Section outline

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    Research Methods for IS and SE

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    This class provides an introduction to research methods. Upon completion of the module, the students will be able to answer the following questions:

    • What is research and what types of research exist?
    • Why research is important? 
    • What are the main phases of a research project?
    • How to choose a research topic/problem?
    • How to define a research question and how to check if it is a good one?
    • How to define an appropriate research methodology in order to answer this question?
    The following requirements have to be fulfilled in order to validate this module:

    1. Presence. (Non-justified absence for 2x half day invalidates the module!)
    2. Individual/Group Assignment: Presentation of a research methodology (see below)
    3. Tutoring session 1: presentation of a prospective research project in the class (see below)

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    1. Research and research project

    • Screenshot 2021-10-18 at 11.49.40.png

      RESEARCH PROJECT STEPS:
      1.Identification of a practical problem – Motivation; (optional)
      2.Identification of a research problem
      3.Literature review
      4.Determining specific research questions
      • Specification of a conceptual framework, (including a set of hypotheses)
      5. Choice of a research methodology
      • Data collection
      • Data verification
      • Analysing and interpreting the data
      ... repeat the step until the RQ is answered ...

      6. Reporting and evaluating research
      7. Communicating the research findings and, possibly, recommendations

    • 01 Vitali22 Caise File
      1.3 MB
    • 08 Aldea22 CAISE File
      1.3 MB
    • 02 Hossain18 ArXiv File
      3.1 MB
    • 07 Yang22 Caise File
      2.1 MB
    • 03 Pham20 MDPI File
      8.1 MB
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    2. Research Question and how to define it

    QUESTIONS OF THE CLASS:

    What types of RQ exist?

    What makes a good RQ?

    see also: 

    What are research hypothesis? Why do we need them?
    What  is Conceptual Framework? Why do we need it?

    CHECKLIST FOR YOUR RQ:

    • Focused
    • Researchable
    • Feasible
    • Specific
    • Complex
    • Relevant
    HOMEWORK:

    Work on your RQ in the shared Drive document

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    3. Choice of Methodology

    BIBLIOGRAPHY
    nMethodologyReferences
    1Controlled ExperimentBasili, V. R., Selby, R. W., & Hutchens, D. H. (1986). Experimentation in software engineering. IEEE Transactions on software engineering, (7), 733-743.
    Pfleeger, S.L. Experimental design and analysis in software engineering. Ann Software Eng 1, 219–253 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02249052
    2Proof of Concept (POC)Elliott, S. (2021). Proof of Concept Research. Philosophy of Science, 88(2), 258-280. doi:10.1086/711503.
    Kendig, C. E. (2016). What is Proof of Concept Research and how does it Generate Epistemic and Ethical Categories for Future Scientific Practice? Science and Engineering Ethics, 22(3), 735–753. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-015-9654-0
    Wieringa, R. (2014). Design Science Methodology for Information Systems and Software Engineering. Springer.
    3Case studyKitchenham, B., Pickard, L., & Pfleeger, S. L. (1995). Case Studies for Method and Tool Evaluation. IEEE Software, 12(4), 52–62. https://doi.org/10.1109/52.391832
    Runeson, Per, and Martin Höst. "Guidelines for conducting and reporting case study research in software engineering." Empirical software engineering 14 (2009): 131-164.
    4Action researchMackenzie, J., Tan, P-L., Hoverman, S., Baldwin, C., Article 2: The Value and Limitations
    of Participatory Action Research Methodology, Journal of Hydrology (2012)
    5Design Science ResearchHevner, Alan R., et al. "Design science in information systems research." MIS quarterly (2004): 75-105.
    Ken Peffers , Tuure Tuunanen , Marcus A. Rothenberger & Samir Chatterjee (2007) A Design Science Research Methodology for Information Systems Research, Journal of Management Information Systems, 24:3, 45-77
    Wieringa, R. (2014). Design Science Methodology for Information Systems and Software Engineering. Springer.
    6InterviewTurner III, Daniel W., and Nicole Hagstrom-Schmidt. "Qualitative interview design." Howdy or Hello? Technical and professional communication (2022).
    Adams, William C. "Conducting semi‐structured interviews." Handbook of practical program evaluation (2015): 492-505.
    Rubin, Herbert J., and I. S. Rubin. "Interviewing: The art of hearing data." Thousand Oaks, CA (2005).
    Qu, Sandy Q., and John Dumay. "The qualitative research interview." Qualitative research in accounting & management8, no. 3 (2011): 238-264.
    7SurveyLinåker, Johan; Sulaman, Sardar Muhammad; Maiani de Mello, Rafael; Höst, M. (2015). Guidelines for conducting surveys in software engineering v. 1.1. June, 0–63.
    Kitchenham, B. A., & Pfleeger, S. L. (2008). Kitchenham_and_Pfleeger_2008_Personal Opinion Surveys
    De Mello, R. M., & Travassos, G. H. (2016). Surveys in Software Engineering: Identifying Representative Samples. International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement, 08-09-September-2016(June 2021). https://doi.org/10.1145/2961111.2962632
    8Systematic literature review (SLR) Kitchenham, Barbara, and Stuart Charters. "Guidelines for performing systematic literature reviews in software engineering." (2007).
    Keele, Staffs. Guidelines for performing systematic literature reviews in software engineering. Vol. 5. Technical report, Ver. 2.3 EBSE Technical Report. EBSE, 2007.
    9Systematic mapping study (SMS)Petersen, K., Vakkalanka, S., & Kuzniarz, L. (2015). Guidelines for conducting systematic mapping studies in software engineering: An update. Information and Software Technology, 64, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infsof.2015.03.007
    Kai Petersen, Robert Feldt, Shahid Mujtaba, and Michael Mattsson.(2008). Systematic mapping studies in software engineering. In Proceedings of the 12th international conference on Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering (EASE'08). BCS Learning & Development Ltd., Swindon, GBR, 68–77.
    10Multivocal literature review (MLR)Garousi, Vahid, Michael Felderer, and Mika V. Mäntylä. "Guidelines for including grey literature and conducting multivocal literature reviews in software engineering." Information and software technology 106 (2019): 101-121.
    Lecture notes / Supporting materials:

