Context: Surveys constitute an valuable tool to capture a large-scale snapshot of the state of the practice. Apparently trivial to adopt, surveys hide, however, several pitfalls that might hinder rendering the result valid and, thus, useful. Goal: We aim at providing an overview of main pitfalls in software engineering surveys and report on practical ways to deal with them. Method: We build on the experiences we collected in conducting many studies and distill the main lessons learnt. Results: The eight lessons learnt we report cover different aspects of the survey process ranging from the design of initial research objectives to the design of a questionnaire. Conclusions: Our hope is that by sharing our lessons learnt, combined with a disciplined application of the general survey theory, we contribute to improving the quality of the research results achievable by employing software engineering surveys.

Lessons Learnt in Conducting Survey Research / Torchiano, Marco; Méndez Fernández, Daniel; Travassos, Guilherme Horta; de Mello, Rafael Maiani. - STAMPA. - (2017), pp. 33-39. (Intervento presentato al convegno 2017 IEEE/ACM 5th International Workshop on Conducting Empirical Studies in Industry (CESI) tenutosi a Buenos Aires (Argentina) nel 23 Maggio) [10.1109/CESI.2017.5].

Lessons Learnt in Conducting Survey Research

Torchiano, Marco;
2017

Abstract

Context: Surveys constitute an valuable tool to capture a large-scale snapshot of the state of the practice. Apparently trivial to adopt, surveys hide, however, several pitfalls that might hinder rendering the result valid and, thus, useful. Goal: We aim at providing an overview of main pitfalls in software engineering surveys and report on practical ways to deal with them. Method: We build on the experiences we collected in conducting many studies and distill the main lessons learnt. Results: The eight lessons learnt we report cover different aspects of the survey process ranging from the design of initial research objectives to the design of a questionnaire. Conclusions: Our hope is that by sharing our lessons learnt, combined with a disciplined application of the general survey theory, we contribute to improving the quality of the research results achievable by employing software engineering surveys.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11583/2674335
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