FSE 2016 Panel: The State of Software Engineering Research

On Twitter! #FSEconf #panelBroadcast on YouTube: https://youtu.be/sE_jX92jJr8Continue the discussion at: http://margaretstorey.com/blog/2016/12/01/fse2016panel/

FSE 2016 Panel: The State of Software Engineering Research

Lionel Briand, University of LuxembourgPrem Devanbu, University of California at DavisPeri Tarr, IBM ResearchLaurie Williams, North Carolina State UniversityTao Xie, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Moderator: Margaret-Anne (Peggy) Storey, University of Victoria

Goal of the panel!

Todiscussandreflectonthestate of current software engineering research andhowwebelieveourworkimpacts (orshouldimpact)science, society and industry…

Our panelists!

Kickstarting the discussion: 1.Doyoubelieveourcommunityasawholeisachievingtheright balance of science, engineering and design inourcombinedresearchefforts?

2.Whatneworexistingareas of research do you think our community should pay more attention to?

3.Doyouhavenovelsuggestionsforhowwecouldimprove our research methods toincreasetheimpactofsoftwareengineeringresearchinthenearanddistantfuture?

Panelist: Tao Xie

• Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• Automated software testing, mobile security, software analytics

• ACM distinguished researcher

TaoXie

SocietalImpactACMRichardTapiaCelebrationofDiversityinComputing

JoinusatthenextTapiaConferenceinAtlanta,GAonSeptember20-23,2017!SubmissionDeadline:Jan29,2017

http://tapiaconference.org/

MargaretBurnett:“Womenomics &Gender-InclusiveSoftware”

“Because anybody who thinks that we’re just here because we’re smart forgets that we’re also privileged, and we have to extend that farther. So we’ve got to educate and help every generation and we all have to keep it up in lots of ways.”

– David Notkin, 1955-2013

AndyKo:“WhytheSoftwareIndustryNeedsComputingEducationResearch”

TaoXie

ImpactonResearchCommunitiesBeyondSE

RepresentationalStateTransfer(REST)asakeyarchitecturalprincipleofWWW(2000)

Relatedtofunding/head-countallocation,studentrecruitment,…à communitygrowth

RoyFielding RichardTaylor

…AndreasZeller

Deltadebugging(1999)Symbolicexecution(1976)alsobyJamesKing,WilliamHowden,KarlLevitt,etal.

LoriClarke

TaoXie

PracticeImpact• Diverse/balancedresearchstylesshall/canbeembraced

• Ourcommunityalreadywellappreciatesimpactonotherresearchers,e.g.,SIGSOFTImpactAwards,ICSEMIP,papercitations

• Butofteninsufficienteffortforlastmileageorfocusonrealproblems

• Strongneedofecosystemtoincentivizepracticeimpactpursuedbyresearchers

• Topdown:

• Bottomup:• ConferencePCforreviewingpapers

• Impactcounterpartof“highlynovelideas”?• Impactcounterpartof“artifactevaluation”?

• Promoteandrecognizepracticeimpact• CounterpartofACMSoftwareSystemAward? TaoXie

Panelist: Laurie Williams

• Professor at North Carolina State University

• Software security, testing, agile programming

• Founded the XP/Agile conference

TheStateofSoftwareEngineeringResearch

LaurieWilliamsNorthCarolinaStateUniversity

SoftwareEngineeringResearch

• Softwareispervasiveandubiquitous• Theworldisincreasinglyinterconnectedandinstrumented• Whatroledoweplay?• Howdowekeepup?

• Inourwork,wemustEMBRACEtheREALITYofthisworldandseektomakeitbetter.

LaurieWilliams

Reality:AttackersUnceasing• Breachesandattacksareadailyevent• Usersaccidentlyactinsecurely,clickonthings• Moreinsecuresoftwareproducedeveryday• Howcanwedevelopsoftwarethatprotectsusersfromthemselves?

• Howcanweprovidesmethodsandtoolstohelpdevelopersproducemoresecurecodewithoutdisruptingtheirworkflowtoomuch?

• Cybersecurity impactseverylineofresearch.

