Empirical software engineering research with industry: Top 10 challenges

Abstract

Abstract-Software engineering research can be done in many ways, in particular it can be done in different ways when it comes to working with industry. This paper presents a list of top 10 challenges to work with industry based on our experience from working with industry in a very close collaboration with continuous exchange of knowledge and information. The top 10 list is based on a large number of research projects and empirical studies conducted with industrial research partners since 1983. It is concluded that close collaboration is a long-term undertaking and a large investment. The importance of addressing the top 10 challenges is stressed, since they form the basis for a long-term sustainable and successful collaboration between industry and academia.

Challenges and best practices in industry-academia collaborations in software engineering: A systematic literature review

“…Ostweil et al [44] determined the impact of software engineering research on practice. Wohlin [45] specifically presented the Top 10 challenges of Empirical software engineering research with industry. Petersen and Engström [40] presented a taxonomy and how to use it to bridge the communication gap between industry and academia.…”

“…In most cases only a few industry partners were involved. One case [45] stands out with an involvement of 30 industry partners. Out of 33 papers, 12 papers reported the length of the collaborations ( Figure 13).…”

“…For example, Glass and Hunt [57] point out that only few researchers would be interested in doing the development ("D") of R&D. With regard to rewards, it was pointed out that academia does not value industry impact and that there is no academic reward for industry collaborations and success [58,45]. The perception of what is useful becomes apparent in different ways, for example giving low priority to postgraduate studies from the industry perspective [59] and the lack of consideration of human factors in academic research [58] (e.g., neglecting the fact that software development is conducted by humans).…”

“…Different stakeholders need to commit, in particular company management is of importance [51,45,61,57,48,60,42,46]. An important means to gain commitment is the ability to communicate well in early meetings (BP18), the most frequently mentioned best practice.…”

Topic selection in industry experiments

“…Researcher should understand the industry's reasons to participate in the collaboration [5]. They should be aware of the challenges of their industrial partners, and choose problems and topics that are novel, feasible, industrially relevant, and potentially impactful [4].…”