* Washington Ada Symposium '91 Call for Papers
@ 1990-10-02 18:53 Chuck Williams
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From: Chuck Williams @ 1990-10-02 18:53 UTC (permalink / raw)
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
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