Empirical Research in Software Engineering

Software development is a highly complex and creative process. Producing software systems which fulfill all functional and nonfunctional requirements and exhibit adequate quality is challenging. Software Engineering aims to provide systematic methods and tools to overcome
these challenges and improve the software development process. However, since the development of software is still an endeavor heavily based on creativity and human activities, it is difficult to evaluate whether new methods, practices or tools have a positive impact or not. Empirical Software Engineering applies scientific research strategies to the field of software engineering. These strategies are common in social and behavioral sciences, and support the evaluation of human-based
activities. This paper gives an introduction into empirical strategies in software engineering, especially case studies, and how they can be used to evaluate results of research projects considering their value in practice. With an example thesis project we aim to illustrate how the theories and concepts can be applied. The paper is primarily based on the book Experimentation in Software Engineering by Wohlin et al.