A scientific methodology for MIS case studies
MIS Quarterly
A set of principles for conducting and evaluating interpretive field studies in information systems
MIS Quarterly - Special issue on intensive research in information systems
Experimentation in software engineering: an introduction
Experimentation in software engineering: an introduction
IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering
An Evaluation of Applying Use Cases to Construct Design versus Validate Design
HICSS '03 Proceedings of the 36th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS'03) - Track 9 - Volume 9
ISESE '03 Proceedings of the 2003 International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering
Investigating the Role of Use Cases in the Construction of Class Diagrams
Empirical Software Engineering
An Empirical Investigation of the Key Factors for Success in Software Process Improvement
IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering
The type of evidence produced by empirical software engineers
REBSE '05 Proceedings of the 2005 workshop on Realising evidence-based software engineering
A Survey of Controlled Experiments in Software Engineering
IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering
Software Process Improvement: Results and Experience from the Field
Software Process Improvement: Results and Experience from the Field
Experiences from introducing UML-based development in a large safety-critical project
Empirical Software Engineering
Journal of Systems and Software
Editorial: For the Special issue on Qualitative Software Engineering Research
Information and Software Technology
The Impact of Irrelevant Information on Estimates of Software Development Effort
ASWEC '07 Proceedings of the 2007 Australian Software Engineering Conference
A Systematic Review of Theory Use in Software Engineering Experiments
IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering
Evaluating Pair Programming with Respect to System Complexity and Programmer Expertise
IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering
Systematic review: A systematic review of effect size in software engineering experiments
Information and Software Technology
Checklists for Software Engineering Case Study Research
ESEM '07 Proceedings of the First International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement
A systematic review of quasi-experiments in software engineering
Information and Software Technology
A systematic review of cross- vs. within- company cost estimation studies
EASE'06 Proceedings of the 10th international conference on Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering
Information and Software Technology
Hi-index | 0.00 |
Problem outline: It is common to classify empirical research designs as either qualitative or quantitative. Typically, particular research methods (e.g., case studies, action research, experiments and surveys) are associated with one or the other of these types of design. Studies in empirical software engineering (ESE) are often exploratory and often involve software developers and development organizations. As a consequence, it may be difficult to plan all aspects of the studies, and to be successful, ESE studies must often be designed to handle possible changes during the conduct of the study. A problem with the above classification is that it does not cater for flexibility in design. Position: This paper suggests viewing research in ESE along the axis of flexible and fixed designs, which is both orthogonal to the axis of quantitative and qualitative designs, and independent of the particular research method. According to the traditional view of ESE, changes to the research design in the course of a study are typically regarded as threats to the validity of the results. However, viewing the study designs as flexible, practical challenges can provide useful information. The validity of the results of studies with flexible research designs can be established by applying techniques that are traditionally used for qualitative designs. This paper urges an increased recognition of flexible designs in ESE and discusses techniques for establishing the trustworthiness in flexible designs.