Software Architecture in PracticeICSA 2026

Call for Papers

Are you a software architecture practitioner or a software architecture researcher actively working with practitioners? If so, we want to hear about your work at ICSA 2026, the premier research conference for software architecture and software architects.

Come to ICSA to tell us about your insights, innovations, solutions, and experiences related to the application of software architecture to real-world software engineering problems and to learn from others about their experiences too.

For ICSA2026, we particularly encourage submissions that advance context-driven software architecture research and practice, that is submissions focusing on solutions tailored to specific domains, organizations, or development projects.

We welcome submissions that address concrete, industry-relevant problems in well-defined contexts, even if the results are not broadly generalizable, as these contributions are critical to building a practical body of knowledge for software architecture in practice.

We welcome two types of submissions, regular papers (4-8 pages, ~2000-4000 words) which need to be written in long form academic format, and proposals for technical talks (2 pages max), which can be written less formally to describe the content and relevance of the talk.
If this sounds interesting then please read on for more details and we hope to see you in Amsterdam in June 2026.

Topics

In no particular order, some of the topics we are particularly interested in are:

• Case studies of overcoming architectural challenges in real software systems.
• The application of techniques for architecture design, analysis, and evaluation.
• Achieving effective architecture knowledge management.
• The application of AI to software architecture work.
• Integrating AI into the software architecture of existing systems.
• Using architecture practices to realize quality attributes (performance, interoperability, maintainability, security, etc.)
• The management of technical debt.
• Architectural techniques and tools for recovering and analysing the architecture of existing systems.

These are only examples. Topics not on the list but relating to software architecture in practice are also very welcome.

Types of Submissions

We solicit the following types of submissions:

Regular papers (4-8 pages): These papers should address real-world software architecture challenges through systematic investigations in specific contexts. Submissions should describe industry-relevant experiences, best practices, or lessons learned from applying architectural solutions in well-defined domains, organizations, or projects. We particularly welcome papers that explore context-driven results, such as solutions tailored to unique stakeholder needs, domain constraints, or organizational factors, even if not broadly generalizable. Papers should clearly articulate the context, assumptions, trade-offs, and practical impact of the work. Empirical analyses, case studies, or evaluations of architecture practices in industry or government settings are highly encouraged.

Evaluation criteria include:

• Problem Context and Industry Impact: The submission must clearly define the specific context of the problem, including domain, organizational factors, and stakeholders' needs. Authors should explain the importance of addressing their problem within this context and describe its relevance to industry practices.
• Related Work: The submission should demonstrate an understanding of prior work relevant to the problem (or solution). The relationship between prior approaches and the presented solution should be clearly explained, showing how the proposed work builds on (or complements) these past efforts.
• Approach, Implementation, and Results: The submission should give a clear explanation of the methodology used, and the actions taken. Authors should describe the environment in which the problem was addressed and the key decisions, together with how the solutions were adapted to the context. Submissions should include results and lessons learned.
• Data-Driven Findings and Insights: The findings should be backed up with data or direct input from involved stakeholders. The submission should also highlight its real-world applicability, and avoid personal opinions or anecdotal evidence.
• Innovation, Significance, and Industry Relevance: The submission should highlight the innovative aspects of the work, and show how it contributes to, or complements, the field of software architecture in practice. Authors should discuss the significance of their findings and compare their results with alternatives.

Technical talk proposals (2 pages): These proposals should highlight current trends or innovative practices in context-driven software architecture, presenting ideas that are inspirational and informative for ICSA attendees. Proposals should clearly define the context of the problem or solution, explain why the talk is relevant to practitioners or researchers working in similar contexts, and outline the practical insights to be shared. The duration of accepted talks is 30 minutes.

Submission

All submissions are to be submitted electronically via the EasyChair submission system by the submission deadline and must not have been published before or be submitted for review elsewhere while under consideration at ICSA. All submissions will be checked with an anti-plagiarism tool. Submissions must conform to the author instructions as well as to the IEEE Guidelines for Artificial Intelligence (AI)-Generated Text. Any submission that does not comply with these guidelines or found to contain plagiarized content may be desk rejected without further review.

Publication

All accepted Software Architecture in Practice papers and technical talk proposals will be published in the ICSA2026 companion proceedings.
The review process for the ICSA SAIP track does not apply double-blind review.
Authors should also note that (1) changes to the list of authors are not permitted after submission; (2) track chairs are not allowed to submit papers to the track they are chairing; and (3) at least one author of an accepted contribution is required to register and present the work in-person at the conference.

Open Science Principles

The ICSA conference encourages authors of Software Architecture in Practice papers to follow the principles of transparency, reproducibility, and replicability. In particular, the conference supports the adoption of open data and open source principles and encourages authors to disclose data in order to increase reproducibility and replicability. Where relevant and possible, submissions in the Software Architecture in Practice track should be accompanied by one or more artefacts (such as survey data or source code) to support their content. Where papers are accompanied by artifacts then they will be evaluated following the guidance from the Artifacts Evaluation track. If authors are unable to submit a supporting artifact they are asked to comment in their submitted paper on why this is not possible, practical, or desirable. Possible reasons may include privacy restrictions or non-disclosure agreements.

Accepted Software Architecture in Practice papers with artifacts must follow the artifact submission guidelines and deadlines mentioned in Artifacts Evaluation track.