Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Challenges and best practices in industry-academia collaborations in software engineering : A systematic literature review

Garousi, Vahid ; Petersen, Kai and Ozkan, Baris (2016) In Information and Software Technology 79. p.106-127
Abstract

Context: The global software industry and the software engineering (SE) academia are two large communities. However, unfortunately, the level of joint industry-academia collaborations in SE is still relatively very low, compared to the amount of activity in each of the two communities. It seems that the two ’camps’ show only limited interest/motivation to collaborate with one other. Many researchers and practitioners have written about the challenges, success patterns (what to do, i.e., how to collaborate) and anti-patterns (what not do do) for industry-academia collaborations. Objective: To identify (a) the challenges to avoid risks to the collaboration by being aware of the challenges, (b) the best practices to provide an inventory of... (More)

Context: The global software industry and the software engineering (SE) academia are two large communities. However, unfortunately, the level of joint industry-academia collaborations in SE is still relatively very low, compared to the amount of activity in each of the two communities. It seems that the two ’camps’ show only limited interest/motivation to collaborate with one other. Many researchers and practitioners have written about the challenges, success patterns (what to do, i.e., how to collaborate) and anti-patterns (what not do do) for industry-academia collaborations. Objective: To identify (a) the challenges to avoid risks to the collaboration by being aware of the challenges, (b) the best practices to provide an inventory of practices (patterns) allowing for an informed choice of practices to use when planning and conducting collaborative projects. Method: A systematic review has been conducted. Synthesis has been done using grounded-theory based coding procedures. Results: Through thematic analysis we identified 10 challenge themes and 17 best practice themes. A key outcome was the inventory of best practices, the most common ones recommended in different contexts were to hold regular workshops and seminars with industry, assure continuous learning from industry and academic sides, ensure management engagement, the need for a champion, basing research on real-world problems, showing explicit benefits to the industry partner, be agile during the collaboration, and the co-location of the researcher on the industry side. Conclusion: Given the importance of industry-academia collaboration to conduct research of high practical relevance we provide a synthesis of challenges and best practices, which can be used by researchers and practitioners to make informed decisions on how to structure their collaborations.

(Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; and
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Best practices, Challenges, Industry, Industry-academia collaborations, Software engineering, Success patterns, Systematic literature review, Universities
in
Information and Software Technology
volume
79
pages
22 pages
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • scopus:84980410074
ISSN
0950-5849
DOI
10.1016/j.infsof.2016.07.006
project
Embedded Applications Software Engineering
language
English
LU publication?
no
id
c7d6dfee-0d15-4faf-a75f-e2369be389ba
date added to LUP
2018-09-27 12:49:56
date last changed
2022-04-25 17:21:57
@article{c7d6dfee-0d15-4faf-a75f-e2369be389ba,
  abstract     = {{<p>Context: The global software industry and the software engineering (SE) academia are two large communities. However, unfortunately, the level of joint industry-academia collaborations in SE is still relatively very low, compared to the amount of activity in each of the two communities. It seems that the two ’camps’ show only limited interest/motivation to collaborate with one other. Many researchers and practitioners have written about the challenges, success patterns (what to do, i.e., how to collaborate) and anti-patterns (what not do do) for industry-academia collaborations. Objective: To identify (a) the challenges to avoid risks to the collaboration by being aware of the challenges, (b) the best practices to provide an inventory of practices (patterns) allowing for an informed choice of practices to use when planning and conducting collaborative projects. Method: A systematic review has been conducted. Synthesis has been done using grounded-theory based coding procedures. Results: Through thematic analysis we identified 10 challenge themes and 17 best practice themes. A key outcome was the inventory of best practices, the most common ones recommended in different contexts were to hold regular workshops and seminars with industry, assure continuous learning from industry and academic sides, ensure management engagement, the need for a champion, basing research on real-world problems, showing explicit benefits to the industry partner, be agile during the collaboration, and the co-location of the researcher on the industry side. Conclusion: Given the importance of industry-academia collaboration to conduct research of high practical relevance we provide a synthesis of challenges and best practices, which can be used by researchers and practitioners to make informed decisions on how to structure their collaborations.</p>}},
  author       = {{Garousi, Vahid and Petersen, Kai and Ozkan, Baris}},
  issn         = {{0950-5849}},
  keywords     = {{Best practices; Challenges; Industry; Industry-academia collaborations; Software engineering; Success patterns; Systematic literature review; Universities}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{11}},
  pages        = {{106--127}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Information and Software Technology}},
  title        = {{Challenges and best practices in industry-academia collaborations in software engineering : A systematic literature review}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.infsof.2016.07.006}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.infsof.2016.07.006}},
  volume       = {{79}},
  year         = {{2016}},
}