PCODA 2008 builds upon the three previous editions of PCODA in 2005, 2006 and 2007. These past three editions were very discussion-oriented workshops, where differences and similarities between the discussed techniques were highlighted, where general difficulties of using dynamic analysis were discussed and where possible future research directions became clear. We hope to continue this trend with PCODA 2008 and we would like to invite you to submit papers and join the workshop in Antwerp, Belgium.
Overview
Without consistent or adequately complete documentation, maintainers are faced with the inevitable problem of understanding how the system is implemented prior to undertaking any maintenance task. Research into the discipline of program comprehension aims to reduce the impact of this problem; a real-life problem which studies have shown to be impacting software engineers in the sense that they tend to spend up to 50% of their time trying to comprehend the structure of a software system. PCODA focuses on program comprehension techniques that rely specifically on dynamic analysis
Topics of interest
Topics of interest include, but are not restricted to, the following:
Program comprehension models
Theories and models for software comprehension based on dynamic analysis
Program comprehension processes and strategies involving dynamic analysis techniques
Research methodologies when setting up program comprehension experiments
Techniques and tools
Applications of dynamic analysis techniques to program comprehension
Strengths and limitations of existing dynamic analysis techniques
Trace analysis and exploration techniques
Techniques for reducing the large size of run-time information
Hybrid analyses that involve both static and dynamic analysis
Dynamic analysis tools with an emphasis on program comprehension
Comparisons between existing tools and approachs
Dynamic analysis in the context of distributed systems
Dynamic analysis in the context of webservices (or service oriented architectures)
Evaluation Techniques
Criteria for evaluating dynamic analysis techniques; setting up benchmark experiments
Experiments and case studies with a focus on program comprehension using dynamic analysis
Empirical effectiveness studies of tools and approaches
Dates & location
To be held in October 2008, co-located with the 15th International Working Conference on Reverse Engineering (WCRE2008) in Antwerp, Belgium.
Philippe Dugerdil, Haute école de gestion de Genève, Switzerland
Adrian Kuhn, University of Bern, Switzerland
Adrian Lienhard, University of Bern, Switzerland
Leon Moonen, Simula Research Laboratory, Norway
Workshop format
The workshop will be 1/2 day, discussion-oriented. Afterwards, each participant will be asked to formulate a short summary of the workshop (maximum 250 words), highlighting points of interest of his or her research. These summaries will be posted on a website (the URL will be determined later), so that possible collaborations will become visible.
Submission instructions
Be standard. There exists a lot of work on reengineering, which may give rise to some terminology conflicts. We encourage people to use the reengineering taxonomy defined in (E. J. Chikofsky and J. H. Cross II. Reverse engineering and design recovery: A taxonomy, IEEE Software, 7(1):13–17, 1990.)
Be electronic. Submit your position paper in PDF, following the IEEE conference publication guidelines. Also, please include a text-only abstract in your email. Submit everything through EasyChair.
Be short. Propose only one idea. We all know that you are a quality researcher with plenty of good ideas. Only, we have limited resources and we must focus. Please target five pages for your (position) papers.
Be innovative. It is okay to propose a recent idea that still has some unfinished sides to it. It is supposed to be a WORKshop, not a mini-conference. If you want to propose a crazy idea, introduce it in an extended abstract (1 page).
Be a rebel. Neglect these guidelines if you feel that your idea needs a special treatment in some way.