09:00 Session 1 -- Welcome and "5-minute madness" (presentations of workshop position papers)
The papers linked below are copyrighted. They may be reproduced and used only in accordance with the terms of the contained copyright notices.
Paul C. Clements, An Economic Model for Software Architecture Decisions
Stefan Wagner, Using Economics as Basis for Modelling and Evaluating Software Quality
Rami Bahsoon and Wolfgang Emmerich, Economics-Driven Software Mining
Hannes Omasreiter,
Balanced Decision Making in Software Engineering – General Thoughts and a Concrete Example from IndustryIpek Ozkaya, Rick Kazman, Mark Klein, Quality-Attribute Based Economic Valuation of Architectural Patterns
Christopher Scaffidi and Mary Shaw,
Toward a Calculus of ConfidenceBrendan Tansey and Eleni Stroulia,
Valuating Software Service Development: Integrating COCOMO II and Real Options TheoryEnis Afgan, Purushotham Bangalor, Computation Cost in Grid Computing Environments
Here is a ZIP file containing all the papers.
10:30 Coffee Break
11:00 Session 2 -- Structuring of the issues to be treated by breakout groups, over lunch and in the first afternoon session
12:30 Lunch Break (subgroups should begin working at this time)
14:00 Session 3 -- Subgroups address subtopics
15:30 Coffee Break (subgroup leaders should prepare short presentations for the following plenary session at this time)
16:00 Session 4 -- Plenary session -- subgroup presentations and discussion (subgroup leaders may refine their notes at this time)
17:30 Subgroup leaders turn in final presentations for incorporation into the workshop report, which will be produced after the workshop; WORKSHOP ENDS
19:00 WORKSHOP DINNER, please plan to attend
Software is the key element in future complex systems. It is the source of enormous economic value, but also of enormous economic grief. The dot-com implosion occurred in large part due to a poor understanding of the value of software and software-intensive systems. The multi-billion-dollar losses that commonly accrue in complex software-intensive systems projects represent a failure to adequately analyze and manage their economics. Nor is the cost of such problems felt just in economic losses but also in serious risks to society. As just one example, no one today knows how to value (and therefore no one knows how to invest in a rational and economically sound manner) in information system defenses. The looming threats to software-based financial systems, and in the failure of very large-scale civil and defense-related software-intensive system projects due to problems with software, are thus, to a significant degree, traceable to our poor understanding of economic aspects and implications of software and computation.
A large part of the problem is that software developers continue to make key technical decisions without an adequate treatment of their economics. The problem has at least three deep roots. First, much of software engineering continues to be guided by the traditional separation of concerns between systems and software engineering. The software engineering role is thus reduced to that of the implementer of specifications given by systems engineers, and of program verifier and maintainer. Such a state of affairs is not tenable in a world in which the key source of value and of risk in systems is in software and the computational behavior it describes, and in which software engineers have unique professional competence to make important judgments about software and computation. Second, most software engineers think in terms that are deeply influenced, if not largely governed, by formal training in mathematical concepts of program structure and semantics, not in terms of the economic (not to mention ethical, aesthetic, or political) value of technical properties, risks and decisions. A preoccupation with formal aspects of software is understandable but no longer acceptable in a world in which vast resources are expended and deep dependences are placed on the software elements of critical engineered systems. Third, we simply lack formal, testable and tested theories, methods, and tools to support economic-based analysis and decision-making (and value-based analysis more broadly).
Addressing these problems will require the integration of largely disconnected disciplines, including computer science and software engineering, on one hand, with the social sciences, on the other, including economics, but also, over time, ethics, aesthetics, political science, behavioral science, and anthropology. The goal of such work is to develop scientific knowledge and technology to enable a far better treatment of value and values in the conception, definition, development, deployment, operation, regulation, and evolution of software and software-intensive systems.
The premise of the First International Workshop on the Economics of Software and Computation is that we now have both a compelling need and real opportunities to begin to develop rigorous approaches to integrated rigorous of value throughout the life-cycle of software and software-intensive systems. The goal of the workshop is to identify and foster these opportunities. To this end, ESC-1 will provide an interactive forum to discuss and advance the state-of-the-art research and practice in the economics of software and computation, Such work will emphasize rigorous methods and theories based on knowledge drawn from such disciplines as coupling theory, utility theory, game theory, and financial economics to address technical and managerial problems in software and software-intensive system development. While other forums address software business issues broadly, ESC seeks to foster research in which economic concepts, models, and tools are employed to improve our understanding and the development of software-intensive systems.
Participation is by invitation based on research interest or activity supported by a short (1-3 page) abstract. An abstract should present a promising new perspective or idea, with both a problem formulation and a plausible or compelling solution approach. We mean to attract good ideas, not polished papers, in the short time to the ICSE-imposed paper deadline. Accepted abstracts can be expanded into 2-5 page position papers for the workshop informal proceedings. Final versions of papers should be suitable for public dissemination. We intend that authors can submit revised and extended versions of these workshop papers to established conferences and journals. Position papers will be reviewed and judged by the workshop organizing committee. To submit a paper, please email it, as a PDF file in ICSE paper proceedings format to the sullivan @ cs.virginia.edu (remove the spaces).
SUBMISSION OF WORKSHOP PAPERS: 20 January 2007
NOTIFICATION OF WORKSHOP PAPERS : 20 February 2007
CAMERA-READY COPY (OF WORKSHOP PAPERS) DUE: 5 March 2007
All accepted papers and position statements will be posted on the conference workshop web-site (http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~sullivan/ESC1) and published in the workshop proceedings.
Rick Kazman, University of Hawaii and SEI/CMU
Kevin Sullivan, University of Virginia
Mary Shaw, Carnegie Mellon University
Barry Boehm, University of Southern California
Jyrki Kontio, Helsinki University of Technology