A systematic literature review of the SBSE research community in Spain
Publication
A. Ramírez, P. Delgado-Pérez, J. Ferrer, J.R. Romero, I. Medina-Bulo, F. Chicano. "A systematic literature review of the SBSE research community in Spain". Progress in Artificial Inteligence, vol. 9, pp. 113-128. 2020. DOI: 10.1007/s13748-020-00205-3.
Open-access read-only version available from here.
Abstract
As the complexity of software systems has increased, it becomes more relevant to find efficient mechanisms to improve the way in which the different activities of the project life cycle are carried out. Since its appearance in 2001, the search-based software engineering has allowed software engineers the use of optimisation techniques to automate distinctive human problems related to software management and development. The scientific community in Spain has not been alien to these advances. Their contributions cover both the optimisation of software engineering tasks and the proposal of new search algorithms. This review compiles the research efforts of this community in the area. With this aim, we propose a protocol to describe the review process, including the search sources, inclusion and exclusion criteria of candidate papers, the data extraction procedure and the categorisation of primary studies. After retrieving more than 3,700 papers, 232 primary studies were selected, whose analysis gives a precise picture of the current research state of the community, trends and future challenges. With 145 authors from 19 distinct institutions, results show that a diversity of tasks has already been covered, including software planning, requirements, design and testing, and a large variety of techniques has been used, from exact search to evolutionary computation and swarm intelligence. Further, since 2015, specific scientific events have helped to join the community, improving collaborations, financial funding and internationalisation.
Additional material
The following document describes in detail the review protocol defined for this paper. It includes the search procedure and the classification scheme.
A bib file with the candidate papers can be downloaded from here
The data extraction is available from Google Sheets
A report extending the information available in the paper is provided next. This document includes the list of Spanish institutions and authors working on SBSE, their areas of interest and available tools, and a list of references with the 232 primary studies under review.