The observant among you will have noticed that the Code Generation 2010 web site is now live.

The conference will take place from June 16 – 18 2010 at Murray Edwards College, Cambridge – the same venue as for Code Generation 2009.

A Call for Speakers will be issued next month and we expect the full programme to be announced towards the end of February 2010.

If you can’t wait until then to find out more about Model Driven Software Development then please consider joining the Model Driven Software Network in the meantime.

I promised earlier that I would talk a bit about my own plans when I take part in October’s Practical Product Lines conference.

Being a co-organiser of the event I can’t be too biased but putting that aside for a moment here are the sessions I plan to take part in:

Mapping Product Line Value Streams – Marc Evers and Willem van den Ende. My reasoning – I’ve read about value streams but never applied them in a product line setting. I like getting my hands dirty in sessions and this promises to have lots of groupwork.

The challenges of implementing lifecycle management for Product Lines - Danilo Beuche. My reasoning – whole life cycle management for product lines is an emerging area. (We are also UK & Ireland distributors for pure::variants and a certain amount of loyalty must be shown…)

Productivity as a Management Tool - Peter Mazereeuw – My reasoning – I’ve never heard Peter speak and in my role as a product line consultant questions about measuring the success of the product line are key for senior management. I’m also keen to hear how other participants measure their product lines – and what sort of figures they’re seeing.

There are many other great sessions at the conference but having parallel streams always means I miss out on some good stuff. No doubt I’ll be kicking myself after I find out that people have got even more from the sessions I didn’t attend…

The early-bird deadline for October’s Practical Product Lines 2009 conference closes tomorrow. Save 100 Euro by booking now!

The 1st Practical Product Lines conference takes place from 20-21 October in Amsterdam.

The conference has 4 great keynote speakers lined up:

Jan Bosch (Intuit) – well-known software product line practitioner and researcher will talk about Software Product Lines: What got us here, won’t get us there - describing how companies using software product lines must adapt to changes in the development landscape in order to continue to have success with software product lines.

Markus Voelter (independent / itemis) – Model-Driven Software development guru and all-round nice guy will give a forward-looking talk on Language Workbenches and Software Product Lines - showing how these two concepts can come together in a way that will lead to Product Line Engineering for programming languages.

Dieter Rombach  executive and founding director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering (IESE) – will describe his organisation’s leadership in applying product line methods in industrial settings in his talk  Software Product Lines in Practice – A Fraunhofer Experience Report.

Dirk-Jan Swagerman of FEI presents a new (to me at least) experience report - Platform diversity and Innovation in electron microscopes - I’m hoping to learn a lot from this session, particularly around supporting product lines over a long time span – up to 20 years in this case.

There are 12 other sessions at the conference and I’ll comment on what I’m planning to attend later.

The early-bird booking period for the conference closes on 31st August – save 100 Euro by booking now. OMG and SPIder members get 10% off conference participation.

The Call for Speakers for the 2010 ACCU Conference is now available.

Call for Participation – ACCU 2010
April 14-17, 2010. Barcelo Oxford Hotel, Oxford, UK
Submission deadline: 30th of September 2009

Highlight: Special track on software testing, please read on
Email proposals to: Giovanni Asproni, conference@accu.org

We would like to invite you to present a session at this leading software development conference.

We have a long tradition of high quality sessions covering many aspects of software development, from programming languages (e.g., C, C++, Java, C#, Ruby, Groovy, Python, Erlang, Haskell, etc.),  and technologies (libraries, frameworks, databases, etc.) to subjects about the wider development environment such  as testing, development process, design, analysis, patterns, project management, and softer aspects such as team building, communication and leadership.

In particular, this year we are going to have a special track on software testing–we are interested in experience reports, techniques, lessons learned, etc.

Sessions may be either tutorial-based, presentations of case studies, or take the form of interactive workshops. We are always open to novel formats, so please contact us with your idea.

The standard length of a session is 90 minutes, with some exceptions.  In order to allow less experienced speakers to speak at the conference without the pressure of filling a full 90 minutes, we reserve a number of shorter 45 minute sessions.

If you would like to run a session please let us know by emailing your proposals to conference@accu.org by the 30th of September 2009 at the latest.

