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Qualitative Research Process

ENGN2226 Systems Engineering Analysis

Qualitative Research Process

2/ choose
1/ state research 3/ select
4/ collect
research and data sampling
data (R02,
question collection strategy
R05, T13)
(R01) method(s) (R07)
(R03)

7/ 5/ manage
determine 6/ validation and analyse
findings and (R07) data (R04
implications and R06)

based on Zhou (2012)

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1/ Research Question
Question

Focus

Topic

Theme

1/ Research Question
• Research starts by posing a research task, or research
question
• As for problem definition your research question should
be specific but not prescriptive
• Your question needs to be appropriate for the scale and
scope of your research and resources available
• Best to start with a specific scope and then potentially
expand later, it is more difficult to reduce the scope at a
later stage

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2/ Data Collection Methods

• Qualitative data collection methods include:
– participant observations
– focus groups
– individual interviews
• unstructured, semi-structured, structured
– surveys
– case studies
– “documents” (or artefacts)
• written, visual, recordings, …
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3/ Sampling Methods
• can never capture an entire population
• hence use a “sampling method” to identify data sources
and potential participants
• common sampling methods include:
– convenience, based on time, effort, resources
– snowball, from participant introductions
– extreme-case, the most different data sources
– wide, greatest variation possible
– targeted, meeting specific criteria
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4/ Data Collection
• can use numerous data collection tools

• individual interviews and focus groups are most common

• can also use:

– written articles (blogs, papers, …)

– A/V (film, video, sound recordings, …)

– images (photos, pictures, …)

– social media (Facebook, twitter, …)

4/ Data Collection
• research must always be undertaken ethically (see R05:
Research Ethics)
• for research involving humans, need to identify and evaluate
ethical considerations including:
– have the risks to participants been identified
– has the safety (physical and mental) been considered
– have participants provided informed consent
– what will happen with any data provided
• governed by the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in
Human Research (2007) - Updated 2018
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R02: (Surveys and) Interviews

• talking with one participant (interview) or more

(focus group) at a time (interview)

• ideally have one interviewer and potentially one

note taker

• can, with the participants permission (thinking

about ethical considerations), record interviews
for later analysis
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Questions
• avoid leading or loaded questions:

– a leading question is “do you think this course is bad?”

– a neutral question is “what are your views of this

course?”

• keep questions specific and as short as possible

• avoid acronyms and jargon

• can always ask “why”

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Focus Groups
• interviewing two or more participants at the same
time

• the more participants, the more challenging

• allows more points of view to be expressed (and

hence data collected) at once

• can sometimes be dominated by one or two

individuals so need to ensure everyone has a say
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Interviews and Focus Groups

• can be:
– structured, a specific script (set of questions) that is
always followed
– semi-structured, have a set of questions, but able to
deviate depending on how it goes
– un-structured, no questions, just go with the flow
• can use artefacts such as getting participants to draw
something or look at something. This this case can be
combined with journey mapping to develop an artefact
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5/ Data Analysis

• a simple process for data analysis is:

1. code the data

2. reduce data and group into categories, and

potentially themes

3. display or visualise the data

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Coding

code 1 code 2 code 3 code 4 code 5 code 6 code 7

category 1 category 2 category 3

theme 1 theme 2

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R06: Coding Research Data

• can code data in a number of ways, most commonly:
1. open coding: codes are developed from the data
collected
2. pre-defined codes: existing or known codes are
used
• code line by line
• code individual words or short phrases
• provide example quotes for codes to explain or justify
them
• do not have to code everything, only what relates to
your focus or question
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R04: Data Organisation

• a spreadsheet package will be appropriate for this
course
• use one row for each observation
• use columns for characteristic / variable
• use meaningful variable names
• can then start to code from data
• look to streamline data collection and organisation
• packages such as NVivo and RStudio are more
advanced dedicated packages
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6/ Validity - Triangulation
• aim to validate data through the data sources and
approaches used

• triangulation uses multiple sources

• triangulation methods can include:

1. data, uses a variety of data sources

2. method, uses a variety of methods and tools

3. investigator, uses different researchers

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6/ Validity - Process
• provide specific details on the process used

• detail the context (location, time, structure, …) where

data was collected and analysed

• include codes, quotes, examples, codebook, …

• have more than one person code part or all of the data
and then compare results

• have a peer review of the analysis done

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R07: Error Types

• potential errors to consider, minimise or manage are:
– sampling error, related to sampling approach
– interviewer error, in setting questions, or capturing
notes, records or observations
– processing error, incorrectly inputting or coding data
– bias error, a potential bias from the data source
• consider the design of data collection and sampling
methods
• detail process used and look for multiple data sources
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7/ Findings and Implications

• once data analysed, need to consider the implications of
any findings
– what could this mean for the area of the study
• can compare to other studies
– are findings similar, if not, why not
• does practice need to be changed, and if so how
• what are implications for decision making and design
• “why” are findings like they are, what theories could be
relevant
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