Guide to Advanced Empirical
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- Acknowledgements
| 6. Summary and Future Work The motivation for the work reported in this chapter is that without a stronger focus on theory building in the empirical SE community, we will probably continue to produce many isolated, exploratory studies, which will limit our ability to aggregate knowledge. Even a weak theory may frequently be better than no theory. We have described a framework that we believe will benefit the process of proposing, testing and modifying and describing SE theories. We illustrated the framework with an example of how to build theories systematically from an exploratory case study using the technique of grounded theory Future work will include describing how to build theories from experiments and from systematic reviews of the SE literature. The framework suggested above is not intended as silver bullets to build and document theories theory development requires significant reflection and skill regarding study design and argumentation. Hence, there is a need for more systematic teaching of research methods and theory building as part of SE education. During our work with a survey to identify and describe theories used in SE experiments (Hannay et al., 2007), we experienced that there is no simple way of identifying empirically-based theories that are used or builtin SE. There are websites for collecting and documenting theories in psychology 3 and information systems 4 In the same manner, Simula Research Laboratory has begun building a site for empirically-based SE theories, see se-theory.simula.no. We believe that this will make it easier for scholars to find relevant theories for their research and that this will stimulate the community to collaborate on building new theories and on improving existing theories. Acknowledgements We would like to thank Magne Jørgensen and Reidar Conradi for useful discussions and insightful comments, and Chris Wright for proofreading the chapter. References Abdel-Hamid, T.K., Sengupta, K. and Ronan, D, Software project control an experimental investigation of judgement with fallible information, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, 19(6): 603–612, 1993. Anda, B.C.D. and Hansen, K, A case study on the application of UML in legacy development. In ISESE’2006 (Fifth ACM-IEEE International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering), J. Maldonado and C. Wohlin (eds, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, ACM Press, September 21–22, pp. 124–133, 2006. Anda, B.C.D., Hansen, K, Gullesen, I. and Thorsen, H.K., Experiences from using a UML-based development method in a large safety-critical project, Empirical Software Engineering, 11(4): 555–581, 2006. 3 http://changingminds.org/explanations/theories/theories.htm 4 http://www.istheory.yorku.ca/ 334 D.I.K. Sjøberg et al. Arisholm, E, Briand, LC, Hove, SE. and Labiche, Y, The impact of UML documentation on software maintenance an experimental evaluation, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, 32(6): 365–381, 2006. Bacharach, SB, Organizational theories some criteria for evaluation, Academy of Management Review, 14(4): 496–515, Baker, P, Loh, Sand Weil, F, Model-driven engineering in a large industrial context – motorola case study. In MoDELS 2005, LNCS 3713, L. Briand and C. Williams (eds, New York, Springer-Verlag, pp. 476–491, Baron, RM. and Kenny, DA, The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations, Personality and Social Psychology, 51(6): 1173–1182, 1986. Basili, V.R., Editorial, Empirical Software Engineering, 1(2), 1996. Basili, V.R., Shull, F. and Lanubile, F, Building knowledge through families of experiments, IEEE Transaction on Software Engineering, 24(4): 456–473, 1999. Booch, G, Rumbaugh, J. and Jacobson, Ii The Unified Modeling Language User Guide, Boston, MA, Addison-Wesley, 1999. Bunge, Mi Scientific Research The Search fora System, New York, Springer-Verlag, 1967. Burkhardt, J.M., Detienne, F. and Wiedenbeck, S, Object-oriented program comprehension effect of expertise, task and phase, Empirical Software Engineering, 7(2): 115–156, Carroll, J. and Swatman, PA, Structured-case: a methodological framework for building theory in information systems research, European Journal of Information Systems, 9: 235–242, Cohen, Bi Developing Sociological Knowledge Theory and Method, 2nd edn, Belmont, CA, Wadsworth Publishing, 1989. Dobing, Band Parsons, J, How UML is used, Communications of the ACM, 49(5): 109–113, Dewey, J, The Middle Works, 1899–1924, Vol. 15, J.A. Boydston, (ed, Carbondale, Southern Illinois University Press, 1976–1983. Dubin, R, Theory Building, Free Press, New York, 1978. Endres, A. and Rombach, Di A Handbook of Software and Systems Engineering. Empirical Download 1.5 Mb. Share with your friends:
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