Introduction to Research Papers

At the heart of the ICSE-2005 program are the 44 research papers selected by the Program Committee (PC) from the 313 submissions to the conference. All submissions were rigorously reviewed by the PC -- each submission received reviews from at least three different PC members. The PC then met on 5-6 November 2004 in Newport Beach, California, USA, to discuss the submissions and make the final selections for the program. Each of the papers selected for publication in the proceedings and presentation at the conference was chosen on its own merits and without comparison to any others.The papers selected cover a wide range of research areas, which are not always amenable to a simple classification. Nevertheless, the papers are clustered into sessions that broadly represent the dominant research themes of the work described.The PC comprised 43 members drawn from a wide cross section of the software engineering community. The PC members worked hard to put the program of research papers together. Each PC member received an average of 22 papers to review prior to the PC meeting, followed by a substantial e-mail conversation and two full days discussing papers at the PC meeting. It was our pleasure and privilege to work with such a professional group of people to produce the quality of the program before you. Our deepest thanks go to the PC.We must also thank the organizers of SIGSOFT FSE 2005, who generously hosted our PC meeting and assisted in numerous local arrangements. In particular, we thank Dick Taylor, Debra Brodbeck, and Susan Knight. Their help in producing a trouble-free, enjoyable PC meeting helped keep the PC's spirits high through two long days.We would be remiss if we did not lavish praise and thanks on Richard van de Stadt and the CyberChair conference management system. CyberChair streamlined many of the PC's activities, and Richard added several new features to CyberChair that saved us days of work in staging the PC meeting.Finally, we thank our General Chair, Catalin Roman, for bringing us together, making us partners in creating ICSE 2005, and giving us the guidance and freedom we needed to create the best possible research program. In doing so, he has given us one of the most rewarding experiences of our professional lives.