Qualitative research in software engineering

Abstract

Qualitative research methods were developed in the social sciences to enable researchers to study social and cultural phenomena and are designed to help researchers understand people and the social and cultural contexts within which they live (Denzin and Lincoln 2011). The goal of understanding a phenomenon from the point of view of the participants and its particular social and institutional context is largely lost when textual data are quantified. Taylor and Bogdan (1984) point out that qualitative research methods were designed mostly by educational researchers and other social scientists to study the complexities of human behavior (e.g., motivation, communication, difficulties in understanding). According to these authors, human behavior is clearly a phenomenon that, due to its complexity, requires qualitative methods to be fully understood, since much of human behavior cannot be adequately described and explained through statistics and other quantitative methods. Examples of qualitative methods are action research, case study research, ethnography, and grounded theory. Qualitative data sources include observation and participant observation (fieldwork), interviews and questionnaires, documents and texts, and the researcher's impressions and reactions.Many in the software industry recognize that software development also presents a number of unique management and organizational issues that need to be addressed and solved in order for the field to progress. And this situation has led to studies related not only Empir Software Eng (2011) 16:425-429

A practical guide to controlled experiments of software engineering tools with human participants

“…Case studies have little ability to isolate variables (the strength of controlled experiments), but because they are not controlled, they avoid the necessarily artificial and narrow view of the controlled experiment, which have been criticized for failing to integrate knowledge into more general and powerful explanations (Newell 1973), and even for inhibiting innovation (Olsen 2007, Greenburg andBuxton 2008). Readers are encouraged to consult the many high quality introductions to case studies and other methods (Runeson and Höst 2009;Dybå et al 2011;Dittrich 2007) and empirical software engineering more broadly (Wohlin et al 2000;Juristo and Moreno 2001;Shull et al 2006).…”

Grounded theory in software engineering research

“…In: "Dialogue: More on Muddling Methods" [57] There is growing awareness that Software Engineering (SE) research must consider social, cultural and human aspects of software construction [6,26,62]. Scholars have consequently adopted diverse research methods from the social sciences.…”

“…Scholars have consequently adopted diverse research methods from the social sciences. Qualitative research methods are increasingly employed in SE research as evidenced by journal special issues on their use in 2007 [23] and 2011 [26]. One method that is attracting particular attention is grounded theory (GT) [2,47].…”

Codesigning technology for a voluntary-sector organization

“…Depending on the discipline, context, or research or design stage-and numerous other factors-the codesign approach usually involves creative techniques such as interviewing and group discussions, brainstorming, storyboarding, affinity diagraming, mockups, role playing, and storytelling (Sanders, Brandt, & Binder, 2010;Steen, Manschot, & De Koning, 2011). Such activities generate information-rich qualitative data, which, until recently, were underutilized in the social and behavioral aspects of technology research, given the earlier focus on quantifying data in technical fields (Dybå, Prikladnicki, Rönkkö, Seaman, & Sillito, 2011).…”