An Adaptation of Experimental Design to the Empirical Validation of Software Engineering Theories

This paper has two objectives. Firstly, it seeks to promote discussion and debate about the need to encourage experimentation of the claims in the field of software engineering. The software community’s lack of concern for the need for the aforesaid experimentation is slowing down adoption of new technology by organizations unfurnished with objective data that show the benefits of the new artifacts to be introduced. This situation is also leading the introduction of new software technology to be considered as a risk, because, as it has not been formally validated beforehand, its application can cause disasters in user organizations. The second objective is to present a formal method of experimentation in SE, based on the experimental design and analysis techniques used in other branches of science.