Methodology Matters: How We Study Socio-Technical Aspects in Software Engineering

Software engineering involves the consideration of both human and technical aspects, and although its origins come from the sub-disciplines of computer science and engineering, today the importance of the social and human aspects of software development are widely accepted by practitioners and researchers alike. Researchers have at their disposal many research methods they can choose from, but does software engineering research, at a community level, use methods that adequately capture the social and human aspects of the socio-technical endeavour that is software development? To answer this question, we conducted a categorization study of 253 ICSE papers and found a bigger emphasis on computational studies that rely on trace data of developer activity, with fewer studies controlling for human and social aspects. To understand tradeoffs that researchers make among their choice of research methods, we conducted a follow-up survey with the authors of the mapping study papers and found they generally prioritize generalizability and realism over control of human behaviours in their studies, sometimes for reasons of convenience or to appease reviewers of their papers. Furthermore, our findings surprisingly suggest a gap in knowledge about triangulation that could help address this gap within our community. We suggest our community, as a whole, diversify its use of research methods, to increase the use of methods that involve more control of the human and social aspects of software development practice while balancing our understanding of innovations on the technical side.