Software and Service Engineering Group

Empirical Software Engineering

Description

The GESSI research group conducts research with a strong focus on Empirical Software Engineering (ESE), meaning that our projects are planned to ensure a rigorous way to obtain evidence, hence, diverse empirical software engineering methods are applied:  primary studies such as surveys, case studies, action research, design science research, and experiments;  as well as secondary studies like systematic reviews and aggregations of empirical results.

We believe that ESE is essential for advancing the field, but the reliability of its findings depends significantly on the methodological rigour applied throughout the study. Hence, the group also contributes to methodological aspects of ESE.

Team

Claudia Ayala
Claudia Ayala
UPC
Carles Farré
UPC
Xavier Franch
Xavier Franch
UPC
Lidia López
Lidia López
UPC
Silverio Martínez
Silverio Martínez-Fernández
UPC
Carme Quer
Carme Quer
UPC

Outcomes/Main Contributions

Methodological aspects of ESE:

  • C.P. Ayala, B. Turhan, X. Franch, N. Juristo, "Use and misuse of the term "Experiment" in mining software repositories research", In IEEE transactions on software engineering, vol. 48, no. 11, pp. 4229-4248, 11 2022.
  • S. Abualhaija, F.B. Aydemir, F. Dalpiaz, D. Dell'Anna, A. Ferrari, X. Franch, D. Fucci, "Replication in requirements engineering: the NLP for RE case", In ACM transactions on software engineering and methodology, vol. 33, no. article 151, 06 2024.
  • Carles Farré, Xavier Franch: Validity at the Forefront: Investigating Threats in Green AI Research. CAiSE Forum 2024: 55-63
  • Dolors Costal, Carles Farré, Xavier Franch, Carme Quer: Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria in Software Engineering Tertiary Studies: A Systematic Mapping and Emerging Framework. ESEM 2021: 30:1-30:6

Applied ESE (some examples):

  • C.P. Ayala, C. Gomez, M. Manzano, A. Abherve, X. Franch, "Forecasting software indicators: an industry-academia collaboration", In Empirical software engineering, vol. 29, no. article 153, 09 2024.
  • X. Franch, C. Palomares, C. Quer, P. Chatzipetrou, T. Gorschek, "The state-of-practice in requirements specification: an extended interview study at 12 companies", In Requirements engineering, vol. 28, no. 3, pp. 377-409, 09 2023.
  • J. David Patón-Romero, S. Block, C.P. Ayala, L. Jaccheri, "Gender equality in information technology processes: a systematic mapping study", In Future of Information and Communication Conference, pp. 310, Springer, 03 2023.
  • M. Manzano, C.P. Ayala, C. Gómez, A. Abherve, X. Franch, E. Mendes: A Method to Estimate Software Strategic Indicators in Software Development: An Industrial Application. Inf. Softw. Technol. 129: 106433 (2021)
  • C. Farré, X. Franch, M. Oriol, A. Volkova, "Supporting students in team-based software development projects: an exploratory study", In International
  • Conference on Research Challenges in Information Science, pp. 568, Springer, 05 2023.
  • M. Lopez, Pep Simo, J. Marco, "Understanding STEM career choices: a systematic mapping", In Heliyon, vol. 9, no. 6, article e16676, 06 2023.
  • J. Castaño, S. Martínez-Fernández, X. Franch, J. Bogner, "Exploring the carbon footprint of Hugging Face's ML models: a repository mining study", In International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), 10 2023.
  • Silverio Martínez-Fernández, Paulo Sérgio Medeiros dos Santos, Claudia P. Ayala, Xavier Franch, Guilherme Horta Travassos: Aggregating Empirical Evidence about the Benefits and Drawbacks of Software Reference Architectures. ESEM 2015: 154-163

Collaborations and Networks

ISERN

International Software Engineering Research Network

Contact


Claudia Ayala
Contact Claudia Ayala