Software Engineering Grounded Theory Research
If you are using Grounded Theory to conduct research in software engineering, I would love to hear from you. Please contact me at [professor at gmail.com]
If you are starting out on grounded theory research, I would suggest this plan of action:
- Determine with variant of Grounded Theory that you want to use. Options include:
- Classic / Glasserian grounded theory
- Straussian grounded theory
- Constuctivist grounded theory
- Read Stol’s comparison of the three major variants and recommendations on how to write grounded theory research.
- Read my lessons learned paper
- Read a few exemplars (e.g. Software Development Waste, Becoming Agile)
- If you select Constructivist grounded theory, then read Charmaz’s Constructing Grounded Theory
- If you select Glasserian grounded theory, then read Hoda’s Grounded Theory for Geeks and read Glaser’s books in order.
This month I finished my Ph.D. I have used grounded theory for the last three years. I have found the method extremely rewarding. I loved interviewing, participant observation, and analyzing the data. There will be moments of confusion with the data. Embrace the confusion, on the other side tends to rewarding research results.
