Worldviews, Research Methods, and their Relationship to Validity in Empirical Software Engineering Research

Background - Validity threats should be considered and consistently reported to judge the value of an empirical software engineering research study. The relevance of specific threats for a particular research study depends on the worldview or philosophical worldview of the researchers of the study. Problem/Gap - In software engineering, different categorizations exist, which leads to inconsistent reporting and consideration of threats. Contribution - In this paper, we relate different worldviews to software engineering research methods, identify generic categories for validity threats, and provide a categorization of validity threats with respect to their relevance for different world views. Thereafter, we provide a checklist aiding researchers in identifying relevant threats. Method - Different threat categorizations and threats have been identified in literature, and are reflected on in relation to software engineering research. Results - Software engineering is dominated by the pragmatist worldviews, and therefore use multiple methods in research. Maxwell´s categorization of validity threats has been chosen as very suitable for reporting validity threats in software engineering research. Conclusion - We recommend to follow a checklist approach, and reporting first the philosophical worldview of the researcher when doing the research, the research methods and all threats relevant, including open, reduced, and mitigated threats.