ABSTRACT
Context: Integrate research evidence with practice is one of the main goals of evidence-based software engineering. However, recent studies show that the connection between systematic reviews and practitioners has not fully established.
Goal: This paper presents the first steps towards a medium to transfer knowledge acquired from systematic reviews to practitioners.
Method: We selected a set of systematic reviews identified by a tertiary study and extracted their findings to generate one-page Evidence Briefings to serve as mediums. A design specialist defined the briefings structure based on information design and gestalt principles. To evaluate the format and content of the briefings we conducted personal opinion surveys based on two groups: StackExchange users that posted questions in topics related to the reviews, and the authors of the selected reviews themselves. The former had a response rate of 21.9% (32 out 146) and the latter 31.8% (7 out of 22).
Results: Practitioners rarely use systematic review research papers as mediums to acquire knowledge, since just 9% have told to do so. Both researchers and practitioners positively evaluated the evidence briefings, since 71% and 82% of the StackExchange users and systematic review authors, respectively, agreed or strongly agreed that the briefings' interface is clear.
Conclusions: Researchers and practitioners were positive about the content and format of the evidence briefings we proposed. It is also possible to say that there is a gap between practitioners and systematic reviews due to the low percentage of practitioners that consume systematic reviews. The good reception of the evidence briefings from both sides show a possible route to reduce that gap.
- A. Abran, P. Bourque, R. Dupuis, and J. W. Moore, editors. Guide to the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge - SWEBOK. 2001. Google ScholarDigital Library
- G. Ambrose and P. Harris. Basics Design 08: Design Thinking. Basics Design. AVA Publishing, 2009. Google ScholarDigital Library
- J. Batten. Comment on editorial literature reviews as a research strategy, 2012.Google Scholar
- S. Beecham, P. O'Leary, S. Baker, I. Richardson, and J. Noll. Making software engineering research relevant. Computer, 47(4):80--83, 2014. Google ScholarDigital Library
- L. Best, A. Stevens, and D. Colin-Jones. Rapid and responsive health technology assessment: the development and evaluation process in the south and west region of england. Journal of Clinical Effectiveness, 1997.Google ScholarCross Ref
- F. O. Bjørnson and T. Dingsøyr. Knowledge management in software engineering: A systematic review of studied concepts, findings and research methods used. IST, 2008. Google ScholarDigital Library
- D. Budgen, B. Kitchenham, and P. Brereton. The case for knowledge translation. In ESEM, 2013.Google ScholarCross Ref
- A. Cameron. Rapid versus full systematic reviews: an inventory of current methods and practice in Health Technology Assessment. Technical report, 2007.Google Scholar
- D. Chambers and P. Wilson. A framework for production of systematic review based briefings to support evidence-informed decision-making. Systematic reviews, 2012.Google Scholar
- F. Q. B. da Silva, A. L. Santos, S. Soares, A. C. C. FranÃğa, C. V. Monteiro, and F. F. Maciel. Six years of systematic literature reviews in software engineering: An updated tertiary study. IST, 2011. Google ScholarDigital Library
- R. M. de Mello, K. T. Stolee, and G. H. Travassos. Investigating samples representativeness for an online experiment in java code search. In ESEM, 2015.Google ScholarCross Ref
- P. Devanbu, T. Zimmermann, and C. Bird. Belief & evidence in empirical software engineering. In ICSE, 2016. Google ScholarDigital Library
- D. J. Dubois and G. Tamburrelli. Understanding gamification mechanisms for software development. In Proceedings of the 2013 9th Joint Meeting on Foundations of Software Engineering, ESEC/FSE 2013, pages 659--662, 2013. Google ScholarDigital Library
- T. Dybå and T. Dingsøyr. Empirical studies of agile software development: A systematic review. IST, 2008. Google ScholarDigital Library
