Research Methods and Technical Writing Course Syllabus Spring 2010 William E.

Sullivan IT University of Gothenburg This is an important course for those of you considering graduate level work. Research forms the backbone of most graduate level courses in many disciplines. Conducting research helps to develop and hone your ability to read, analyze, and think critically. Finally, if you pursue a technical career, you will have to read, evaluate, and rely upon the research of others. There is no better way to learn to evaluate the research of others than to conduct research of your own. Once you have collected and analyzed your data, you will be expected to communicate the results of your research in clear, concise prose. Writing is an integral element of your education and intellectual development. Therefore, we will devote a significant portion of the class to topics related to English grammar and composition. Your command of the English language should improve significantly as we move through the course. This will strengthen your ability to get published and we have several outlets that are interested in publishing your work if it is of sufficient quality. Since most of you will be conducting case studies and other interpretive types of projects for your bachelor theses, we will focus slightly more on qualitative rather than quantitative research methods. You will work in small groups to investigate, analyze, and present various research methods to the class. This will help you to develop the skills to explore other research methods as necessary after you graduate. Required Reading for the Course: There will be two sources for the Research Methods Elements of the course: 1) Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches (2nd Edition) by John W. Creswell, Sage Publications, Inc; Second Edition edition (July 15, 2002) ISBN-10: 0761924426 ISBN-13: 978-0761924425 2) The Research Methods Knowledge Base by William Trochim, Cornell University http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/ This Web site is free and provides an excellent overview of research methods and how they relate to each other. The Required Text for the Technical Writing Portion of the Course is: The Craft of Research, 2nd Edition by Wayne C. Booth, Joseph M. Williams, Gregory G. Colomb, University of Chicago Press (15 April 2003) ISBN-10: 0226065685 ISBN-13: 978-0226065687 Please note that the third edition of this book is now available. While the course syllabus is still based upon the second edition, you should be able to use either edition of the book. Other writing resources will be suggested throughout the course to enable you to continue to improve as you move through your career.

Paper Deconstruction: This is a relatively new innovation in the course that allows us to focus on technical writing and the craft of developing well-organized and clear expository prose. This is a critical element both of your education and your career. I will present the first paper in the series and show you how to deconstruct a paper and students will present the remaining papers in class. Everyone will be expected to read and prepare the papers on their own for discussion in class. 1. Competing Values in Software Process Improvement: An Assumption Analysis of CMM from an Organizational Culture Perspective by Ojelanki Ngwenyama and Peter Axel Nielsen 2. No Silver Bullet: Essence and Accidents of Software Engineering by Fredrick P. Brooks 3. Power, Politics and MIS Implementation by M. Lynn Markus 4. From the Social to the Systematic: Mechanisms Supporting Coordination in Design by Peter H. Carstensen and Carsten Sorensen 5. On Agent-Based Software Engineering by Nicholas R. Jennings 6. A Framework for Information Systems Architecture by J.A. Zachman 7. Anticipating Internet Diffusion by Amitava Dutta and Rahul Roy 8. Cleanroom Software Engineering by Harlan D. Mills, Michael Dyer and Richard C. Linger 9. Prospects for an Engineering Discipline of Software by Mary Shaw 10. Knowledge Management in Software Engineering by Ioana Rus and Mikael Lindvall 11. Qualitative Methods in Empirical Studies of Software Engineering By Carolyn B. Seaman 12. The Principle of Limited Reduction in Software Design. L. Mathiassen & J. Stage. In: Information, Technology and People, Vol. 6, No. 2, 1992.

