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REFSQ 2021
Mon 12 - Thu 15 April 2021 Germany

Requirements Engineering (RE) is a critical factor in developing high-quality and successful software, systems and services. The REFSQ working conference series is an established international forum for discussing current and state-of-the-art RE practices, celebrating its 26th year.

The special theme of REFSQ 2021 is “Ethics as a cornerstone of Requirements Engineering” to emphasize the importance of human values, such as privacy and fairness, when designing software-intensive systems as well as the challenges that intelligent and autonomous systems pose due to the tight interplay with humans.

Other Contributions

REFSQ 2021 also calls for workshops focussing on relevant topics, posters and tools, doctoral symposium submissions, and an OpenRE track. Information will follow soon!

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Dates
Plenary
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Tue 13 Apr

Displayed time zone: Amsterdam, Berlin, Bern, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna change

10:00 - 10:15
Conference OpeningResearch Papers at Room 1: Essen
Chair(s): Fabiano Dalpiaz Utrecht University, Paola Spoletini Kennesaw State University
10:15 - 11:15
Paper Session 1: Adaptive SystemsResearch Papers at Room 1: Essen
Chair(s): Norbert Seyff FHNW & University of Zurich
10:15
30m
Paper
AdaptationExplore– a Process for Elicitation, Negotiation, and Documentation of Adaptive Requirements
Research Papers
Fabian Kneer , Erik Kamsties FH Dortmund, Klaus Schmid Stiftung University Hildesheim
10:45
30m
Paper
Defining Utility Functions for Multi-Stakeholder Self-Adaptive Systems
Research Papers
Rebekka Wohlrab Carnegie Mellon University, David Garlan Carnegie Mellon University, USA
11:15 - 11:30
11:30 - 12:30
Paper Session 2: Analysts' Competence and TrainingResearch Papers at Room 1: Essen
Chair(s): Martin Glinz University of Zurich
11:30
30m
Paper
On Understanding the Relation of Knowledge and Confidence to Requirements Quality
Research Papers
Razieh Dehghani , Krzysztof Wnuk Blekinge Institute of Technology , Daniel Mendez Blekinge Institute of Technology, Tony Gorschek Blekinge Institute of Technology / DocEngineering, Raman Ramsin
12:00
30m
Paper
SaPeer Approach for Training Requirements Analysts: an Application Tailored to a Low-resource Context
Research Papers
Jéssyka Vilela Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Alessio Ferrari CNR-ISTI
11:30 - 12:30
Paper Session 3: Software EcosystemsResearch Papers at Room 2: Duisburg
Chair(s): Erik Kamsties FH Dortmund
11:30
30m
Paper
Requirements Engineering in the Planning Phase of a Software Ecosystem
Research Papers
Kati Saarni , Marjo Kauppinen Aalto University
12:00
30m
Paper
Power and Privacy in Software Ecosystems: A Study on Data Breach Impact on Tech Giants
Research Papers
Maria Eduarda Rebelo , George Valença Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco (UFRPE), Fernando Aires
13:00 - 13:30
13:30 - 15:00
Paper Session 4: Natural Language ProcessingResearch Papers at Room 1: Essen
Chair(s): Sjaak Brinkkemper Utrecht University
13:30
30m
Paper
Is Requirements Similarity a Good Proxy for Software Similarity? An Empirical Investigation in Industry
Research Papers
Muhammad Abbas Mälardalen University, RISE Research Institutes of Sweden AB, Alessio Ferrari CNR-ISTI, Anas Shatnawi University of Milano-Bicocca, Eduard Paul Enoiu Mälardalen University, Mehrdad Saadatmand RISE Research Institutes of Sweden
DOI Pre-print
14:00
30m
Paper
Automatic Detection of Causality in Requirement Artifacts: the CiRA Approach
Research Papers
Jannik Fischbach Qualicen GmbH, Julian Frattini Blekinge Institute of Technology, Arjen Spaans , Maximilian Kummeth , Andreas Vogelsang University of Cologne, Daniel Mendez Technische Universität München, Michael Unterkalmsteiner
Pre-print
14:30
30m
Paper
Automatically Classifying Non-functional Requirements with Feature Extraction and Supervised Machine Learning Techniques: A Research Preview
Research Papers
Mahtab Ezzatikarami , Nazim Madhavji Western University
15:00 - 15:30
15:30 - 16:30
Keynote 1Research Papers at Room 1: Essen
Chair(s): Paola Spoletini Kennesaw State University
15:30
60m
Keynote
Practicing (whose?) values: requirements engineering as a catalyst for technology justice.
Research Papers
K: Katie Shilton University of Maryland
16:30 - 17:30
Social(ly distanced) Get-TogetherBreak at Room 1: Essen

We are very sad that we will not be able to have a typical REFSQ dinner with great food, good music and lots of dancing!

