Empirical research methods for software engineering: Keynote address

Summary form only given. Empirical research in software engineering collects and studies the quantitative/qualitative data in order to understand and improve the software product, software development process and software management. The empirical research methods are classified into controlled experiment, case study and survey, and the process of empirical study can be divided into experimental/case study setting, data collection, and data analysis. The protocol analysis, as one of the experimental methods, includes introspective, retrospective and think-aloud approaches. In this talk, I brief several empirical research methods in software engineering, and analyze their strengths and weaknesses. A new approach: dialog-based protocol is then introduced. A case study is conducted for evaluation purpose. At the end, the threats and opportunities of empirical research in software engineering are discussed.