Evaluating process theories in software engineering

A process theory is an explanation of how and why an entity changes and develops. While software engineering is fundamentally concerned with how and why software artifacts change and develop, little research explicitly develops and empirically evaluates software engineering process theories. This lack of theory obstructs scientific consensus by focusing the academic community on methods. Methods inevitably oversimplify and over-rationalize reality, obfuscating crucial phenomenon including uncertainty, problem framing and illusory requirements. Better process theories are therefore needed to ground software engineering in empirical reality. However, poor understanding of process theory issues impedes research and publication. This paper therefore attempts to clarify the nature of process theories, address some common misconceptions and elucidate the unique issues of process theory evaluation.

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