williams@RUBIC.STARLAB.CSC.COM (Chuck Williams) (10/03/90)
WAdaS '91 Eighth Annual Washington Ada Symposium Software: Foundation for Competitiveness CALL FOR PAPERS The theme for WAdas '91 is "Software: Foundation for Competitiveness." This theme is particularly timely, in an era of rapidly changing and evolving technologies and markets. As traditional markets become more global and competitive, software is rapidly becoming more important in attaining and maintaining competitiveness. Further, with changing global politics and the shifting of government budgets to non-military priorities, software is indeed an "enabling technology" for ensuring a competitive long- term status. The WAdaS '91 theme represents the overall objective of the conference to "reach out" to communities and markets where the value of Ada and sound software engineering is not well known or understood. Historically, the software industry has not done a good job of facilitating communication between the technical and non- technical (i.e., management) segments of the community. The lack of effective communication is also hampering cooperation between the embedded and MIS communities, which precludes identifying and addressing common areas of requirements and solutions. WAdaS '91 is aggressively pursuing an "outreach" strategy, which will bring together, in an open, non-threatening forum, those traditionally disparate segments of the software community-- technical, management, MIS, embedded, real-time, IRM, scientific, and consumer--to identify and discuss problems, needs, techniques, technologies, and solutions. The goal is to facilitate active interaction between these groups, and to reduce or eliminate the barriers which stand in the way of cooperative efforts. Given Ada's status as an international standard, and its widespread use in virtually every sector of the computer industry, WAdaS '91 is an ideal forum for encouraging better communication between the different markets. The objective is not to "sell the world" on Ada, but rather to overcome misconceptions regarding the language, and to explore areas where the Ada community might provide bottom line benefits to other segments of the industry. The WAdaS '91 conference should be thought of as the "listening and discussion" conference, as opposed to the "preaching Ada" conference. To this end, we need participation from a broad cross section of the computer industry, including management and non-technical representation. For example, it accomplishes very little if the technical members of an organization strongly encourage the use of object-oriented software methods, if the financial managers cannot commit resources due to their inability to recognize how OOD can reduce overall costs. It is precisely this blend of technical and management interaction that will make WAdaS '91 a success. The WAdaS '91 Program Committee is seeking papers on the following topics: submissions are not limited to these topics: Competitive Facets of Software - How critical is software to an organization's survival and prosperity? - The effect of software in MIS, manufacturing, banking, and other markets - The economics of software: how much does it cost? - Software's Return on Investment - Can software affect time-to-market? - Is Ada making the software market more global, as opposed to regional/national? - Should software be part of a national technology plan? - What is the role of TQM? Life-Cycle Approach - How has Ada technology changed the organizations view of the life-cycle? - What software life cycle techniques can be used to reduce development time? - Can environments and tools really lessen the documentation burden? - How will Ada 9X affect a company's competitive posture? Methodologies - Can new methods and techniques really provide significant software productivity gains? - Do object oriented techniques result in reusable software? - Is a bottom-up/rapid prototyping approach better than a tradition top-down approach? - Which methodologies are best suited for providing maintainable, reusable, portable software? Human Resources - Can computer scientists get the job done or are software engineers required? - How important are skilled engineers? - How much education is required to ensure a sound foundation in software engineering? - What are the parameters for good software engineering training (i.e., the minimum education required, time, content, evaluation, and costs)? - Is technical training enough to ensure success? What do managers need to know? - Should there be a legitimate software profession (including verification, code of ethics, responsibility/ liability, etc.)? Environment - Are domain specific environments superior to general purpose CASE tools? - Will object database provide integrated solutions to the design/development/documentation needs? - Does augmenting CASE tools with project-specific utilities provide an edge? Changing the Software Process - How do corporations/organizations acquire software technology acquired? - What incentives are needed to justify the cost of designing reusable, portable software? - How can software be made a part of an organization's strategic plan? - Is the Software Process Maturity Model appropriate for all software activities? CALL FOR PANELS As part of the WAdaS objectives, a number of panel sessions will be held, with the following goals: - introduce and discuss "controversial" issues and topics - promote interaction between speakers/panelists and attendees - provide for controlled debate and presentation of opposing views - encourage communication from/with traditional "non-Ada" communities - enhance communications between the technical and management sectors It is clear that the technical community has a much different perception than does the management community as to what constitutes an attractive panel session. For example, from the technical side, a debate between Dave Parnas and Robert Dewar about the relative merits of Ada would be "very interesting." On the management side, a discussion of the software needs of the MIS/banking industry and how those needs can be addressed by the use of software engineering and Ada would be attractive. WAdaS '91 will feature a "dual plenary" or "double plenary" on Wednesday morning, with one session focusing on technical issues and the other focusing on management issues and concerns. The panel sessions will be designed to gain enough interest that both technical and management people will continue their discussions through the lunch period. The Wednesday lunch will feature either a debate or an "outbrief" of the morning sessions. Unless a sound debate topic can be determined, which would accommodate a blend of technical and management issues, the "outbrief" will basically summarize the key points of the morning sessions. The "outbrief" will include some of the major points of agreement and disagreement between the two segments (technical and management), as well as suggestions on how these two segments of the software industry can work together more effectively. A final objective for the morning and lunch sessions will be to identify several people in each of the separate segments who will act as points of contact to facilitate further communication and cooperation. PANEL PARTICIPANTS To facilitate the best mix of technical and managerial perspectives, the WAdaS '91 Program Committee is seeking the participation from a broad cross section of industry. Some of the groups of particular interest include, but are not limited to, the following: - DPMA - Commerce Department - Council on Competitiveness - National Science Foundation - Society of Manufacturing Engineers - Machine Tool Industry - Insurance Industry - Accounting/Finance Industry - Communications Industry SUBMISSION DETAILS AND INSTRUCTIONS To submit papers or panel suggestions for consideration, send four copies of an abstract (1 - 3 pages), including title, author(s) name(s), and address and telephone number of contact person to: Steve Grimaldi Program Co-Chair ARINC Research Corporation 2551 Riva Road MS 5-230 Annapolis, MD 21401 301-266-4939 E-Mail: grim@terminus.umd.edu Abstracts are due by January 7, 1991; notification of acceptance by March 4, 1991; camera-ready papers by May 1, 1991. For more information, contact the Program Chair or Program Co-Chair PROGRAM COMMITTEE Charles B. Williams - Chairman - Computer Sciences Corporation 3160 Fairview Park Drive Mail Code 321 Falls Church, VA 22042 703-876-1252 E-Mail: williams@starlab.csc.com Steve Grimaldi - Co-Chairman - ARINC Research Brad Balfour - EVB Software Engineering Sid Balin - CTA Inc. Mitchell Bassman - Computer Sciences Corporation Stowe Boyd - Merdian Chris Braun - Contel Technology Center Ed Colbert - Absolute Software Craig Cowden - Naval Security Group Harry Doscher - Motorola Marc Gerhardt - ESL, Inc. Dr. Diaz Hererra - George Mason University Cindy Markus - American Systems Frank McGary - NASA Harlan Mills - Software Engineering Technology Judah Mogilensky - Contel Federal Systems Monette Rosas - Brunswick Defense Jack Rothrock - US Army Tucker Taft - Intermetrics Alice Wong - FAA