Research Methods for Student Presentations: Student Research Method Presentations Case Studies - Ethnography - Critical research Field Experiment - Action Research Grounded Theory

Course Schedule:
We will start the Sixth Term officially on Tuesday, January 19, 2010. However, the first class in this course will not be held until Thursday, January 21, 2010. I suggest that you use this week to investigate potential Bachelor Thesis topics and research methods and also to read the course literature in preparation for the first class meeting. Class will be held in the third-year square unless otherwise noted below. Class 1 Thursday, January 21, 2010: 9:0012:00 What is research? Why is research and writing important? Why should you care? Research Design Creswell Chapters 1 and 3. Social Research Knowledge Base Read the section titled Foundations http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/intres.php Class 2 - Monday, February 1, 2010: 9:00 12:00 Literature Review - Creswell Chapter 2 Writing and how it relates to research The Craft of Research - Chapters 1 and 2 Class 3 - Monday, February 8, 2010: 9:00 12:00 Research Design - Creswell Chapters 4 and 5 The Craft of Research Chapters 3 and 4 Paper Deconstruction: Competing Values in Software Process Improvement: An Assumption Analysis of the CMM By Ojelanki K. Ngwenyama and Peter Axel Nielsen

Class 4 - Monday, February 15, 2010: 9:00-12:00 Research Design Creswell Chapters 6 and 7 The Craft of Research Chapters 5 and 6 Student Research Method Presentation: Qualitative Research Paper Deconstruction: Qualitative Methods in Empirical Studies of Software Engineering by Carolyn Seaman Student Group: Ludwig Wschke, Gustav Berman, and Zana Leric, Magnus Sodergren Student Research Method Presentation: Content Analysis Paper Deconstruction: Cleanroom Software Engineering Student Group: Kim Isaksson, Emilie Tyvik

Class 5 - Monday, February 22, 2010: 9:00-12:00 Meeting Room: Von Neuman Research Design Creswell Chapter 8 and 9 The Craft of Research Chapters 7 and 8 Student Research Method Presentation: Grounded Theory Research Method Paper Deconstruction: No Silver Bullet by Fredrik Brooks Student Group: Jonathan Granqvist, Emil Janitzek, Marcus Ljungblad Class 6 Monday, March 1, 2010: 9:00-12:00 Meeting Room: Grace Hopper Research Design Creswell Chapters 10 and 11 The Craft of Research Chapters 9 and 10 Student Research Method Presentation: Case Method Paper Deconstruction: Anticipating Internet Diffusion by Amital Dutta and Rahulk Roy Student Group: Brian Katumba, Mahesh Aghara, Andrey Antoniovich, Uguudei Sukhbaatar, Anastasia Sheyko Class 7 Monday, March 8, 2010: 9:00-12:00 Research Design Creswell Chapters 12 and 13 The Craft of Research Chapter 11 Student Research Method Presentation: Action Research Paper Deconstruction: A Framework for Information Systems Architecture by Zachman Student Group: Peiyao Zhang, Karl Annerhult, Wang Zhe Student Research Method Presentation: Ethnography Paper Deconstruction: Prospects for an Engineering Discipline of Software Student Group: Elia Pavlov, Manuel Nagel

Student Research Method Presentation: Interview Methods Paper Deconstruction: Principle of Limited Reduction Student Group: Thomas Lf, Shayan, Ali Student Research Method Presentation: Narrative Research Paper Deconstruction: On Agent-Based Software Engineering by Jennings Student Group: Daniel Nilsson, Jesper Lindberg, Joacim Alvergren

Class 8 Monday, March 15, 2010: 9:00-12:00 Revision Techniques How to revise your work efficiently and effectively. Craft of Research Chapters 13, 14, and 16. Concluding Comments Student Research Method Presentation: Data Mining Paper Deconstruction: From the Social to the Systematic: Mechanisms Supporting Coordination in Design By Peter H. Carstensen and Carsten Sorensen. Student Group: Jiajun Qiu, Nivir Roy Student Research Method Presentation: Field Study Paper Deconstruction: Power, Politics, and MIS Implementation by M. Lynne Markus Student Group: Zhou Hui, Marcus Sjlin, Andrea Bernerus, Fredrik Olafsson Student Research Method Presentation: Statistical Analysis Paper Deconstruction: Knowledge Management in Software Engineering Student Group: Zlati Yordanov, Meng Sun, Zhou Cong, Sarantsetseg Chinbat Final Exam is due Monday, March 22, 2010. The idea is to get this done before you start the formal thesis course.