- I. D. Graham, J. Logan, M. B. Harrison, S. E. Straus, J. Tetroe, W. Caswell, and N. Robinson. Lost in knowledge translation: Time for a map? Journal of Continuing Education in the Health Professions, 2006.Google ScholarCross Ref
- F. Grigoleit, A. Vetro, D. M. Fernandez, W. Bohm, and P. Diebold. In quest for proper mediums for technology transfer in software engineering. In ESEM, 2015.Google ScholarCross Ref
- D. Hailey. A preliminary survey on the influence of rapid health technology assessments. International journal of technology assessment in health care, 2009.Google Scholar
- D. Hailey, P. Corabian, C. Harstall, and W. Schneider. The use and impact of rapid health technology assessments. International journal of technology assessment in health care, 2000.Google Scholar
- J. E. Hannay, T. Dybå, E. Arisholm, and D. I. Sjøberg. The effectiveness of pair programming: A meta-analysis. IST, 2009. Google ScholarDigital Library
- L. Hartling, J.-M. Guise, E. Kato, J. Anderson, S. Belinson, E. Berliner, D. M. Dryden, R. Featherstone, M. D. Mitchell, M. Motu'apuaka, H. Noorani, R. Paynter, K. A. Robinson, K. Schoelles, C. A. Umscheid, and E. Whitlockg. A taxonomy of rapid reviews links report types and methods to specific decision-making contexts. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 2015.Google ScholarCross Ref
- E. Hassler, J. C. Carver, N. A. Kraft, and D. Hale. Outcomes of a community workshop to identify and rank barriers to the systematic literature review process. EASE, 2014. Google ScholarDigital Library
- B. Haugset and G. Hanssen. Automated acceptance testing: A literature review and an industrial case study. In AGILE, 2008. Google ScholarDigital Library
- W. Hordijk, M. L. Ponisio, and R. Wieringa. Harmfulness of code duplication: A structured review of the evidence. In EASE, 2009. Google ScholarDigital Library
- E. Hossain, M. Babar, and H. young Paik. Using scrum in global software development: A systematic literature review. In ICGSE, 2009. Google ScholarDigital Library
- A. Jedlitschka, N. Juristo, and D. Rombach. Reporting experiments to satisfy professionals' information needs. Empirical Software Engineering, 19(6):1921--1955, 2014. Google ScholarDigital Library
- M. Jørgensen. Forecasting of software development work effort: Evidence on expert judgement and formal models. International Journal of Forecasting, 2007.Google ScholarCross Ref
- S. Khan, M. Niazi, and R. Ahmad. Critical barriers for offshore software development outsourcing vendors:A systematic literature review. In APSEC, 2009. Google ScholarDigital Library
- S. Khan, M. Niazi, and R. Ahmad. Critical success factors for offshore software development outsourcing vendors: A systematic literature review. In ICGSE, 2009. Google ScholarDigital Library
- S. Khangura, K. Konnyu, R. Cushman, J. Grimshaw, and D. Moher. Evidence summaries: the evolution of a rapid review approach. Systematic Reviews, 2012.Google Scholar
- B. A. Kitchenham, T. Dyba, and M. Jorgensen. Evidence-based software engineering. ICSE, 2004. Google ScholarDigital Library
- E. Lupton and J. C. Phillips. Graphic Design: The New Basics. Princeton Architectural Press, 2nd edition edition, 2015.Google Scholar
- L. Mamykina, B. Manoim, M. Mittal, G. Hripcsak, and B. Hartmann. Design lessons from the fastest Q&A site in the west. In SIGCHI, 2011. Google ScholarDigital Library
- M. McGregor and J. M. Brophy. End-user involvement in health technology assessment (hta) development: a way to increase impact. International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care, 2005.Google ScholarCross Ref
- P. Mohagheghi, V. Dehlen, and T. Neple. Definitions and approaches to model quality in model-based software development -- a review of literature. IST, 2009. Google ScholarDigital Library
- J. Nicolás and A. Toval. On the generation of requirements specifications from software engineering models: A systematic literature review. IST, 2009. Google ScholarDigital Library
- G. Pinto, F. Castor, and Y. D. Liu. Mining questions about software energy consumption. 11th MSR, 2014. Google ScholarDigital Library
