Studying Software Engineers: Data Collection Techniques for Software Field Studies

Software engineering is an intensively people-oriented activity, yet too little is known about how designers, maintainers, requirements analysts and all other types of software engineers perform their work. In order to improve software engineering tools and practice, it is therefore essential to con...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Empirical software engineering : an international journal 2005-07, Vol.10 (3), p.311-341
Main Authors: Lethbridge, Timothy C, Sim, Susan Elliott, Singer, Janice
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Collection
Computer programs
Data processing
Field study
Focusing
Software
Software engineering
Tasks
Taxonomy
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Summary:Software engineering is an intensively people-oriented activity, yet too little is known about how designers, maintainers, requirements analysts and all other types of software engineers perform their work. In order to improve software engineering tools and practice, it is therefore essential to conduct field studies, i.e. to study real practitioners as they solve real problems. To do so effectively, however, requires an understanding of the techniques most suited to each type of field study task. In this paper, we provide a taxonomy of techniques, focusing on those for data collection. The taxonomy is organized according to the degree of human intervention each requires. For each technique, we provide examples from the literature, an analysis of some of its advantages and disadvantages, and a discussion of how to use it effectively. We also briefly talk about field study design in general, and data analysis.[PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]
ISSN:1382-3256
1573-7616
DOI:10.1007/s10664-005-1290-x