ICSA Steering Committee Charter

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About the Charter

Purpose and Scope

This document defines the roles, operating procedures, and obligations of the ICSA (International Conference on Software Architecture) steering committee.

Modifying the charter

This document is controlled by the chairperson (henceforth, “chair”) of the steering committee. A change to the charter may be proposed to the chair by any member of the steering committee. An amendment to the charter or a decision is approved if it receives a two-thirds majority of SC members’ votes, compared to the required quorum. The quorum is set at 90% of those entitled to vote on the first vote. If the quorum is not reached on the first vote, the quorum will be adjusted to 80% of those entitled to vote, and a reminder will be sent. In the extreme case of failure to reach the quorum, the quorum will be reduced by 10% from the previous value. Discussion and votes for charter changes may occur at any meeting of the steering committee. At the discretion of the steering committee chair, such discussion and voting may also occur via email at any time.

About the ICSA Conference Series

Definition

“ICSA xxxx” shall be used to designate the IEEE Conference on Software Architecture held in the year xxxx. The list of past conferences is provided in Appendix 3.

ICSA Mission Statement

The mission of the ICSA conference series is to be the premier means of communication and advancement of research and practice in software architecture, from the point of view of both academia and industry, worldwide. Every ICSA conference is a conscious and intentional blend of academic and industrial ideas and practices. This blend is reflected in the memberships of the steering committee, the conference organizing committee, the conference program committee, and the program of each conference. Reaching out to both academia and industry and blending their ideas makes ICSA unique in the community. Instruments to this aim include Industry Day and working sessions, and ensuring that the reviewers assigned to each submission are a mix of experts from industry and academia.

ICSA Frequency and Location

ICSA is held on a yearly cycle. The conference is held around the month of April, with flexibility between March and May depending on venue- and country-specific constraints. Paper submission dates are between December and January. The location of the ICSA conference alternates between continents (does not take place on the same continent twice in a row). Exceptions will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Ownership and Sponsorship

ICSA conferences are sponsored by the IEEE Computer Society.

About the ICSA Steering Committee (SC)

Mission of the ICSA Steering Committee

The ICSA steering committee has the mission to:

• Ensure continuity in the organization of a regular stream of ICSA working conferences.
• Ensure that the mission of each ICSA conference, especially the combination of academic and industrial contributions, is properly carried out.
• Maintain the standards of quality of the papers published and the actual presentations.
• Oversee the activities of the chairs and committees of each ICSA conference.
• Ensure continued vitality by implementing appropriate turnover in the conference and program chairs, conference and program committees, and the steering committee membership.

Duties of the ICSA Steering Committee

The ICSA steering committee has the following specific duties:

• Ensure liaison and coordination with sponsoring organizations.
• Promote each ICSA to ensure maximum participation and attendance of academics and industry practitioners.
• Determine the amount of time between conferences.
• Select a theme, a location, and a date for the next conference. Approve or deny requests to co-locate ICSA with another conference.
• Set an attendance goal for the next ICSA.
• Appoint ICSA General Chair or chairs and ICSA program chairs. The General Chair should ideally be someone familiar with both the academic and industrial communities. There should be two program chairs, one from each community. Deviations from this rule (e.g., three program chairs instead of two, two program chairs both affiliated with academia, and a strong link to industry) need to be approved by the Steering Committee.
• Designate an appropriate means of dissemination to ensure the wide distribution of conference proceedings.
• When desirable, designate from among the SC members a sub-committee to attract proposals for future conference editions. Proposals are to be submitted to the SC chair, who in turn coordinates the discussion and selection of the best proposals during the Steering Committee meetings.
• Maintain a set of artifacts from previous ICSAs (such as timelines, calendars, budgets, etc.) that can be used to help General Chairs plan future conferences.
• Maintain the list of reviewers who provide a poor service to the Program Committee (regular delays, missing reviews, reviews of poor quality), as well as a list of reviewers who provide an excellent service (timely reviews, high quality, key expertise).
• Oversee the quality and content of the conference series website.

