Empirical Software Engineering Research

In addition to the lectures, we plan for a couple of guest lectures on current topics in empirical software engineering research.

 

We hope that after taking this course, you will have achieved the following learning goals:

• Understand empirical methods in software engineering (research)
• Awareness of various experiment designs including their (dis)advantages
• Understand different types of data and how to describe and interpret them with statistical methods
• Awareness of critical topics and limitations surrounding empirical methods

Please note that we will not cover detailed statistical methods or a deep-dive into every research method.

This is a 6 CP course.

 

Important Note on Online Lecture Format

This course will be entirely online. The lectures will be uploaded as videos. For each lecture, we will offer a live, online Q&A in the subsequent week (Wednesday, 12:15–13:45).

In addition, we have weekly online mini-tests (TBA) and three larger assignments, that are a prerequisite to be admitted to the exam. 

Details are provided in the kickoff session.
 

Limited Registration: First-Come-First-Serve and Waiting List

We have limited staff to advise your learning and provide individual feedback. Thus, we have to limit the number of students that you can fully participate and take the exam in this semester to a maximum of 30 students.

Nevertheless, we believe that the course material is valuable for more students. Thus, the course registration is open and unlimited so that any student can still access and audit the materials (but unfortunately not obtain credit points).

To make it clear who is fully enrolled in the course, can submit assignments, and also take the exam (if the requirements are met), we display this status as a testing result. This means if you would like to participate in the assignments, take the exam, and get credits for this course, you must be one of the 30 students with the "passed" status in this testing.

We will enroll the first 30 students registered for the course purely based on a first-come first-serve basis. All students that register later will not be able to get credit in this course.

To obtain access to the course material, you must register via this CMS course. Registration starts on Thursday, 1st of October 2026 at 8:00 am and ends on 16th of October 2026 at 11:00 am.

Mini-Tests

There will be 12 mini-tests, each mini-test is worth 4 points. The mini-test will take part online (time TBA), you can take the mini-test at any time on that day in the CMS. The mini-test itself has a time limit of 10 minutes, since started. The questions will focus on the lecture of the previous week.

Assignments

There will be three assignments in this course, each worth 20 points. For each, you have two to three weeks to work on. The three assignment topics are:

• Understanding empirical studies
• Data analysis
• Report writing

For each submitted assignment, you can receive personalized feedback to help you improve.

To qualify for the exam, you need to score, at least,

• 50% (24/48 points) on the mini-tests
• 50% (30/60 points) on the assignments
• 10 of the 12 mini-tests must be submitted (i.e., you can miss a maximum of two mini tests without an excuse, you must still participate in the mini-tests even if you already have reached the minimum points)

Final Exam

The written 60-minute exam will be TBA. There is no re-exam.

You will need to register in the LSF/Hispos for the exam until TBA for the exam. We cannot help if you miss the registration deadline.

 

Literature

The library is providing access to the following books:

• Wohlin et al., Experimentation in Software Engineering, Springer, 2012/2024
• Juristo and Moreno, Basics of Software Engineering Experimentation, Springer, 2001
• Felderer and Travassos, Contemporary Empirical Methods in Software Engineering. Springer, 2020.
• Prechelt, Kontrollierte Experimente in der Softwaretechnik: Potenzial und Methodik, Springer, 2001/2014