Qualitative methods in empirical studies of software engineering

TLDR

Empirical software engineering is maturing to include human aspects, adding complexity that other disciplines address with qualitative methods. The paper aims to present qualitative data collection and analysis methods that can be integrated into empirical software engineering studies, particularly in combination with quantitative approaches, to address emerging nontechnical research questions. The authors describe several qualitative data collection and analysis techniques and illustrate their application with examples from real software engineering studies, showing how they can be combined with quantitative methods.

Abstract

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.