Like most things in software engineering, it's qualitative and empirical - but also has very strong potential to function as a supporting "first principles" theory for so many things.
I think this paper has a fantastic corollary in Peter Naur's "Programming as theory building" which triumphantly explores the implications of institutional knowledge in long term software maintenance.
https://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~remzi/Naur.pdf
Like most things in software engineering, it's qualitative and empirical - but also has very strong potential to function as a supporting "first principles" theory for so many things.
Conway - "How committees innovate"
http://www.melconway.com/Home/pdf/committees.pdf
I think this paper has a fantastic corollary in Peter Naur's "Programming as theory building" which triumphantly explores the implications of institutional knowledge in long term software maintenance. https://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~remzi/Naur.pdf