Requiem for software evolution research: a few steps toward the creative age

Nowadays almost every company depends on software technologies to function, the challenge is that the technologies and software applications are constantly changing and adapting to the needs of users. This process of change is risky, since unplanned and undisciplined changes in any software system of realistic size risk degrading the quality of the software and producing unexpected side effects. The need for disciplined, intelligent, cost-effective software change and evolution is an urgent technological challenge in the software engineering field. New technologies, new social and cultural trends, a widespread adoption of open source software, the market globalization and new development environments are spelling the requiem to the traditional way in which software evolution research was carried out. Evolution research must evolve and adapt to the new society needs and trends thus turning challenges into opportunities. This keynote attempts to shed some light on key factors such new technology transfer opportunity, the need of benchmarks and the three items each and every research program in software evolution should integrate in one way or the other.