- Argues the merits of creating benchmarks in software engineering as an exercise to strengthen the community and promote advancement, using the reverse engineering community as an example.
Lau: Towards a framework for action research in information systems studies
- Proposes a framework with which action research efforts can be categorized and evaluated.
- Describes Action Research as an iterative process, in which a researcher introduces a small change, observes its effect, and uses it as input to the next small change.
- Reminded me of Agile. I wonder if there are any other lessons from Agile that we can apply to Action Research?
Taipale and Smolander: Improving Software Testing by Observing Practice
- Case study conducted to shake out some ways of improving software testing, where it is deemed to be lacking. Methods used include subject interviews and grounded theory.
- Authors found that testing practices were most strongly correlated to business processes.
- Thought this could lend some insight into how to observe testers at work (ie. as they write tests). No such luck, though. All recommendations for improving testing had to do with business process alterations/improvements, not hands on testing stuff.
Also, while glancing at my bookshelf, I came across a couple of old undergrad texts that I would like to glance through. By looking at the spines, I don't think I've ever opened them:
Logic in Computer Science by Huth and Ryan. This was the text for my computational logic course in 3rd year. The course notes and instructor were good enough without having to read this, but my propositional logic has become so rusty, I think I need this as a refresher.
Specifying Software by Tennant. Text for a formal methods course. Turing machines, model checking & verification, etc.
Also, my Amazon shipment arrived a couple days ago, bringing with it a copy of The Annotated Turing, by Charles Petzold, and O'Reily's Programming Erlang (this one is for Aran, but when we're both done with our purchases, we'll likely swap).