Steering Committee Composition

The ICSA steering committee is composed of the following members:

• Steering committee chair, and possibly Steering committee vice-chair
• Steering committee secretary (optional), helping the steering committee chair in operational matters, including interaction with IEEE and IFIP, keeping steering committee minutes, and sharing material.
• The General Chairs and program chairs from the last two ICSA conferences, and (as soon as known) the current conference and the conference after that (i.e., two ICSA conferences ahead).
• Members “at large” to balance origin in terms of:
  • Industry and academia
  • Geography
  • Sponsoring organization (IEEE/IFIP)
  • Leadership in the field and to incorporate key personalities in the area of software architecture.

The number of at-large members is determined by the steering committee and is not fixed.

• Ex-officio members:
  • IEEE TCSE chair (liaison with TCSE)
  • IFIP TC2 chair (liaison with IFIP)
  • IEEE Computer Society (liaison with IEEE)
• Representatives of other architecture conferences (e.g., ECSA, Saturn) can be invited to attend as guests (but are not voting members). The total number of Steering Committee members affiliated with any single organization shall not exceed three.

Steering Committee Membership

Terms for membership are determined as follows:

• General Chair and program chairs of the (two) future ICSA conferences are added as regular members as soon as the proposals are accepted. They stay on the Steering committee for two years after the conference.
• At-large members are elected for two years. They can be re-elected. Steering committee members can propose new candidates from both industry and academia.
• IEEE and IFIP representatives are brought forward by their respective organizations in agreement with the steering committee chair. No specific term is foreseen, provided they continue fulfilling their role.

ICSA Steering Committee Chair

Both the steering committee chair and the steering committee secretary are elected for two years. They can be re-elected for a second term of two additional years. During the election, only one Steering Committee chair is elected. The elected Steering Committee chair decides whether he/she wants to be a single chair or nominate a vice-chair. In the latter case, the vice-chair needs to be an active or past Steering Committee member approved by the Steering Committee following the rules reported in Section I.B.

The ICSA steering committee chair will:

• Initiate and lead the required meetings as well as interim e-mail discussions and teleconferences.
• Interact regularly with the current ICSA General Chair to learn the status of conference activities and to influence and guide decisions.
• Communicate major conference status milestones to the steering committee.
• Maintain a record of conference committee and program committee membership.
• Maintain a record of ICSA conference results: attendance, programs, tutorials, workshops, working sessions, authors, publicity mailing lists, etc.
• Ensure that the conference and program chairs are aware of ICSA expectations and policies.

ICSA Fellow

The honorary title of ICSA Fellow will be awarded from time to time by the ICSA Steering Committee to individuals who have made outstanding, long-term scientific and service contributions to the ICSA Community. It is expected that the list of ICSA Fellows will grow slowly over time, with the honor bestowed sparingly by the Steering Committee. The term “Fellow” is chosen for its historical prestige value only, and does not in any way imply any gender restriction or a priori presumption on individual eligibility.

• Selection of Fellows. The Steering Committee may consider a nomination for designating an individual ICSA Fellow at any time. Potential Fellows will be nominated by existing Steering Committee members or existing ICSA Fellows, along with a short description of the candidate’s long-standing contributions to the ICSA Community. The Steering Committee will discuss and then vote on any such nomination under the usual discussion and voting procedures. In order to award the designation ICSA Fellow, the candidate must be approved according to the rules reported in Section I.B. An individual may not be considered more than once per year. At the annual ICSA conference, any new ICSA Fellowships will be announced, and the new Fellow(s), if present, will be awarded a certificate of recognition by a Steering Committee representative. ICSA Fellows will be listed on the ICSA website along with a short biography and summary of their contributions to the ICSA community.
• Term of Fellowship. An ICSA Fellow is designated for life. Under extraordinary circumstances, where it is discovered that the original election rationale was based on incomplete, incorrect, or fraudulent information, the SC may, according to the rules reported in Section I.B, revoke the Fellow designation.
• Participation by Fellows. At any time, an ICSA Fellow may choose to participate in Steering Committee discussions as an observer. This includes the right to be placed on the SC mailing list, to contribute to email discussions, to be notified of and attend SC meetings, and to participate in discussions at the SC meetings. The ICSA Fellow (unless otherwise a voting member of the SC) does not have a vote in SC business, however.

