Not being a statistics expert, I wondered if someone here could comment on the suitability of using parametric tests: has there been prior work to demonstrate that developer performance shows normality?
I recently came across a study of the impact of a tool on software developers that used a two parametric significance tests to show an statistically-significant effects looking at task-completion times and number of tasks completed. The study compared two groups of developers (one with 4, the other with 5 developers) as they completed 6 tasks. The authors used two tests and found significant effects: a repeated-measures ANOVA across the completion times, and a t test to compare number of tasks successfully completed. The surrounding description and actual numbers convinced me of a practical effect, but the statistical results seemed a little sketchy to me. I'm currently designing an experiment to assess the impact of a tool on developer performance. Ideally I'd like to have statistical significance, but don't think I can rely on parametric methods. Brian. -- Brian de Alwis | Software Practices Lab | UBC | http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~bsd/ "Amusement to an observing mind is study." - Benjamin Disraeli ---------------------------------------------------------------------- PPIG Discuss List ([email protected]) Discuss admin: http://limitlessmail.net/mailman/listinfo/discuss Announce admin: http://limitlessmail.net/mailman/listinfo/announce PPIG Discuss archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/discuss%40ppig.org/
