Abstract:
The concept of utilizing information derived from carefully crafted scientific research to optimize the efficiency and/or effectiveness of a practice is by no means a new idea. For over two thousand years physicians, scientists, and business professionals have relied on evidence to improve decision making. The advances made over last 50 years with regard to Information Systems (IS), and the proliferation of technology, set the stage for a new paradigm in the use of information in practice commonly referred to as Evidence-Based Practice (EBP). Originating in the field of medicine, the EBP paradigm has been adopted in many of the healthcare domains and spread to other domains such as education, management, and computer science. In the spirit of Fredrick Taylor's The Principles of Scientific Management (1914), the collection of essays presented in this work endeavor to advance the use of empirically based, juried evidence for decision making in a business context. The specific context selected is the domain of SE - a key component in a technology laden world. Within the SE domain, the essays address three objectives in the advancement of the EBSE paradigm by: 1. Mapping the research completed to date regarding the implementation of EBP in the SE domain to identify gaps and opportunities in the research. 2. Identifying the barriers deemed most important by the members of the SE research community who conduct systematic literature reviews in support of EBSE. 3. Developing the use of algorithmic techniques as a discriminant function in the selection process of the systematic review methodologies. Together, the collection of essays represent a line of inquiring within a broader research stream concerning the implementation of EBP - a modern version of Taylors work - within the SE domain. The collection of essays provides valuable insights concerning the status of EBSE and its literature, the problems associated with secondary research under the paradigm, and the basis for a discrimination function designed to assist in resolving a key issue for those seeking guidance in academic literature.
