4th International Workshop on Software Engineering Research and Industrial Practise (SER&IP 2017)

Summary form only given, as follows. The aim of this workshop is to bring together researchers and practitioners to discuss the current state of Software Engineering (SE) research and industrial practice, and advance collaboration to reduce the gap between research and practice. Research and business are coupled for the software companies, which are transforming intellectual property into products, services and business concepts. However, proper synchronisation is missing between SE research and practice. Therefore, the challenges are to identify the gaps and to discover ways of improving collaboration, for the mutual benefit of research and industrial practice. Different perceptions and expectations are obstacles to collaboration between SE researchers and practitioners. Researchers have a view that practitioners are reluctant to share real industry data due to confidentiality agreements. Practitioners believe that researchers are mostly working on either dated or futuristic theoretical challenges, which are very far from practice. Researchers believe that practitioners are looking for quick fixes to their problems instead of using systematic methods or engaging in-depth research. Practitioners have a view that case studies in research do not represent the complexities of real projects and have doubts in the results produced by research. Researchers expect good problems along with real industry data and a few years to generate good publications, which may affect a specific domain in a limited way. Practitioners expect a quick general solution, which must earn substantial profit immediately. Researchers and practitioners need to overlap research and practice to build trust in their partnership. This workshop is a platform to discuss and address such challenges.