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        Assignment: Presentation of a Research methodology

        Organisation: Team of 3, presentation 10-15 min
        To Do: 
        • Choose one of the research methodologies proposed
        • Download and read  the main references that describe this methodology
        • Search for your own sources to complement..
        • Present the methodology in class 
        In your presentation, cover the following: 
        • When this methodology should be applied? 
          • What kind of research problems/questions can be addressed by this methofology?
        • When this methodology should NOT be applied?
          • Feasibility constraints (e.g., sample size is too small)
        • What sort of data is used? (e.g., quanitative, quantitative, numerical, textual, etc..) How is it collected? How the data is analysed? What methods?
        • The research protocol (present the steps)
        • How the results are validated? What are the main threats to validity?
        Propose an illustrative example:
        • Use some research article that implements this methodology
          • What is the research question? 
          • What data was collected? How?
          • What analysis was made?
          • What are the results?
          • Are they validated?
        Summary:
        • What is good about this methodology? 
        • What are challenges that make the implementation fail?

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    4. Quality of Research and Scientific Writing

    Outline

    1. Scientific writing and plagiarism

    2. Validity of research 

    Indicative structure of a scientific report:

    See examples of SMS/SLR above for the structure and organisation. Do not hesitate to reproduce!
    Abstract
    1. Introduction 
    - motivation / problem setting
    - outline of your contribution
    - presentation of the remainder of the document
    2. Background / Related works
    - background: explains the main terms 
    - related works:  demonstrate the problem relevance and justify the need for new research
    - positioning: explains how your work is different from related works
    3. Research methodology  
    - presentation/justification of choice of methodology
    - definition of a research protocol
    - definition of RQ
    4. Solution/results/ analysis (following a protocol from 3.)
    - Data collection
    - Data analysis
    - Answering each RQ from 3
    5. Validation/discussion of results 
    - threats of validity / mitigation strategies
    ----- E.g.: applicability, generalisability, relevance, reproducibility etc.
    7. Conclusion/future work 
    - openings for the future research
    Bibliography
    Appendices
    Lecture notes/supporting materials
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    5. Presentation of Research Problem and Definition of Research Strategy: Tutoring Session 1 (ST1)

    The objective of this tutoring session is to validate your research problem and research strategy that you  will later implement following a corresponding research protocol. See the template below.

    Organisation of the session:

    5-7 min presentation of your research problem + 5 min question

    • ST1 - M2 templateV3 File PPTX
      904.1 KB 
    • For specific research protocols, please read the corresponding article(s) and check out the method presentations in the sections above
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