Beg, Borrow, or Steal: Using Multidisciplinary Approaches in Empirical Software Engineering Research An ICSE 2000 Workshop Limerick, Ireland, June 5, 2000 Organizers: Susan Sim, Janice Singer, Peggy Storey Purpose: investigate the feasibility of applying proven methods from other research disciplines to software engineering research

Sessions Foundations for empirical research –Invited speaker: Marian Petre, Open University –Choice of techniques should be based on the evidence required –Easy to apply methods out of context Survey of research designs –Invited speaker: Bill Curtis –Difficulties of measuring intellectual artifacts Ethnography –Invited speaker: Liam Bannon, University of Limerick –criticized the emphasis on measurement in empirical research Working with industry and communicating results –Invited speaker: Dieter Rombach, Fraunhofer IESE –Keys: building trust, building a business case, gathering relevant evidence

McNamara’s Fallacy The first step is to measure whatever can be easily measured. This is ok as far as it goes. The second step is to disregard that which can’t be easily measured or to give it an arbitrary quantitative value. The third step is to presume that what can’t be measured easily really isn’t important. The fourth step is to say that what can’t be easily measured really doesn’t exist.

Recurring Themes Lack of education in empirical methods in software engineering Appropriate application of techniques - must understand the underlying theory; cannot take techniques out of context Evidence - must be varied, appropriate, relevant - should drive the research design