Extended paper submission deadline: MARCH 9, 2001.

Due to clashes with the submission deadlines for other events, we have received a lot of extension requests. We have therefore decided to extend the submission deadline to March 9, 2001, to ensure that we attract the best possible papers to REFSQ'2001.

We are also glad to announce that this year - like last year - revised and extended versions of selected papers from REFSQ'2001 will be invited for publication in a Special Issue of the "Requirements Engineering Journal" published by Springer.

At six previous REFSQ workshops - all arranged in connection with CAiSE conferences - researchers and practitioners from various disciplines have contributed to improve the definition and implementation of quality requirements. REFSQ'2001 will continue this tradition as a highly interactive stage for discussion of quality-related problems in RE as they have developed over the last year. In particular, we encourage people from the requirements engineering, software engineering and information systems fields to present their approaches to higher software quality and to discuss how requirements engineering can contribute to it. Like last year, revised and extended versions of selected papers from REFSQ'2001 will be invited for publication in a Special Issue of the "Requirements Engineering Journal" published by Springer.

G O A L

Achieving high quality means to realise the needs of users and customers. These needs are elicited, negotiated, documented and validated during requirements engineering (RE). RE is therefore the most crucial phase of software development. The goals of RE are:

• To produce a traceable requirements specification that is as consistent and complete as possible;
• To facilitate a cooperative and iterative learning process;
• To document both the specification and the RE process using appropriate representation formats;
• To establish a sufficient common understanding among the stakeholders involved.

Conventional RE methods usually support only parts of this process or help stating only specific kinds of requirements.

The goal of REFSQ is to improve the understanding of the relations between requirements engineering and software quality. More precisely, REFSQ aims at having intensive discussion provoked by brief presentations about:

• solutions to known RE problems and shortcomings;
• innovative research ideas possibly initiating new research directions;
• industrial problem statements; and
• generalisations from individual industrial experiences.

T H E M E S

REFSQ'2001 invites general submissions addressing a wide range of RE-issues, such as:

• understanding and improving RE-processes;
• RE for Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) systems;
• new methods and method engineering for RE;
• RE for emerging technologies (information appliances, enhanced TV etc.);
• empirical evaluation of RE methods and tools; as well as
• empirical studies of industrial RE practice.

This year, we specifically invite papers on "Understanding and Improving RE Processes for Higher Software Quality", where we seek innovative and novel studies of, theories for and models for better RE processes. Possible topics include:

• evaluation and comparison of RE processes with respect to software quality;
• capitalisation of best RE processes;
• models for quality assurance and improvement of RE processes;
• enactment and monitoring environments for the RE processes; and
• documenting requirements and RE processes.

Papers addressing other areas of RE are of course also welcome!

P U B L I C A T I O N

Like earlier years, the presented papers will be published in the REFSQ'2001 proceedings after the workshop.

In addition, like last year, revised and extended versions of selected papers from REFSQ'2001 will be invited for publication in a Special Issue of the "Requirements Engineering Journal" published by Springer after additional reviewing.

W O R K S H O P   F O R M A T

The workshop will be highly interactive. Attendance is limited to 30 people and all participants should have a paper accepted for the workshop. The workshop language is English.

The workshop will be organised in conjunction with the CAiSE*2001 conference. Some earlier CAiSE conferences have required workshop participants to also attend the main conference. Please check this yourself at the CAiSE*01 conference page.

The accepted papers will be made available electronically to all workshop participants before the workshop, so that presentations can be kept short. Discussants will be appointed for each paper presentation. The discussants will be followed by a plenary discussion of the paper. In addition, there will be a plenary discussion at the end of each session.

At the end of the workshop there will be a general discussion, possibly including a brainstorming session about areas or topics of RE research that the participants perceive as important.