LaurieWilliams

Reality:Rapiddeployment• CompanieslikeGoogle,Netflix,Facebookdeploysoftwaremultipletimesperday

• Manycompaniesareadoptingthesecontinuousdeploymentpracticesasmuchaspossible

• Developerstesttheirowncode• Codeistestedinproduction• Requirementsareanalyzedthroughexperimentationwithactualusers

• Continuousdeploymentimpactseverylineofresearch

LaurieWilliams

Panelist: Peri Tarr

• Principal research staff member at IBM TJ Watson’s Lab and technical lead for cognitive tools and methods at IBM

• Software composition, aspect oriented software development

• ICSE influential paper award on separation of concerns

Aviewfromthefrontlines

PeriTarr,[email protected],IBMResearchSpecialthanksto:BrentHailpern,HaroldOssher,StanSutton

AllopinionsaremineandneednotreflectIBM’sperspective

StateofSoftwareEngineeringResearch

SoftwareEngineeringResearch

FromtheGreatStateofSEResearch…

StateoftheArtStateofthePracticeStrongersoftwaretogether!Makesoftwaregreat!

Peri Tarr

CompetitiveDifferentiatorSpend$$è IncreasedprofitInvestment (valuecreation)

CostofDoingBusinessSpend$$è LowerprofitExpense(costcenter)

Theworldischanged.IfeelitinSOTP…butnotyetinSOTA

• Softwarehascrossedfrom“competitivedifferentiator”to“costofdoingbusiness”• SignificantcommoditizationexistsinareaswhereSEresearchhasbeenprominent• Practitionersdrivingmanyaspectsofsoftwarelifecycle…notlookingtoresearchfor(much)help

• Inmanyplaces,thebusinesscaseforSEresearchhaschangedsubstantiallyasaresult• IntraditionalSE,it’sreducingcosts,notcreatingvalue

• ThechangingworldoffersmanyopportunitiesforSEtocreatenew value17

“Theworldischanged.Ifeelitinthewater.Ifeelitintheearth.Ismellitintheair.”~LordoftheRings

commoditization

Businesslifetimeofagoodidea

Peri Tarr

Thesunsetstoriseagain,onaworldneedingSEresearch.(Bigly.)

• Manyhigh-impact,societallyimportant,value-creationareashavecomeofage• Cognitive,healthcare,environment,education,qualityoflife,economics,security,…• CriticalproblemsandsolutionsareintheirintersectionwithSE

• SEresearchisneededdesperatelyintheintersectionoftheseareas!• Someoftheseareheadedforthesoftwarecrisiscliff(oralreadyfallingoffit)• +Educationinrelevantareas!(ML,analytics,distributedsystems,HCI,cloud,ethics,robotics,…)

18

“Mustindeathyourdaylightfinish?Mysunsetstoriseagain.”~RobertBrowning

CompetitiveDifferentiatorNewareas,needdrivingbyresearch

CostofDoingBusinessTraditionalareas,drivenbySOTP

CompetitiveDifferentiatorNewareas,highpotentialforimpact

Investmoreheavilyhere.

CostofDoingBusinessTraditionalSEareas,nowSOTPdriven

Declaresuccess.Limitresearchinvestment

Astheworldchanges,ourresearchinvestmentsmustchangewithit

Peri Tarr

Don’tbeafraidtodreamalittlebigger.(Ifnotus,who?)• Researchersarepaidtotakebiggerrisksthatmayleadtobiggerrewards

• Somegood,impactfulresearchiscomingoutofourcommunity• Alsosomeveryincrementalresearch—wellexecuted,butunlikelytohavemajorimpact

• PeopledoingSEtodayfacehugeimpedimentsandreal-worldconstraints• Increasingly,peoplewhoarenottraditionaldevelopersaredoingdevelopment• Theirsolutionsmustbecloud-scale,mobile,social,highlyusableandpersonalized,bigdata,etc.

• Thereisanabundanceofrealproblemsneedingrealresearchandreal-worldsolutions

• Doesyourresearchproblemmatter?Isthesolutionuseful?Knowthebusinesscase.• Theworldneedsustodreamalittlebigger,inareaswithhighervalue-creationopportunities• MindtheSOTA/SOTPgap!

