Conference Description
Key Takeaways
- Annual conference addressing software quality, reliability, and security across modern computing environments
- Strong emphasis on AI-based techniques including machine learning, deep learning, and natural language processing for software assurance
- Coverage spans IoT security, cloud computing, cyber-physical systems, and Industry 4.0 applications
- Designed for software engineers, security professionals, researchers, and quality assurance specialists
- Facilitates collaboration between academic research and industry practice
Introduction
The 26th International Conference on Software Quality, Reliability, and Security (QRS 2026) convenes software engineers, researchers, and security professionals in Florence, Italy, from July 22–25, 2026. This established annual gathering addresses the increasingly complex challenge of building trustworthy software systems in an era defined by artificial intelligence, interconnected devices, and distributed cloud architectures. As organisations across industries grapple with expanding attack surfaces and heightened reliability expectations, QRS 2026 provides a forum for examining both theoretical advances and practical implementation strategies.
About QRS 2026
Now in its 26th year, QRS has established itself as a significant venue for the software quality and security research community. The conference brings together academics and industry practitioners to present ongoing research, share operational experiences, and examine emerging techniques for developing systems that meet stringent reliability and security requirements.
The 2026 edition takes place at the University of Florence and features a programme structure that includes keynote presentations, plenary panel discussions, specialised workshops, and multiple tracks accommodating research papers, posters, and industry-focused sessions. This format reflects the conference’s dual commitment to advancing theoretical knowledge while addressing the practical concerns of organisations deploying complex software systems.
The event operates under the patronage of several notable organisations, including IFIP (International Federation for Information Processing), EWICS (European Workshop on Industrial Computer Systems), REAJ, the IEEE Reliability Society Japan Joint Chapter, the University of Leicester, and Mooctest. Huawei serves as the platinum sponsor for the 2026 edition.
Technical Focus Areas
QRS 2026 addresses the intersection of three domains that have become inseparable in contemporary software development: quality assurance, system reliability, and security engineering. The conference programme reflects how these disciplines increasingly overlap, particularly as software systems grow more complex and interconnected.
AI and Machine Learning for Software Assurance
A substantial portion of the conference examines how artificial intelligence techniques are transforming traditional approaches to software quality. Machine learning and deep learning methods now play significant roles in automated testing, vulnerability detection, and anomaly identification. Natural language processing applications extend to requirements analysis, code review automation, and security documentation. The conference explores both the opportunities these technologies present and the unique quality challenges they introduce—AI systems themselves require rigorous validation approaches that differ from conventional software testing methodologies.
Security in Distributed and Embedded Systems
The proliferation of Internet of Things deployments, cyber-physical systems, and Industry 4.0 implementations has created new categories of security and reliability concerns. These systems often operate in environments where traditional security assumptions do not hold, face resource constraints that limit available protective measures, and must maintain reliability under conditions that would compromise conventional software. QRS 2026 addresses topics including malware detection, intrusion prevention, operating system security, and vulnerability assessment within these constrained environments.
Testing, Verification, and Formal Methods
Core software engineering disciplines remain central to the conference programme. Sessions cover software testing methodologies, verification and validation techniques, debugging approaches, and fault tolerance mechanisms. Formal methods—mathematical approaches to proving software correctness—receive attention alongside more empirical quality assurance practices. The conference also examines modelling techniques, quality metrics, and benchmarking approaches that help organisations measure and improve their software development processes.
Industry Context and Current Relevance
The themes addressed at QRS 2026 reflect broader shifts in how organisations approach software development and deployment. Cloud computing has fundamentally altered reliability engineering, introducing both new failure modes and new resilience patterns. The expansion of smart city initiatives and connected infrastructure has raised the stakes for software security, as vulnerabilities in these systems can affect physical safety and essential services.
Regulatory environments have also evolved. Organisations operating in sectors from healthcare to financial services face increasingly specific requirements around software security and data protection. The conference’s coverage of secure storage, information management, and penetration testing reflects these compliance pressures.
Perhaps most significantly, the rapid adoption of AI-based systems has created urgent questions about quality assurance for technologies that behave probabilistically rather than deterministically. Traditional testing approaches assume that software will produce consistent outputs for given inputs—an assumption that does not hold for many machine learning applications. QRS 2026 addresses this challenge directly, examining how quality and reliability concepts must adapt to accommodate these new computational paradigms.
Bridging Research and Practice
A distinguishing characteristic of QRS is its explicit focus on connecting academic research with industry application. The conference structure includes dedicated industry tracks alongside traditional research paper presentations, creating opportunities for practitioners to engage with emerging techniques and for researchers to understand operational constraints and priorities.
This bridge-building function addresses a persistent challenge in software engineering: research advances often take years to influence industry practice, while practitioners frequently develop effective techniques that remain undocumented in academic literature. By bringing both communities together, QRS aims to accelerate the transfer of knowledge in both directions.
Who Should Attend
QRS 2026 serves professionals across the software development lifecycle who bear responsibility for system quality, reliability, or security. The conference is particularly relevant for software engineers working on safety-critical or security-sensitive applications, security engineers and cybersecurity professionals addressing vulnerability management, research scientists investigating novel approaches to software assurance, quality assurance leads establishing testing and validation programmes, and technical leaders including CTOs and R&D managers setting organisational direction for software quality initiatives.
Attendees typically come from universities and research institutes, technology companies of various sizes, and organisations across industries where software reliability and security are operational priorities. The technical depth of the programme assumes familiarity with software engineering concepts, making the conference most valuable for those with existing expertise in the field.
Conclusion
As software systems become more deeply embedded in critical infrastructure, business operations, and daily life, the disciplines of quality assurance, reliability engineering, and security have moved from specialised concerns to fundamental requirements. QRS 2026 provides a venue for the professionals responsible for these outcomes to examine current challenges, evaluate emerging solutions, and build the collaborative relationships that advance the field. The Florence gathering represents an opportunity to engage with the research frontier while grounding that engagement in the practical realities of building software that organisations and individuals can trust.