Our research in software engineering is concerned with the early phases and activities in the development of software, or more general software-intensive technical systems. These early activities are concerned with the elicitation and validation of the software and systems requirements. It is known that the removal of errors in these phases can be extremely costly. In fact, requirement errors are among the main reasons for software project failures today.

More specifically, the motivation of our research is the insight that requirements engineering and design of software systems are inevitably intertwined. Swartout and Balzert described the “inevitable intertwining of specification and design” already in 1982 (Swartout and Balzer 1982). This observation becomes evident with the success of agile methods for software development, in which short feedback cycles support this tight intertwinement. This is remarkable, because the success of starting design activities while the requirements are still under investigation, was doubted by many. In particular, any approaches that systematically aim to transform requirement models into design models suffer from the observation that, in larger projects, requirements are usually not stable and never completely modelled.

Today, there still is a perceived mismatch between agile, code-centric software development with concurrent requirements engineering and software design on the one hand and model-based software engineering with systematic transformations between requirements, design, and code on the other hand. With our research, we want to conciliate model-based software engineering with development processes that have fast and agile feedback cycles and thus combine the benefits of both approaches.

In particular, we are interested in providing systematic, yet low-cost model-based design space exploration to support making good design decisions, which are a major success factor for mission-critical software-intensive technical systems. This support shall enable well-informed trade-off decisions in software design, in requirements elicitation and in requirements analysis while at the same time incurring minimal overhead for the developers.

With respect to this aim, we have contributed to the following main topics (among others)

• Qualitative reasoning in model-based design space exploration
• Energy efficiency prediction
• Survivability evaluation
• Continuous, automated update of performance models

All contributions are listed on the group's publications page. Our tool for design space exploration, PerOpteryx, is available on Github.

Additionally, we am interested in empirical studies on software architecture topics, especially on the empirical validation of software architecture approaches.

Anne's publications are listed on a separate page.

Anne is or was program committee co-chair or general co-chair of the following events

• SE'21, the German Software Engineeering conference (Tagung Software Engineering (SE) der Gesellschaft für Informatik (GI))
• ICPE 2020, the 11th ACM/SPEC International Conference on Performance Engineering (general co-chair)
• WSE@ECSA 2019, the Women in Software Engineering Track and Panel at the European Conference on Software Architecture (ECSA'19)
• SQUADE'19, the 2nd international workshop on Software Qualities and their Dependencies (PC co-chair)
• MARCH 2019, the 3rd International Workshop on decision Making in Software ARCHitecture
• SQUADE'18, the 1st international workshop on Software Qualities and their Dependencies (an ICSE'18 workshop) (PC co-chair)
• ICPE 2017, the 8th ACM/SPEC International Conference on Performance Engineering (PC co-chair)
• WOSP-C'16, the 2nd Workshop on Challenges in Performance Methods for Software Development (an ICPE'16 workshop) (PC co-chair)
• QRASA'16, the 1st International Workshop on Qualitative Reasoning about Software Architectures (a WICSA and CompArch 2016 workshop) (PC co-chair)
• FoSADA'15, the 1st International Workshop on the Future of Software Architecture Design Assistants (a WICSA | CompArch 2015 workshop) (PC co-chair)
• QoSA'13, the Ninth International ACM Sigsoft Conference on the Quality of Software Architectures (PC co-chair)
• SE4SG'14 and SE4SG'13, the 3rd and 2nd International Workshop on Software Engineering Challenges for the Smart Grid (an ICSE workshop) (PC co-chair)
• Palladio Days'12, the Palladio User Symposium (PC co-chair)

She is or has been a program committee member (or expert review panel member if indicated) of the following conferences

