Universidad Politécnica de Madrid GRISEExperimental Software Engineering Group

Universidad Politécnica de Madrid · ETSI Informáticos

Experimental Software Engineering

We bring the scientific method to software development: controlled experiments, replications and observational studies that turn practice into reliable evidence.

Our research Publications
6Researchers
443Publications
38PhD theses supervised
26Research projects

About us

Evidence for software engineering

GRISE investigates how to generate and aggregate reliable evidence about software development methods, techniques and tools. Our work ranges from the methodology of software engineering experimentation (design, analysis, replication and synthesis) to its application in testing, test-driven development, requirements engineering, usability and continuous software engineering.

We collaborate with universities and companies across Europe and Latin America, and we have trained a large community of researchers through our PhD programme.

Meet the team

Work with us

Interested in a Bachelor's or Master's thesis (TFG/TFM), a PhD or a research stay on empirical software engineering? Write to any member of the group.

Get in touch

Research

Research lines

Lines & projects
  1. 01.

    Experimentation methodology, replication and evidence synthesis

    We develop and evaluate methods to design, analyse, report and replicate software engineering experiments, including families of experiments, crossover designs and meta-analysis. We also study what makes evidence unreliable, such as statistical errors, publication bias and researcher bias.

  2. 02.

    Causal inference and observational studies in mining software repositories

    We adapt study designs from epidemiology, such as retrospective and prospective cohort studies and matching, to draw causal conclusions from software repository data. Recent studies examine how microservice adoption, code smells and static-analysis configurations affect development outcomes.

  3. 03.

    Test-driven development and software testing

    We run families of experiments in universities and companies to measure how test-driven development and testing techniques affect quality and productivity. We also examine how developers perceive testing effectiveness and how measurement instruments influence experimental results.

  4. 04.

    Requirements engineering and human factors

    We study empirically how the experience, domain knowledge and cognitive abilities of analysts shape requirements elicitation and inspection. We also investigate cognitive biases in software engineering.

  5. 05.

    Usability and human-computer interaction

    We investigate how to build usability into software development, from usability mechanisms and patterns to the evaluation of chatbots and collaborative modelling tools. In digital health, we design and evaluate mobile applications for older adults.

  6. 06.

    Agile, rapid and continuous software engineering

    We study how companies measure and manage quality, especially quality requirements, in agile and rapid software development. This work combines case studies and design science with industrial partners.

  7. 07.

    Artificial intelligence and software engineering

    We assess the methodological rigour of experiments that apply deep learning to software engineering tasks and build evidence-based AI tools. We also explore combining large language models with domain-specific languages for web engineering and teaching.

Latest

News

All news & events

Recent work

Publications

All publications

  1. Building and validating deep learning models for forecasting the quality of cloud services

    Ximena Guerron, Marta Fernández-Diego, Silvia Abrahão, Emilio Insfrán and Sira Vegas

    Automated Software Engineering, 33(3)

    Journal articleDOIOpen access
    BibTeX
    @article{guerron2026building,
  title   = {Building and validating deep learning models for forecasting the quality of cloud services},
  author  = {Ximena Guerron and Marta Fernández-Diego and Silvia Abrahão and Emilio Insfrán and Sira Vegas},
  journal = {Automated Software Engineering},
  volume  = {33},
  number  = {3},
  year    = {2026},
  doi     = {10.1007/s10515-026-00630-z},
}

  2. Enhancing Interoperability of Ubiquitous Devices through WS-CDL-Based Coordination

    Oscar A. Testa, Efraín Rodrigo Fonseca Carrera, Germán Antonio Montejano and Óscar Dieste

    International Journal of Web and Grid Services, 22(3), pp. 350–378

    Journal articleDOI
    BibTeX
    @article{testa2026enhancing,
  title   = {Enhancing Interoperability of Ubiquitous Devices through WS-CDL-Based Coordination},
  author  = {Oscar A. Testa and Efraín Rodrigo Fonseca Carrera and Germán Antonio Montejano and Óscar Dieste},
  journal = {International Journal of Web and Grid Services},
  volume  = {22},
  number  = {3},
  pages   = {350--378},
  year    = {2026},
  doi     = {10.1504/ijwgs.2026.10081222},
}

  3. Investigating Causality in Software Repositories Using Cohort-Based Methods

    Sira Vegas, Sabato Nocera, Giuseppe Scanniello and Natalia Juristo

    IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, pp. 1–21

    Journal articleDOI
    BibTeX
    @article{vegas2026investigating,
  title   = {Investigating Causality in Software Repositories Using Cohort-Based Methods},
  author  = {Sira Vegas and Sabato Nocera and Giuseppe Scanniello and Natalia Juristo},
  journal = {IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering},
  pages   = {1--21},
  year    = {2026},
  doi     = {10.1109/tse.2026.3713676},
}

  4. Motivation for international academic mobility: Comparing incoming and outgoing engineering students

    Isabel Ortiz‐Marcos, Ricardo Albarracín, Morris Villarroel, Jesús Fraile-Ardanuy, Luis Salgado Álvarez de Sotomayor and Xavier Ferré

    Journal of International Students, 16(19)

    Journal articleDOIOpen access
    BibTeX
    @article{marcos2026motivation,
  title   = {Motivation for international academic mobility: Comparing incoming and outgoing engineering students},
  author  = {Isabel Ortiz‐Marcos and Ricardo Albarracín and Morris Villarroel and Jesús Fraile-Ardanuy and Luis Salgado Álvarez de Sotomayor and Xavier Ferré},
  journal = {Journal of International Students},
  volume  = {16},
  number  = {19},
  year    = {2026},
  doi     = {10.32674/hg7scw48},
}

  5. Visibility of Domain Elements in the Elicitation Process Interviews: A Family of Empirical Studies

    Alejandrina M. Aranda, Óscar Dieste, José Ignacio Panach and Natalia Juristo

    IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, 52(4), pp. 1332–1351

    Journal articleDOI
    BibTeX
    @article{aranda2026visibility,
  title   = {Visibility of Domain Elements in the Elicitation Process Interviews: A Family of Empirical Studies},
  author  = {Alejandrina M. Aranda and Óscar Dieste and José Ignacio Panach and Natalia Juristo},
  journal = {IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering},
  volume  = {52},
  number  = {4},
  pages   = {1332--1351},
  year    = {2026},
  doi     = {10.1109/tse.2026.3662599},
}

People

The team

People, alumni & associates