On the Challenges in Fostering Adoption via Empirical Studies

This paper outlines some of the issues in fostering adoption via empirical studies. There has been a welcomed shift in recent years towards the use of evidence-based techniques to support arguments of efficacy of proposed software engineering tools and techniques. When available, such objective indicators can provide a strong argument for (or against) the adoption of a particular approach. Unfortunately, gathering such evidence is not a trivial matter. Several of the key issues encountered in conducting a series of limited-scope qualitative experiments are used to illustrate the hurdles that must be overcome before empirical studies can enjoy more widespread use.