Ethnographic research in software engineering: a critical review and checklist

Abstract

Software Engineering (SE) community has recently been investing significant amount of effort in qualitative research to study the human and social aspects of SE processes, practices, and technologies. Ethnography is one of the major qualitative research methods, which is based on constructivist paradigm that is different from the hypothetic-deductive research model usually used in SE. Hence, the adoption of ethnographic research method in SE can present significant challenges in terms of sufficient understanding of the methodological requirements and the logistics of its applications. It is important to systematically identify and understand various aspects of adopting ethnography in SE and provide effective guidance. We carried out an empirical inquiry by integrating a systematic literature review and a confirmatory survey. By reviewing the ethnographic studies reported in 111 identified papers and 26 doctoral theses and analyzing the authors' responses of 29 of those papers, we revealed several unique insights. These identified insights were then transformed into a preliminary checklist that helps improve the state-of-the-practice of using ethnography in SE. This study also identifies the areas where methodological improvements of ethnography are needed in SE.