Thesis chapter 3.2: Qualitative research

Most of the reasoning and analysis in this project is qualitative, based on industrial observations and experiences rather than elaborate theories. During the course of the project I, together with colleagues, studied 8 cases* of industrial software and architecture development, seen in the table below. The data gathered in these case studies are almost exclusively qualitative empirical data from industry and thus my scientific conclusions are also of a qualitative nature.

Qualitative research can be performed in many traditions, Walsham mentions three types of epistomologies: Positivism, Interpretative (or Non-positivism) and Normativism. This thesis uses the interpretative approach when collecting and analysing data for three reasons: First, I prioritised insight into the cases over reliability for other researchers to reproduce the studies. Second, I judged it impossible to disregard any pre-conceptions I had based on more than ten years of of professional experience of designing and developing software-intensive embedded systems. Third, most of the descriptions of the case studies are based on interview data which already are the interviewees' interpretation of the actual events/facts/situations/...

Case	Company	Description	Data sources	Author role	Chapter(s)
I	VCC	Forces shaping the distributed in-vehicle EE architecture in P2 platform	Interviews with 20 developers + design documents	Insider observer	5, 7, 10
II	VCC	Comparative case study on architecting process on existing platforms	Interviews with 6 architects + design documents + personal notes	Insider observer	6, 7, 10
III	Scania	Comparative case study on architecting process on existing platforms	Interviews with 5 architects + design documents + personal notes	Observer	6
IV	VCC	Case study on architecture decisions for new platform	Observed decisions during 3 months	Participant / insider observer
V	VCC	Post mortem analysis of Sensus infotainment development	Interviews with 6 key developers + design documents	Insider observer	7, 10
VI	VCC	Proof-of-concept development of android-based infotainment system	All project & design documents of both product owner and Scrum team + personal notes	Participant / insider observer	9, 10, 11
VII	VCC	Agile development of climate control software	Official meeting notes and presentations + personal notes	Insider observer	7, 10
VIII	VCC	Agile development of next generation infotainment system	Official meeting notes and presentations + personal notes	Insider observer	10

The selection of interviewees were in cases I, II, III and V done as purposive samples in order to cover a comprehensive variety of roles and teams at the studied organisations.

* A case study being ``an empirical study that investigates a contemporary phenomena in depth and within its real-life context, especially when the boundaries between the phenomenon and the context are not clearly evident''