International Islamic University Islamabad Faculty of Basic and Applied Sciences Department of Computer Science Semester Course Credit

Hours Course tutor: FALL 2009 SE 602 Research Methods 3 Ms. Muneera Bano Assistant Professor, DCS, FBAS, IIUI muneera@iiu.edu.pk 051-9019305 INTRODUCTION This course will explore methods in computer science and software engineering research, and will prepare students for advanced research by examining how to plan, conduct and report on investigations. The course will cover all of the principal methods applicable to CS and SE. The course will critically review published examples of work that used each of the principle methods within CS and SE. The course will cover techniques applicable to each of the steps of a research project, including formulating research questions, theory building, data analysis (using both qualitative and quantitative methods), building evidence, assessing validity, and publishing. COURSE OBJECTIVES This course aims to develop an appreciation of the issues that arise in doing research that contributes to improving computer science knowledge and practical large-scale software construction, together with some skill in addressing these issues. By the end of the course a student should demonstrate proficiency in three areas: General research skills Read research papers critically, identifying and evaluating the underlying reasoning of the research Understand and be able to describe how research results evolve over time Apply results to your own work Research methods Exercise good judgment in recognizing good research problems
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MSSE F09

Recognize problem class of a research problem and select the appropriate research paradigm Understand several validation techniques and when to apply them Specific results Understand results from selected papers that span the field of computer science/software engineering COURSE OUTLINE Introduction and Orientation, What is Science, Engineering, and Technology, Basics of Doing Research, Experiments, Simulations, Benchmarking, Case Studies, Survey, Ethnography, Action Research, Artifact/Archive Analysis Methods, Reporting and Publishing. RESOURCES Unbounded Systems Thinking, Mitroff and Linstone Research Methods: Case Study, Yin ++ Many articles Lecture Slides [by Instructor] GRADING CRITERIA Quizzes Assignments Midterm Final Paper RULES FOR COURSE 75 % attendance is must for sitting in final exam, as per rule of Department of Computer Science. No Late Submission of Assignment. Quizzes will be Surprise and no compensation for missed Quiz and midterm. Course problems to be discussed in counseling hours only other wise on appointments. 15 10+10 15 50

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LECTURES PLAN
week 1

Topics Introduction and Discussion to course outline, and orientation

Reading Material William F. McComas, The principal elements of the nature of science: Dispelling the myths

What is Research, Knowledge, and Science? Types of Science, Philosophy of Science, Ways of knowing, Differentiating Science, Engineering, and Technology. Computer Science and Software Engineering. Basics of Doing Research: Finding good research questions, Literature review. Literature review, Research Strategy, Evidence and Measurement. Systematic Literature Review, Evidence Based Software Engineering.

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Analyzing the past to prepare for the future: writing a literature review

Guidelines by B. Kitchenham Eliciting Design Requirements for

Experiments: Controlled Experiments, Quasi-experiments, Replication

Maintenance-Oriented IDEs: A Detailed Study of Corrective and Perfective Maintenance Tasks Kellner, M. I.; Madachy, R. J.; Raffo, D. M.; Software Process Simulation Modeling: Why? What? How? Journal of Systems and Software 46 (2-3) 91105, April 1999. S. Sim, S. M. Easterbrook and R. C.

Simulations: Simulation Techniques and Tools

Benchmarking, Case Studies

Holt Using Benchmarking to Advance Research: A Challenge to Software Engineering. Proceedings, ICSE-2003 Les Hatton, Does OO Sync with how we think, IEEE Software, May 1998!! An Empirical Study of Communication

Case Studies: Single and Multi-case, Longitudinal Case Studies, Approaches to Data Collection

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Surveys

in Code Challenges in Market-Driven Requirements Engineering - an Industrial Interview Study

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Reporting and Publishing: Displaying data, writing up results, Where to publish? MS Proposal and Thesis Examples How to Write Research Paper? Ethnographies, Action Research Interruptions on Software Teams: A Comparison of Paired and Solo Programmers Audris Mockus, Roy T. Fielding, and James Herbsleb. Two case studies of open source software development: Apache and mozilla. ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology, 11(3):1-38, July 2002. Glass, R. L., An Analysis of research in computing field, COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM June 2004/Vol. 47, No. 6

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Artifact/Archives Analysis Analysis Methods: Qualitative, Quantitative and Mixed approaches, Statistical Analysis.

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Slot for Midterm and Discussion Slot for Midterm and Discussion

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