Development and Uses of Iterative Systematic Literature Reviews in Electrical Engineering Education

It is expected that most, if not all, graduate students will posses skills necessary for doing literature reviews. It is less clear how to teach these skills most effectively especially to students who are area novices and unfamiliar with review process. Systematic literature reviews offer a solid instructional framework which can be implemented across curriculum and offer an opportunity to teach course material differently so that student learn not just the literature review technique itself but also some segment of the course material. Our pilot study investigated issues related to practical implementation of systematic literature reviews in two classes, with different course lengths and purpose of review assignments. Our initial results are encouraging: students’ selfefficacy with respect to ability to do reviews improved and they think that this skill is useful. We have developed a new rubric for evaluation of final reports as well as weekly schedule of tasks

Systematic literature review as a digital collaborative research-like learning activity: a case study

Within the higher education sector, the principle of student-active and researchbased education are established in strategy documents and action plans, but at the same time there is an ongoing debate about what is meant by research-based learning and how it can be applied in practical teaching contexts. The aim of this empirical study is to explore inclusion of research elements in higher education. The study introduces the concept of using systematic literature review (SLR) and digital collaboration as a learning method, and addresses how to succeed with digital collaborative systematic literature review as a research-like learning activity in higher education. An exploratory multiple case design is used, with participatory observation technique and thematic analysis. A practical contribution of this study is an example of how SLR is well-suited to do collective research-like learning activities. The main contribution is that the higher education teacher needs integrated knowledge, including research competence in addition to the traditional link between professional, didactic and technological competence. A model for research-like learning is proposed, which illustrates the need for research knowledge in relation to the technological pedagogical content knowledge

Visual text mining: ensuring the presence of relevant studies in systematic literature reviews

One of the activities associated with the Systematic Literature Review (SLR) process is the\ud selection review of primary studies. When the researcher faces large volumes of primary studies\ud to be analyzed, the process used to select studies can be arduous. In a previous experiment, we\ud conducted a pilot test to compare the performance and accuracy of PhD students in conducting\ud the selection review activity manually and using Visual Text Mining (VTM) techniques. The\ud goal of this paper is to describe a replication study involving PhD and Master students. The\ud replication study uses the same experimental design and materials of the original experiment.\ud This study also aims to investigate whether the researcher's level of experience with conducting\ud SLRs and research in general impacts the outcome of the primary study selection step of the\ud SLR process. The replication results have con¯rmed the outcomes of the original experiment,\ud i.e., VTM is promising and can improve the performance of the selection review of primary\ud studies. We also observed that both accuracy and performance increase in function of the\ud researcher's experience level in conducting SLRs. The use of VTM can indeed be bene¯cial\ud during the selection review activity.FAPES

A systematic review of systematic review process in software engineering

ContextMany researchers adopting systematic reviews (SRs) have also published papers discussing problems with the SR methodology and suggestions for improving it. Since guidelines for SRs in software engineering (SE) were last updated in 2007, we believe it is time to investigate whether the guidelines need to be amended in the light of recent research.ObjectiveTo identify, evaluate and synthesize research published by software engineering researchers concerning their experiences of performing SRs and their proposals for improving the SR process.MethodWe undertook a systematic review of papers reporting experiences of undertaking SRs and/or discussing techniques that could be used to improve the SR process. Studies were classified with respect to the stage in the SR process they addressed, whether they related to education or problems faced by novices and whether they proposed the use of textual analysis tools.ResultsWe identified 68 papers reporting 63 unique studies published in SE conferences and journals between 2005 and mid-2012. The most common criticisms of SRs were that they take a long time, that SE digital libraries are not appropriate for broad literature searches and that assessing the quality of empirical studies of different types is difficult.ConclusionWe recommend removing advice to use structured questions to construct search strings and including advice to use a quasi-gold standard based on a limited manual search to assist the construction of search stings and evaluation of the search process. Textual analysis tools are likely to be useful for inclusion/exclusion decisions and search string construction but require more stringent evaluation. SE researchers would benefit from tools to manage the SR process but existing tools need independent validation. Quality assessment of studies using a variety of empirical methods remains a major problem

Software Engineering Taxonomy of Team Processes: A Completeness and Usefulness Validation