I N S T R U C T I O N S   F O R   A U T H O R S

Papers of three types can be submitted to the workshop:

• Full papers (max 6000 words)
  Full papers should emphasise what is new and significant about the chosen approach and adequately compare it with similar work. Integration of the contributions with mainstream or other research approaches to RE, SE and IS development are especially encouraged.
  The maximum length of a full paper is 6000 words. It is possible that there will be a slightly more restrictive page limit for the final papers in the proceedings, depending on printing costs and available funds. We are working to resolve this question as quickly as possible.
• Position papers (max 2001 words)
  Position papers should state the author's research position with respect to current RE practice, relations between current RE practice and RE research, and/or research methodology and ontological assumptions. Papers should emphasise which topics that are particularly important within RE at present, and why.
  The maximum length of a position paper is 2001 words.
• Industrial problem statements (1 page or longer)
  People from industry are especially encouraged to submit problem statements, which may address mis-matches between current RE practice and research and/or emerging areas of concern for RE practitioners.

Send your contribution by e-mail in RTF- or PDF-format before March 9 2001 (hard arrival date) to:

Camille Ben Achour - Salinesi
Centre de Recherche en Informatique
Bur. C1405
University Paris 1 - Sorbonne
90, rue de Tolbiac
75013 Paris - FRANCE

Phone : +33 (0)1 44 07 88 94
or : +33 (0)1 44 07 86 34
or : +33 (0)1 44 07 86 04
Fax : +33 (0)1 44 07 89 54

Please do not submit a hard copy, because the accepted papers will be distributed electronically to the reviewers and to the other participants before the workshop.

I M P O R T A N T   D A T E S

Hard submission deadline:		March 9, 2001
Notification of acceptance:		April 16, 2001
Preliminary program:		April 16, 2001
Papers available electronically:		April 23, 2001
Author registration due:		April 30, 2001
Camera ready paper due:		May 15, 2001
REFSQ'2001 workshop:		June 4-5, 2001

P R O G R A M   C O - C H A I R S

P R O G R A M   C O M M I T T E E

Franck Barbier, IRIN - France	Camille Ben Achour - Salinesi, Univ. of Paris 1 - Sorbonne - France
Daniel M. Berry, Univ. of Waterloo - Canada	Sjaak Brinkkemper, BAAN - The Netherlands
Eric Dubois, CRPHT - Belgium	Brian Henderson-Sellers, Univ. of Technology, Sydney - Australia
John Krogstie, SINTEF - Norway	Dieter Landes, Coburg Univ. of Technology - Germany
Søren Lauesen, IT Univ. - Denmark	Michel Léonard, C.U.I - Swizerland
Peri Loucopoulos, UMIST - UK	Kalle Lyytinen, Case Western reserve Univ. and Univ. of Jyväskylä - Finland
Neil Maiden, City Univ., London - UK	Pentti Marttiin, Nokia - Finland
Anders Nilsson, Karlstad Univ. - Sweden	Bashar Nuseibeh, Imperial College - UK
Antoni Olive, Technical Univ. of Catalonia - Spain	Andreas L. Opdahl, Univ. of Bergen - Norway
Barbara Pernici, Politecnico di Milano - Italy	Anne Persson, Univ. of Skövde - Sweden
Klaus Pohl, Univ. of Essen - Germany	Naveen Prakash, UMIST - UK
Sandeep Purao, Georgia State Univ. - USA	Bala Ramesh, Georgia State Univ. - USA
Björn Regnell, Lund Univ. of Technology - Sweden	Colette Rolland, Univ. of Paris 1 - Sorbonne - France
Matti Rossi, Helsinki School of Economics - Finland	Peter Sawyer, Lancaster Univ. - UK
Guttorm Sindre, Norwegian Univ. of Science and Technology - Norway	Arne Sølvberg, The Norwegian Univ. Of Science and Technology - Norway
Paul Sorenson, Univ. of Alberta at Edmonton - Canada	Roel Wieringa, Univ. of Twente - The Netherlands
Eric Yu, Univ. of Toronto - Canada