Case Study Topics for Leuven 2011

Purpose(s) of Case Studies

• (Forsys general) Produce decision support guidelines
• Specific purposes determined by each country (like country reports) or do we decide on a common set of goals?
• Possible audiences: academic, DSS developers, managers, funders
• How could we build on other Forsys work?
  • Country reports (continue to implement individual country purposes chosen)
  • Use some common methodological structures for comparability (like problem types)
• General types of case studies: exploratory, descriptive, explanatory

Methods - Theory development

• One or more existing theories vs. grounded theory
• If purposes are different, relevant theories will be too

Methods - Case definition options

• A particular DSS
• The application of a single DSS to a particular problem
• The application of DSS (possibly multiple) in a problem domain (eg fire)

Methods - Selecting studies

• How many are feasible?
• Replication strategy
  • same DSS & same context, same DSS & different contexts, different DSS & same context, etc

Methods – Data sources & collection methods

• Six general sources: documents, archival records, interviews, direct observation, participant observation, physical artifacts

Reporting results

• Format depends somewhat on target audiences: academic, DSS developers, managers, funders
• Formats: wiki, country reports/book, other?

Other issues

• Role of other WGs
• How to collaborate across countries during development