Many future civic, private, and military software-intensive systems will be software-centric and ultra-large in scale (ULS). Radical scale-up will be seen in many dimensions: implementation complexity, distribution, decentralization, networking, storage, and quality-of-service requirements and mechanisms, dependability/security requirements and mechanisms, size and structure of development organizations and methods, complexity of organizations surrounding deployed systems, interaction with physical environments based on diverse sensors and actuator technologies, and in many other dimensions. The recent report, Ultra-Large-Scale: The Software Challenge of the Future, provides an initial analysis of problems and research needs and opportunities created by the advent of ULS systems. In a nutshell, radical increases in scale and complexity will demand new technologies for and approaches to all aspects of system conception, definition, development, deployment, use, maintenance, evolution, and regulation. If the software systems that we focus on today are likened to buildings or individual infrastructure systems, then ULS systems are more akin to cities or networks of cities. Like cities, they will have complex individual nodes (akin to buildings and infrastructure systems), so we must continue to improve traditional technologies and methods; but they will also exhibit organization and require technology and approaches fundamentally different than those that are appropriate at the node level. The software elements of ULS systems present especially daunting challenges. Developing the required technologies and approaches in turn will require basic and applied research significantly different that that which we have pursued in the past. Enabling the development of ULS systems -- and their software elements, in particular -- will require new ideas drawing on many disciplines, including computer science and software engineering but also such disciplines as economics, city planning, and anthropology. The ICSE community has an especially important role to play in the formulation of research problems and approaches for ULS systems. In this context, this First ICSE Workshop on ULS systems has several goals:
09:00 Session 1 -- Keynote and Panel with Authors of the "ULS Systems" Report
10:30 Coffee Break
11:00 Session 2 -- 10 minute madness (brief presentations by authors of accepted papers)
Liming Zhu, Mark Staples, Ross Jeffery, "
Kevin Sullivan, "Edge Programming"
Robert Baillargeon, "Vehicle System Development: A Challenge of Ultra-Large-Scale Systems"
Daniel J. Paulisch, "Scalable Distributed Organizations for Ultra-Large-Scale Software"
Philip K. McKinley, Betty H. C. Cheng and Charles A. Ofria, "Applying Digital Evolution to the Development of Self-Adaptive ULS Systems"
Richard P. Gabriel, "Can't be Built"
Philip M. Johnson, "Ultra-automation and ultra-autonomy for software engineering management of ultra-large-scale systems"
12:30 Lunch Break
14:00 Session 3 -- Working Groups
15:30 Coffee Break
16:00 Session 4 -- Working Groups
17:30 Break
19:00 Banquet
Admission to this ICSE workshop is by invitation on the basis of short (1-Danie3 page) position paper abstracts. We seek short abstracts on all aspects of software for ULS systems. The abstract format is intended to enable submission on short notice. We are far more interested in people and good ideas than in polished results or presentations. Abstracts will be reviewed by the organizing committee. The authors of accepted abstracts will be invited to submit more complete position papers (generally 2–5 pages). Authors should review the ULS Systems report, linked above, if only briefly, before submitting a position paper, to get a sense of current state of thinking in the area. Accepted papers will be made available on the internet as part of an informal workshop proceedings. Authors will retain copyright in their works and our intention is not to preclude subsequent conference or journal publication of submitted or derivative works. To submit a position paper abstract for consideration, please send the abstract as a PDF file using the ICSE paper formatting guidelines to sullivan @ cs.virginia.edu (remove the spaces). Please be sure to use ULS Systems Abstract Submission as the subject line.
This is a full one-day workshop. There will be a minimum of extended, formal presentations—perhaps only 2 or 3. The primary activities will be breakout sessions and discussion. We will set up a Wiki for taking notes and for additional interaction.
This workshop, ICSE-ULS1, is the second in a workshop series on ULS systems. The first was held at OOPSLA, Portland, Oregon, in October 2006. (The call for that workshop is here.)