RÉSUMÉ Objectif: Délibérer les études sur le travail d'équipe en génie logiciel (GL) et trouver un moyen de mieux comprendre la dynamique des équipes dans le domaine. Contexte: Plusieurs cadres et modèles théoriques ont été présentés dans la littérature sur le travail en équipe: des cadres généraux, des cadres spécifiques de travail et des modèles pour des fonctions spécifiques. Stratégie: Étude sur les équipes et l'équipe de travail dans la littérature du génie logiciel. Étude sur la programmation en paire (PP) comme un échantillon du travail en équipe en GL. Développement d'un processus itératif revu systématique de la littérature (iSR), utilisé comme un outil de recherche pour la collecte et la synthèse des données de la littérature. Méthodologie: Une revue systématique de la littérature sur le travail en équipe en GL et sur la programmation en paires est effectuée. Les résultats de l'examen de la littérature sont utilisés pour une validation d'une taxonomie de GL des processus d'équipe. Résultats: La taxonomie de GL des processus d'équipe est un outil approprié pour la présentation des observations des pratiques d'équipe dans le domaine du GL. Conclusion: Selon la méthodologie et les articles soumis, la taxonomie de GL des processus d'équipe a été validée. Les variables contextuelles des pratiques de PP ont également été identifiées et Le processus ISR a été jugée utile pour les novices. Application: La taxonomie de GL est un outil qui peut être utilisé par les chercheurs ainsi que les gestionnaires de projets logiciels pour identifier et signaler tout type d'interactions observées dans les équipes et pour améliorer les performances de la gestion des équipes.----------ABSTRACT Objective: To deliberate the studies on teamwork in Software Engineering (SE) and to find a way to better understand team dynamics in the SE domain. Background: Several theoretical frameworks and models have been presented in the teamwork literature: general frameworks, task specific frameworks and function-specific models. Strategy: Study on teams and team working in the software engineering literature. Study on pair programming as a sample practice of teamwork. Development of an iterative systematic literature review (iSR) process used as a research tool for gathering and synthesizing data from the literature. Methodology: A systematic literature review on team working in SE and on pair programming is performed. The literature review results are used for an evaluation of current team working practices (namely PP practices) and for the validation of the SE taxonomy of team processes. Results: The SE taxonomy of team processes is an appropriate tool for the report of observations in teamwork practices in the SE domain. Conclusion: According to the employed methodology and submitted articles, the software engineering taxonomy of team processes was validated. The contextual variables of PP practice were also identified. The iSR process was found to be useful for novices. Application: The SE taxonomy is a tool which can be used by researchers as well as software project managers for identifying and reporting any kind of observed teamwork interactions. Report and analysis of team activities could improve team management performance

Organisational absorptive capacity and its potential role in achieving business intelligence systems efficiency in strategic managerial levels

This thesis was submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University LondonThe available organisational capabilities engaged in the process of creating data processing intelligence inside organisations are still required to be limited, given the current outstanding competitive environments that deal with the global increase of available data and information production required to be transformed consistently into knowledge. This study investigates the relationship between Absorptive Capacity (ACAP) (i.e., the ability of organisations to gather, absorb, and strategically influence new external information), and Business Intelligence (BI), which are systems that convert data into valuable information, and then into knowledge throughout strong human consideration. The insight of the current study is to offer a detailed exploration from the standpoint of the two perceptions. ACAP is required to be a dynamic capability for generating strategic data transformation setting in an organisation. Similarly, ACAP is proposed to play a significant role in enriching the process of knowledge creation embraced inside contemporary organisational Information Systems (IS) environments. The research uses a combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods. By offering a rich indication in presenting a rigours approach of systematic qualitative methods, Grounded Theory Methodology (GTM) coding techniques were used to analyse data collected using semistructured interviews form (22) senior managers. The extracted grounded measures assisted in considering ACAP main dimensions treated as potential organisational dynamic capabilities and shaped as a grounded relational model. Drawing on the qualitative analysis results, the ACAP extracted measures were quantitatively validated for their possible effects on BI System efficiency. The quantitative methods used surveys conducted on a sample of (150) participants and analysed using Partial Least Squares - Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM). The study targeted the telecommunication industry taking the country Jordan as a case example. The findings indicate that ACAP dimensions are anticipated to influence the efficiency of BI systems inside organisations. The contribution of this study adds significantly to the existing body of literature by primarily providing a novel integration of the concept of ACAP, offering a relational model through which researchers can more fully leverage the measures of ACAP within organisations. Accordingly, the core contribution of the research provided a more comprehensive framework that serves managers and strategic professionals to assist them in classifying their ACAP measures before attempting to purchase state of the art BI systems with a high amount of expenditures. The extracted categories can be treated as guides to IS researchers, and senior managers in exploring the rich facets of ACAP proposed to offer foundations for shaping where and how to further potential organisational assets can be leveraged