Empirical methods like experimentation have become a powerful means to drive the field of software engineering by creating scientific evidence on software development, operation, and maintenance, but also by supporting practitioners in their decision making and learning. Today empirical methods are fully applied in software engineering. However, they have developed in several iterations since the 1960s. In this chapter we tell the history of empirical software engineering and present the evolution of empirical methods in software engineering in five iterations, i.e., (1) mid-1960s to mid-1970s, (2) mid-1970s to mid-1980s, (3) mid-1980s to end of the 1990s, (4) the 2000s, and (5) the 2010s. We present the five iterations of the development of empirical software engineering mainly from a methodological perspective and additionally take key papers, venues, and books, which are covered in chronological order in a separate section on recommended further readings, into account. We complement our presentation of the evolution of empirical software engineering by presenting the current situation and an outlook in Sect. 4 and the available books on empirical software engineering. Furthermore, based on the chapters covered in this book we discuss trends on contemporary empirical methods in software engineering related to the plurality of research methods, human factors, data collection and processing, aggregation and synthesis of evidence, and impact of software engineering research.

中文翻译：

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软件工程中经验方法的演变

实验等实证方法已成为推动软件工程领域发展的有力手段，通过创建有关软件开发、操作和维护的科学证据，以及支持从业者的决策和学习。今天，经验方法在软件工程中得到了充分的应用。然而，自 1960 年代以来，它们已经经过多次迭代开发。在本章中，我们讲述了经验软件工程的历史，并在五个迭代中展示了软件工程中经验方法的演变，即（1）1960 年代中期至 1970 年代中期，（2）1970 年代中期至 1980 年代中期，（ 3) 1980 年代中期至 1990 年代末，(4) 2000 年代和 (5) 2010 年代。我们主要从方法论的角度介绍了经验软件工程发展的五个迭代，并另外选取了关键论文，场地和书籍，这些书籍在推荐的进一步阅读的单独部分中按时间顺序介绍，并考虑在内。我们通过介绍当前情况和第 2 节的展望来补充我们对经验软件工程演变的介绍。4 以及有关经验软件工程的可用书籍。此外，基于本书涵盖的章节，我们讨论了软件工程中当代经验方法的趋势，这些方法与研究方法的多样性、人为因素、数据收集和处理、证据的聚合和综合以及软件工程研究的影响有关。我们通过介绍当前情况和第 2 节的展望来补充我们对经验软件工程演变的介绍。4 以及有关经验软件工程的可用书籍。此外，基于本书涵盖的章节，我们讨论了软件工程中当代经验方法的趋势，这些方法与研究方法的多样性、人为因素、数据收集和处理、证据的聚合和综合以及软件工程研究的影响有关。我们通过介绍当前情况和第 2 节的展望来补充我们对经验软件工程演变的介绍。4 以及有关经验软件工程的可用书籍。此外，基于本书涵盖的章节，我们讨论了软件工程中当代经验方法的趋势，这些方法与研究方法的多样性、人为因素、数据收集和处理、证据的聚合和综合以及软件工程研究的影响有关。