Case Studies in Industry: What We Have Learnt

TL;DR

This paper discusses practical challenges faced in conducting industrial case studies in software engineering and shares lessons learned to assist inexperienced researchers in overcoming common obstacles.

Contribution

It provides insights into the practical difficulties of industrial case studies and offers guidance for researchers new to this methodology.

Findings

Identification of common obstacles in industrial case studies

Practical strategies for planning and conducting case studies

Lessons learned to improve research quality in industry settings

Abstract

Case study research has become an important research methodology for exploring phenomena in their natural contexts. Case studies have earned a distinct role in the empirical analysis of software engineering phenomena which are difficult to capture in isolation. Such phenomena often appear in the context of methods and development processes for which it is difficult to run large, controlled experiments as they usually have to reduce the scale in several respects and, hence, are detached from the reality of industrial software development. The other side of the medal is that the realistic socio-economic environments where we conduct case studies -- with real-life cases and realistic conditions -- also pose a plethora of practical challenges to planning and conducting case studies. In this experience report, we discuss such practical challenges and the lessons we learnt in conducting case studies in industry. Our goal is to help especially inexperienced researchers facing their first case studies in industry by increasing their awareness for typical obstacles they might face and practical ways to deal with those obstacles.