Definition of a support infrastructure for replicating and aggregating families of software engineering experiments

Abstract

Experimental software engineering includes several processes,
the most representative being run experiments, run replications
and synthesize the results of multiple replications. Of
these processes, only the first is relatively well established
in software engineering. Problems of information management
and communication among researchers are one of the
obstacles to progress in the replication and synthesis processes.
Software engineering experimentation has expanded
considerably over the last few years. This has brought with
it the invention of experimental process support proposals.
However, few of these proposals provide integral support, including
replication and synthesis processes. Most of the proposals
focus on experiment execution. This paper proposes
an infrastructure providing integral support for the experimental
research process, specializing in the replication and
synthesis of a family of experiments. The research has been
divided into stages or phases, whose transition milestones
are marked by the attainment of their goals. Each goal exactly
matches an artifact or product. Within each stage,
we will adopt cycles of successive approximations (generateand-
test cycles), where each approximation includes a diferent
viewpoint or input. Each cycle will end with the product
approval.