Building Theories in Software Engineering

Sjøberg, Dag I. K.; Dybå, Tore; Anda, Bente; Hannay, Jo Erskine

doi:10.1007/978-1-84800-044-5_12

Cited by 171 publications

(172 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…Sjøberg et al [33] define the elements of theory to consist of (i) Entities -the main constructs of the theory (ii) Relationships among the entities (iii) the Reason behind the relationships (this provides the explanatory power), and (iv) Scope conditions of the relationships. Wieringa and Daneva [26] consider that theories need to have a (i) conceptual framework, (ii) generalizations and/ or models, (iii) scope conditions need to be defined, and optionally (iv) causal explanations.…”

Section: She Further Describes a Classification Of Theories Into Typementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The structure of a theory is dependent on the field the theory belongs to [32,33]. Human Factors in SD can be considered a subfield of Empirical Software Engineering, and hence the theory structure adopted by Sjøberg et al [33] (and related to Wieringa and Daneva [26]) is applicable.…”

Section: She Further Describes a Classification Of Theories Into Typementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Human Factors in SD can be considered a subfield of Empirical Software Engineering, and hence the theory structure adopted by Sjøberg et al [33] (and related to Wieringa and Daneva [26]) is applicable. We hence adopt Sjøberg et al's [33] definition of theory, in order to briefly analyse the essential theories related to Human Factors in SD later on in this section.…”

Section: She Further Describes a Classification Of Theories Into Typementioning

confidence: 99%

“…In Table 3 we identify the native (from SE) and imported (from reference disciplines like social sciences) Human Factor theories as well as the type of the theory. We see that among the top 20 most cited works only 10 are theories (the shaded rows), with well-defined entities, relationships as well as the reasoning and scope of the relationships [33].…”

Section: She Further Describes a Classification Of Theories Into Typementioning

confidence: 99%

“…One can argue that many of the articles related to various 'Best Practices' in Table 3 are actually theories in the framework of Sjøberg et al [33]. However, the definition and scope of the relationships among their constructs is clearer in some cases (e.g.…”

Section: She Further Describes a Classification Of Theories Into Typementioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

Human factors in software development: On its underlying theories and the value of learning from related disciplines. A guest editorial introduction to the special issue

Amrit

Daneva

Damian

2014

Information and Software Technology

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Section: She Further Describes a Classification Of Theories Into Typementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: She Further Describes a Classification Of Theories Into Typementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: She Further Describes a Classification Of Theories Into Typementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: She Further Describes a Classification Of Theories Into Typementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: She Further Describes a Classification Of Theories Into Typementioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Human factors in software development: On its underlying theories and the value of learning from related disciplines. A guest editorial introduction to the special issue

Amrit

Daneva

Damian

2014

Information and Software Technology

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Framing program comprehension as fault localization

Perez

Abreu

2016

J Software Evolu Process

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Program comprehension is a time-consuming task performed during the process of reusing, reengineering, and enhancing existing systems. There are tools to assist comprehension by means of dynamic analysis, but most cannot identify the topology and the interactions of certain functionality in need of change. We propose an approach, coined Spectrum-based Feature Comprehension (SFC), that borrows techniques from software-fault localization that were proven to be effective even when debugging large applications. SFC analyses the program by exploiting run-time information from test case executions to identify the components that are important for a given feature, helping software engineers to understand how a program is structured and each of the functionality's dependencies are. We present a toolset, coined PANGOLIN, that implements SFC and displays its report to the user using an intuitive visualization. A user study presented demonstrating PANGOLIN's efficiency in locating components that should be inspected when changing a certain functionality. Participants using SFC spent a median of 50 min locating the feature with greater accuracy, whereas participants using coverage tools took 60 min. Finally, we also detail the Participatory Feature Detection approach, where user interactions with the system are captured; removing the hindrance of requiring pre-existing automated tests.

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Spreadsheet guardian: An approach to protecting semantic correctness throughout the evolution of spreadsheets

Kulesz

Käfer

Wagner

2018

J Software Evolu Process

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Spreadsheets are powerful tools that play a business‐critical role in many organizations. However, many bad decisions taken due to faulty spreadsheets show that these tools need serious quality assurance. Furthermore, while collaboration on spreadsheets for maintenance tasks is common, there has been almost no support for ensuring that the spreadsheets remain correct during this process. We have developed an approach named Spreadsheet Guardian, which separates the specification of spreadsheet test rules from their execution. By automatically executing user‐defined test rules, our approach is able to detect semantic faults. It also protects all collaborating spreadsheet users from introducing faults during maintenance, even if only few end‐users specify test rules. To evaluate Spreadsheet Guardian, we implemented a representative testing technique as an add‐in for Microsoft Excel. We evaluated the testing technique in 2 empirical evaluations with 29 end‐users and 42 computer science students. The results indicate that the technique is easy to learn and to apply. Furthermore, after finishing maintenance, participants with spreadsheets “protected” by the technique are more realistic about the correctness of their spreadsheets than participants who use only “classic,” noninteractive test rules on the basis of static analysis techniques. Hence, we believe that Spreadsheet Guardian can be of use for business‐critical spreadsheets.

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Building Theories in Software Engineering

Cited by 171 publications

References 46 publications

Human factors in software development: On its underlying theories and the value of learning from related disciplines. A guest editorial introduction to the special issue

Human factors in software development: On its underlying theories and the value of learning from related disciplines. A guest editorial introduction to the special issue

Framing program comprehension as fault localization

Spreadsheet guardian: An approach to protecting semantic correctness throughout the evolution of spreadsheets

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