Workplace Information Needs of Engineering and Technology Graduates: A Case Study on Two Continents

In this research category, work-in-progress study, the authors conducted eleven semi-structured interviews of employers (five from the United States and six from Sweden), in order to determine the information literacy skills and habits needed by engineering and technology graduates. The authors found similar information needs at both the Swedish and American corporations. They found that, while the core information literacy principles of identifying an information need, locating, accessing, evaluating, integrating, and documenting are valuable skills for students to have, they need to be translated to accommodate the socially constructed information landscapes of each corporation and the more fluid and subtle requirements of workplace information problems. Librarians and engineering educators need to construct more authentic information environments in their courses and design projects, so students will be better prepared to navigate corporate information spaces and culture

12th International Conference on Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering (EASE) - Index

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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

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

Cross-domain investigation of empirical practices

The authors are seeking the best ways to employ evidence-based practices in software engineering research and practice so that the outcomes can inform practice and policy-making. The objective of this study is to investigate how other academic disciplines use evidence-based practices in order to help assess the guidelines that the authors have developed for conducting systematic literature reviews in software engineering. They undertook two studies to investigate how other domains used evidence-based practices. One use a questionnaire that was administered to a set of experts, and this was then followed up with a study that used semi-structured interviews to gain a deeper understanding. As a result, the authors have identified how a number of disciplines that experience similar empirical constraints to those that apply to software engineering employ and rank different forms of empirical data. In conclusion, the authors describe the resulting changes that they made to their systematic review guidelines and also identify some issues that this study raises for empirical software engineering