Message from the Chairs of the 23rd Belgium-Netherlands Software Evolution Workshop

The 23rd Belgium-Netherlands Software Evolution Workshop (BENEVOL 2024) was held in Namur, Netherlands, on November 21–22, 2024.<br/>BENEVOL 2024 offered various contribution formats: Technical papers (TECH), which present novel and validated research results; New Ideas and Controversial Perspectives (NICE), which are position papers presenting new and potentially controversial software maintenance and evolution perspectives; Presentation Abstracts (ABS) are summaries of research published elsewhere, and presented as posters during the workshop; Finally, Replicated or Invalidated Papers (RIP), concerned the replication efforts of existing studies.<br/>BENEVOL 2024 received 35 submissions, which is the second highest for the workshop, in particular: 15 TECH papers, 6 NICE papers and 14 presentation abstracts/posters. We accepted 14 TECH papers, 3 NICE papers, and 17 presentations abstracts (including 3 NICE papers accepted as ABS ones). Unfortunately, 3 ABS papers could not be presented during event, resulting in 31 contributions discussed during the workshop. These proceedings include only the 17 TECH and NICE papers.<br/>The accepted submissions represent a wide range of topics related to software evolution, including; software ecosystems, programming languages, static and dynamic analysis, software repositories, the growing use of artificial intelligence for testing and code comprehension, and insights from practice.<br/>BENEVOL 2024 also featured two amazing keynotes. Sonia Haiduc (Florida State University, USA) gave her keynote on “Studying and Supporting Developers' Online Information Seeking,” exploring the sources of information that developers privilege. Andy Zaidman (Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands) presented “Show Your True Testing Color,” investigating the impact of continuous development and testing practices on sustainability.<br/>With so many contributions and more than 80 participants, we believe BENEVOL 2024 was a successful edition! A special thanks to the authors for submitting and presenting their work, the keynote speakers for sharing their knowledge and experiences during the workshop, the program committee members for their availability and care in reviewing a large number of submissions, and the sponsors for providing resources that made the workshop possible and enjoyable.