Relevant information in TDD experiment reporting

Abstract

Experiments are a commonly used method of research in software engineering (SE). Researchers report their experiments following detailed guidelines. However, researchers do not, in the field of test-driven development (TDD) at least, specify how they operationalized the response variables and, particularly, the measurement process. This article has three aims: (i) identify the response variable operationalization components in TDD experiments that study external quality; (ii) study their influence on the experimental results; (iii) determine if the experiment reports describe the measurement process components that have an impact on the results. We used two-part sequential mixed methods research. The first part of the research adopts a quantitative approach applying a statistical analysis of the impact of the operationalization components on the experimental results. The second part follows on with a qualitative approach applying a systematic mapping study (SMS). The test suites, intervention types and measurers have an influence on the measurements and results of the statistical analysis of TDD experiments in SE. The test suites have a major impact on both the measurements and the results of the experiments. The intervention type has less impact on the results than on the measurements. While the measurers have an impact on the measurements, this is not transferred to the experimental results. On the other hand, the results of our SMS confirm that TDD experiments do not usually report either the test suites, the test case generation method, or the details of how external quality was measured. A measurement protocol should be used to assure that the measurements made by different measurers are similar. It is necessary to report the test cases, the experimental task and the intervention type in order to be able to reproduce the measurements and statistical analyses, as well as to replicate experiments and build dependable families of experiments.