Experimentation in Global Software Engineering

Abstract: Context: Software engineering researchers are guided by research principles to conduct any type of research. Though, there are many guidelines to detail how a particular research method can be applied, there is always a necessity to continue and to improve the existing empirical research strategies. The context of this thesis is to address guidelines for conducting controlled experiments in Global Software Engineering (GSE). With this thesis, the state-of-the-art of conducting experiments in GSE research has been explored. Objectives: The goal of this thesis is to analyze the existing experiments in GSE research. Research problems addressed with GSE experiments and the state-of-the-art of overall GSE experiment design need to be analyzed. Appropriate guidelines should be drawn in order to provide strategies to future GSE researchers in mitigating or solving GSE specific experimentation challenges. Methods: A systematic literature review (SLR) is conducted to review all the GSE experiments that are found in the literature. The search process was done on 6 databases. A specific search and quality assessment criterion is used to select these GSE experiments. Furthermore, scientific interviews are conducted with GSE research experts to evaluate a set of guidelines (thesis author’s recommendations) that address the challenges when conducting GSE experiments. Thematic analysis has been performed to analyze the evaluation results and to further improve or implement any suggestions given by the interviewees. Conclusions: The results obtained from the SLR have provided a chance to understand the state-of-the-art and to analyze the challenges or problems when conducting controlled experiments in GSE. The challenges that are identified in GSE controlled experiments are found to be with experiment study-setting, involving subjects and addressing GSE relevant threats to validity in a GSE experiments. 9 guidelines are framed, with each guideline addressing a specific challenge. The final guidelines (that resulted after interviews) provide effective recommendations to GSE researchers when conducting controlled experiments.