• ICSE 2022, 44th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Software Engineering
• ICSA 2022, 19th IEEE International Conference on Software Architecture
• CAIN 2022, 1st ACM/IEEE Conference on AI Engineering - Software Engineering for AI
• ICSE 2021, 43rd ACM/IEEE International Conference on Software Engineering
• ICSA 2021, the 18th IEEE International Conference on Software Architecture (merged IEEE/IFIP WICSA and ACM SIGSOFT CompArch)
• ICSA 2021 New and Emerging Ideas track of the 5th International Conference on Software Architecture (merged IEEE/IFIP WICSA and ACM SIGSOFT CompArch)
• ICSE 2020 Artefact Evaluation Committee, artefact track of the 42st ACM/IEEE International Conference on Software Engineering
• ICSE 2020 New and Emerging Ideas Track at the 42st ACM/IEEE International Conference on Software Engineering
• ICSA 2020, the 17th IEEE International Conference on Software Architecture (merged IEEE/IFIP WICSA and ACM SIGSOFT CompArch)
• ECSA 2020, 14th European Conference on Software Architecture
• SSBSE 2019, the 11th Symposium on Search-Based Software Engineering
• ICSA 2019, the 16th IEEE International Conference on Software Architecture (merged IEEE/IFIP WICSA and ACM SIGSOFT CompArch)
• ICPE 2019, the 10th ACM/SPEC International Conference on Performance Engineering
• ECSA 2019, the 13th European Conference on Software Architecture
• REFSQ'19, the 25th International Working Conference on Requirements Engineering: Foundation for Software Quality
• ICSE 2019 Artefact Evaluation Committee, artefact track of the 41st ACM/IEEE International Conference on Software Engineering
• ICSE 2018, the 40th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Software Engineering
• REFSQ'18, the 24th International Working Conference on Requirements Engineering: Foundation for Software Quality
• ICSA 2018, the 15th IEEE International Conference on Software Architecture (merged IEEE/IFIP WICSA and ACM SIGSOFT CompArch)
• ICPE 2018, the 9th ACM/SPEC International Conference on Performance Engineering
• SSBSE 2018, the 10th Symposium on Search-Based Software Engineering 2018
• RE'18@Next!, the "ongoing research" track of the 26th IEEE International Requirements Engineering Conference
• QUATIC 2018, the 11th International Conference on the Quality of Information and Communications Technology, in the "Quality Aspects in DevOps Development” scientific track
• ICSA 2017, the 14th IEEE International Conference on Software Architecture (merged IEEE/IFIP WICSA and ACM SIGSOFT CompArch)
• SSBSE 2017, the 9th International Symposium on Search Based Software Engineering
• RE'17@Next!, the "ongoing research" track of the 25th IEEE International Requirements Engineering Conference
• REFSQ'17, the 23rd International Working Conference on Requirements Engineering: Foundation for Software Quality
• ASE'16, the 31th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (expert review panel member)
• RE'16@Next!, the "ongoing research" track of the 24th IEEE International Requirements Engineering Conference
• REFSQ'16, the 22nd International Working Conference on Requirements Engineering: Foundation for Software Quality
• SEAA 2016, the 42nd Euromicro Conference on Software Engineering and Advanced Applications
• WICSA and CompArch 2016, joint PC of the 13th Working IEEE/IFIP Conference on Software Architecture (WICSA) and the federated CompArch conference, which includes the 19th International ACM SIGSOFT Symposium on Component-Based Software Engineering (CBSE) and the 12th International ACM SIGSOFT Conference on the Quality of Software Architectures (QoSA)
• ASE'15, the 30th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering
• QoSA'15, the 11th International ACM Sigsoft Conference on the Quality of Software Architectures
• WICSA'15, the 12th Working IEEE / IFIP Conference on Software Architecture
• REFSQ'15, the 21st International Working Conference on Requirements Engineering: Foundation for Software Quality
• ICPE'15, the 6th ACM/SPEC International Conference on Performance Engineering
• SEAA'15, the 41st Euromicro Conference on Software Engineering and Advanced Applications
• CBSE'14, the 17th International ACM Sigsoft Symposium on Component-Based Software Engineering
• ICPE'14, the 5th ACM/SPEC International Conference on Performance Engineering (main track and work-in-progress track)
• WICSA'14, the Joint 11th Working IEEE/IFIP Conference on Software Architecture
• CBSE'13, the 16th International ACM Sigsoft Symposium on Component-Based Software Engineering

