Industry ProgramECSA 2021

The Industry Track at ECSA 2021 brings together practicing software architects and software architecture researchers from regional, European, and worldwide communities. We are seeking contributions from industry that share challenges, practical solutions, successful practices, failures, and lessons learned while analyzing, designing, implementing, evaluating, and evolving software architectures.

Accepted Papers

Call for Papers

The Industry Track at ECSA 2021 brings together practicing software architects and software architecture researchers from regional, European, and worldwide communities. We are seeking contributions from industry that share challenges, practical solutions, successful practices, failures, and lessons learned while analyzing, designing, implementing, evaluating, and evolving software architectures.

Topics of interest include but are not limited to the following themes and topics:

Architectures for emerging technologies. Experiences with modern architectural concepts, technologies, and platforms, such as: Artificial intelligence and machine learning, Big data and blockchain, Internet of Things (IoT) and advanced cyber-physical/embedded systems, Microservices and reactive systems, Social networks and online games, Software-defined infrastructure (infrastructure as code).

Domain-specific challenges for software architects and architectures. Challenges in a particular industry or business sector, for instance: what makes it hard (and interesting) to be an architect in the Energy Industry (or any other domain)?

Architecture challenges in digitalization. Transitioning from non-software products and services to digital ones: for instance, technology or business model disruption (market dynamics), impact of/on regulation (or lack thereof), legacy system migration issues.

The interplay between software architecture and enterprise architecture. For example, conflicts between the value propositions and business models of a company and its organizational structure in business and IT.

Architecture specification and modeling. Agile modeling and sketching; Domain-Specific Languages (DSLs) for architects and Architecture Description Languages (ADLs); DSLs and ADLs supporting container management and DevOps practices; Containers as components/architectural elements; Ad-hoc design specifications vs. after-the-fact documentation.

Architectural patterns, principles, and technologies. Supporting stakeholders in development, integration and system administration: Architecting/implementing Domain-Driven Design (DDD), architecturally evident coding styles; API design and management; (micro-)service identification, specification, and realization; service meshes and gateways; Event sourcing and streaming; messaging and integration with Apache Kafka, GraphQL, gRPC, MQTT and RESTful HTTP, and other protocols.

Architecture support for and issues with software operation and maintenance. DevOps: CI/CD, automation/provisioning languages such as Terraform, Chef, Puppet; cyber security; Hosting options/deployment paradigms such as serverless computing, (function-as-a-service), cloud service and deployment models, edge and fog computing; associated technologies e.g. Docker, Kubernetes; Dealing with technical debt, tactics and strategies for surviving the past and moving to the future (legacy management and modernization).

Cross-cutting methods and practices. Agile architecting; Architectural governance on enterprise and all other levels: corporate, business, solution/product/service; Software architecture as a service for risk and project managers (e.g., design for auditability, compliance by design); Data and architecture: data provenance/governance, dealing with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliance, consent management.

Social and organizational aspects. KPIs and incentive structures for making architectures work; Ethics as a set of architecturally significant requirements and design concerns: for example: awareness and prioritization challenges, codes of conduct; Career planning for software architects: competences and skill profiles, certification programs and training.

The ECSA 2021 Industry Track aims to contribute bridging the gap between academia and industrial practice by establishing an open communication and discussion environment. It will offer researchers and practitioners the opportunity to interact with fellow professionals and develop new ideas and skills for addressing industrial problems, and collaborations.

There are two ways to contribute:

Full Papers: Full papers submitted to the Industry Track describe novel approaches and best practices from enterprise-scale industry projects. A paper should also report lessons learned from applying a novel method or approach on any topic of software architecture.

Full paper submissions will be peer reviewed by three members of the Industry Track Program Committee. Submissions will be selected based on originality, quality, soundness, practical relevance, and potential for discussion.

Short papers and Presentations: Short papers and presentations are focused on practices and experiences related to software architecture from industry. Submissions are in the form of extended abstracts or summaries of the content of the presentation.

Short papers and Presentations will also be peer reviewed and selected based on originality, practical relevance, and potential for discussion. These submissions can have, but do not require, a thorough evaluation.

All contributions must be original, not published, accepted or submitted for publication elsewhere. We discourage submissions that are mainly product or company marketing because they do not foster the open communication environment of the Industry Track.

Submissions/ Proceedings

All contributions are to be submitted electronically (PDF) to Easy Chair: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=ecsa2021 Please indicate “ECSA 2021 Industrial Track” in the category field.

Full papers: These papers should have up to 16 pages in Springer LNCS style. Accepted full papers will be published in the main proceedings of the conference published by Springer.

Important Dates for Full Papers (all deadlines are 23:59h Anywhere on Earth)

• Abstract Submission: May 13th, 2021
• Submissions due: May 17th, 2021
• Notification of acceptance: June 14th, 2021
• Camera ready versions due: June 29th, 2021

Short papers and Presentations: These papers should have min 5 to max 10 pages following the CEUR-ART style (available at http://ceur-ws.org/Vol-XXX/CEURART.zip) single column. These papers will be published in the companion volume (online proceedings in CEUR).

Accepted papers of this type may be invited for extension after the conference for publication in post-proceedings that will be published by Springer in an LNCS volume (up to 18 pages). Papers submitted for the post-proceedings will undergo an additional review cycle.

Important Dates for Short papers and Presentations (all deadlines are 23:59h Anywhere on Earth)

• Submissions due: July 2nd, 2021
• Notification of acceptance: July 22nd, 2021
• Camera ready versions due: July 29th, 2021