SPLASH '17 Workshop: Escaped from the Lab

Workshop date:  Sunday October 22, 2017, 8:30am - 5pm
Location:  SPLASH '17 Conference in Vancouver

Website Contents

• Workshop Overview
• How to join the Workshop
• Extra material

Workshop Final Report

• Link to the workshop final report: escape_report.html
• Link to the workshop raw notes: workshop_raw_notes.html

Workshop Overview

This is the website for the SPLASH workshop “Escaped from the Lab”.

What are some of the practices for taking new ideas and converting them into products?

Even large organizations have a difficult time sustaining the innovation process. The all-to-common story: One part of the organization over-commits (promises the earth, moon, and stars), and another part of the organization is forced to deliver. The extravagant promise of the Powerpoint presentation is converted into the trail of tears of the Gantt chart. The grandiose project was originally supposed to be feasible. There were some small technology trials that proved out the basic ideas for low-volume transaction rates and simplified user interfaces. The product was supposed to be delivered in record time because of high rates of software reuse. So what went wrong?

This workshop will explore the intersection of modern software technology and tools, high reliability and performance requirements, large organizations, and conflicts in the software development process.

“Escaped from the lab” is an issue both in industry and academia. Many technology companies have a significant investment in research, and some notable companies have a division with the name “Labs” or “Research” in its title (IBM, Microsoft, Intel, HP, Oracle, Ericsson, Samsung, Siemens). But there is a trend for technology companies to look to outside sources of technology innovations such as partnerships with other companies, university research organizations, and government-sponsored labs. Companies can profit from good relationships with university researchers, and innovators in an academic environment usually need some strategies to find industry partners to get an innovation into practice.

This workshop will explore questions and obstacles in making research ideas practical for use in the real world. Workshop discussion topics will include:

• Prototyping: Under what conditions can a prototype be “scaled up” to production? Are some prototypes only “pure experiments” which should be thrown away?
• Technical debt: One common strategy for advancing the introduction of new technology is to take on some “technical debt” in building a first generation product, with concrete plans to make the next version more complete and robust. What are some techniques for keeping this technical debt under control?
• Reusability: How can you make an honest assessment of the potential reusability of a module or subsystem?
• Reliability and Availability: How do the reliability and availability requirements get captured and how do they become action items in the product plan?
• Decision making: Is it possible to define the key issues early in the project lifecycle? What kinds of development processes and management processes are most useful for highlighting the gaps?
• Risks: Can we assess and mitigate the risk of software failures early in the prototype-to-product transformation process? What are the most critical performance, reliability, and performance issues to address in the transition from prototype to product?
• Innovation and “innovation models”: Where do the new ideas come from, and how to we make sure that an “invention” turns into a “money-making innovation”?
• Future: How can we do better at moving innovations into practical applications?

How to join the Workshop

Are you interested in joining the dialog on the issues of bringing research into practice? Here is how you can join the workshop:

1. Contact one of the workshop organizers listed below.
2. Prepare an optional one-page “position paper” -- containing your ideas, questions, and experiences. Send your position paper to dmancl - AT - acm.org. Position papers are due by September 7, 2017.
   • The position papers were used as a starting point for planning the workshop's activities.
     • Your position paper might explain some of your personal experiences (positive and/or negative) with transfering research ideas into practice.
     • Or, you might also describe some specific techniques you have tried to improve your technology transfer (especially if they are related to OO technology).
3. You will receive notification of your acceptance into the workshop by September 12.

The workshop will accept “walk-ins” on the day of the workshop. (If you plan to attend the workshop, send us email as soon as you can, so we can prepare for you.)

The format of the workshop is a facilitated discussion workshop - the topics for discussion will be drawn from the workshop reading materials, the position statements of the workshop participants, and an initial brainstorming session at the beginning of the workshop. The workshop participants will also produce a post-workshop poster - to report the workshop results to other SPLASH attendees. This format is a good way to encourage discussion among conference attendees from both academic and industry. The results may include some new research questions as well as guidelines for cross-organizational collaboration.

• Dennis Mancl (dmancl - AT - acm.org)
• Steve Fraser (sdfraser - AT - acm.org)

Extra material

Extra material (useful readings, links to relevant books and articles) will be posted here.

• "Is IoT the new Y2K?" article on ZDNet.com website (April 2014), http://www.zdnet.com/article/is-iot-the-new-y2k/.
• "Apocalypse Then," article on Slate.com website (November 2009), http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/features/2009/apocalypse_then/was_y2k_a_waste.html