Abstract
Case studies are regularly published in the software engineering literature, and guidelines for conducting case studies are available. Based on a perception that the label “case study” is assigned to studies that are not case studies, an investigation has been conducted. The aim was to investigate whether or not the label “case study” is correctly used in software engineering research. To address the objective, 100 recent articles found through Scopus when searching for case studies in software engineering have been investigated and classified. Unfortunately, the perception of misuse of the label “case study” is correct. Close to 50% of the articles investigated were judged as not being case studies according to the definition of a case study. We either need to ensure correct use of the label “case study”, or we need another label for its definition. Given that “case study” is a well-established label, it is probably impossible to change the label. Thus, we introduce an alternative definition of case study emphasising its real-life context, and urge researchers to carefully follow the definition of different research methods when presenting their research.
Highlights
Case studies are common in software engineering, and guidelines have been provided, for example, by Runeson et al [1]
Runeson et al [1] define a case study as follows within software engineering – ‘‘Case study in software engineering is an empirical enquiry that draws on multiple sources of evidence to investigate one instance of a contemporary software engineering phenomenon within its real-life context, especially when the boundary between phenomenon and context cannot be clearly specified’’
Our study presented an analysis of a research article, and it does not meet the aspect of a contemporary phenomenon, since it is an analysis of a published article
Summary
Case studies are common in software engineering, and guidelines have been provided, for example, by Runeson et al [1]. They based their definition of case study on definitions from other areas including the definitions by Yin [2], Benbasat et al [3] and Robson [4]. The case study definition provided by Runeson et al includes five essential aspects, which are common to several other definitions:. Based on a perception that the label ‘‘case study’’ is assigned to studies that are not case studies, an investigation has been conducted. Objective: The aim was to investigate whether or not the label ‘‘case study’’ is correctly used in software engineering research. We introduce an alternative definition of case study emphasising its real-life context, and urge researchers to carefully follow the definition of different research methods when presenting their research
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