Research Methods and Technical Writing

Final Exam Assignment

Bill Sullivan Spring 2010

Executive Summary Research is one of the most complex and challenging intellectual tasks that humans perform. Scholarly research is an intellectual exercise that frustrates and confounds some of the greatest minds on the planet. This course is intended to both introduce and clarify the basic elements of the research methods that form the foundation of the process. This document lays out the requirements for the final project in this course and clarifies its learning objectives. Research Overview There are three basic elements of all research approaches: 1) the research school or philosophy that guides the research; 2) the specific research method that is used to collect the data; 3) the data analysis method that draws viable conclusions from the data collected. It is important for you to understand each of these three areas before you attempt to carry out meaningful research on your own. All research methods derive from specific research schools or philosophies. These philosophies embody coherent ways of looking at the world. The reason these philosophies were developed was to make our underlying assumptions about the world explicit and visible to all who are reviewing, evaluating, and most important, using our research. These philosophies include positivism, post-positivism, interpretivism, critical research, constructivism, and pragmatism. There are many more and you should take some time to explore them. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positivism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-positivism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interpretivism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_theory http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructivist_epistemology http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pragmatism

It is well-worth your time. While each research method comes from a research philosophy, it is primarily concerned with data collection. Each research method assumes that there is one most appropriate way to view the world and to interact with the objects and people in that world. Therefore, there is one best way to collect data to answer questions about that world. It is important to

understand that the ways in which we gather data and the data that we collect will have a profound impact upon both the research that we conduct as well as the results of the research. Once we have collected the data, it must be analyzed to ensure that our findings are accurate and complete. This applies to both the quantitative analysis of numerical data and qualitative analysis of text or speech. Some rigorously mathematical analytical methods such as those used in computer science, do not require a philosophical or theoretical framework for context. They simply focus on the numerical data that has been collected. For this reason, many researchers in the quantitative tradition do not subscribe to the theoretical approaches that we spend so much time on in the social sciences.

Your Assignment
Your assignment for this course is to write the research method chapter of your thesis. This includes the following: Introduce your research question for your bachelor thesis Select a research method that you find useful for answering this question Argue for why your chosen method suits your thesis project, i.e. trace the selected method from its research school or philosophy in order to show what particular characteristics it has and how these characteristics map with your research question/questions Describe what kind of data that you plan to collect in your thesis project, i.e. notes taken from observations, interview material, different kinds of documentation, system specifications, software code etc. In this, you will have to explain the type of data collected by this method, how the data is collected and the different forms that it can take Show how your chosen method will help you in analyzing this data, i.e. what data analysis procedures that will be taken. In doing this you will have to show how the data collected by this research method is best analyzed and what research questions you can answer with the data collected. The data collected will have to be in a format that can be analyzed either manually or using some type of automated tool. What is most important here is that you be able to relate the data collected and the findings back to your research question and explain the kinds of research questions that can be addressed using this research method Finally, relate the ways in which the data collected relates back to the philosophy of the research methods and the findings support a relevant answer to the research question. You should work together in your thesis groups on this assignment. Obviously, it will be much easier for you to complete this assignment successfully and will take much less time if you already know what your research project is, what your research question is and how you plan to approach this research project. However, even if you do not have a thesis project formalized yet, you should still be able to complete the assignment successfully by using a fictive scenario, i.e. by describing a research project/research question that you find interesting but not necessarily what you will do in your thesis project. The focus of this assignment is the research methods section of your thesis. I suggest that you look at the research methods section of the paper by Ngwenyama and Nielsen as well as those bachelor theses that Helena shared with you at the beginning of the semester.