UNIVERSITY OF HERTFORDSHIRE
                 COMPUTER SCIENCE RESEARCH COLLOQUIUM
                                   
                               presents
                                      
                    "Context, process and generalisation, 
            with particular reference to software code inspections"
                                      
                               speaker:
                                
                          Dr. Austen Rainer 
                        (Computer Science,
                      University of Hertfordshire) 
                                      
                      28 April 2004 (Wednesday)
                                      
                        Lecture Theatre LC108
                    Hatfield, College Lane Campus
                               3 - 4 pm
                                      
              Coffee/tea and biscuits will be available.
                                      
                    Everyone is Welcome to Attend
                          [Space Permitting]
                                      
   


Abstract:
Empirical studies in software engineering are hard because the outcomes of 
almost any software development process seem to depend on a potentially 
large number of 'context variables.' One consequence of this situation is 
that it is very difficult to determine the degree to which the results of a 
particular empirical study would apply to other situations. In this talk, I 
intend to: 1) explore, in depth, how context and process might relate to 
each other, 2) consider how context affects the generlisation of research 
findings; 3) briefly consider the implications of context for statistical 
inferences (as one approach to generlisation); and 4) briefly consider 
alternative approaches to generalisation. To help focus my talk, I will 
refer particularly to previous empirical studies of software code 
inspections. (Software code inspections are one of the most heavily 
investigated processes in software engineering research.) While the main 
examples will be taken from software engineering research, I hope that the 
issues discussed will have broad applicability to a wide range of empirical 
research.

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Hertfordshire Computer Science Research Colloquium Abstracts
On-line: http://homepages.feis.herts.ac.uk/~nehaniv/colloq/