DESMET: a methodology for evaluating software engineering methods and tools

DESMET was a DTI-backed project with the goal of developing and validating a methodology for evaluating software engineering methods and tools. The project identified nine methods of evaluation and a set of criteria to help evaluators select an appropriate method. Detailed guidelines were developed for three important evaluation methods: formal experiments, quantitative case studies and feature analysis evaluations. This article describes the way the DESMET project used the DESMET methodology both to evaluate the methodology itself and to provide direct assistance to the commercial organisations using it.