1^st International Workshop on Software Architectures and Human Values(SAHVA 2019)

Sep 10, 2019, Paris, France

Call for Papers

Building sustainable software systems requires an in-depth understanding about the role that software systems play in our society at a scale and along timeframes that are often difficult to grasp and envisage. We argue that a values ‘first’ software engineering (SE) perspective can offer new insights not only about the human and social aspects that shape SE decision-making processes, but also the potential uses, misuses, and vulnerabilities of complex sociotechnical systems afforded by high-level design decisions. While the area of values-based SE has explored means for identifying and making sense of values in the analysis of software production, more effort is required to investigate how values are ultimately instantiated in the architectural structuring of software systems, and the long-term implications of such design decisions.

This workshop provides a unique forum where students, researchers, and practitioners working on requirements engineering, software processes, societal aspects of SE, and software sustainability will meet to advance the field of value-based software architectures. We will do so by reporting cases of software design where values tensions may have led to systems failures or to mechanisms that have addressed or mitigated such tensions. The aim is to distil practice-based experiences, methods, and theory into a roadmap for this new and emerging research field.

In this workshop, we aim to understand the impact of values in software architectures, discuss the relationship of values to high-level decisions, identify potential tensions that require methods for value negotiation, and offer practical advice for value management within software processes. We also look for contributions that demonstrate how software architectures have been designed to meet a specific set of values or where values tensions may have led to systems failures or to mechanisms that have addressed or mitigated such tensions.

Topics of Interest :

• Requirements engineering
• Methods for requirements elicitation, representation, and validation
• User centered approaches
• Participatory design
• Scenarios
• Design rationale
• Problems in requirements
• Software processes
• Methods for analysis, design, development, and evaluation of values in software architectures
• New models for collaboration and participation
• Impact of human values in new software, systems, and services models
• Challenges and directions for continuous improvement of software, systems, and services driven by human values
• Impact of human values to project management
• Software evolution and maintenance
• Challenges and directions for value-based software architectures
• Societal aspects of software engineering
• Human and social aspects shaping SE decision-making processes
• Studies on the long-term implications of architectural design decisions to individual, social, technical, economical, and/or environmental sustainability dimensions
• Studies on ethics, privacy, and informed consent
• Potential uses, misuses, and vulnerabilities of complex social-technical systems afforded by high-level design decisions

Paper Submission

This workshop will consider three types of submissions:

* Regular papers (up to 6 pages): presenting new or tailored methods, processes, and tools supporting values 'first' in software architectures or systematic reviews and mapping on any of the themes of this workshop;

* Position papers (up to 4 pages): reporting preliminary results of ongoing studies in the themes of this workshop or identifying relevant challenges and/or promising directions for research; and

* Case studies (up to 4 pages): describing software designs where values tensions may have led to systems failures.

All papers must be written in English and follow the ACM formatting instructions and templates for conference papers, as specified under https://www.acm.org/publications/proceedings-template .

Important Dates