Requirements Engineering: the Essential Bridge

The world is becoming ever more dependent on software intensive systems. They are central to our economy, to our society, to the services we depend upon and, increasingly to the very survival of the global ecosystem. Despite many failures, some of them very well publicized, the engineering of such systems has improved consistently over the past few decades. However many challenges remain. Every computer-based system involves relating the myriad, informal facets of the real world to the intricate and formal specifics of a software system. Understanding potentials or details of software systems is not expected of stakeholders, who have their own specialized concerns. Similarly, the eager and technologically capable developers are not expected to understand the nuances of the many domains where software applies. Requirements Engineering (RE) is the essential capability that can bridge the two perspectives. The RE activity is multi-disciplinary. When defining the requirements of major systems we must bring to bear expertise from a wide range of specialisms such as Human-Computer Interaction, Systems Modeling, and Security. The RE research field builds the effective bridges between these and other sub-disciplines of the Computer Science and Information Systems fields. The many computer-based system needs of business and society are often contradictory, inadequately defined, and rapidly changing. RE helps stakeholders communicate, helping to reconcile their conflicts, clarify their goals, and reflect their priorities. If our society is to seek a better future we will need all of the models, methods, and tools that RE can provide.

The IEEE International Requirements Engineering Conference provides the premier international forum for researchers, educators, industrial practitioners and students to present and discuss the most recent innovations, trends, experiences and concerns in the field of requirements engineering.
Topics of interest include, but are not restricted to: requirements elicitation, analysis, documentation, validation and verification; requirements specification languages, methods, processes and tools; requirements management, traceability, viewpoints, prioritization and negotiation; modeling of requirements (formal and informal), goals and domains; prototyping, simulation and animation; evolution of requirements over time, product families and variability; relating requirements to business goals, products, architecture and testing; social, cultural, global, personal and cognitive factors in requirements engineering; domain-specific problems, experiences and solutions. There is a particular welcome for papers that cross disciplines, combine paradigms or otherwise address the conference theme.
Paper Categories

We will invite submissions of high quality papers in four categories:

Technical solution papers present solutions for requirements-related problems that are novel or significantly improve existing solutions. A technical solution paper must include a preliminary validation of the proposed solution.

Scientific evaluation papers evaluate existing problem situations or validate/refute proposed solutions with scientific means, i.e. by empirical studies, experiments, case studies, simulations, formal analyses, mathematical proofs, etc. Scientific reflection on problems and practices in industry also falls into this category.

Industrial practice and experience papers present problems or challenges encountered in practice, discuss insights, innovations in industrial practice, success and failure stories. The focus is on 'what' and on lessons learned, not on an in-depth analysis of 'why'. Otherwise, consider submitting a scientific evaluation paper.

Survey or review papers abstract from the current state of the art and provide insightful observations, fruitful analogies or propose significant and novel research directions. Contributions that link RE to other fields of endeavor would belong here. Please note that this is not a forum for research proposals or personal opinion pieces.

More details about the paper categories, corresponding review evaluation criteria and submission dates will be provided on the conference website, http://www.re09.org.

Papers must describe original work not submitted or presented at other forums. Accepted papers will be published in an IEEE CS Press Conference Proceedings and will be available in the IEEE CS Digital Library.
Submission Information

Submissions will be handled electronically at the RE'09 submission site. Authors without web access must make advance arrangements with the Program Chair at least one week before the deadline. Technical solution and scientific evaluation papers must not exceed 10 pages. Industrial practice/experience and survey/review papers must not exceed 6 pages. Submissions must be formatted according to the IEEE CS proceedings format (see http://www.computer.org/portal/site/cscps/ for instructions and templates). More detail on submission procedures will be available on the conference website.
Other Contributions

We invite proposals for tutorials, workshops, panels, and submissions for doctoral symposium contributions, posters, videos, and research demonstrations.
Important Dates

Paper abstracts: February 2, 2009

Paper submissions (all categories): February 12, 2009

Tutorial, workshop and panel submissions: March 9, 2009

Notification to authors: April 22, 2009

Doctoral symposium, poster and other submissions: May 11, 2009