But we will use this session to foster the social gathering with new and old acquaintances, share old memories, discuss new ideas and conduct some very new “virtual REFSQ” activities.

News: During this session the winner of the best paper award will be announced!

Thu 15 Apr

Displayed time zone: Amsterdam, Berlin, Bern, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna change

10:00 - 10:15
Award SessionResearch Papers at Room 1: Essen
Chair(s): Fabiano Dalpiaz Utrecht University, Paola Spoletini Kennesaw State University
10:15 - 11:15
Keynote 2Research Papers at Room 1: Essen
Chair(s): Marcela Ruiz ZHAW School of Engineering
10:15
60m
Keynote
The Challenge(s) of Teaching Requirements Engineering
Research Papers
K: Martin Glinz University of Zurich
File Attached
11:15 - 11:30
11:30 - 13:00
Paper Session 5: Generating and Tracing RequirementsResearch Papers at Room 1: Essen
Chair(s): Andrea Herrmann Herrmann & Ehrlich
11:30
30m
Paper
Iterative and Scenario-based Requirements Specification in a System of Systems Context
Research Papers
12:00
30m
Paper
Improving Trace Link Recovery using Semantic Relation Graphs and Spreading Activation
Research Papers
Aaron Schlutter Technische Universität Berlin, Andreas Vogelsang University of Cologne
Link to publication DOI Pre-print
12:30
30m
Paper
CORG: A Component-Oriented Synthetic Textual Requirements Generator
Research Papers
Aya Zaki Ismail , Mohamed Osama , Mohamed Abdelrazek Deakin University, Australia, John Grundy Monash University, Amani Ibrahim
11:30 - 13:00
Paper Session 6: AI ServicesResearch Papers at Room 2: Duisburg
Chair(s): Maya Daneva University of Twente
11:30
30m
Paper
Trustworthy AI Services in the Public Sector: What Are Citizens Saying about it?
Research Papers
12:00
30m
Paper
Risk-driven Compliance Assurance for Collaborative AI Systems: A Vision Paper
Research Papers
Matteo Camilli Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Michael Felderer University of Innsbruck, Andrea Giusti , Dominik Tobias Matt , Anna Perini Fondazione Bruno Kessler, Barbara Russo Free University of Bolzano, Angelo Susi Fondazione Bruno Kessler
12:30
30m
Paper
Specifying requirements for data collection and analysis in Data-Driven RE. A Research Preview
Research Papers
Maurizio Astegher , Paolo Busetta , Anna Perini Fondazione Bruno Kessler, Angelo Susi Fondazione Bruno Kessler
13:00 - 13:30
15:00 - 15:30
15:30 - 16:30
Keynote 3Research Papers at Room 1: Essen
Chair(s): Fabiano Dalpiaz Utrecht University
15:30
60m
Keynote
What makes intelligent visual analytics tools really intelligent?
Research Papers
16:30 - 16:45
Conference ClosingResearch Papers at Room 1: Essen

