Empirical Software Engineering

Posts about empirical studies of software development: measurements, experiments, surveys, and what the evidence actually says.

2026-05-31Three Research Questions About AI
2026-03-26Classifying Research Software
2025-12-30Discrete Events
2025-12-08The Real Hardest Problem
2025-12-04The Effects of Rework
2025-11-30Observability
2025-11-29What Changed Revisited
2025-11-28What Changed?
2025-11-27Not Created Equal
2025-11-26Malice and Randomness
2025-11-25You Can't Tell
2025-11-24Analyzing the Simulation
2025-11-23Simulating Multiple Stages
2025-11-22Refactoring the Simulation
2025-11-21Simulating Rework
2025-11-20Making Sense of Simulation
2025-11-19Simulating a Developer Pool
2025-11-18Starting to Simulate
2025-09-18Time Spent on Hardening
2025-08-15Productivity Workshop Ideas
2025-08-13This Week's Posts
2025-07-18No Satisfaction
2025-05-19Some Testing Answers
2025-05-01We Weren't Ready for the Flood
2025-04-20A Testing Question
2025-01-07Forming Teams
2025-01-03Time Management
2025-01-02Crunch Mode
2024-12-28Engagement
2024-12-14How It Will Be Used
2024-12-01Never Look Back
2024-06-02Micro NWIT
2024-04-27Building Tech Together
2024-03-21NWIT Retrospective
2023-12-29Reading List
2023-12-12Ultracrepidarian
2023-03-24Code Complexity
2023-02-23It Will Never Work in Theory: April 2023 Lightning Talks
2023-01-27Benchmarking Languages
2022-12-29The Fourth Tradition
2022-12-28Six for the To-Don't List
2022-10-02Empirically Minimal
2022-08-14Empirical Software Engineering Vignettes
2022-08-10Hard Problems
2021-12-26Effort Estimation
2021-07-17Software Engineering's Greatest Hits
2021-03-30The Fourth Tradition
2021-02-19Blinkered Visions
2021-01-26Dead Last
2021-01-18Good Enough Teaching
2021-01-17Punchcards Considered Harmful
2020-06-20June 2020 Papers
2020-01-04A Model Experiment
2019-12-31Correlations
2019-12-23Gini Coefficients
2019-12-23Empirical Examples
2019-12-17Measuring Software Tools
2019-10-11Proficiency
2019-07-07A Veteran of a Thousand Language Wars
2019-07-05Patterns in Git
2019-05-30Software Engineering Revisited
2019-04-06Bootcamps
2019-02-25Making It Work in Practice
2018-12-06Analyze That! Very Preliminary Results
2018-11-15The Real Open Challenges
2018-11-05Abstraction and Comprehension Continued
2018-11-03Abstraction and Comprehension
2018-11-01Twelve Questions
2018-09-05Analyze That!
2018-08-28Two Abstracts for Two Audiences
2018-08-12The Real Challenge
2018-07-05Isaac Ezer's Dragnet
2018-07-05Performance Curves, Curriculum Design, and Trust Revisited
2018-04-01The Undergraduate Software Project Guide
2018-03-23Where Does This Come From?
2018-03-13A Base Case for Empirical Software Engineering Research
2018-02-14'Analyze This!' for CS Education
2018-02-13Workshop Benefits
2017-12-06The New Standard Model
2016-10-23Programming as Theory Building
2016-10-10Beth Duckles on the Practice of Measuring
2016-09-30Two Studies of Online Communities
2016-09-05We Still Can't Have Nice Things Together
2016-07-05Instructor Training Completion Times
2016-06-10The Superbug in Education
2016-05-31Further Analysis of Instructor Training Data
2016-05-20First Analysis of Instructor Training Data
2016-04-01Zen and the Art of Assignment Operators
2016-03-05Complexity vs. Subtlety
2016-02-19More of a Difference Than You Realize
2016-02-16Checking the Balance
2016-02-08Correlations
2016-02-02Two Pages of Evidence
2016-01-1518 Months of Progress
2016-01-09What the Data Says About Novice Programming Mistakes
2016-01-09Change Strategies in STEM Education
2015-10-27Visualizing Repository Activity
2015-09-16Software Engineering Practices in Science
2015-09-13How Teaching Knowledge Is Transferred
2015-08-31Three Graphs I Would Like to See
2015-02-09Plot This
2014-11-22Instructor Training Stats
2014-11-10Sarah Mei on Software Engineering Research
2014-11-06You Should Read Juha Sorva's Thesis
2014-10-27Lost in Space
2014-04-15Summarizing Our Instructors' Skills
2014-03-19Empirical Software Engineering Papers
2014-01-14Code Review, Round 2
2013-12-19So How Is Instructor Training Going?
2013-11-12Report on the PLOS/Mozilla Code Review Pilot
2013-10-09Enrolment Figures (Fall 2013)
2013-09-24How Much Testing Is Enough?
2013-08-23Instructor Training Statistics
2013-04-30Pre-Assessment Results
2013-04-29An Update on Cumulative Enrolment
2013-03-17Testing Image Processing
2013-03-17Cumulative Enrollment
2013-02-11Correctness Isn't Compelling
2013-02-09The Larch Environment
2012-12-06Two Solitudes Illustrated
2012-11-13Pre-Assessment
2012-11-02I'd Like an Argument, Please
2012-10-2325 Questions
2012-10-04USV's 'Research' on Online Education: Well, That's Depressing
2012-09-06How Quickly Do Workshops Fill Up?
2012-09-04Final Results of Demographic Survey
2012-08-21Two Solitudes (talk)
2012-07-21How Robust Is Your Programming Language?
