The International Conference on Software and Systems Reuse, Product Lines, and Configuration (VARIABILITY 2026) invites high-quality contributions from researchers and practitioners in software engineering, systems engineering, and related disciplines focussing on a broad spectrum of methods, concepts, and tools for variability. VARIABILITY aims to be the premier forum for the exchange of ideas, experiences, and results in all aspects of software and systems variability management, reuse, software configuration, and customization.

As software and systems become increasingly configurable, reusable, and adaptable, managing their variability across all lifecycle phases is more critical—and more challenging—than ever. VARIABILITY 2026 seeks to bring together the diverse communities that address these challenges from theoretical, technical, and practical perspectives.

VARIABILITY results from a merge of three prominent conferences focussing on software and systems variability, configuration and reuse: SPLC (the International Systems and Software Product Line Conference, 29 successful editions), VaMoS (the International Working Conference on Variability Modelling of Software-Intensive Systems, 19 successful editions), and ICSR (the International Conference on Systems and Software Reuse, 22 successful editions).

VARIABILITY is by design open as a conference. It welcomes new fields of variability-intensive research, such as artificial intelligence, hybrid software-hardware systems, etc. For this first edition of VARIABILITY, we strive to continue the success of the predecessor conferences ICSR, SPLC, and VaMoS by welcoming high-quality submissions for the research track in numerous closely related areas, such as systems and software product lines, systems and software reuse, configurable systems and software, product configuration, and systems and software variability. We will award the best research paper and the best artifact paper.
Topics of Interest

We invite contributions on variability management, reuse, and configuration across all phases of the software and systems lifecycle. The topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

Requirements & Domain Engineering

Domain analysis and variability modeling
Decision modeling and support
Customization and personalization specification
Requirements variability and traceability

Architecture & Design

Variability-aware software architectures
Architecture-centric product line engineering
Model-driven engineering (MDE)
Multi-product lines, program families, product lines of product lines, software ecosystems

Implementation & Code Generation

Generative programming and code synthesis
Modularization techniques for reusable code
Programming languages and frameworks for variability
Open-source strategies for software reuse

Testing, Verification & Quality Assurance

Testing and analysis of configurable systems
Safety and security in variable systems
Formal Methods for Software Product Lines
Non-functional properties: quality-aware analysis, quality-driven configuration
Reuse in testing, verification, and quality assurance

Evolution, Maintenance & Operation

Refactoring and restructuring of configurable systems
Reverse engineering, variability mining, and refactoring
Runtime variability and dynamic (software) product lines
Maintenance strategies for large-scale reused systems
Variability in DevOps and CI/CD pipelines

AI and Data-Driven Methods

Machine learning for variability management
AI-assisted product configuration
Data and repository mining from product lines and configuration histories
Recommendation systems for reuse and customization

Industrial Applications and Tool Support

Variability and reuse in AI, cyber-physical systems, robotics, automotive, aerospace, quantum computing, etc.
Sustainable technologies for variation and sustainable software reuse approaches
Human, organizational, and social aspects of variable systems and software
Industrial case studies and lessons learned
Tools support for all activities in variability management, configuration, and reuse