Theory Use In Software Engineering: A Systematic Mapping Study

<strong>Abstract </strong> <strong>Context:</strong> A theory is a well-substantiated explanation of an aspect of the natural world that can incorporate laws, hypotheses, and facts. Its thinking process is often associated with an observational study or research. However, in many disciplines, the nature, role, and even the necessity of theories remains controversial, particularly in young or practical disciplines such as software engineering (SE). <strong>Objective:</strong> This study aims to provide an overview of SE theoretical research with respect to the research efforts that have been put into theory use and theory building to date. <strong>Method:</strong> We conducted a systematic mapping study to classify evidence on theory definitions, studies’ quality, research topics, methods, types, theory types, theory roles and publication venues. <strong>Results:</strong> The mapping study includes 42 studies located from online database searches, forward and backward snowballing of references. Our results showed that the term “theory” varied among SE studies due to inconsistent terminology use, necessitating a comprehensive approach for accurate identification. Most studies showed good quality of rigor and relevance, and acceptable credibility; as for reporting, many studies were unsatisfactory. Most of the extracted theories fall within the Explanation and Prediction (42.9% of the studies) and Prediction (11.9% of the studies) categories, whereas Analysis (7.1% of the studies) was the least employed. <strong>Conclusion:</strong> We highlighted the research gaps and implications for research and practice to support theory use and theory building in SE.