Welcome to the 5th International Workshop on Co-operative and Human Aspects of Software Engineering (CHASE 2012)

Software is created by people for people working in a range of environments and under various conditions. Any aspiration towards sustainability in software engineering will need to take account of the people in the process, their behaviour and the impact of that behaviour. Understanding the cooperative and human aspects of software development is crucial in order to comprehend how methods and tools are used, and thereby improve the creation and maintenance of software. Both researchers and practitioners have recognized the need to investigate these aspects, but the results of such investigations are dispersed in different conferences and communities. The number of submission to the workshop indicates that the CHASE community is consolidating as well as attracting new members. Out of the 41 submissions we selected 13 full papers and 18 short papers and notes. We are looking forward to an inspiring discussion of emerging research directions as well as reflection regarding accumulation and generalization of existing research. We aim to provide both a meeting place for the community and the possibility for researchers interested in joining the field to present and discuss their work in progress and to get an overview over the field. The program will combine plenum presentations with small group discussions around a set of topics.