We did not begin our research with any preconceived ideas. We were interested in what was happening in industry, so we chose to follow the grounded theory scientific approach in order to allow pertinent theories to emerge from the data itself. Theory derived from data is more likely to resemble reality, since it is based on real-world exploration and observation. Because a grounded theory is derived from data, it is likely to enhance our understanding, and offer insight, about a particular phenomenon; as well as imply possible guidelines and methodologies.
Dagenais, et al, describe grounded theory as a qualitative research approach that entails creating a theory in the context of a process that is grounded in the empirical data [70]. Easterbrook, et al note that grounded theory is a “technique for developing theory iteratively from qualitative data.” They continue, “In grounded theory, initial analysis of the data begins without any preconceived categories. As
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interesting patterns emerge, the researcher repeatedly compares these with existing data, and collects more data to support or refute the emerging theory” [5].
In comparison to a quantitative approach, grounded theory is qualitative - it is more descriptive; which means that researchers collect information on the meaning that respondents attach to their experiences and opinions. As detailed later in this chapter, we incorporated open-ended questions in our surveys and questionnaires; a technique that allows us to collect details in the users’ own words; in order “to learn about people in their natural environment in order to identify” [71] how they accomplish certain requirement engineering tasks. The purpose of using qualitative surveys is to provide depth and individual meaning to the questions of interest. Our focus was the depth and uniqueness of each response.
The three major components of the qualitative research approach [72] are (1) data from a variety of sources such as interviews, documents, observations, etc; (2) procedures for interpreting and organizing the collected data, which for our research was our RGCNs and patterns; and (3) oral and written reports, i.e. conference and journal papers, and theses.
Grounded theory includes a series of steps to ensure that the study results are unprejudiced and repeatable. The steps include (i) identifying a problem through observation (ii) formulating a hypothesis and (iii) testing the hypothesis through data collection and analysis.
We started with preliminary investigation, observations and results of prior research; and refined our data collection methods as we focused in on one aspect of global software development. This research dealt with a particular practice. Specifically, we wanted to answer the following distributed requirements engineering question - How are requirements elicited, gathered, documented and managed when the
person responsible for gathering the requirements, the RA, is not co-located with the people who are the source of the requirements, the stakeholders? By “how”, we mean, what processes, tools and techniques
does the RA utilize to accomplish the aforementioned requirements development activities. Our intent was to identify the common practices that worked well and the common challenges that practitioners encountered.
Originally the questionnaire for our second study contained over 21 questions, based on the researchers’ experiences in industry and feedback from practitioners’ reviews. Five requirements-gathering collaborative network (RGCN) base models were also included to help elicit additional feedback from participants. Conforming to the grounded theory approach, our questionnaire evolved as the research
progressed. As we learned more about the general processes the RAs employed and the pitfalls they encountered, we enhanced the list of interview question with additional specific questions. To help ensure the quality of our data, transcripts of previously completed interviews included the new questions as follow-up questions for the study participants to answer.
The first ten interviews conducted helped to flush out the meta-model and concepts. For example the definition of the site component was update from physical locale to a more high level description -- a
place at which one or more project stakeholders are situated. A site could refer to a single building or a group of buildings in close proximity to one another [24]. Also, during succeeding rounds of interviews,
more why, when and what questions, have been discussed i.e. when have you found technology most
useful. Refer to Chapter 5 of this thesis for a discussion of the meta-model and its components; and
Appendix A for the complete list of interview questions.
The questionnaire developed for our final study, where we engaged industry professionals to evaluate the usefulness of our proposed modeling technique; was also refined after a practice session. Refer to Appendix A for the complete list of discussion and de-briefing questions.
The qualitative research approach is applicable to these research projects since we were trying to understand the meaning of RA experiences as they performed a specific set of tasks. To this end we reached out to industry professionals to find out what they were doing and thinking. We used qualitative methods to investigate a significant component of the global software development process about which little is known. The results of the data analysis and interpretation, these theories, are presented as descriptive models that can be used to explain and predict [72] a variety of requirements engineering activities; and applicable organization and activity patterns.
For our research quantitative data was also collected, such as the number of sites and stakeholders, along with the number of them performing certain activities, using particular tools and/or processes. Research participants were also asked questions about how long they had been in the SE profession and the number of years of experience they had with RE-related responsibilities. We also gathered counts of requirements generated for projects; and project size in terms of dollars and man-hours.
Two operations necessary for developing theory are asking questions and making comparisons, that is discovering what is same and what is different. In the next section we describe our survey instruments and beginning in Chapter 4 we discuss our data analysis.
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