and a program committee member of the following workshops and doctoral symposia

• SASI4 2019, the First Workshop on Systems, Architectures, and Solutions for Industry 4.0
• SeAC 2019, the 3rd Workshop on Self-Aware Computing
• RCoSE/DDrEE'19, the Joint 5th International Workshop on Rapid Continuous Software Engineering and 1st International Workshop on Data-Driven Decisions, Experimentation and Evolution (an ICSE workshop)
• AMS 2018, the Second International Workshop on Architecting with MicroServices
• MARCH 2017, the 2nd International Workshop on decision Making in Software ARCHitecture (satellite event of ICSA)
• ModComp'16, the 3rd International Workshop on Model-Driven Engineering for Component-Based Software Systems (satellite event of MoDELS)
• ESPRE 2016, the third Workshop on Evolving Security and Privacy Requirements Engineering (ESPRE) (at RE'16)
• S4CIP 2016, the 1st workshop on IntSafety & Security aSSurance for Critical Infrastructures Protection (a workshop at ANT 2016)
• VAQUITA 2015, the Workshop on Variability for Qualities in Software Architecture (an ECSA workshop)
• ESPRE 2015, the second Workshop on Evolving Security and Privacy Requirements Engineering (ESPRE) (at RE'15)
• ModComp'15, the 3rd International Workshop on Model-Driven Engineering for Component-Based Software Systems (satellite event of MoDELS)
• TwinPeaks@ICSE 2015, the 5th International Workshop on the Twin Peaks of Requirements and Architecture
• MB4CP'15, the International Workshop on Model-Based Design for Cyber-Physical Systems at DSN 2015
• WOSP-C'15, the 1st Workshop on Challenges in Performance Methods for Software Development (an ICPE workshop)
• ESPRE'14, the 1st Evolving Security and Privacy Requirements Engineering Workshop (an RE workshop)
• ModComp'14, the 1st International Workshop on Model-Driven Engineering for Component-Based Software Systems (satellite event of MoDELS)

• TwinPeaks@ICSE 2014, the Fourth International Workshop on the Twin Peaks of Requirements and Architecture (an ICSE workshop)
• WoSAR'14, the 6th International Workshop on Software Aging and Rejuvenation (co-located with ISSRE)

• WCOP'13, the 18th International Doctoral Symposium on Components and Architecture
• Multi-Cloud2013, the 1st International workshop on multi-cloud applications and federated clouds
• TwinPeaks@RE 2013, the Third International Workshop on the Twin Peaks of Requirements and Architecture (an RE workshop)
• TwinPeaks@ICSE 2013 , the Second International Workshop on the Twin Peaks of Requirements and Architecture (an ICSE workshop)

Furthermore, she has been a reviewer for the following journals and magazines:

• IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020)
• IEEE Transactions on Reliability (2015, 2016)
• IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems (2018)
• ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology (2014, 2015, 2019, 2020)
• IEEE Software, regular paper (2015), special issue on "the software architect’s role in the digital age" (2016), and special issue on the Twin Peaks of Requirements and Architecture (2012)
• Journal of Systems and Software, (special issue on Quality Optimisation of Software Architecture and Design Specifications 2012, 2016, 2019), Elsevier
• Software and System Modeling journal, regular paper (2015, 2018), theme issue on Model-Driven Engineering for Component-Based Software Systems (2016), and theme issue on Models for Quality of Software Architecture (2012), Springer
• Computing, Springer (2020)
• ACM Transactions on Cyber-Physical Systems (2019)
• ACM Transactions on Modeling and Performance Evaluation of Computing Systems (2018)
• Empirical Software Engineering, special Issue on Traceability (2016), Springer
• Journal of Engineering Optimization (2012), Taylor and Francis
• Journal of Cloud Computing: Advances, Systems and Applications (JoCCASA) (2014), Springer
• Journal of Applied Soft Computing, Elsevier (2014)
• Software: Practice and Experience, Wiley, (2013)
• Journal of Software: Evolution and Process, Wiley (2016)
• International Journal of Electrical Power and Energy Systems, Elsevier (2016)

