Experimentation in software engineering: Bridging the gap between educators and researchers

Abstract:

Currently, a great number of controlled experiments are being executed to evaluate the effectiveness of methods and/or techniques in academic environments. Most of these experiments have as the main objective to obtain reliable data that provide empirical evidence about the effectiveness of these methods or techniques, often ignoring the educational goals of experiments. This paper presents our experience in the application of empirical methods in an advanced Software Engineering course taught in the Computer Science degree program at the Valencia University of Technology. Specifically, the paper describes how controlled experiments can be carried out taking into account the goals of educators and researchers. The results also suggest that controlled experiments have a pedagogical value that contributes to the learning of new techniques in Software Engineering.

Año de publicación:

2008

Keywords:

• Functional Size Measurement
• Controlled experiment
• software engineering education

Fuente:

scopus