Qualitative methods in empirical studies of software engineering

• Published in: IEEE transactions on software engineering Vol. 25; no. 4; pp. 557 - 572
• Main Author: Seaman, C.B.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01.07.1999; IEEE Computer Society
• Subjects: Collection; Communication; Communities; Complexity; Computer industry; Data analysis; Data collection; Design; Design for experiments; Design methodology; Empirical analysis; Engineering research; Gain; Human behavior; Humans; Laboratories; Meetings; Programming; Qualitative research; Research methodology; Software development; Software development management; Software engineering; Software industry
• ISSN: 0098-5589; 1939-3520
• DOI: 10.1109/32.799955

While empirical studies in software engineering are beginning to gain recognition in the research community, this subarea is also entering a new level of maturity by beginning to address the human aspects of software development. This added focus has added a new layer of complexity to an already challenging area of research. Along with new research questions, new research methods are needed to study nontechnical aspects of software engineering. In many other disciplines, qualitative research methods have been developed and are commonly used to handle the complexity of issues involving human behaviour. The paper presents several qualitative methods for data collection and analysis and describes them in terms of how they might be incorporated into empirical studies of software engineering, in particular how they might be combined with quantitative methods. To illustrate this use of qualitative methods, examples from real software engineering studies are used throughout.