Please include the following to support your proposal:

• Title (a working title if necessary)
• Type (tutorial, workshop, case study, etc.) 
• Duration (45/90 min) 
• Speaker name(s) 
• Speaker biography (max 150 words)
• Description (approx 250 words)

Proposals about specific products and technologies will be taken under consideration only if they are open source and available for free (at least for non-commercial use). If you are interested in talking about a proprietary technology, there is the possibility of “sponsored sessions” which are presented outside the standard conference schedule. Please email conference@accu.org for more information.

If you are interested in knowing more about the conference you may like to consult the website for previous years’ editions at
www.accu.org/conference for background information.

Speakers running one or more full 90 minute sessions receive a special conference attendance package including free attendance, and assistance with their travel and accommodation costs. Speakers filling a 45 minute slot qualify for free conference attendance on the day of their session.

The conference has always benefited from the strength of its programme, making it the highlight of the year for many attendees. Please help us make 2010 another successful event.

I’ve taken part in the past three ACCU Conferences and spoken at the last two. It’s a large audience – for a UK conference – and knowledgeable – so very rewarding for a speaker.

The Call for Speakers for October’s Practical Product Lines 2009 conference in Amsterdam is Friday 26th June 2009.

Proposals are invited covering topics on any practical aspect of System and Software Product Lines.

Sessions could cover topics such as:

• Migrating legacy systems to Product Lines
• Model-Driven Software Development for Software Product Lines
• Product Line evolution
• Domain Analysis and Domain Engineering
• Agile methods for Software Product Lines
• Product Line Scoping, Requirements Engineering for Product Lines, Testing Software Product Lines, Variability Management etc.
• Tool and technology development and adoption
• Any other topic related to the practical realisation of Software Product Lines

Case studies and interactive sessions based on any aspect of these and related approaches are particularly encouraged although more theoretical sessions are also welcome.

Take part in Practical Product Lines 2009 and find out how you can boost your productivity while improving the quality and time-to-market of your products.

In addition to paying no conference fees, being a speaker gives you a unique opportunity to discuss your experiences with other Software Product Line practitioners.

Visit the Practical Product Lines 2009 web site for more information and to submit a proposal.

The first keynote speakers for October’s Practical Product Lines 2009 conference in Amsterdam have been announced as Jan Bosch (Intuit) and Markus Völter (independent / itemis).

Jan is a well-known product line speaker, practitioner and researcher with a long history working on software product lines and strategic software reuse with organisations such as Intuit, Nokia Research, Philips and others. Jan is the author of the book “Design and Use of Software Architectures: Adopting and Evolving a Product Line Approach” – probably my favourite book on Software Product Lines – and has published on, advised and implemented specific techniques and methods around, among others, software architecture, software variability management, the link to business strategy, organizational models, assessment frameworks, adoption frameworks and quality attributes.

Markus will be well-known to regular readers due to his participation in our Code Generation conference. He is an independent consultant and coach for software technology and engineering for itemis Stuttgart. He focuses on software architecture, model-driven software development and domain specific languages as well as on product line engineering. Markus is (co-) author of many magazine articles, patterns and books on middleware and model-driven software development and is founder of the popular Software Engineering Radio podcast.

Practical Product Lines 2009 is a new event for the System and Software Product Lines communities. The event has a strong practical focus with an emphasis on sharing successful practices in these areas. A Call for Speakers runs until 26th June and accepted speakers have their conference fees waived.

Please visit http://www.practicalproductlines.org/ppl2009/ for more information.

Booking for this year’s Code Generation conference in Cambridge, UK will close shortly.

Participants at previous year’s events have said it was the best conference they’ve been to in a long time with 100% of participants at last year’s event saying it was good value for money.

This year we have a very strong programme of 30+ sessions focussed on practical experiences with Code Generation and Model-Driven Software Development. This includes 3 extended hands-on sessions and lots of case studies, experiences reports and tutorials.

Discounted participation is available for our partners, participants from previous years and for academics.

Don’t miss out – book now at http://www.codegeneration.net/cg2009/booking.php - don’t say you weren’t warned if you leave it to long and the conference has sold out.

A quick reminder that the booking fees for next month’s Code Generation 2009 conference in Cambridge increase by 10% next week.

This is to reduce our stress levels ahead of the event – knowing how many people will be coming to the event is very important If you don’t believe us – try organising a three day international conference yourself…