19

"Youmustn'tbeafraidtodreamalittlebigger,darling.”~Inception

Peri Tarr

Summary• TheworldSEresearchbenefitshaschanged.We’reataninflectionpoint.

• Manytraditionalareashavebecomecommoditized. (Businesscase:costsavings)• New,high-impactareashaveappearedorcomeofage.(Businesscase:valuegeneration)

• Howithaschangedneedstoaffectourresearch.• Putsignificantresearchemphasison“value-generation”areas.ManyareintheintersectionofcriticalsocietalissuesandSE.

• Don’tbeafraidtodeclaresuccessinareaswherepractitionersarerunningwiththeball.• Don’tbeafraidtodreamalittlebigger.(Ifnotus,who?)Butdon’thallucinate!

• Researchersarepaidtotakebiggerrisksinsearchofbiggerrewards.• PeopledoingSEtodayfacemany significantchallenges.Thereisanabundanceofreal problemsneedingrealresearchanduseful solutionsthatmeetreal-worldconstraints.

• TheSOTA/SOTPgapremainsdifficulttocross.Modernnormsmayofferopportunities.• OpensourceprovidesonepotentialpathtoresearchimpactontheSOTP.• Numerousandincreasingopportunitiesforcollaborationswithpractitioners.

Peri Tarr

Panelist: Prem Devanbu

• Professor at UC Davis, formerly at Bell/AT&T Labs

• Empirical software engineering, naturalness of software and diversity of gender

• Winner of numerous best paper awards

Prem Devanbu

Panelist: Lionel Briand

• Currently leads the Software Verification and Validation Lab at the University of Luxembourg

• He has received the IEEE Harlan Mills Award in 2012 among other awards

• Advocates for research that is practical to industry

.lusoftware verification & validationVVS

TheStateofSoftwareEngineeringResearch

LionelBriand

November16,2016

Question 1• Do you believe our community as a whole is achieving the right

balance of science, engineering, and design in its combined research efforts?

• Engineering and design aspects do not get nearly enough attention.

• We need to devise not only novel, sound solutions but also practical and scalable ones.

• Significant variations across domains and contexts.

LionelBriand

Question 2• What new or existing areas of research do you think our community should

pay more attention to?• The problem is not with the areas we focus on, but with the dominant

paradigm of academic research. • Research largely disconnected from practical engineering needs and

priorities.• We fail to recognize the significant variations across domains and context.• In our discipline, context factors (including human ones), working

assumptions, make a huge difference.

LionelBriand

Question 3• Do you have novel suggestions for how we could improve our research

methods to increase the impact of software engineering research in the near and distant future?

• More collaborative research with industry, leading to a better definition and prioritization of problems, realistic working assumptions in various application domains, better evaluation of practicality and scalability.

• We are not a branch of computer science. We need to accept the fact that industrial (applied) research, driven by practicality and scalability considerations, is a necessary component of an engineering discipline.

LionelBriand

FSE2016Audience!

1.Doyoubelieveourcommunityasawholeisachievingtheright balance of science, engineering and design inourcombinedresearchefforts?

Zhendong: What is research? What is the purpose of our research community?

1.Doyoubelieveourcommunityasawholeisachievingtheright balance of science, engineering and design inourcombinedresearchefforts?

2.Whatneworexistingareas of research do you think our community should pay more attention to?

3.Doyouhavenovelsuggestionsforhowwecouldimprove our research methods toincreasetheimpactofsoftwareengineeringresearchinthenearanddistantfuture?

Are we spending too much time studying the past and present, rather then preparing for future of software engineering?

TwitterFeed DuringthePanel#FSEConf#Panel

Youtube

THANK YOU!The State of Software Engineering Research

Lionel Briand, University of LuxembourgPrem Devanbu, University of California at DavisPeri Tarr, IBM ResearchLaurie Williams, North Carolina State UniversityTao Xie, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Moderator: Margaret-Anne (Peggy) Storey, University of Victoria

On Twitter! #FSEconf #panelBroadcast on YouTube: https://youtu.be/sE_jX92jJr8Continue the discussion at: http://margaretstorey.com/blog/2016/12/01/fse2016panel/

FSE 2016 Panel: The State of Software Engineering Research

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