Maria Teresa Baldassarre , Danilo Caivano , Barbara Kitchenham , Giuseppe Visaggio
April 2007
11th International Conference on Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering (EASE) (EASE)
Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering (EASE)
2-3 April 2007
Systematic review, statistical process control, empirical software engineering
Background: A systematic review is a rigorous method for assessing and aggregating research results. Unlike an ordinary literature review consisting of an annotated bibliography, a systematic review analyzes existing literature with reference to specific research questions on a topic of interest.
Objective: Statistical Process Control (SPC) is a well established technique in manufacturing contexts that only recently has been used in software production. Software production is unlike manufacturing because it is human rather than machine-intensive, and results in the production of single one-off items. It is therefore pertinent to assess how successful SPC is in the context of software production. These considerations have therefore motivated us to define and carry out a systematic review to assess whether SPC is being used effectively and correctly by software practitioners.
Method: A protocol has been defined, according to the systematic literature review process, it was revised and refined by the authors. At the current time, the review is being carried out.
Results: We report our considerations and preliminary results in defining and carrying out a systematic review on SPC, and how graduate students have been included in the review process of a first set of the papers.
Conclusions: Our first results and impressions are positive. Also, involving graduate students has been a successful experience.
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