Another Systematic Review? A Critical Analysis of Systematic Literature Reviews on Agile Effort and Cost Estimation
Henry Edison, Nauman Ali

TL;DR
This paper critically analyzes how authors justify conducting additional systematic literature reviews (SLRs) in software engineering, highlighting common patterns and suggesting improvements to reduce duplication and enhance research efficiency.
Contribution
It identifies common justification patterns for new SLRs on a narrow topic and offers recommendations to improve research practices and reduce redundant efforts.
Findings
Authors cite gaps in coverage and methodological limitations.
Temporal obsolescence prompts new SLRs.
Technological advancements justify updated reviews.
Abstract
Background: Systematic literature reviews (SLRs) have become prevalent in software engineering research. Several researchers may conduct SLRs on similar topics without a prospective register for SLR protocols. However, even ignoring these unavoidable duplications of effort in the simultaneous conduct of SLRs, the proliferation of overlapping and often repetitive SLRs indicates that researchers are not extensively checking for existing SLRs on a topic. Given how effort-intensive it is to design, conduct, and report an SLR, the situation is less than ideal for software engineering research. Aim: To understand how authors justify additional SLRs on a topic. Method: To illustrate the issue and develop suggestions for improvement to address this issue, we have intentionally picked a sufficiently narrow but well-researched topic, i.e., effort estimation in Agile software development. We…
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Taxonomy
TopicsSoftware Engineering Techniques and Practices · Software Engineering Research · Scientific Computing and Data Management
