Empirical Research in Software Engineering: Concepts, Methods, and Challenges

Abstract

The Software Engineering community is increasingly recognising the value of empirical evidence to support research and practice. Empirical evidence provides a means to evaluate the utility of promising research areas and to help practitioners to make informed technology adoption decisions. This tutorial aims to provide software engineering researchers and practitioners with appropriate knowledge and training in different methods and techniques to design, execute, analyze, and report empirical research. The goal of this tutorial is to introduce a wide range of qualitative and quantitative methods, which can be used to gather and use empirical evidence to evaluate various software engineering technologies (i.e. methods, techniques, and tools). It will also demonstrate different ways of applying empirical approaches to guide software engineering research. The tutorial will provide a general introduction to empirical methods followed by a detailed discussion of controlled experiments, surveys, case studies, action research and systematic reviews. The tutorial will discuss the process of formulating and evaluating research questions and selecting a suitable research method, data collection techniques, and data analysis approaches. The tutorial will also evaluate the strengths and limitations of different methods and techniques. The tutorial includes lectures, discussions, and exercises, which are designed to help the participants to better understand different concepts underpinning the methods and techniques presented. The tutorial also describes the challenges and ethical issues involved in empirical research and how to deal with them.

Co-presenter: Muhammad Ali Babar

Dr. M. Ali Babar is a Senior Researcher with Lero, the Irish Software Engineering Research Centre, where he leads projects on Software Architecture Development and Conformance Analysis (SADCA) and Evidential Assessment of Software Technologies (EAST). Previously, he was working as a researcher with National ICT Australia (NICTA), where he carried out research in software architecture design and evaluation, architectural knowledge management, and process improvement. He has authored/co-authored more than 50 research papers in peer-reviewed journals, conferences, and workshops. He has also been designing and delivering software engineering academic and training courses since 2000 in Australia and over sea. He has presented tutorials in the area of software architecture at various international conferences including ICSE 2007, SATURN 2007, APSEC 2007, and WICSA 2007. Prior to joining research and development field, he worked as a software engineer and an IT consultant for several years in Australia. He received an MSc in computing sciences from the University of Technology, Sydney, Australia and a Ph.D. degree in Software Engineering from the University of New South Wales, Australia. His current research interests include software product lines, architecture design and evaluation, and empirical software engineering.

Co-presenter: Tore Dybå

Dr. Tore Dybå is the chief scientist at SINTEF ICT and a visiting scientist at the Simula Research Laboratory. He received the MSc degree in electrical engineering and computer science from the Norwegian Institute of Technology in 1986 and the Dr. Ing. degree in computer and information science from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in 2001. He worked as a consultant for eight years in Norway and Saudi Arabia before he joined SINTEF in 1994. His research interests include empirical and evidence-based software engineering, software process improvement, and organizational learning. Dr. Dybå is the author and coauthor of more than 50 publications appearing in international journals, books, and conference proceedings in the fields of software engineering and knowledge management. He is the principal author of the book Process Improvement in Practice: A Handbook for IT Companies, published as part of the Kluwer International Series in Software Engineering. He is a member of the International Software Engineering Research Network, the IEEE Computer Society, the Academy of Management, and the editorial board of Empirical Software Engineering.

Conference Sponsors: