Experimental Software Engineering Issues

"We have only begun to understand the experimental nature of software engineering, the role of empirical studies and measurement within software engineering, and the mechanisms needed to apply them successfully. This volume presents the proceedings of a workshop whose purpose was to gather those members of the software engineering community who support an engineering approach based upon empirical studies to provide an interchange of ideas and paradigms for research. The papers in the volume are grouped into six parts corresponding to the workshop sessions: The experimental paradigm in software engineering; Objectives and context of measurement/experimentation; Procedures and mechanisms for measurement/experimentation; Measurement-based modeling; packaging for reuse/reuse of models; and technology transfer, teaching and training. Each part opens with a keynote paper and ends with a discussion summary. The workshop served as an important event in continuing to strengthen empirical software engineering as a major subdiscipline ofsoftware engineering. The deep interactions and important accomplishments from the meeting documented in these proceedings have helped identify key issues in moving software engineering as a whole towards a true engineering discipline."--PUBLISHER'S WEBSITE.

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-proceedings of the International Dagstuhl-Seminar on Empirical Software Engineering, held in Dagstuhl Castle, Germany in June 2006. The 54 revised full papers in this state-of-the-art survey are organized in topical sections on the empirical paradigm, measurement and model building, technology transfer and education, as well as roadmapping.

This book was written primarily for all those DTP users and programmers who want to keep up with the rapid development of electronic publishing, particular those who wish to develop new systems for the output of typefaces. In this volume, various formats are presented, their properties discussed and production requirements analyzed. Appendices provide readers additional information, largely on digital formats for typeface storage.

Like other sciences and engineering disciplines, software engineering requires a cycle of model building, experimentation, and learning. Experiments are valuable tools for all software engineers who are involved in evaluating and choosing between different methods, techniques, languages and tools. The purpose of Experimentation in Software Engineering is to introduce students, teachers, researchers, and practitioners to empirical studies in software engineering, using controlled experiments. The introduction to experimentation is provided through a process perspective, and the focus is on the steps that we have to go through to perform an experiment. The book is divided into three parts. The first part provides a background of theories and methods used in experimentation. Part II then devotes one chapter to each of the five experiment steps: scoping, planning, execution, analysis, and result presentation. Part III completes the presentation with two examples. Assignments and statistical material are provided in appendixes. Overall the book provides indispensable information regarding empirical studies in particular for experiments, but also for case studies, systematic literature reviews, and surveys. It is a revision of the authors’ book, which was published in 2000. In addition, substantial new material, e.g. concerning systematic literature reviews and case study research, is introduced. The book is self-contained and it is suitable as a course book in undergraduate or graduate studies where the need for empirical studies in software engineering is stressed. Exercises and assignments are included to combine the more theoretical material with practical aspects. Researchers will also benefit from the book, learning more about how to conduct empirical studies, and likewise practitioners may use it as a “cookbook” when evaluating new methods or techniques before implementing them in their organization.

This book gathers chapters from some of the top international empirical software engineering researchers focusing on the practical knowledge necessary for conducting, reporting and using empirical methods in software engineering. Topics and features include guidance on how to design, conduct and report empirical studies. The volume also provides information across a range of techniques, methods and qualitative and quantitative issues to help build a toolkit applicable to the diverse software development contexts

This book identifies challenges and opportunities in the development and implementation of software that contain significant statistical content. While emphasizing the relevance of using rigorous statistical and probabilistic techniques in software engineering contexts, it presents opportunities for further research in the statistical sciences and their applications to software engineering. It is intended to motivate and attract new researchers from statistics and the mathematical sciences to attack relevant and pressing problems in the software engineering setting. It describes the "big picture," as this approach provides the context in which statistical methods must be developed. The book's survey nature is directed at the mathematical sciences audience, but software engineers should also find the statistical emphasis refreshing and stimulating. It is hoped that the book will have the effect of seeding the field of statistical software engineering by its indication of opportunities where statistical thinking can help to increase understanding, productivity, and quality of software and software production.