PhD SymposiumXP 2026

Call for Submissions

XP 2026 – Doctoral Symposium

Important Dates

• Proposal submission deadline: February 22nd, 2026
• Notifications of acceptance: March 15th, 2026 (Sunday)
• PhD symposium: April 9th, 2026

SUBMISSIONS

XP is the premier Agile software development conference combining research and practice. It is a unique forum where Agile researchers, practitioners, thought leaders, coaches, and trainers gather to present and discuss their most recent innovations and research results. The theme for XP 2026 is “Expanding Agile: Transforming Today, Shaping a Sustainable and Inclusive Tomorrow,” The PhD Symposium aims to foster a supportive community of established researchers, practitioners, and doctoral students, promoting collaborative research on current and future Agile-related topics. The symposium will provide doctoral students with a unique opportunity to interact with colleagues and experts, receiving constructive feedback on their current and future research directions.

You can use the following submission link (https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=xp2026) and then select Phd Symposium

Who should and how to participate

All students who have already conducted research or plan to do so in the field of agile software development are invited to participate. Experienced researchers from the board of advisors will review the research plans of Ph.D. students and give them detailed feedback and guidance. The most promising research plans will be invited to be presented at the symposium, where students can receive more direct feedback during the discussion. Furthermore, we will hold an interactive session at the symposium with all present PhD students and advisors to work on developing their research plans. Participation in the symposium is being solicited at three levels: finishers, starters, and observers.

FINISHERS

Finishers are doctoral students in the last years of PhD, preferably after a mid-point in their dissertation work (i.e. are at least 12 months from defending their dissertation or have a preliminary research design), who will present their work at the symposium and receive feedback from a dedicated mentor from the board of advisors, as well as from the other symposium advisors and other attendees. Those wishing to participate as finishers are asked to submit:

• A letter of recommendation from the dissertation advisor(s), sent by e-mail directly to the PhD Symposium Chairs, including an assessment of the current status of the research and an expected date for the completion of the dissertation.
• A short paper on their research plan, including (up to 6 pages with LNBIP template):
  • Title and abstract
  • Introduction (motivation, rationale, background) to the research
  • Relevant prior work (foundations, relevant research results, research gap this work tries to fill, related works)
  • Research objectives, questions, and hypotheses (with rationale)
  • Research approach, study design, and arrangements (research method)
  • Data analysis methods and techniques
  • Validity threats and their control
  • Summary of the current status of the research and planned next steps
  • Description of issues or points on which the author would like to get the most advice on

This paper must be authored solely by the student.

At the symposium, finishers are required to:

• Submit and present a research plan
• Act as a scribe in one review session

STARTERS

Starters are also doctoral students, but in the first years of their PhD, maybe not having publications yet for their PhD, and aiming to receive early feedback on their research project. Those wishing to participate as starters are asked to submit:

• A letter of recommendation from the dissertation advisor(s), sent by e-mail directly to the PhD Symposium Chairs, including an assessment of the current status of the research and an expected date for the completion of the dissertation.
• A two-page summary of their research project (up to 4 pages with LNBIP template):
  • Title and abstract
  • Introduction (motivation, rationale, background) to the research
  • Research objectives, questions, and hypotheses (with rationale)
  • Preliminary research approach, study design, and arrangements (research method)
  • Description of issues or points on which the author would like to get the most advice on
  • Summary of the current status of the research project

This summary must be authored solely by the student.

At the symposium, starters are invited to:

• Submit and present a research plan
• Act as a scribe in one review session

OBSERVERS

Observers are any other members of the agile software engineering research community who would like to attend the symposium and are very welcome, including dissertation advisors, who are kindly requested not to interact during the presentation and discussion of their students’ work.

Guidelines

All submissions must conform to the LNBIP formatting and submission instructions. See the instructions for authors.

The submissions should be no more than 6 pages (for short papers) and 4 pages (for summaries). Papers must be submitted electronically via EasyChair by the defined deadline.

After the conference, participants will be asked to revise their papers and summaries based on feedback from conference participants and reviewers. The accepted papers will be published as Open Access in the post-conference proceedings by Springer (Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, LNBIP).

Topics of Interest

If you are not sure if your PhD project is under the scope of XP 2026, please consider the topics of interest listed under the Research Papers track.

Questions

If you have any questions or comments, please contact the PhD Symposium Chairs.

PhD Symposium Chairs:

• Ilaria Lunesu, University of Cagliari, Italy (ilaria.lunesu@unica.it)
• Sheila Reinehr, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Paraná, Brasil (sheila.reinehr@pucpr.br)