ISSRE Charter

Ram Chillarege, Chair, Chillarege Inc.
Karama Kanoun, LAAS, CNRS
Yashwant Maliaya, University of Colorado
Veena Mendirata, Lucent
Norm Schneidwind, Naval Postgraduate School

Background & Summary

In the fall of 1998, a committee to revisit the charter of the ISSRE was recommended and approved at the TC meeting. The committee was formed in early 1999 and its work was completed by the summer. The committee’s deliberations and findings were documented in the report dated 7/7/1999. They are available online and referenced below.

The findings and recommendations have been in discussion for several months. Credit must be given to subsequent conference and program chairs for the rapid implementation of ideas. The creation of the Industrial Day and the early adoption of the FastAbstracts concepts are testimony to the desire for progress and competitiveness of our community.

In the fall of 2001, there was a technical committee meeting in Hong Kong.  The recommendations were to be finalized using the voting process.  We needed to have a detailed itemized list of recommendations.  Since it had been almost 3 years, the Charter committee chose to briefly revisit the subject.  Factoring in current practices as well as lessons learned they created a new detailed itemized list of recommendations for election. 

The following is a list of consolidated recommendations by the Charter Committee:

References
Working Details of the Charter Committee:   http://www.chillarege.com/issrecharter
Charter Committee Presentation: http://www.chillarege.com/issrecharter/issre99v11.PDF

Recommendations
    1. Steering Committee (SC)

• The responsibility of the SC is to lead the conference long term. It includes the implementation of this charter, the selection of future conferences, and setting the overall goals for the directionality of this conference as well as the technical community. While the primary task of the SC is governance of the conferences it also takes on the role of mentoring.
• Member Tenure: 4 years
• Maximum number of consecutive terms: 2
• Recommended Size: 9.
• Five (5) members are appointed by the current committee.
• Four (4) members are selected by election.
• Elections and/or appointments are to occur every two years.
• The electorates are those who have served in an official capacity at ISSRE conferences within the past 5 years. Official capacity is defined as those that have served in the roles of an ISSRE “conference committee” or “program committee” member.
• Election is administered by a committee appointed by the SC.
• The SC membership should maintain a diverse group of people from the  Industry, Academia and Information Technology Services
• The combination of appointments and elections are designed to judiciously bring in distinguished members who will strongly contribute to the SC. It also keeps membership open to individuals in the community. 
• Appointments should be used judiciously to bring in distinguished individuals who will strongly contribute the SC.  The election keeps membership open to individuals in the community.
• The SC should strive to recruit members that are leaders and visionaries. They need to have the ability to positively impact the development and growth of the Software Reliability Engineering area and symposium.
• Seeding the new SC in 2005:
• a. This committee will appoint 5 members with staggered terms ranging from 2 years to 4 years.
• b. Elections for the additional 4 positions will occur in 2005-06. Staggered terms of 2 years and 4 years will be by ballot.

  2. Election of the Steering Committee Chair (SCC)

• The Steering Committee Chair must be a visionary and leader who can positively impact the Software Reliability Engineering area.
• The SCC is elected by the Steering Committee.
• Steering Committee Chair Tenure: 4 years
• Maximum number of consecutive terms: 2 years

 

  3. Area Chair (AC)

• Area Chair Tenure: 3 years (thereby having an influence and continuity across conferences).
• Appointed by SC. These appointments cannot be changed by the General Chair (GC) or Program Committee (PC) of a particular conference.
• Performance Review after their 1st year.
• ACs can be defined for the following areas: Fast Abstract, Industry Practice Day, Student Papers and Travel Grants, Keynote Speakers, etc.
• The AC is responsible for developing their areas and grooming their replacements for the conference
• The SC has the authority to add or delete areas having AC’s to best serve the ISSRE community.
• Transitions are ideally done through mentoring the new chair.
• Area Chair:  Industry Chair

The SC will appoint an Industry Chair, with a tenure of 3 years, whose responsibility will be to organize the Industry Practices Day(s).  The Industry Chair along with the SC will appoint a standing Industry Committee that overlooks this program over multiple years. The details of this responsibility will be detailed in the Document of Practices.  This area chair position is specifically called out in the Charter given its critical importance to the success of ISSRE.

