Lessons from applying the systematic literature review process within the software engineering domain

A consequence of the growing number of empirical studies in software engineering is the need to adopt systematic approaches to assessing and aggregating research outcomes in order to provide a balanced and objective summary of research evidence for a particular topic. The paper reports experiences with applying one such approach, the practice of systematic literature review, to the published studies relevant to topics within the software engineering domain. The systematic literature review process is summarised, a number of reviews being undertaken by the authors and others are described and some lessons about the applicability of this practice to software engineering are extracted. The basic systematic literature review process seems appropriate to software engineering and the preparation and validation of a review protocol in advance of a review activity is especially valuable. The paper highlights areas where some adaptation of the process to accommodate the domain-specific charac...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2007
• Where: JSS
• Authors: Pearl Brereton, Barbara A. Kitchenham, David Budgen, Mark Turner, Mohamed Khalil
• Keywords: Engineering, JSS 2007, Literature Review Process, Systematic Literature Review