GUEST EDITORS' INTRODUCTION: KNOWLEDGE DISCOVERY FROM EMPIRICAL SOFTWARE ENGINEERING DATA

Finding new phenomena, validating existing hypotheses, or enhancing our existing knowledge is one of the most desirable end-products of computing for all application domains. The final objective of Knowledge Discovery in Software Engineering is to package discovered knowledge in the form of updated and refined models and other forms of structured knowledge gained from prior projects and save it in repository for future projects. The knowledge acquired through empirical studies is a very important company asset, based on which companies may assess their current processes and take improvement actions. Therefore, this knowledge should be taken care of by an organizational unit called experience factory [BCR94], which should carry out all the activities required to augment existing knowledge and make it available to new projects on demand. Software Engineering has several characteristics that distinguish it from other engineering disciplines: