Using business process model as a support to conduct and replicate controlled experiments in software engineering

Abstract

The protocol for conducting an experiment is very important, it must be carefully planned to avoid compromising of results. Besides, the protocol is stored into a Lab Package, to support experiment replication. The replication requires lab package review and, when it is implemented by different research group, some difficulties are usually found, such as the lack of data storage standardization and the understanding of its contents. The research group on Applied Computing has made efforts to contribute do Experimental Software Engineering in order to support Lab Package organization. One research has produced the OntoExpTool: a computational tool to support the researchers to execute controlled experiment, including the creation of lab package. The tool allows mapping a sequence of activities on defining experiment and its artefacts. The current implementation is a text based web pages. In this work is proposed the use of a new technology based on Business Process Modelling and Notation to support the design of experiments and also the review of conducted experiments. We expect to facilitate the planning and the lab packages transferring among researchers in Software Engineering. (AU)