Steering committee meeting and interaction

The steering committee will meet every four months, with one physical meeting at each ICSA conference and two virtual meetings via teleconference. Other interactions will occur via teleconferences and email, as initiated by the steering committee chair. The chair should initiate votes for new at-large members and future General Chairs ahead of an ICSA conference, so that these people may be invited to the steering committee meeting.

About ICSA Conference Organization

Guidelines for ICSA General Chair

The appointed ICSA GeneralChair(s) will:

• Not submit papers to any track (including workshops, tutorials, panels) of the conference.
• Work out the details of IEEE and/or IFIP sponsorship.
• Select an organizing committee. Ensure that there is balanced membership on the organizing committee in terms of academic, industry, geography, and experience level, and topical focus for the specific ICSA. Include at least 30% of diversity in gender or geography (i.e., outside Europe and North America) on the OC.
• Arrange for proceedings publication or appoint a proceedings chair to do so.
• Plan and execute comprehensive conference publicity activities, appealing to researchers and practitioners, or appoint a publicity chair to do so.
• Prepare a budget for the conference and establish a break-even attendance point.
• Secure a physical location for the conference and arrange for a conference hotel.
• Consult the Steering Committee Chair for any changes to the accepted way of organizing and running the conference.
• Establish a conference calendar; distribute it to the steering committee and organizing committee, and track activities accordingly.
• Establish a Web site for the conference, made directly linked from (or part of) the ICSA series web site, and send the URL to the steering committee as soon as the date and site are determined. (Conference and program committee membership can be added later.) Keep the conference website current.
• Ensure a conference program that appeals to researchers and practitioners; organize sessions to permit balanced access to conference events.
• Provide a monthly status report to the Steering Committee Chair.
• Be fiscally responsible so that the conference does not run a deficit.
• Inform OC members that ICSA is an on-site-only conference.
• Provide a final report to the steering committee that includes:
• Number of attendees (with breakdown in categories – academic, industry, location, geographic origin, etc.)
• Number of papers and/or proposals submitted and number accepted
• Financial summary
• General discussion of events that went well and those that did not
• Issues and problems, and suggestions for their resolution in future conferences
• Summary of attendee evaluations

 

Guidelines for ICSA Program Chairs

The appointed ICSA Program Chairs will;

• Not submit papers to the main track of the conference. (Tutorials, experience reports, or panels are acceptable submissions.)
• Consult the General Chair(s) for any changes to the accepted way of organizing and running the conference.
• Ensure that there is balanced membership on the program committee in terms of academic, industry, geography, and experience level, and topical focus for the specific ICSA. Include at least 30% of diversity in gender or geography (i.e., outside Europe and North America) on the PC. Decide whether or not a commitment to attend a PC meeting is a requirement for PC membership.
• Ensure that all chosen members of the program committee are competent to review papers on software architecture.
• Send the list of program committee candidates to the General Chair and then to the Steering Committee Chair for steering committee approval.
• Develop a call for papers and deliver it to the publicity chair and General Chair in accordance with the timeline.
• Develop and follow an evaluation procedure. Consider a separate evaluation procedure for industrial or experience reports (or short papers, or other kinds of papers) than for research papers.
• Convene a program committee meeting. Run the program committee meeting according to procedure; ensure that papers are properly reviewed and selected fairly.
• In case of issues in the review and/or selection of the papers submitted to the main track of the conference, ask the Steering Committee Chair to organize a virtual steering committee meeting to discuss them.
• Ensure that all submitters receive acceptance or rejection notices in a timely way and that rejections are accompanied by written feedback.
• Ensure that papers are properly prepared for publication in the proceedings.
• Develop a program that upholds the working nature of the conference, blending academic and industrial ideas and practices. Provide program details to the General Chair according to the conference timeline.
• Assist the General Chair in preparing the final report.
• Inform PC members that ICSA is an on-site-only conference.
• Inform the authors that if their submission is accepted, at least one author is required to register for ICSA and present in person. The paper will be removed from the proceedings in case of a no-show. Exceptions to the norm might be decided by the General and PC chairs.

