SWE 540: Research Methods for Sotware Engineering

The course will first introduce, discuss, and classify various software engineering research methods and approaches. Then the course will focus on the principles, main practices and technologies relevant to using data and statistical analysis to address various software engineering research problems. This course will put emphasis on grasping statistical concepts and interpretation of the outcome of analysis of the statistical data gathered during the different stages of software development lifecycle. Application of statistical methods to empirical software engineering will be covered in-depth.  Additionally, students will review different articles, case studies and research papers to have a practical understanding of the use of statistical and data analysis techniques in relevant software engineering.