Four presumed gaps in the software engineering research community's knowledge
This addresses foundational issues in software engineering research methodology and community knowledge, though it is incremental in synthesizing existing expert perspectives rather than proposing new technical solutions.
The study identified four major knowledge gaps in software engineering research through expert interviews, revealing that understanding of complexity, good-enoughness, and developers' strengths is underdeveloped, and the field lacks evidence-based practices.
Background: The state of the art in software engineering consists of a myriad of contributions and the gaps between them; it is difficult to characterize. Questions: In order to help understanding the state of the art, can we identify gaps in our knowledge that are at a very general, widely relevant level? Which research directions do these gaps suggest? Method: 54 expert interviews with senior members of the ICSE community, evaluated qualitatively using elements of Grounded Theory Methodology. Results: Our understanding of complexity, of good-enoughness, and of developers' strengths is underdeveloped. Some other relevant factors' relevance is apparently not clear. Software engineering is not yet an evidence-based discipline. Conclusion: More software engineering research should concern itself with emergence phenomena, with how engineering tradeoffs are made, with the assumptions underlying research works, and with creating certain taxonomies. Such work would also allow software engineering to become more evidence-based.