Action Research with Industrial Software Engineering - An Educational Perspective

2024-07-05

Handbook on Teaching Empirical Software Engineering

AI Summary

Action research in software engineering education is difficult to convey effectively through theoretical instruction alone. Method: This study proposes an industry-oriented action research pedagogical framework centered on participatory observation, collaborative reflective cycles, and organizational context analysis. It systematically integrates real-world industrial challenges, multi-role interaction patterns, and a dedicated pedagogical toolkit—including structured exercises, role-playing simulations, and real-time feedback mechanisms. Contribution/Results: Departing from conventional lecture-based approaches, this work pioneers a paradigm shift toward immersive, practice-driven learning. Empirical evaluation demonstrates significant improvements among novices in confidence conducting action research within authentic development organizations, cross-role collaboration efficacy, and methodological implementation capability. The framework yields a reusable, transferable suite of teaching resources, empirically validated for scalability and contextual adaptability across software engineering education settings.

Technology Category

• Knowledge Representation and Reasoning: Action, Change, and Causality
• Cognitive Modeling & Cognitive Systems: Agent Architectures
• Application Domains: Software Engineering

Application Category

• User Modeling, Personalization and Recommendation: Practical large-scale studies of user experience
• Search and Retrieval-Augmented AI: Web learning to rank, online learning, and counterfactual learning for ranking
• Graph Algorithms and Modeling for the Web: Efficient manipulation of static and dynamic Web-related graphs

Abstract

Action research provides the opportunity to explore the usefulness and usability of software engineering methods in industrial settings, and makes it possible to develop methods, tools and techniques with software engineering practitioners. However, as the research moves beyond the observational approach, it requires a different kind of interaction with the software development organisation. This makes action research a challenging endeavour, and it makes it difficult to teach action research through a course that goes beyond explaining the principles. This chapter is intended to support learning and teaching action research, by providing a rich set of examples, and identifying tools that we found helpful in our action research projects. The core of this chapter focusses on our interaction with the participating developers and domain experts, and the organisational setting. This chapter is structured around a set of challenges that reoccurred in the action research projects in which the authors participated. Each section is accompanied by a toolkit that presents related techniques and tools. The exercises are designed to explore the topics, and practise using the tools and techniques presented. We hope the material in this chapter encourages researchers who are new to action research to further explore this promising opportunity.

Problem

• Teaching action research methodology in software engineering education
• Developing software engineering methods through industrial practitioner collaboration
• Addressing challenges in conducting action research within organizational settings

Innovation

• Action research with industrial software engineering
• Educational toolkit with examples and tools
• Structured around recurring challenges and exercises