一句话：分析近年实证软件工程论文对PPP理论的采纳程度，发现多数未同时研究政策/过程与产品关系，并提出四项改进建议。
本文关注软件工程中的政策-过程-产品（PPP）理论：组织的政策与过程会影响产品质量。尽管实证软件工程研究日益普遍，但研究者是否在评估PPP理论尚不明确。作者从三个重要软件工程会议过去两年发表的实证工作中抽取一半（33篇）进行分析。结果显示，70%的工作只关注政策/过程或产品之一，而非两者；仅33%提供了联系政策/过程与产品的测量。基于此，作者提出四项建议：在研究设计中运用PPP理论、研究反馈关系、多样化所研究的前馈关系、厘清政策与过程。论文强调研究结果应置于软件产品、过程与政策之间关系的语境中理解。
The primary theory of software engineering is that an organization’s Policies and Processes influence the quality of its Products. We call this the PPP Theory. Although empirical software engineering research has grown common, it is unclear whether researchers are trying to evaluate the PPP Theory. To assess this, we analyzed half (33) of the empirical works published over the last two years in three prominent software engineering conferences. In this sample, 70% focus on policies/processes or products, not both. Only 33% provided measurements relating policy/process and products. We make four recommendations: (1) Use PPP Theory in study design; (2) Study feedback relationships; (3) Diversify the studied feed-forward relationships; and (4) Disentangle policy and process. Let us remember that research results are in the context of, and with respect to, the relationship between software products, processes, and policies.
DOI 原文 · arXiv · PDF（开放获取） · DBLP
@inproceedings{abs-2308-12387,
title = {Reflecting on the Use of the Policy-Process-Product Theory in Empirical Software Engineering},
author = {Kelechi G. Kalu and Taylor R. Schorlemmer and Sophie Chen and Kyle A. Robinson and Erik Kocinare and James C. Davis},
booktitle = {FSE},
year = {2023},
doi = {10.1145/3611643.3613075}
}