Empirical Knowledge about Software Design
DAVID E. BUDGEN · Software Design · 2020
Empirical knowledge is usually based upon the use of some form of measurement. So, before discussing the forms of empirical study and the types of knowledge that they can provide, it is important to understand the forms of measure commonly used in empirical studies. The important thing about empirical studies in general, and systematic reviews in particular, is that not only can they provide more rigorously derived empirical knowledge about software engineering practices, they can also help would-be adopters of these practices to assess how useful the practices may be to them. The systematic review performed in software engineering provides findings that can be used to advise practice, the empirical knowledge derived from its findings is often presented in one of three forms. However, it is worth noting that many practically-oriented systematic reviews in software engineering do tend to make the most of the available material synthesising the findings from a variety of forms of primary study, including case studies.