Additionally, she is or was involved in the organization committee of the following events

• ICSA / QoSA since 2016 as steering committee member
• ICSA 2021 as artifact evaluation track co-chair
• ICSE 2018 as demonstration co-chair
• ICPE'16 as finance chair
• ACM Student Research Competition at ESEC/FSE 2015
• WOSP-C, the Workshop on Challenges in Performance Methods for Software Development as organizing committee member and program commitee member
• ICSE 2012 for awards coordination
• CompArch 2012 as publication chair

In May 2015, Anne gave an invited talk on "Design Assistants for Supporting the TwinPeaks" at the Twin Peaks 2015 Workshop at ICSE 2015.

In February 2016, Anne was invited to the 2016 meeting of the IFIP Working Group 2.9 Software Requirements Engineering and gave a talk on "Intertwining Requirements Engineering and Rapid Software Architecture Modelling and Evaluation".

In March 2016, Anne gave an invited talk on "Modellbasierte Entwurfsraumexploration für die Evolution" at the 3rd Workshop on "Modellbasierte und Modellgetriebene Softwaremodernisierung" (MMSM 2016).

Anne is a co-spokesperson of the NFDIxCS proposal of the informatics community for the national research data infrastructure (NFDI). In June 2020, Anne gave a talk on "Artefakte aus der Softwareentwicklung als Daten" at the GI Webtalk "NFDIxCS: Nationale Forschungsdateninitiative (NFDI) für die Informatik". In September 2021, she gave a talk on "Software als Forschungsdaten" at the "GI Forschungsdaten-Soiree #2: Software als Forschungsdaten und Langzeitarchivierung".

Finally, Anne was invited to and participated in the following (GI) Dagstuhl Seminars

• Quantitative Software Design (Dagstuhl Seminar 09432, 2009)
• Quality-of-Service Attributes in Service- and Cloud-based Systems: Specification, Modelling, Monitoring, Prediction, and Optimisation (GI-Dagstuhl Seminar 12211, 2012)
• Randomized Timed and Hybrid Models for Critical Infrastructures (Dagstuhl Seminar 14031, 2014)
• Model-driven Algorithms and Architectures for Self-Aware Computing Systems (Dagstuhl Seminar 15041, 2015)
• Multi-Level Modelling (Dagstuhl Seminar 17492, 2017)
• Software Evolution in Time and Space: Unifying Version and Variability Management (Dagstuhl Seminar 19191, 2019)

• ICPE'20 10-years Most Influential Paper Award for her paper "Automatically Improve Software Architecture Models for Performance, Reliability, and Costs Using Evolutionary Algorithms" co-authored by Heiko Koziolek, Steffen Becker and Ralf Reussner
• ASE'15 Distinguished Reviewer Award for her work on the program committee of the 30^th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering
• ICPE'12 Best Industry-Related Paper Award together with Thijmen de Gooijer, Anton Jansen, and Heiko Koziolek
• ICPE'11 Best Paper Award together with Catia Trubiani
• QoSA'09 Best Paper Award together with Klaus Krogmann, Christian M. Schweda, Sabine Buckl, Michael Kuperberg, and Florian Matthes
• ObjektForum Förderpreis award for my diploma thesis, 2008
• OLB / EWE Award for Distinguished Student Achievements, 2006

Please contact me if you are interested in a Master Thesis/Diplomarbeit or Bachelor Thesis/Studienarbeit related to my research or the Palladio approach in general.

Next to the topics presented on our Thesis Topics page, there are always new ideas for thesis available, so just contact me. If you are interested in a specific topic related to my research or to Palladio, we can find a thesis topic.