CS 569 Spring 2008 (Tentative) Schedule

This schedule will grow and change throughout the course, so check back regularly, and be sure to hit REFRESH to make sure you have the most recent version.

We may have to be a little creative in scheduling classes, since I have two out-of-country conference trips this term. Thus, if we don't manage to fit everything in we need to, we'll schedule an extra hour or two here or there to make up for things. However, I think we can fit more into the regularly scheduled class times than usual, because the class size is nice and small this term. So, maybe we won't need extra hours after all.

• Week 1 (Apr 1/3): What are case studies, what are different kinds of empirical studies, how they work, what's achievable with each, when case studies are the right empirical strategy.
  • Read Yin ch. 1
  • (Optional): In case it's useful to you, here is the think-aloud study described in lecture.
  • HW #1: Ethics of working with human subjects (due Thursday 4/3 in class).


• Week 2 (Apr 8/10): No class, Dr. Burnett attending CHI. But, there is still some work to do:
  • Start reading Yin ch. 2, 3, and 4. Also read the Seaman/Basili ICSE'97 paper. Get started on HW #2 (see next week), so that you can ask questions in class next Tuesday if you need to.


• Week 3 (Apr 15/17): Designing and conducting case studies.
  • HW #2: Anatomy of a case study (due Thursday 4/17 in class).
  • Finish reading Yin ch. 2, 3, and 4.


• Week 4 (Apr 22/24): Designing/conducting (cont.)
  • HW #3: Case study design/observation (due Tuesday 4/29 in class). Grading criteria
  • Read what Preece et al. (2002 edition) have to say about interviewing. (Some of the lecture material on interviewing was drawn from here.)


• Week 5 (Apr 29/May 1): Qualitative analysis for case studies, coding.
  • HW #4: Case study design/theory (due Tuesday 5/6 in class).
  • Term project installment 1: Team members + term case study project title due via email to Dr. Burnett by Thursday 5/1 midnight.
  • Start reading Yin ch. 5.
  • (Optional): In case it's useful to you, here is Dittrich et al.'s nice summary of qualitative work in software engineering (which came from here), potentially useful as a source of theory ideas for HW #4 as well.


• Week 6 (May 6/8): Qualitative analysis: Codes, memos, theory.
  • Tuesday is Theory Day (team presentations of HW #4).
  • Thursday: Term project installment 2: Term case study project design is due by midnight. Installment #2 is the executive summary page, introduction, and design parts of the ultimate report. (Example: pp. 1-10 of Sample #2, which was worthy of an A, but needed to analyze fewer interviews to fit into the remaining weeks of the term.)
  • Read Preece (2007), sections 8.4 and 8.6.1.


• Week 7 (May 13/15): Dr. Burnett away at ICSE this week.
  • Midterm on Tuesday.
  • No class on Thursday. (Dr. Burnett away at ICSE conference.) Instead, get together with your team member(s) and get some more work done on your project.
  • Finish reading Yin ch. 5.
  • Read Preece (2007), sections 8.6.2-8.6.3.
  • Thursday: Term project installment 3: is due by midnight. Installment #3 is the completion of all the study instruments you intend to use. (Questionnaires, URLs of specific web sites you'll be monitoring, interview questions, etc.)


• Week 8 (May 20/22): Qualitative analysis: Problems, diagrams, integration.
  • Thursday: HW #5: Qualitative analysis due. We will discuss and critique these together in class. Grading criteria
  • Thursday is Analysis Day (team presentations of HW #5).


• Week 9 (May 26/28): Qualitative analysis (cont.)
  • Read the the AVI'06 qualitative study and the VL/HCC'07 qualitative study.


• Week 10 (June 3/5): Reporting case studies in research publications
  • Tuesday: Class discussion of how to write up case studies. In preparation, read Yin ch. 6. Reread the Seaman/Basili paper and BRING IT TO CLASS. We will discuss the Seaman/Basili paper in light of Yin's recommendations in ch. 6.
  • Thursday: "Studio session": Feedback on analysis done so far. Bring your analysis to class so that you can give feedback to each other. Can be informal, sketches and notes, etc.
  • (Optional): Read this paper, especially sections 4 and 5: Robinson, H., Segal, J. and Sharp, H. (2007) "Ethnographically-informed Empirical Studies of Software Practice", Information and Software Technology, 49 (2007) 540-551.


• Finals week (Th June 12, 2:00 pm): Final presentations of your term projects. Each should be 30 minutes + 10 for QA.