- G. H. Pinto and F. Kamei. What programmers say about refactoring tools?: An empirical investigation of stack overflow. WRT, 2013. Google ScholarDigital Library
- D. Posnett, E. Warburg, P. Devanbu, and V. Filkov. Mining stack exchange: Expertise is evident from initial contributions. In SocialInformatics, 2012. Google ScholarDigital Library
- M. Reboucas, G. Pinto, F. Ebert, W. Torres, A. Serebrenik, and F. Castor. An empirical study on the usage of the swift programming language. In 23rd SANER, 2016.Google ScholarCross Ref
- R. Santos and F. da Silva. Motivation to perform systematic reviews and their impact on software engineering practice. In ESEM, 2013.Google ScholarCross Ref
- J. Singer, S. E. Sim, and T. C. Lethbridge. Software engineering data collection for field studies. In Guide to Advanced Empirical Software Engineering. Springer, 2008.Google Scholar
- E. Smith, R. Loftin, E. Murphy-Hill, C. Bird, and T. Zimmermann. Improving developer participation rates in surveys. In CHASE, 2013.Google Scholar
- D. Spencer. Card sorting: Designing usable categories. Rosenfeld Media, 2009.Google Scholar
- B. Tondreau. Layout Essentials: 100 Design Principles for Using Grids (Design Essentials). Design Essentials. Rockport Publishers, 2011.Google Scholar
- A. Trendowicz and J. Münch. Factors inuencing software development productivity-state-of-the-art and industrial experiences. Advances in Computers. 2009.Google Scholar
- A. Tricco, J. Antony, W. Zarin, L. Strier, M. Ghassemi, J. Ivory, L. Perrier, B. Hutton, D. Moher, and S. E. Straus. A scoping review of rapid review methods. BMC Medicine, 2015.Google ScholarCross Ref
- S. Van de Velde, E. De Buck, T. Dieltjens, and B. Aertgeerts. Medicinal use of potato-derived products: conclusions of a rapid versus full systematic review. Phytotherapy Research, 2011.Google ScholarCross Ref
- B. Vasilescu, V. Filkov, and A. Serebrenik. Stack overflow and github: Associations between software development and crowdsourced knowledge. In 2013 IEEE International Conference on Social Computing (SocialCom), pages 188--195. IEEE, 2013. Google ScholarDigital Library
- W. Wang and M. W. Godfrey. Detecting api usage obstacles: A study of ios and android developer questions. In MSR, 2013. Google ScholarDigital Library
- I. Young, J.-M. Guise, E. Kato, J. Anderson, S. Belinson, E. Berliner, D. M. Dryden, R. Featherstone, M. D. Mitchell, M. Motu'apuaka, H. Noorani, R. Paynter, K. A. Robinson, K. Schoelles, C. A. Umscheid, and E. Whitlockg. A guide for developing plain-language and contextual summaries of systematic reviews in agri-food public health. Foodborne Pathogens and Disease, 2014.Google ScholarCross Ref
- I. Zechmeister and I. Schumacher. The impact of health technology assessment reports on decision making in austria. International journal of technology assessment in health care, 2012.Google Scholar
Recommendations
Integrating evidence from systematic reviews with software engineering practice through evidence briefings
EASE '16: Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Evaluation and Assessment in Software EngineeringThis paper proposes the questions and method to conduct a research intending to promote the first steps towards a better integration between evidence from systematic reviews and software engineering practice. First, we are planning to conduct a tertiary ...
The use of systematic reviews in evidence based software engineering: a systematic mapping study
ESEM '14: Proceedings of the 8th ACM/IEEE International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and MeasurementContext. A decade ago, Kitchenham, Dybå and Jørgensen argued that software engineering could benefit from an evidence-based research approach similar that that used in medicine, introducing the basis for Evidence Based Software Engineering (EBSE). ...
How Important Is Evidence, Really?
The utility of evidence in the adoption of software engineering ideas depends on several factors. The type of evidence, the adoption context, the attitudes of decision makers, and the size of the idea and its bundle all play a role in the adoption ...
Comments