 

Guidelines for ICSA Track Chairs and Workshop Organizers

The appointed ICSA Track and Workshops Chairs will:

• Not submit papers to their own track or workshop.
• Consult the General Chair(s) (if you are a track chair) or workshop chair(s) (if you are a workshop organizer) for any changes to the accepted way of organizing and running the track or the workshop.
• Ensure that there is balanced membership on the program committee in terms of academic, industry, geography, gender, and experience level, and topical focus for the specific ICSA.
• Ensure that all chosen program committee members are competent to review papers on software architecture and, more specifically, on the track or workshop you are chairing.
• Inform PC members and authors that ICSA is an on-site-only conference.
• Inform the authors that if their submission is accepted, at least one author is required to register for ICSA and present in person. The paper will be removed from the proceedings in case of a no-show. Exceptions to the norm might be decided by the General Chair.

 

Appendix 1: ICSA Steering Committee Members

(Last updated on October 20, 2025)

 

Name	Role (recent active period)	Affiliation	Email
Henry Muccini (*)	SC chair (Oct 2024-26)	University of L’Aquila	henry.muccini@univaq.it
Ipek Ozkaya	SC vice-chair (Oct 2024-26)	SEI at Carnegie Mellon University	ozkaya@sei.cmu.edu
Steffen Becker	At large (2025-27)	University of Stuttgart	steffen.becker@informatik.uni-stuttgart.de
Remco de Boer	At large (2025-27)	ArchiXL	rdeboer@archixl.nl
Michael Keeling	At large (2025-27)	Kiavi	michael.keeling@gmail.com
Patricia Lago	At large (2025-27)	Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam	p.lago@vu.nl
Ralf Reussner	At large (2025-27)	Karlsruhe Institute of Technology	ralf.reussner@kit.edu
Clemens Szyperski	At large (2025-27)	Microsoft	clemens@microsoft.com
Justus Bogner	At large (2025-27)	Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam	j.bogner@vu.nl
Ilias Gerostathopoulos	At large (2025-27)	Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam	i.g.gerostathopoulos@vu.nl
Roberto Verdecchia	At large (2025-27)	University of Florence	roberto.verdecchia@unifi.it
Raghu Reddy	Regular (2023-26) [ICSA 24 G]	IIIT Hyderabad	raghu.reddy@iiit.ac.in
Nenad Medvidovic	Regular (2023-26) [ICSA 24 G]	University of Southern California	neno@usc.edu
Romina Spalazzese	Regular (2023-26) [ICSA 24 P]	Malmö University	romina.spalazzese@mau.se
Heiko Koziolek	Regular (2023-26) [ICSA 24 P]	ABB Corporate Research	heiko.koziolek@de.abb.com
Len Bass	Regular (2024-27) [ICSA 25 G]	Carnegie Mellon University	lenbass@cmu.edu
Mikkel Baun Kjærgaard	Regular (2024-27) [ICSA 25 G]	University of Southern Denmark	mbkj@mmmi.sdu.dk
Jan Bosch	Regular (2024-27) [ICSA 25 P]	Chalmers University of Technology	jan.bosch@chalmers.se
Raffaela Mirandola	Regular (2024-27) [ICSA 25 P]	Karlsruhe Institute of Technology	raffaela.mirandola@kit.edu
Ivano Malavolta	Regular (2025-28) [ICSA 26 G]	Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam	i.malavolta@vu.nl
Vasilios Andrikopoulos	Regular (2025-28) [ICSA 26 G]	University of Groningen	v.andrikopoulos@rug.nl
Anne Koziolek	Regular (2025-28) [ICSA 26 P]	Karlsruhe Institute of Technology	koziolek@kit.edu
Bradley Schmerl	Regular (2025-28) [ICSA 26 P]	CMU School of Computer Science	schmerl@cs.cmu.edu
Paris Avgeriou	Ex-Officio: ECSA SC chair	University of Groningen	p.avgeriou@rug.nl
Michael Goedicke	Ex-Officio: IFIP TC2 chair	IFIP/Paluno	michael.goedicke@paluno.uni-due.de
Kathy Park	Ex-Officio: IEEE	IEEE	kathy.park@computer.org

 

 

 

 

Appendix 2: Past Members

 

(The table includes all expired roles, although the member might have reappeared in the SC in another role, whether voted at-large or rejoined as a regular member.)

