Grounded Theory, while becoming increasingly popular in software engineering, is also one of the most misunderstood, misused, poorly presented and evaluated methods in software engineering. When applied well, GT results in dense and valuable explanations of how and why phenomena occur in practice. GT can be applied as a full research method leading to mature theories and also in limited capacity for data analysis within other methods, using its robust open coding and constant comparison procedures.

While it is difficult to provide a complete overview of GT with all its techniques and procedures in just over an hour, this technical briefing will aim to cover the following key areas:

• Origin of GT
• A brief summary of GT in software engineering – general state of practice and key challenges
• Examples of theories resulting from GT studies in SE research
• A gentle introduction to Socio-Technical Grounded Theory (STGT), a variant of GT for software engineering research

Associate Professor, Faculty of Information Technology, Monash University, Australia. www.rashina.com