Experimental Software Engineering Issues: Critical Assessment and Future Directions. International Workshop, Dagstuhl Castle, Germany, September 14-18, 1992. Proceedings

We have only begun to understand the experimental nature of software engineering, the role of empirical studies and measurement within software engineering, and the mechanisms needed to apply them successfully. This volume presents the proceedings of a workshop whose purpose was to gather those members of the software engineering community who support an engineering approach based upon empirical studies to provide an interchange of ideas and paradigms for research. The papers in the volume are grouped into six parts corresponding to the workshop sessions: The experimental paradigm in software engineering; Objectives and context of measurement/experimentation; Procedures and mechanisms for measurement/experimentation; Measurement-based modeling; packaging for reuse/reuse of models; and technology transfer, teaching and training. Each part opens with a keynote paper and ends with a discussion summary. The workshop served as an important event in continuing to strengthen empirical software engineering as a major subdiscipline ofsoftware engineering. The deep interactions and important accomplishments from the meeting documented in these proceedings have helped identify key issues in moving software engineering as a whole towards a true engineering discipline.

The experimental paradigm in software engineering.- Profile of an artifact assessment capability.- Experiments and measurements for systems integration.- Software engineering still on the way to an engineering discipline.- Problems in modeling the software development process as an adventure game.- Qualitative techniques and tools for measuring, analyzing, and simulating software processes.- On experimental Computer Science.- Session 1 summary the experimental paradigm in software engineering.- Objectives and context of software measurement, analysis and control.- Position paper.- Software Engineering as an organisational challenge.- Quantitative measurements based on process and context models.- Selecting, implementing, and measuring methods to improve the software development process.- Rethinking measurement to support incremental process improvement.- Session 2 summary objectives and context of measurement/experimentation.- Software measurement and experimentation frameworks, mechanisms, and infrastructure.- Towards well-defined, shareable product data.- A view on the use of three research philosophies to address empirically determined weaknesses of the software engineering process.- Bridging the gap between research and practice in software engineering management: Reflections on the staffing factors paradox.- A methodology for evaluating software engineering methods and tools.- Experimental software engineering should concentrate on software evolution.- Yet another laboratory for software engineering.- An axiomatic model for program complexity.- Support of experimentation by measurement theory.- Session 3 summary procedures and mechanisms for measurement/experimentation.- Task-specific utility assessment models and their role in the development of software engineering handbooks.- Quantitative empirical modeling for managing software development: Constraints, needs and solutions.- Software business, concurrent engineering and experience factory relationships.- Establishing the fundamentals of software engineering.- Measurement-based modelling issues — the problem of assuring ultra-high dependability.- The role of simulation in software engineering experimentation.- Multiple viewpoints of software models.- Session 4 summary [Measurement-based] modeling.- Software engineering models, using and reusing.- Model reuse and technology transfer.- Packaging for reuse and reuse of models.- A reuse culture for software construction.- Experimental software engineering; Packaging for reuse.- Experimental designs for validating metrics and applying them across multiple projects.- Session 5 summary packaging for reuse.- Position paper.- Technology transfer.- Systematic software technology transfer.- Effective use of measurement and experimentation in computing curricula.- Session 6 summary technology transfer, teaching and training.