Mary Shaw	CMU	Member at large
Henk Obbink	Philips	Member at large
Paul Clements	SEI	WICSA 1 G chair
Dewayne Perry	U. of Texas	WICSA 1 P chair
Alexander Ran	Nokia	WICSA 1 P chair
Philippe Kruchten	Rational	WICSA 2 G chair
Chris Verhoef	VU University Amsterdam	WICSA 2 G chair
Rick Kazman	SEI	WICSA 2 P chair
Hans van Vliet	VU University Amsterdam	WICSA 2 P chair
Christine Hofmeister	Lehigh U.	WICSA 3 G chair
Morven Gentleman	Dalhousie U.	WICSA 3 G chair
Juha Kuusela	Nokia	WICSA 3 P chair
Jan Bosch	U. Groningen	WICSA 3 P chair
Jan Bosch	Nokia	WICSA 4 G chair
Jeff Magee	Imperial College	WICSA 4 P chair
Clemens Szyperski	Microsoft	WICSA 4 P chair
Robert Nord	SEI	WICSA 5 G chair
Neno Medvidovic	UCS	WICSA 5 P chair
René Krikhaar	VU University Amsterdam	WICSA 5 P chair
Daniel Paulish	Siemens	WICSA 2007 G chair
Ian Gorton	NICTA	WICSA 2007 P chair
Dilip Soni		WICSA 2007 P chair
Jeff Tyree	Capital One	WICSA 2007 P chair
Philippe Kruchten	UBC	WICSA 2008 G chair
David Garlan	CMU	WICSA 2008 P chair
Eoin Woods	UBS Investment Bank	WICSA 2008 P chair
Rick Kazman	University of Hawaii / SEI	WICSA 2009 G chair
Eltjo Poort	Logica > CGI	WICSA 2009 P chair, active as at large member till 2023
Judith Stafford	Tufts	WICSA 2009 P chair
Flavio Oquendo	Université de Bretagne-Sud	WICSA 2009 P chair
Raghu Sangwan	Pennsylvania State University	WICSA 2011 G chair
Tomi Männistö	University of Helsinki	WICSA 2012 G chair
Juha Savolainen	Danfoss Power Electronics	WICSA 2012 P chair
Muhammad Ali Babar	University of Adelaide	WICSA 2012 P chair
Anna Liu	Boomerang	WICSA 2014 G chair
Antony Tang	Swinburne University of Technology	WICSA 2014 P chair, active as at large member till 2021
John Klein	SEI	WICSA 2014 P chair
Patricia Lago	VU University Amsterdam	WICSA 2015 P chair, active as at-large member
Len Bass	Independent consultant	WICSA 2015 P chair, at-large member till 2020
Luciano Baresi	Politecnico di Milano	WICSA 2016 G chair
K. Eric Harper	ABB	WICSA 2016 P chair
Henry Muccini	University of L’Aquila	WICSA 2016 P chair
Jan Bosch	Chalmers University of Technology	ICSA 2017 G chair
Patrizio Pelliccione	Chalmers University of Technology & University of Gothenburg	ICSA 2017 P chair
Marija Mikic	Google US	ICSA 2017 P chair
Heinz Schmidt	RMIT	Merge (2017-19)
Ian Gorton	Northeastern U.	ICSA 2018 G chair
Neil Ernst	U. of Victoria	ICSA 2018 P chair
Carmen Saliba	IEEE	Ex-Officio: IEEE
Matthias Riebisch	University of Hamburg	ICSA 2019 G chair
Uwe Zdun	University of Vienna	ICSA 2019 P chair
Eduardo Almeida	Federal University of Bahia	ICSA 2020 G chair
Sam Malek	University of California, Irvine	ICSA 2020 P chair
Alessandro Garcia	PUC-Rio	ICSA 2020 P chair
Paulo Merson	Brazilian Federal Court of Accounts	ICSA 2020 P chair
Grace Lewis	SEI at Carnegie Mellon University	ICSA 2021 P chair
Anton Jansen	Philips Innovation Services	ICSA 2021 P chair
Ivica Crnkovic	Chalmers University of Technology	At large member -> ICSA Fellow
Flavio Oquendo	IRISA	Ex-Officio: ECSA SC chair
Rick Kazman	University of Hawaii, USA	ICSA 22 G chair (Regular 2021-24)
Patrizio Pelliccione	GSSI, Italy	ICSA 22 G chair (Regular 2021-24)
Anna Liu	Amazon Webservices, Australia	ICSA 22 P chair (Regular 2021-24)
Ingo Weber	TU Berlin, Germany	ICSA 22 P chair (Regular 2021-24)
Barbora Buhnova	Masaryk University	At large (2022-24)
Rich Hilliard	MIT	At large (2022-24)
Philippe Kruchten	University of British Columbia	At large (2022-24)
Robert Nord	SEI at Carnegie Mellon University	At large (2022-24)
Clemens Szyperski	Microsoft	At large (2022-24)
Vittorio Cortellessa	University of L’Aquila, Italy	ICSA 23 P chair (2022-2025)
Radu Calinescu	University of York	ICSA 23 P chair (2022-2025)
Eoin Woods	Endava	At large (2023-25)
George Fairbanks	Google	At large (2023-25)