2012-07-05Independent Assessment of the Past Six Months
2012-05-10Fish and Bugs
2012-04-09…Which Is Wrong
2012-03-14How We're Doing
2012-03-05Programs as Experimental Apparatus
2012-02-21Assessment Redux
2012-01-23A Better Solution to the Final Problem
2011-12-24Organizing Instruction and Study to Improve Student Learning
2011-11-18Show Me the Data
2011-11-18Quantifying Installation Costs
2011-09-20If Only This Thing Had An Engine!
2011-06-29It Will Never Work in Theory
2011-06-20Doing the Math
2011-06-15Mostly Pleased, But…
2011-05-28What's There Instead
2011-05-27It's Not Theory vs. Practice, It's Two Solitudes
2011-05-20How Do Actual Software Engineers Perceive Software Engineering Research?
2011-04-18Holding Up a Mirror
2011-03-15Twenty Questions (Minus Two)
2011-01-17Demographics (part two)
2011-01-16Demographics (part one)
2011-01-10McConnell Responds to Bossavit
2011-01-06Gibson's Law in the Small
2011-01-05We Are the Frogs
2010-11-22Michael Feathers on 'Making Software'
2010-11-16Ratios and Rework
2010-10-30Dubois on Maintaining Correctness
2010-08-16Students and Code Review
2010-07-22Apparently We're Less Creative
2010-07-16Making Software Now Available on Rough Cuts
2010-07-07Using Science to Design This Course
2010-06-24A Quote from Marian Petre
2010-06-24And the Winner Is…
2010-06-12The Cowichan Problems
2010-05-22The Practice of Software Development
2010-05-06Articles of Faith
2010-04-12On the Failure of Inquiry-Based Teaching
2010-03-18What Do You See?
2010-03-17Natural Language Wins (Kind Of)
2010-03-11The Past Is Still Here Too, and It Too Is Unevenly Distributed
2010-02-17Rory Tulk on Software Testing
2010-01-31I Don't Care Until I Can Check
2010-01-24It Seems That Everyone Cares
2010-01-20Punctuate! Punctuate! Punctuate!
2010-01-20We Can Only Interview the Survivors
2010-01-15We're Apparently Still Not a Science
2010-01-07Aranda on SEMAT
2009-12-28A Seven Per Cent Problem
2009-12-27Dudley and Butte on Software Skills
2009-12-18Double Standards
2009-11-26Caesar's Wife
2009-11-24Greatest Hits
2009-11-16When I Said 'The Last Twenty Years…'
2009-10-21Sometimes You Can't Even Manage What You *Can* Measure
2009-10-21Creating New Niches
2009-10-17Lunchbox Games
2009-09-29A Strange Obsession
2009-09-24Presentation, Presentation, Presentation
2009-09-21Habit Forming
2009-08-25What Processes Do Small Software Teams Use?
2009-08-21Tools for Teams
2009-08-15It's Like Not Wearing Your Cleats in the House
2009-08-15Search-Based Software Engineering
2009-08-15Evaluating the Usability of Programming Languages
2009-07-26We're Not Even Listed
2009-07-26Do Iterations Work by Partitioning Choices?
2009-07-16We're *Supposed* to Be a Little Old Fashioned
2009-06-21A Going-Away Present
2009-06-05A Cautionary Tale About Empirical Studies
2009-06-04What (Some Of) My Students Are Up To
2009-05-01Quack Remedies Spread Faster *Because* They Don't Work
2009-04-15Database of Empirical Software Engineering Publications
2009-04-09GSoC Stats: The Last 10% Is The Hardest
2009-03-25A Short History of Software Engineering
2009-03-25Recent Reading
2009-02-18Papers
2009-02-12Jason Cohen Thinks Aloud
2009-02-02Theory vs. Practice: Shall E'er the Twain Meet?
2009-01-28Congratulations to Samira, Jeremy, and Carolyn
2008-12-26How Do You Determine the Health of a Software Development Project?
2008-12-24Diagnosing Home Network Misconfigurations Using Shared Knowledge
2008-12-18We Got Boinged!
2008-07-23Quick Quiz to Measure What Scientists Know
2008-07-21It Wasn't *Meant* To Be Funny, But…
2008-07-16We Should Have Built This For Them
2008-05-03Stats on Founders
2008-05-02Code Review Coincidences
2008-04-10Three Studies (Maybe Four)
2008-04-07Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned
2008-03-08Why Developers Don't Do Code Reviews
2008-01-28First Figure Out What You Want to Change
2008-01-15Structural Programming and Rational Metaprogramming
2007-12-15A Meme I'd Like To Crush
2007-12-14ICSE Workshop List
2007-12-09Python Supercomputing Statistics
2007-11-06Measurement
2007-10-30Encouraging Collaboration
2007-10-22But Not For Me
2007-10-12Gini Coefficients as a Measure of Team Effort
2007-08-29How and Why We Draw Code
2007-06-27Two Studies of ASCI (and no, that's not a typo)
2007-06-12Software Games
2007-06-11Praising the Good
2007-04-02Measuring the Value of Modeling
2007-03-13Doing the Science
2007-02-07What I Learned Today
2006-12-05Show Me The Data
2006-11-11Expressing Temporal 'Type' Information in Programs
2006-10-16CSER, Privacy, Agility, and Games
2006-07-19Evidence-Based Software Engineering
2006-07-18The Camel's Humps Are Very Popular
2006-06-19Agility and Romanticism
2006-04-17Zipf's Law of Feedback
2006-04-13Strong Typing, Unit Testing, and Science
2006-03-30The Next Phase New Wave Tool Craze
2006-03-01Usability of Programming Systems