book

Case Study Research in Software Engineering: Guidelines and Examples

by Per Runeson, Martin Höst, Austen Rainer, Björn Regnell

April 2012

Intermediate to advanced

256 pages

7h 27m

English

Wiley

Read now

Unlock full access

1.1 WHAT IS A CASE STUDY?1.2 A BRIEF HISTORY OF CASE STUDIES IN SOFTWARE ENGINEERING1.3 WHY A BOOK ON CASE STUDIES OF SOFTWARE ENGINEERING?1.4 CONCLUSION
2.1 INTRODUCTION2.2 RESEARCH STRATEGIES2.3 CHARACTERISTICS OF RESEARCH STRATEGIES2.4 WHAT MAKES A GOOD CASE STUDY?2.5 WHEN IS THE CASE STUDY STRATEGY FEASIBLE?2.6 CASE STUDY RESEARCH PROCESS2.7 CONCLUSION

3.1 INTRODUCTION3.2 ELEMENTS OF THE CASE STUDY DESIGN3.3 LEGAL, ETHICAL, AND PROFESSIONAL ISSUES3.4 CONCLUSION
4.1 INTRODUCTION4.2 DIFFERENT TYPES OF DATA SOURCE4.3 INTERVIEWS4.4 FOCUS GROUPS4.5 OBSERVATIONS4.6 ARCHIVAL DATA4.7 METRICS4.8 CONCLUSION
5.1 INTRODUCTION5.2 ANALYSIS OF DATA IN FLEXIBLE RESEARCH5.3 PROCESS FOR QUALITATIVE DATA ANALYSIS5.4 VALIDITY5.5 IMPROVING VALIDITY5.6 QUANTITATIVE DATA ANALYSIS5.7 CONCLUSION
6.1 INTRODUCTION6.2 WHY REPORT AND DISSEMINATE6.3 THE AUDIENCE FOR THE REPORT6.4 ASPECTS OF THE CASE STUDY TO REPORT AND DISSEMINATE6.5 WHEN TO REPORT AND DISSEMINATE6.6 GUIDELINES ON REPORTING6.7 FORMATS AND STRUCTURES FOR A REPORT6.8 WHERE TO REPORT6.9 ETHICS AND CONFIDENTIALITY6.10 CONCLUSION
7.1 INTRODUCTION7.2 THE AIMS OF SCALING UP CASE STUDIES7.3 DIMENSIONS OF SCALE7.4 LONGITUDINAL CASE STUDIES7.5 MULTIPLE CASE STUDIES7.6 MULTIRESEARCHER CASE STUDIES7.7 CONCLUSION
8.1 INTRODUCTION8.2 READING AND REVIEWING CASE STUDIES8.3 IDENTIFYING AND SYNTHESIZING USE CASE RESEARCH8.4 THE ECONOMICS OF CASE STUDY RESEARCH8.5 SPECIALIZING CASE STUDY RESEARCH FOR SOFTWARE ENGINEERING8.6 CASE STUDIES AND SOFTWARE PROCESS IMPROVEMENT8.7 CONCLUSION
9.1 INTRODUCTION
10.1 INTRODUCTION10.2 CASE STUDY DESIGN10.3 PLANNING10.4 DATA COLLECTION10.5 DATA ANALYSIS10.6 REPORTING10.7 LESSONS LEARNED
11.1 INTRODUCTION11.2 BACKGROUND TO THE RESEARCH PROJECT11.3 CASE STUDY DESIGN AND PLANNING11.4 DATA COLLECTION11.5 DATA ANALYSIS11.6 REPORTING11.7 LESSONS LEARNED
12.1 INTRODUCTION12.2 CASE STUDY DESIGN12.3 PLANNING12.4 DATA ANALYSIS12.5 REPORTING12.6 LESSONS LEARNED
13.1 INTRODUCTION13.2 DESIGN OF THE CASE STUDY13.3 DATA COLLECTION13.4 DATA ANALYSIS13.5 REPORTING AND DISSEMINATION13.6 LESSONS LEARNED
14.1 INTRODUCTION14.2 CASE STUDY DESIGN14.3 PLANNING14.4 DATA COLLECTION14.5 DATA ANALYSIS14.6 LESSONS LEARNED
A.1 DESIGN OF THE CASE STUDYA.2 DATA COLLECTIONA.3 DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATIONA.4 REPORTING AND DISSEMINATIONA.5 READER'S CHECKLIST
D.1 CODING INSTRUCTIONSD.2 CODES

Content preview from Case Study Research in Software Engineering: Guidelines and Examples

APPENDIX E

EXAMPLE OF A CONSENT INFORMATION LETTER

This appendix gives an example of a consent information letter that can be tailored to other case studies. A consent letter is handed out to interview subjects in a case study in order to make explicit and clear the ethical principles that is committed by the researchers. After handing over the signed letter, explicit consent is obtained from the interviewee. This enables researchers to use the data gathered in the interview in a responsible manner, for example, while protecting the anonymity of the interviewee, as stated in the consent letter. This consent letter was used in the REVV case study, which is described in Chapter 14.

Information to Interviewees

This interview is conducted within the EASE industrial excellence center. EASE is a consortium between Lund University, Blekinge Institute of Technology, and <List of industry partners>.

A contract is established that the Official Secrets Act under Swedish Law (1980:100) shall apply, meaning that information stated to be confidential is kept as such.

Prof. Per Runeson is the Director of the center and can be contacted at per.runeson@cs.lth.se; +46 46 222 93 25.

We would like to emphasize that

your participation is entirely voluntary;
you are free to refuse to answer any question;
you are free to withdraw at any time.

The interview will be kept strictly confidential and will be made available only to members of the research team of the study, or in case external quality assessment ...