3rd International Workshop on Designing Software

April ??, 2026

Co-located with ICSE 2026, Rio, Brazil

Software design is a set of activities and decisions that are involved in the construction of a software system, ranging from high-level architecture and conceptual design to code design. Decisions made during a design process have long-lasting impact on various qualities of a system, such as modularity, maintainability, scalability, robustness, security, usability, and performance. Despite its important role in software development, design is a subject that is still relatively little understood by both researchers and engineers – particularly in terms of design as an activity rather than design as a product/outcome. Although exceptions exist, in practice, design is frequently carried out in a somewhat ad-hoc, implicit manner. Teams often succeed in some way, though not always. Collectively, the research community has to date little systematic understanding of what makes certain designs and design processes successful, how to package and transfer knowledge about design and designing between teams and organizations, and how to design systems that are robust against a continuously evolving context. Teaching software design also remains a challenge for educators, with design being considered a skill that is acquired mainly through experience rather than something that can be taught in classrooms.

This workshop aims to bring together researchers, practitioners, and educators who are interested in any aspect of software design, though we hope to place a specific focus on designing software as an activity in which developers, teams, and organizations engage. The workshop seeks to identify new directions and open challenges for the field. The workshop will be highly interactive and discussion-based, centered around a core set of topics on software design research and education. Each session will begin with short presentations by participants on a topic and proceed with breakout sessions to discuss the topic in depth. The outcome of the workshop is expected to be a report summarizing open problems, promising approaches, and next steps for advancing the state-of-the-art in software design practices and education.

Call for Contributions

We invite submissions in the following categories (all page limits include references and appendices):

  • Technical papers presenting novel research or educational contributions on software design (max. 8 pages),
  • Extended abstracts describing a new vision/direction for software design, preliminary results on a novel design approach, or a proposal for a workshop activity (max. 5 pages). In particular, an activity proposal should outline a specific activity (45 min to 1 hour long) to be carried out together with attendees, such as workshopping a new, promising approach to designing or teaching.
  • Case study papers describing a case study or a model problem that can be used by the community to compare and evaluate different approaches to design (max. 6 pages).

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Empirical studies on software design
  • Cognitive and social aspects of software design
  • Designing software in hybrid and remote settings
  • The impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on software design; the role of design in AI-assisted software development
  • Processes and evaluation standards for software design research
  • Software design methodologies, principles, strategies, and patterns
  • Case studies of design successes and failures
  • Model problems to illustrate design challenges and support comparison of techniques and educational use
  • Approaches for software design education, including pedagogies, curriculum development, and case studies
  • AI-assisted software design education
  • Theory building for/of software design
  • Software design for social dimensions (e.g., ethics, sustainability, privacy)
  • Software design for emerging domains (e.g., cyber-physical systems, IoT)
  • Rigorous approaches to software design (e.g., modeling and validation)

Important Dates

  • Oct 20Oct 27, 2025: Workshop paper submission (site)
  • Nov 28, 2025: Acceptance notification
  • Jan 26, 2026: Camera ready submission
  • Apr ??, 2026: Workshop dates

Submission Instructions

  • Contributions must be sumitted through the HotCRP page.
  • All submissions must strictly conform to the ACM conference proceedings formatting instructions. The following LaTeX code must be placed at the start of the LaTeX document: \documentclass[sigconf,review]{acmart}
  • Submissions are single-blind: Authors’ names, institutions, and contact details should appear on the first page.
  • Submissions will be evaluated based on (1) relevance to the workshop and potential to generate stimulating discussions, (2) novelty, and (3) presentation quality.

Workshop Program

TBD

Organizing Committee

Program Committee

  • David Budgen (University of Durham, UK)
  • Janet Burge (Colorado College, US)
  • Yuanfang Cai (Drexel University, US)
  • Chun Yong Chong (Monash University Malaysia)
  • Tobias Dürschmid (University of California, Los Angeles, US)
  • Rick Kazman (University of Hawaii at Manoa, US)
  • Michael Keeling (Kiavi, US)
  • Fabio Kon (University of Sao Paulo, Brazil)
  • Ran Mo (Central China Normal University, China)
  • Elisa Yumi Nakagawa (University of Sao Paulo, Brazil)
  • Kumiyo Nakakoji (Future University Hakodate, Japan)
  • Rob van Ommering (Independent consultant, US)
  • Marian Petre (The Open University, UK)
  • Mary Shaw (Carnegie Mellon University, US)
  • Mohamed Soliman (Paderborn University, Germany)
  • Antony Tang (Swinburne University of Technology, Australia)
  • Graziela Simone Tonin (INSPER, Brazil)
  • Andre van der Hoek (University of California, Irvine, US)

Previous Editions