[ecoop-info] Conference CFP Method Engineering

[Brian Henderson-Sellers]

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CALL FOR PAPERS

IFIP WG8.1 Working Conference on
Situational Method Engineering: Fundamentals and Experiences (ME'07)

http://www.MethodEngineering07.org

12 – 14 September 2007, Geneva, Switzerland
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CONFERENCE AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

Since the early 1980s, the IFIP WG8.1 conferences have provided a forum 
for the presentation and exchange of research results and practical 
experiences within the field of information systems development methods. 
After the successful conferences in Atlanta in 1996 and in Kanazawa in 
2002, it is now time to provide a forum for the exchange of ideas in and 
give a state of the art overview in Method Engineering. The WG8.1 
Working Conference will be held in the beautiful Lake of Geneva area in 
Switzerland. The conference programme will feature invited talks, paper 
presentations and interactive panel sessions. Besides, tutorials will be 
arranged to learn about the basics of Method Engineering. The format of 
a working conference allows for extensive paper discussions featured by 
discussant reviews in plenary sessions.

CONFERENCE THEME

Over the last decade Method Engineering, defined as the engineering 
discipline to design, construct and adapt methods, including supportive 
tools, has emerged as the research and application area for using 
methods for systems development. Hundreds of methods have been published 
ranging from generic methods to methods for specific projects or 
domains. We mention: Unified Process, RUP, DSDM, SSADM, Merise, OPEN 
Process Framework for general systems development; ARIS and DEM for ERP 
implementations; Scrum, XP (Xtreme Programming), Crystal in the agile 
movement; T-map for Testing; Attribute Driven Design method and TOGAF 
for software architecture; Archimate and Dynamic Architecture (DYA) for 
enterprise architecture.
Several theories have emerged as basic instruments in Method 
Engineering. Meta-modelling proves useful to identify the concepts and 
internal structure of a method, and provides means for building method 
support tools. Methods are understood to be built from so-called method 
fragments (or method chunks), which are stored in a method base and can 
be assembled in a newly configured method. Perspectives and viewpoints 
aid in distinguishing processes, deliverables and events in systems 
development. Situational Method Engineering was coined to deal with the 
adaptation of a generic method to the actual situation of a project. 
Tool support turns out to be not yet as successful as process management 
tools and metaCASE tools seem not to make it beyond the arena of 
specialists.
Many issues are still open for research. Studies in particular domains 
reveal that specific project needs are not covered, thus asking for 
method extensions or for specialized domain methods. Another issue is 
the classification and granularity of method fragments, or method 
chunks, that are to be configured into new methods. The notion of 
situationality of a method and of the suitability of method fragments 
has been investigated but still requires more theory and 
experimentation. The same applies for assembly and configuration of 
methods and tools, where formal construction techniques and assembly 
guidelines are to be explored. Most method engineering activities are 
nowadays performed from open methods or from corporate knowledge 
infrastructures and require further investigation. Experience reports 
and empirical validation of all these issues in industrial contexts will 
contribute to the theory building in the area of Method Engineering.

TOPICS

Fundamentals of Method Engineering

* Meta-modelling and method ontologies
* Situational method engineering
* Situation factors and suitability
* Method adaptation and extension techniques
* Configuration and tailoring of methods
* Process modelling
* Models, methods and tools for web-IS engineering
* Process simulation and enactment

Method Evaluation and Experiences

* Experience reports on method engineering
* Method comparison
* Best practice guides
* Impact on organisation structures and strategies
* Case studies
* Surveys of method usage

Methods for Specific Domains

* Requirements engineering
* E-business applications
* Web-applications and web services
* Component based development and COTS integration
* Software architecture
* Model-driven architecture (MDA)
* Agent information systems
* Product software
* IS re-engineering
* Project management
* Business process engineering and improvement
* Enterprise architecture
* Knowledge engineering and management
* Organizational engineering
* Mobile systems
* IS implementation

Supportive Tools

* Computer aided software engineering (CASE) tools
* Knowledge infrastructures and web-enabled methods
* Computer Aided Method Engineering (CAME) tools
* MetaCASE
* Process management tools