216,099 research outputs found
Using mapping studies as the basis for further research - A participant-observer case study
ContextWe are strong advocates of evidence-based software engineering (EBSE) in general and systematic literature reviews (SLRs) in particular. We believe it is essential that the SLR methodology is used constructively to support software engineering research.ObjectiveThis study aims to assess the value of mapping studies which are a form of SLR that aims to identify and categorise the available research on a broad software engineering topic.MethodWe used a multi-case, participant-observer case study using five examples of studies that were based on preceding mapping studies. We also validated our results by contacting two other researchers who had undertaken studies based on preceding mapping studies and by assessing review comments related to our follow-on studies.ResultsOur original case study identified 11 unique benefits that can accrue from basing research on a preceding mapping study of which only two were case specific. We also identified nine problems associated with using preceding mapping studies of which two were case specific. These results were consistent with the information obtained from the validation activities. We did not find an example of an independent research group making use of a mapping study produced by other researchers.ConclusionMapping studies can save time and effort for researchers and provide baselines to assist new research efforts. However, they must be of high quality in terms of completeness and rigour if they are to be a reliable basis for follow-on research
Safety-Critical Systems and Agile Development: A Mapping Study
In the last decades, agile methods had a huge impact on how software is
developed. In many cases, this has led to significant benefits, such as quality
and speed of software deliveries to customers. However, safety-critical systems
have widely been dismissed from benefiting from agile methods. Products that
include safety critical aspects are therefore faced with a situation in which
the development of safety-critical parts can significantly limit the potential
speed-up through agile methods, for the full product, but also in the
non-safety critical parts. For such products, the ability to develop
safety-critical software in an agile way will generate a competitive advantage.
In order to enable future research in this important area, we present in this
paper a mapping of the current state of practice based on {a mixed method
approach}. Starting from a workshop with experts from six large Swedish product
development companies we develop a lens for our analysis. We then present a
systematic mapping study on safety-critical systems and agile development
through this lens in order to map potential benefits, challenges, and solution
candidates for guiding future research.Comment: Accepted at Euromicro Conf. on Software Engineering and Advanced
Applications 2018, Prague, Czech Republi
Innovation Initiatives in Large Software Companies: A Systematic Mapping Study
To keep the competitive advantage and adapt to changes in the market and
technology, companies need to innovate in an organised, purposeful and
systematic manner. However, due to their size and complexity, large companies
tend to focus on maintaining their business, which can potentially lower their
agility to innovate. This study aims to provide an overview of the current
research on innovation initiatives and to identify the challenges of
implementing the initiatives in the context of large software companies. The
investigation was performed using a systematic mapping approach of published
literature on corporate innovation and entrepreneurship. Then it was
complemented with interviews with four experts with rich industry experience.
Our study results suggest that, there is a lack of high quality empirical
studies on innovation initiative in the context of large software companies. A
total of 7 studies are conducted in such context, which reported 5 types of
initiatives: intrapreneurship, bootlegging, internal venture, spin-off and
crowdsourcing. Our study offers three contributions. First, this paper
represents the map of existing literature on innovation initiatives inside
large companies. The second contribution is to provide an innovation initiative
tree. The third contribution is to identify key challenges faced by each
initiative in large software companies. At the strategic and tactical levels,
there is no difference between large software companies and other companies. At
the operational level, large software companies are highly influenced by the
advancement of Internet technology. Large software companies use open
innovation paradigm as part of their innovation initiatives. We envision a
future work is to further empirically evaluate the innovation initiative tree
in large software companies, which involves more practitioners from different
companies
Research Findings on Empirical Evaluation of Requirements Specifications Approaches
Numerous software requirements specification (SRS) approaches have been proposed in software engineering. However, there has been little empirical evaluation of the use of these approaches in specific contexts. This paper describes the results of a mapping study, a key instrument of the evidence-based paradigm, in an effort to understand what aspects of SRS are evaluated, in which context, and by using which research method. On the basis of 46 identified and categorized primary studies, we found that understandability is the most commonly evaluated aspect of SRS, experiments are the most commonly used research method, and the academic environment is where most empirical evaluation takes place
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