Action Research in Software Engineering

This book addresses action research (AR), one of the main research methodologies used for academia-industry research collaborations. It elaborates on how to find the right research activities and how to distinguish them from non-significant ones. Further, it details how to glean lessons from the research results, no matter whether they are positive or negative. Lastly, it shows how companies can evolve and build talents while expanding their product portfolio.
The book's structure is based on that of AR projects; it sequentially covers and discusses each phase of the project. Each chapter shares new insights into AR and provides the reader with a better understanding of how to apply it. In addition, each chapter includes a number of practical use cases or examples. Taken together, the chapters cover the entire software lifecycle: from problem diagnosis to project (or action) planning and execution, to documenting and disseminating results, including validity assessments for AR studies.
The goal of this book is to help everyone interested in industry-academia collaborations to conduct joint research. It is for students of software engineering who need to learn about how to set up an evaluation, how to run a project, and how to document the results. It is for all academics who aren't afraid to step out of their comfort zone and enter industry. It is for industrial researchers who know that they want to do more than just develop software blindly. And finally, it is for stakeholders who want to learn how to manage industrial research projects and how to set up guidelines for their own role and expectations.

Describes in detail one of the main research methodologies used for academia-industry research collaborations Each chapter shares essential insights into action research and how to apply it Covers the whole software lifecycle and includes a wealth of practical use cases and examples

Autorentext

Miroslaw Staron is a Professor at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. He has published extensively on software metrics, model-driven software development and empirical software engineering, and has worked together with Ericsson, Volvo and other telecom companies and car manufacturers.

Inhalt
1 Introduction.- 2 Action Research as Research Methodology in Software Engineering.- 3 Diagnosing.- 4 Action Planning.- 5 Action taking.- 6 Evaluation.- 7 Specifying learning.- 8 Action research vs. design research.- 9 Ensuring sustainability of knowledge.- 10 Validity evaluation.- 11 Reporting Action Research Studies.- 12 Conclusions.