Empirical studies of software engineering
Dewayne E. Perry, Adam Porter, Lawrence G. Votta · 2000
PointersEmpirical study play a fundamental role in modern science, helping us understand how and why things work, and allowing us to use this understanding to materially alter our world.Defining and executing studies that change how software development is done is the greatest challenge facing empirical researchers.The key to meeting this challenge lies in understanding what empirical studies really are and how they can be most effectively used -not in new techniques or more intricate statistics.If we want empirical studies to improve software engineering research and practice, then we need to create better studies and we need to draw more credible conclusions from them.Concrete steps we can take today include: designing better studies, collecting data more effectively, and involving others in our empirical enterprises.