Downloaded 67 times
Uploaded byDaniel Cukier
Selecting Empirical Methods for Software Engineering
The document discusses a range of empirical research methods in social sciences, including controlled experiments, case studies, surveys, ethnographies, and action research. It highlights various philosophical stances such as positivism, constructivism, critical theory, and pragmatism, emphasizing how each perspective influences knowledge acquisition and method selection. Additionally, it touches upon the challenges and strengths of different research designs while advocating for mixed methods approaches to enhance empirical validity.
More Related Content
![[2017/2018] RESEARCH in software engineering](https://cdn.slidesharecdn.com/ss_thumbnails/ivano01seresearch-171120182253-thumbnail.jpg?width=640&height=640&fit=bounds)
Similar to Selecting Empirical Methods for Software Engineering
Selecting Empirical Methods for Software Engineering
- 1. Selecting Empirical Methods for SE Research Daniel Cukier
- 2. 5 classes ofmethod Controlled experiments Case studies Survey research Ethnographies Action research
- 3. Exploratory questions Existence Description and classification Descriptive-comparative
- 4. Base-rate questions Frequency anddistribution Descriptive-process
- 5. Relationship questions Is X related to Y? If X occurs, will Y also occur?
- 6. Causality questions Does Xcause Y? Does X prevent Y? Causality-Comparative Does context affects causality?
- 7. Design questions How effectivelyachieve X? What helps? What does not help?
- 8.
- 9. epistemology the nature ofhuman knowledge, and how we obtain it. onthology the nature of the world irrespective of our attempts to understand it.
- 10. Plato about knowledge to know something, you must believe it to be true, and have a clear justification for believing it to be true
- 11. Constructivists we cannot separateknowledge from the language we use to express it
- 12. The philosophical stances Positivism Constructivism Critical Theory Pragmatism
- 13. Positivism All knowledge comesfrom a set of basic observable facts. Reductionist Sometimes comes to wrong conclusions Associated to controlled experiment
- 14. Constructivism Interpretivism Often adopted insocial sciences Qualitative data about human beings exploratory case studies or survey research
- 15. Critical Theory Political act Emancipatoryand advogacy role e.g. Open source movement and Agile Community Action research and case studies
- 16. Pragmatism All knowledge isapproximate and incomplete and depends on the methods Truth is whatever works for me Truth is relative to observer Values practical knowledge Mixed methods
- 17. Abstract To the positivist,science is the process of veri- fying theories by testing hypotheses derived from them. To the constructivist, science is the process of seeking local theories that emerge from (and explain) the data. To the critical theorist, theories are assertions of knowledge (and therefore power), to be critiqued in terms of how they shape that power. To the pragmatist, theories are the products of a consensual process among a community of researchers, to be judged for their practical utility.
- 18. Theories Theory becomes a“lens” through which the world is observed
- 19. Theories Real-world phenomenaare simply too rich and complex to study without a huge amount of filtering
- 20. Theories Software Engineering researchers have traditionally been very poor at making theories
- 21. Method Selection Research Designis the process of selecting a method for a particular problem
- 22. Controlled Experiments Independent variableseffects over dependent ones Precondition: a clear hypothesis Demonstrate hypothesis by testing it on a representative population Control unwanted variables If critical variables are ignored, experiment might not generalize real world Theory-driven is both a strength and a weakness
- 23. Case Studies Exploratory orconfirmatory Critical case Multiple case Weakness: open to interpretation and researcher bias All philosophical stances
- 24. Survey Research Questionnaires fordata collection Representative sample from well defined population Challenge: control for sampling bias Harder challenge: ensure that questions are designed in a way that yields useful and valid data Positivism tradition
- 25. Ethnographies Goal: study communityof people Result: a rich description of it Participant observation - possible if researcher is technical guy Challenge: avoid preconceptions on data observation and analysis Constructivism
- 26. Action Research Solve real-problemwhile study it. Researcher is also a change agent Education, information science fields Long term commitment, expensive Is a new idea, immature method Iterative process No attempt to create a control group Critical theory
- 27. Mixed-Methods Sequential explanatory -quantitative followed by qualitative Sequential exploratory - qualitative followed by quantitative Concurrent triangulation - what people say is different from what people do Difficult to resolve contradictions
- 28. Data Collection Each techniquehas its strengths and weakness If different kinds of data support the same conclusions, it strengthens the study Pilot-test the data collection
- 29.
- 30. Critical Positivism Constructivism Pragmatism Theory Controlled experiment R R Case studies R R R R Ethnographies R R Survey research R R R Action research R R