Contraindications, Precautions, Overdoses, and Adverse Reactions: What Software Engineering Can Learn from Pharmaceuticals

During the past 20 years, great methodological strides have been made by software engineering researchers. Prior to the 1980 \´s, most software engineering "research " was limited to "I invented something new, and I think others should use it." Now, more and more, researchers are actually collecting empirical results via quantitative and qualitative research, with some even using the scientific method with controlled experiments. However, software engineering research has a long way to go. Mostly, such research has resulted in indications of positive effects caused by new or existing tools, methods, techniques, languages, models, etc. But little or no such research reports on the contraindications, precautions, effects of overdose, or adverse reactions of tools, methods, techniques, languages, models, and so on. This paper describes why gathering such results are essential for any discipline that desires to push technology into practice.