1. Research Methods
Introduction Jarod Locke

2. Everyday research skills
What research activities do you/have you taken part in?
E.g. Making a shopping list
Critically read (or ignore!) literature on healthy eating; recipe books etc.
Investigate what is in the cupboard and fridge
Ask friends and family if they need anything
Plan for the week
Write an organised list
Uses the research skills of reading; observation; questioning; talking and listening to people; collecting, selecting, summarising and organising data; planning; writing and presenting

3. “Professional” research
Professionalises everyday research skills by …
Clearly stated aims related to existing knowledge and needs
Investigation through well-designed research programs, using appropriate methods
Collection of precise and valid data in a justifiable and ethical way
Producing findings from which generalisations can be made, or which contribute to a growing body of evidence
Open-minded and reflective practice
Recognising the rights of participants
Publishing claims to be reviewed by peers

4. Quality criteria in research
Purpose
Relevance
Originality
Accuracy
Accountability
Generalisations
Objectivity
Ethics
Proof
(See Denscombe, Ground Rules for Good Research)

5. Why study research methods?
To learn the transferable skills of –
Defining a question or problem
Designing and planning an empirical
investigation into an area of uncertainty
Analysing evidence and making valid conclusions
Presenting findings
Critically evaluating other peoples’ research

6. Why study research methods?
Skills can be applied in practical IT work e.g.
Requirements investigation and evaluation
Market research for new software products
Evaluating software before procurement
Measuring IT use in the workplace
Your individual project
Requires researching relevant literature
May require practical research techniques – interviews, questionnaires, running workshops or focus groups
Report writing, bibliographic referencing

7. A research process
N.b. Real world research is usually much messier than this – especially if it involves researching human subjects

8. Ways of doing research Quantitative or Qualitative?
Fieldwork or deskwork?
These are not exclusive – it’s possible to design a research project that combines approaches
Quantitative research = studies where data is analysed numerically
E.g. How many students drop out of University before they graduate?
Qualitative research = non-numeric data, interest is in how people behave, attitudes
E.g. Why do students drop out before they graduate?

9. Ways of doing research
Fieldwork = going out into “the field” to collect data
Requirements investigation activities in software design
Deskwork = research that can be carried out without leaving the desk or laboratory
E.g. Literature reviews
E.g. Carrying out controlled scientific experiments
All research will involve some deskwork – literature review and writing up results

10. Approaches to research
Approaches = different ways of designing research programs
Action research
Case studies
Experiments
Surveys
Internet research
Action research – researcher works with participants to intervene in a situation, change it in some way and reflect on the results. Objective is to improve the situation. Many systems development projects are action research.

11. Approaches to research
Case studies – focuses on one (or two or three) examples. E.g. a single organisation, workplace, fans of a football team, cohort of students etc. Can be comparative.
Experiments – main approach to scientific research – carrying out repeatable experiments to prove or disprove a hypothesis
Done in a controlled setting to reduce complexity – by cutting down on the number of variables
Also used in computing – e.g. usability testing

12. Example of a scientific experiment
Hypothesis – gas is compressible. Therefore, under increased pressure, if the temperature remains constant, the volume of the gas will decrease.
Experiment - fill a balloon with air and take it down the deep end of the swimming pool! Repeat this several times.
Result – hypothesis is proved: the volume of the gas varies inversely in proportion to pressure
This can be expressed as p * V = constant (Boyles Law)
Applied as the science behind SCUBA diving

13. Approaches to research
Surveys – involve collecting data from a representative sample of a target population in order to produce results that can be extrapolated to the population as a whole.
Internet research – a more recent approach to research. Offers a huge volume of ready-made data for study. Can use the internet as a tool for carrying out research – internet survey or discussion; or as a subject of study; or as a source of large datasets
E.g. how programmers share code through internet chat rooms.
E.g. genealogy websites and databases

14. Research methods Also called techniques, tools or instruments
“Horses for courses” – the research method has to suit the problem and the constraints of the research context
Interviews
Workshops
Observation
Questionnaires
Analysing documents
Will be covering research methods in depth in lectures/tutorials

15. Selection of research methods
Has to suit the subject of the study…
Can the data be quantified?
Can I get access to site +/ informants?
What resources are available – TIME, money, people?
Also has to suit the researcher …
Do I like talking to people?
Do I prefer working with very “hard” data or fuzzy information?
Do I like reading? Or being out and about?

16. Reading and tutorial Blaxter et al, Chapters 1 and 3.
Look at the research web pages of a large software organisation (e.g. Microsoft, Hewlett Packard Labs, Xerox, IBM) and find out about leading edge computing research projects
Next week’s lecture – Designing a Research Project. Blaxter et al, Chapter 2 if you want to prepare by reading.