Empirical Studies of Software Processes
Empirical data comes from repeated observations of actual behavior.
My work on software
inspection demonstrated one method of studying actual behavior:
the live experiment.
My work on software evolution and
process and technology assessment involve
retrospective studies, mainly of the
5ESS switching system,
using statistical and visualization techniques to
understand how the system evolved, and
other case study research methods to
determine what changes had worked in the past and why.