testing
• Quality assurance
• Inspections

Techniques

• Test data generation
• Test oracles (new)
• Metrics
• Testing theory
• Empirical studies

Systems

• Embedded and real-time software
• Concurrent software
• Web applications
  

The ICST charter requires that the ICST process be fair and open, membership in the steering committee and the technical program committee rotate on a regular basis, and that the conference include industry as well as academic participation.

Visit the important dates and submission pages for more information.

Industry Papers

ICST welcomes papers and experience reports from software development and testing practitioners. We are looking for papers that crisply address practical software testing and quality improvement, presenting empirical results or reporting on open problems. All industrial papers should discuss broader implications and usage of the specific topic.

There are two paper formats: full length -- ten pages, and short -- four pages. Full length papers should present a significant experience report about industrial software testing, verification, or validation. Papers with metrics that quantify effects on time, cost, and quality are preferred. Short papers should present a clear description of a problem, and either a brief discussion of a solution, or an analysis of why existing approaches do not work. All contributions will receive a full program committee peer review. Accepted and presented contributions will be part of the published conference proceedings. The evaluation criteria for industry papers is based less on the originality of the technical contribution, and more on its relevance for practice, empirical results, and implications for research.

Submission deadlines for both full length and short industrial papers are the same as for other papers.

Workshops

In keeping with the goal of providing an open and collaborative forum for the exchange of research ideas and results in the area of software testing and validation, the companion workshops are a very important part of ICST. This year there will be five excellent workshops.

At ICST 2009, the workshops will be one day in duration, either on the day before or the day after the main conference. Workshops will run in parallel with each other but will not have to compete with the main conference which will be on separate days. All refreshment and lunch breaks will be at the same time for the workshops.

Important Dates

These dates are for workshops that have selected to publish their proceedings in the IEEE Digital Library. Please check the workshop web pages for specifics.

Ph.D. Symposium

Goal

The symposium will be a one-day workshop held before the main ICST conference.  The goal is several-fold:  to provide constructive feedback and guidance to doctoral students who are performing their dissertation research in the fields of software testing and verification and validation, to develop a supportive community of researchers and potential collaborators, and to permit students to interact with established researchers and practitioners in the field.

Scope

The symposium will serve both "early" post-qualifier PhD researchers who have some preliminary results as well as ABDs who have at least another six months before their dissertation defense.Each student will write a short research summary and make a public presentation at the symposium. We expect all students to give a short presentation (not just the ABDs).  After the public presentation, the students will receive oral feedback from a panel of researchers/practitioners. The students may also seek advice regarding: completion of a PhD, how to perform research in testing, how to design and execute empirical research, etc.Upon notification of acceptance, all authors of accepted research summaries will be asked to complete a Copyright form and will receive further instructions for preparing their camera ready versions.

Review Process

There will be a screening process based on a research summary and an advisor's recommendation.  The following criteria will be considered:

• Quality of the research,
• Relevance of the research to software testing, verification and validation,
• Quality of the summary,
• Strength of the recommendation,
• Diversity of background, research topic, and approach, and
• Stage of the research.

What to Submit

1.      A research summary of, at most, two pages.  Your summary should include:

• The problem to be addressed by your thesis (justify the importance and show that it has not yet been addressed),
• Your research hypothesis,
• The expected contributions of your dissertation research,
• Your proposed research approach,
• Summary of results to date, and
• How you plan to evaluate your results and present these to the community.

Your research summary must conform to the ICST 2009 Format and Submission Guidelines and must be a maximum of two pages with main text in 10 point font, including all text, references, appendices, and figures. All submissions must be in English.

2.      A letter of recommendation.  The letter should be from your dissertation advisor and should include

• Name of the student
• Name of the advisor
• A canid assessment of the current status of the student’s dissertation research, and
• An expected date for dissertation submission.

The letter should be in PDF and should be sent to: icst09docsymp@cs.umd.edu with the subject: ICST DOCTORAL SYMPOSIUM RECOMMENDATION.

How to Submit

Please send your research summary submission as an email attachment (PDF preferred) to icst09docsymp@cs.umd.edu with the subject: ICST DOCTORAL SYMPOSIUM SUBMISSION.

The submission deadline is January 23, 2009.

Please ensure that your advisor sends the letter of recommendation as an email attachment with the subject ICST DOCTORAL SYMPOSIUM RECOMMENDATION to icst09docsymp@cs.umd.edu.

The submission deadline is January 23, 2009.

Important Dates

Doctoral Symposium Committee Co-Chairs

Atif Memon, University of Maryland
Christian Grothoff, University of Denver
Jane Huffman Hayes, University of Kentucky

Panel Members

Mary Jean Harrold, Georgia Institute of Technology (Chair)
Lionel Briand, Carleton University

Clay Williams, IBM Research

Atif Memon, University of Maryland

Christian Grothoff, University of Denver

Jane Hayes, University of Kentucky

Sponsors

General Chair
Anneliese Andrews, USA

Program Chairs
Jeff Offutt, USA
Per Runeson, Sweden

Ph.D. Symposium Chairs
Jane Hayes, USA
Atif Memon, USA
Christian Grothoff, USA

Workshop Chairs
Mark Harman, UK
Zheng Li, UK
Matthew Rutherford, USA

Industry Chair
Wolfgang Grieskamp, USA
Christian Zapf, Siemens, Germany
Robert Binder, mVerify, USA

Local Arrangements Chair
Susanne Sherba, USA

Web Chair
Orest Pilskalns, USA

Steering Committee
Anneliese Andrews, USA
Benoit Baudry (vice-Chair), France
Lionel Briand, Norway
Mark Harman, UK
Rob Hierons, UK
Yves Le Traon, France
Aditya Mathur, USA
Jeff Offutt (Chair), USA
Clay Williams, USA