Guidelines for conducting and reporting case study research in software engineering

Case study is a suitable research methodology for software engineering because it investigates contemporary phenomena in their natural context, but the paper notes that understanding of what constitutes a case study varies, which affects the quality of the studies produced. To address this, the authors provide an introduction to case study methodology and guidelines aimed at both researchers who conduct case studies and readers who interpret reports of them, based on their own experience conducting and reading such studies.

The terminology and guidelines are compiled from methodology handbooks in other research domains, particularly social science and information systems, and adapted to the specific needs of software engineering. The paper presents recommended practices for software engineering case studies together with empirically derived and evaluated checklists for researchers and readers, helping to raise and standardize the quality of case study research in the field.