 

   4. General Chair (GC) and Program Chair (PC)

• GC submits a proposal to chair a conference – (SC will make a sample proposal available, illustrating rationale, resources and a conference team that has the credabilility to execute.  The GC should have prior leadership experience in ISSRE, or be appropriately teamed.
• The GC can recommend PCs to the SC.  Final decision is by the SC.
• The composition of the Program Committee should change year to year balancing bringing in new people, and maintaining continuity.
• The role of the GC and PC are the execution of the specific conference they are chosen to lead. The GC and PC of a future year, must be active in the current (or prior) year’s conference, in some capacity, so as to gain experience.
• The GC and PC Chair(s) will be responsible and accountable for the planning and execution of an ISSRE conference.
• GC should have served as a PC member to qualify.
• Conference selection can be up to 3 years in advance, and no less than 18 months.
• The GC shall issue periodic reports on the status of the planning and execution of the conference to the SC. The GC and PC Chairs should use the SC for advice in planning for the conference.
• Members of the PC should change from year to year, to balance the need to bring new members to maintain continuity.
• The GC and PC will enroll the standing Area Chairs appointed by the SC during the tenure of their conference.

 

   5. Location

• Location should be practical to facilitate growth and quality of the conference.
• Given the current membership, the conference should periodically be held in US and non-US location.

 

   6. Industry - Academia Mix
 

• Maintain or elevate academic position.
• Focus on strong Industry interaction and application
• Create programs and tracks that focus on Academic Need
• Create programs and tracks that focus on Industrial Need
• The two can be separate tracks - on separate days, so that they allow greater interaction and synergize, not compete.

   7. Balancing Research and Practice

• Balance the research program from the practice program
• Distinct programs for research and practice should be visible
• Each should excel in its own space and domain
• Appoint chairs and sub program committees to manage them by their own standards.
• The tendency to become a “research only” conference as a channel for academics to publish “respectable” papers and suite the needs of only the academic community should be limited.
• At the same time, the alternate tendency to become a practice only conference should also be balanced.
• The conference should compare itself to the most successful conferences as a benchmark.  Examples being OOPSLA, ICSE, DACS, that have gained industry and academic respect and should be looked upon as models.

 

   8. Growth

• Focus on growth through programs that draw people.
• Initiatives such as FastAbstracts have demonstrated significant impact.
• Practice Day has also been a successful program
• Student travel grants have been proven to work.
• SC should review and introduce such initiatives for growth.
• Minimum goal is to reach 250 participants.

 

   9. Coordination with other conferences

• Should be considered as a regular review item.
• Minimally, co-locating conferences is a good thing, but so far has not been very successful.  This is an item for review by the SC.

 

10.  SC should produce a state-of-the ISSRE report every two years

• It should be a self evaluation against the goals set forth and review of successes and failures.
• The Area Chairs should write a paragraph on what and why the areas are important.  Ideally this should be data driven, not mere academic passion.
• Input from an industrial board would be excellent. While an industrial board has not been recommended, it is the of structure that can help ISSRE have greater impact in the area.  Work towards such panel for advice and counsel is welcomed.  A first step is to bring into the steering committee members with such experience.

 

  11.  Broadening of Agenda

• ISSRE should help develop a program that encompasses a variety of topics that contribute to evaluation, design and improvement of software reliability.
• Examples are: Software Testing, Process management, and Design which influence Software Reliability. 
• The appointment of AC that can help us achieve diversity of technical topics.

12. Operations and Efficiency

• Codify the best practices so that we improve ourselves.
• Mentor likely candidates for new chair positions and coach them on roles.
• Conduct post-mortem after a conference so that mistakes are not repeated.
• Key leadership should have prior ISSRE experience.
• Recognize success and failures.

 

 13. Tutorials

• Focus should be on education, involving both practice and research.
• Selection of tutorials should not be based purely on Tutorial proposals received by prospective instructors. The topics should satisfy needs in Industry and Academia.
• The Industry Committee should provide input on the topics that represent the current needs in Industry for workshops and tutorial.

 

14. Documentation of Practices

• The SC should develop and maintain a Document of Practices which can serve as a rule book and guide to organize ISSRE conferences.  This document is a resource available to each GC and PC, so we do not re-invent the wheel each year.  It also helps us maintain a certain standard that is beyond the scope of individual mentoring.  The practices should be public, so that the attendees of the conference can also examine the standards and processes that are used to select papers, run the conference and develop the area.
• For example, we have initiated the publication of a second set of proceedings that include FastAbstracts and Industrial papers.  The criteria for what papers make it to these proceedings and how they are published should be codified especially since we have streamlined the mechanism. 
• The following list of practices should be documented. The task can be assigned to someone with recent experience in the process but reviewed and endorsed by the SC. Periodically, they should be reviewed, enhanced and simultaneously managed with minimal deviation.

 

Conference Selection
Program Committee Selection
Industry Committee Selection
Review methods for research papers
Review methods for Fast Abstracts
Review methods for Industry Practice Day
Publication of the IEEE proceedings and the Supplimental proceedings, and selection of papers to each mechanism
Invited keynotes
Management of conflict of interest

15. Re-review of the Charter implementation

• Two years from the execution of the charter, the SC should appoint a committee to review the charter implementation.