Application of Statistical Meta-Analysis to Software Engineering Metrics Data

§ Address for correspondence: Giancarlo Succi, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, The University of Alberta, 238 Civil / Electrical Building, Edmonton, AB, Canada, T6G 2G7, e-mail: [email protected], phone: (780) 492-7228; fax: (780) 492-1811. ABSTRACT This work reports on a study on the feasibility of applying "weighted estimator of a common correlation" technique to software measurement data. This technique is a metaanalytical approach to generalizing the knowledge from individual statistical studies. The technique is applied on a data set of 100 public domain Java projects to determine if it is possible to generalize project-specific significant correlations. The results of the experiment show that the technique avoids both type I and type II errors.