 

 

 

Appendix 3: Past conferences

 

• The predecessor conferences, WICSA, CBSE, and QoSA are listed at the ICSA conference history page at
• ICSA 2017 was held in Gothenburg, Sweden
• ICSA 2018 was held in Seattle, USA
• ICSA 2019 was held in Hamburg, Germany
• ICSA 2020 was held virtually in Salvador, Brazil
• ICSA 2021 was held virtually in Stuttgart, Germany
• ICSA 2022 was held virtually and as ICSA-Lite in person in Honolulu, Hawaii
• ICSA 2023 was held in L’Aquila, Italy
• ICSA 2024 was held in Hyderabad, India
• ICSA 2025 was held in Odense, Denmark

 

Appendix 4: Awards

Most Influential Paper (MIP) Award

This award is presented at each ICSA to the author(s) of the paper from the ICSA edition from 10 years ago that is judged to have had the greatest influence on software architecture research and practice since its original publication. Up until ICSA 2027, any of the predecessor events — WICSA, CompArch, QoSA, and CBSE — can provide candidate papers for the MIP award.

Each year, the MIP chairs are appointed by the General Chair(s) and Program Co-chairs. For the MIP award to be given on behalf of the IEEE Computer Society’s TCSE (Technical Community on Software Engineering), the MIP chairs need to define a selection process and have it approved by the IEEE TCSE chair. The process is described below in generic terms and is meant to allow for some flexibility for the MIP chairs.

First, the MIP chairs assemble a short-list of papers from 10 years ago based on established criteria (e.g., number of citations, number of downloads). This short-list should be limited to a manageable number of papers (e.g., only the top quartile).

As a next step, the MIP chairs ask members of the ICSA steering committee, as well as selected members of the Organizing Committee (e.g., track chairs), to vote on what they consider the MIP, providing a qualitative justification for their selection. For each person who votes, their Conflicts of Interest are taken into account (e.g., co-authors of short-listed papers are not supposed to vote. The MIP chairs may identify other constraints).

Finally, the MIP chairs decide on the MIP awards and submit this decision to the IEEE TCSE chair for approval.

The award is presented yearly by the ICSA xxxx General Chair during ICSA’s award presentation session. Recipients are given a plaque engraved with their names and signed by the General Chair of ICSA xxxx and the ICSA Steering Committee Chair. The recipients are asked to give a presentation at the conference on their current views on software architecture. 

Best Paper Awards

This award can be given separately for the best working (i.e., short) paper and the best long paper.

The Program Chairs ask reviewers to nominate papers. Among the nominations, the top 3-4 papers are selected, in each category (long and working session) based on the following:

Criteria for long papers (traditional presentation):

• Usefulness, novelty, presentation (mix of industry and academia), and eventually being controversial;
• Trigger reflection in the community, raise issues in the area, emerging ideas, in short: bring people to reflection;
• Reviewers’ grades.

Criteria for working session (short) paper:

• Based on usefulness, novelty, presentation, industry grounding, and eventually being controversial;
• Trigger discussion in the community, and pave the way to promising collaborations (incl. industry-academia);
• Reviewers’ grades.