Not scheduled yet

Not scheduled yet
Talk
Posters: short talks
Research Papers

Accepted Papers

Title
AdaptationExplore– a Process for Elicitation, Negotiation, and Documentation of Adaptive Requirements
Research Papers
Automatically Classifying Non-functional Requirements with Feature Extraction and Supervised Machine Learning Techniques: A Research Preview
Research Papers
Automatic Detection of Causality in Requirement Artifacts: the CiRA Approach
Research Papers
Pre-print
CORG: A Component-Oriented Synthetic Textual Requirements Generator
Research Papers
Defining Utility Functions for Multi-Stakeholder Self-Adaptive Systems
Research Papers
Improving Trace Link Recovery using Semantic Relation Graphs and Spreading Activation
Research Papers
Link to publication DOI Pre-print
Is Requirements Similarity a Good Proxy for Software Similarity? An Empirical Investigation in Industry
Research Papers
DOI Pre-print
Iterative and Scenario-based Requirements Specification in a System of Systems Context
Research Papers
On Understanding the Relation of Knowledge and Confidence to Requirements Quality
Research Papers
Power and Privacy in Software Ecosystems: A Study on Data Breach Impact on Tech Giants
Research Papers
Requirements Engineering in the Planning Phase of a Software Ecosystem
Research Papers
Risk-driven Compliance Assurance for Collaborative AI Systems: A Vision Paper
Research Papers
SaPeer Approach for Training Requirements Analysts: an Application Tailored to a Low-resource Context
Research Papers
Specifying requirements for data collection and analysis in Data-Driven RE. A Research Preview
Research Papers
Trustworthy AI Services in the Public Sector: What Are Citizens Saying about it?
Research Papers

Call for Papers

Requirements Engineering (RE) is a critical factor in developing high-quality and successful software, systems and services. The REFSQ working conference series is an established international forum for discussing current and state-of-the-art RE practices, celebrating its 27th year.

Working Conference Format

REFSQ has a long tradition of being a highly structured and interactive event. Each session is organised to emphasize discussion among the presenters of papers, pre-assigned discussants, and all the other participants. The REFSQ’21 program will include keynote speakers, technical papers, research previews, industrial presentations, as well as posters and tools. Workshops and the REFSQ doctoral symposium will be co-located with the main conference.

Scope

REFSQ 2021 seeks reports of novel ideas and techniques that enhance the quality of RE products and processes, reflections on current research and industrial RE practices, as well as new views on RE. We invite submissions on any aspect of RE. We encourage researchers and practitioners from the RE, software engineering, information systems, service science, embedded systems, and product management fields to present original work. RE methods, tools and processes are expected to support engineering diverse types of systems of different scale and complexity and are applied in diverse domains. As such, contributions from related areas such as systems engineering, economics, and management, providing insights to RE, are welcome.

The special theme of REFSQ 2021 is “Ethics as a cornerstone of Requirements Engineering” to emphasize the importance of human values, such as privacy and fairness, when designing software-intensive systems as well as the challenges that intelligent and autonomous systems pose due to the tight interplay with humans.

Submissions

We invite original submissions in several categories:

  • Technical design papers (15 pages) describe the design of new artifacts, i.e., novel solutions for requirements-related problems or significant improvements of existing solutions.

  • Scientific evaluation papers (15 pages) investigate existing real-world problems, evaluate existing real-world implemented artifacts, or validate newly designed artifacts, e.g., by means such as case studies, experiments, simulation, surveys, systematic literature reviews, mapping studies, or action research.

  • Vision papers (6 pages) state where research in the field should be heading.

  • Research previews (6 pages) describe well-defined research ideas at an early stage of investigation which may not be fully developed.

Formatting

All submission must be formatted according to the Springer LNCS/LNBIP conference proceedings template (for LaTeX and Word): https://www.springer.com/gp/computer-science/lncs/conference-proceedings-guidelines. As per the guidelines, please remember to include keywords after your abstract.

Furthermore, to facilitate accurate bidding and a better understanding of the papers, each paper submitted to REFSQ 2021 is required to have a structured abstract. The imposed structure demands each abstract to have exactly 4 paragraphs with the following content:

  • Context and motivation: Situate and motivate your research.
  • Question/problem: Formulate the specific question/problem addressed by the paper.
  • Principal ideas/results: Summarize the ideas and results described in your paper. State, where appropriate, your research approach and methodology.
  • Contribution: State the main contribution of your paper. What’s the value you add (to theory, to practice, or to whatever you think that the paper adds value). Also state the limitations of your results.

Three examples of structured abstracts are given here.

Submission, Reviewing and Publication

Contributions must be submitted on https://easychair.org/my/conference?conf=refsq2021.

Each submission in the scope of REFSQ will undergo a single-blind review process that will involve at least three members of the program committee.

The REFSQ 2021 proceedings will be published in Springer’s LNCS series. The best papers will be invited to a special issue of the Requirements Engineering Journal.