XP, the International Conference on Agile Software and System Development, is the premier agile software development conference, providing a unique forum where researchers, practitioners, agile thought leaders, coaches, and trainers present and discuss their most recent innovations, research results, experiences, trends and concerns in the field of Agile Software and System Development.

XP2019 marks the 20th edition of the “First Conference in Agile”. The theme for XP2019 will be “Agile - the Next 20 Years: Share and Discover!”

The XP 2019 conference will be in downtown Montréal at the École de technologie supérieure, an engineering school part of the Université du Québec network.  A renowned metropolis in the province of Québec that is among the largest cities in North America,  Montréal is home to multiple and diverse attractions. In addition to the large Francophone population, there is also a sizable Anglophone community and many cultural communities, which gives the city a cosmopolitan flair. Boasting a human dimension in a city where everyone feels safe, Montréal features vibrant neighbourhoods and numerous green spaces, along with restaurants to suit every taste and budget.

Agile software development is a mainstream approach in software engineering. Therefore, software engineering research is and should be involved in understanding and improving agile practices. We can now look back at an impressive amount of work on agile software development, empirical and methodological. Yet, there are still many open questions out there and agile software development has not stood still. Newer practices and approaches need to investigated scientifically. Yet, choosing the right research methods and strategies can be a difficult endeavor.

This doctoral symposium should be a help to PhD students who already or plan to conduct research in the wider area of agile software development. Experienced researchers from the board of advisors will review the research plans from PhD students and give them detailed feedback and guidance. The most promising research plans will be invited to be presented at the symposium where the students can get more direct feedback in the discussion. Furthermore, we will have an interactive session at the doctoral symposium with all present PhD students and advisors to work on their abilities to develop research plans.

Participation in the symposium is being solicited at three levels: participants, apprentices, observers.

Participants are doctoral students, preferably at a mid-point in their dissertation work (that is, are at least 12 months from defending their dissertation, but have at least a preliminary research design), who will present their work at the symposium and receive feedback from a dedicated mentor from the board of advisors, the other symposium advisors and other attendees.

Those wishing to be participants are asked to submit a paper (up to 6 pages following the LNBIP template) on their research plan including:

• Title and abstract
• Introduction (motivation, rationale, background) to the research
• Description of issues or points on which the author would like to get the most advice on
• Relevant prior work (foundations, relevant research results, research gap this work tries to fill)
• Research objectives, questions and hypotheses (with rationale)
• Research approach, study design and arrangements
• Data analysis methods and techniques
• Validity threats and their control
• Summary of the current status of the research and planned next steps

Participants in the symposium are required to:

• submit and present a research plan,
• review and comment on up to two other research plans, and
• act as a scribe in one review session.

All papers must be submitted through the submission system in PDF format. Papers are limited to 6 pages, must be written in English and be formatted according to the LNBIP templates. Papers not following the formatting guidelines will be rejected without review.

Apprentices are also doctoral students, but at an earlier stage in their studies. Apprentices will attend the symposium and are encouraged to ask questions of the presenters, and will benefit from the feedback given to other students.

Observers are any other members of the agile software engineering research community who would like to attend the symposium. NOTE: Any observer or symposium advisor who is serving as a dissertation advisor to one of the participants is "kindly requested" to not speak during the presentation and discussion of their student's work.

• Research plan submission deadline: Jan 19, 2019.
• Feb 18, 2019.
• Camera ready due: Mar 02, 2019.
• Symposium: May 24, 2019.
• Session notes sent to participants: May 28, 2019.

All dates are defined as AoE (Anywhere on Earth).

• Casper Lassenius, Aalto University, Finland
• John Noll, University of East London, UK

If you have any questions or comments, please contact the program chairs at xp2019@agilealliance.org.

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MORE INFORMATION

All tracks and sessions of XP 2019 are available at the conference website along with the specific call for submissions, dates, committees, and guidelines.