Spring Course at the University of Trento, Italy
Empirical Research Methods in Software Engineering
Today, more and more papers get published that contain an element of empirical research methods in them.
In fact, empirical methods are so prominent now, that in the call for papers for the VL/HCC‘12 conference, we are reminded that there are also other ways to provide evidence for claims besides human subject studies.
However, empirical research is not yet widely taught to our graduate students.
Therefore, the course „Empirical Research Methods in Informatics“ was introduced at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), which is the basis for this tutorial.
Due to the great demand, we will offer this course as a special Spring Course at the University of Trento, Italy.
Goals
The course focuses on the practical aspects of empirical research, that is, there will be only short introductory lectures on the various topics. After that, participants shall work hands-on with real case studies, some of which derive from my own work. That also means that, while there are no formally prerequisites to the course, understanding Software Engineering as a discipline will greatly improve your understanding of the course material.
For instance, participants will
- study existing experimental set-ups with a view to finding shortcomings and threats to validity and how they impact the claims put forward in a given article;
- develop a small experimental set-up for a given case study in small groups and present their design in a plenary discussion; and
- define and refine a research question, and discuss alternative approaches to providing evidence for or against it.
Of course, there is more to empirical research than what can be taught in a tutorial. Thus, the objective of this course is only to provide its attendees with a starting point, possibly removing any inhibitions that might be there, and equip aspiring researches with some skills and first practical exercises in leading methodologically sound research.
After attending this course, participants
- will be aware of the potential and limitations of empirical research methods;
- are capable of choosing an appropriate research paradigm for a given problem; and
- can assess the quality of the empirical research reported in an article, such as for a review.
Given the time restriction, we will focus mostly on controlled experiments and generic study design as far as the practical exercises are concerned. Other paradigms will only be covered by lecture-format introductions.
Target Group
The course is intended for people that have little or no background in empirical research methods, in particular people with a technical or formal methods background. We will assume a good understanding of current research topics in Software Engineering for the case studies.
Attendance is limited to twenty (20), preference will be given to PhD students. The lecture notes will be made available to course participants in paper copy.Program
The course generally follows a schema where there is some introductory lecture in the morning (typically, 9:00-10:00 or 10:30), then a practical exercises in groups until Lunch. After Lunch, feedback on the results and a follow-up exercise last till 16:00, when we gather together to look at, and critique, each others work, give and receive feedback, and answer any left-over questions that have accumulated over the day. Breaks are taken at your own discretion. I will wander around to discuss with the groups to help them get on with their work. On the last day, we expand on one of the exercises from the first day (study design), but this time, we prepare proper presentations and devote greater space to presentation, discussion, and feedback.
A more detailed program will be announced in the course. Number of attendants permitting, we will try to tailor it somewhat to the audience.
Lecturer
Harald Störrle has received a Dipl.-Inform. and a Dr. rer. nat. from the Universities of Hamburg (1997) and Munich (2000), respectively.
From 2001 to 2008 he worked as a software architect and methodology consultant in industry and as an adjunct lecturer at Munich University.
Moving back to academia in 2006, he held lecturer positions at the Universities of Innsbruck and Munich, is currently Associate Professor at the Danish Technical University (DTU) in Lyngby near Copenhagen.
He is a member of GI and ACM, and was Vice President of the German Chapter of the ACM from 2006 till 2013. His professional interests include UML semantics, analysis-level modeling, software development processes and methods, and empirical research methods.
Practical Details
The course will take place Monday-Friday, May, 19-23, 2013. All local matters are handled by the University of Trento, the local contact person is Andrea Stenico.
