CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

INTRODUCTION

The current chapter will give the knowledge about the research methodology used by the researcher to collect the information. The study is about to identify the practical challenges of using scrum faced by small scale IT companies. To collect the specific information about the topic the researcher has conducted the study to know the practical challenges in using scrum in small scale IT companies. The research will help the researcher to identify the certain level of facts and figures based on the topic to create an effective set of information (Munthe et al., 2019). The researcher has used a practical approach in which an appropriate set of information has been collected to create desired outcomes. The data that will be collected in the form of information will be helpful in the creativity of designing conclusion for the study (Munthe et al., 2019). It is important to develop an effective research methodology that can be used to collect the information to conduct the study in an ethical manner to conduct the research efficiently. This would be helpful for the researcher to cover all the required aspects. To perform the research in an operational environment, it is important for the researcher to determine all the factors which are required in the research process. This will improve the efficiency and productivity of research and data collection. Thus, the current chapter will provide the full detailed information on the research methodology and research process used by the researcher to conduct the research in an appropriate way.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

To choose effective and efficient research methodology to conduct the research, the research onion framework is an effective concept. The structure of the research onion provides an appropriate knowledge about the adoption of particular research steps and processes. Every layer of the research onion helps to conduct the research in a productive way (Saunders et al., 2019). The further part of the research will explain every layer of onion and elaborate it to gain effective knowledge about the framework. The elaboration of each layer will give an effective knowledge to the research to choose the right research strategy and approach to meet the desired results. This will keep the inclusion of all the aspects of the research which can be used for the effective data conversion to increase the credibility of the research (Saunders et al., 2019).

Figure- research onion

Source- (Saunders et al., 2019)

The above figure is the framework of the research onion which is introduced by Saunders. This provides the inclusion of different practices which are the part of a research and allows passing the research from different stages. The research onion is very effective if a researcher wanted to conduct the research in an operational environment (Saunders et al., 2019). The effective structure of the research is very efficient to generate efficient data and increase its credibility. All the layers are very productive to adopt the method and take the research in an appropriate direction. There are various layers in the research onion such as research philosophy, research approach, research strategy, and research choice and research time horizon. All these stages allow a researcher to conduct the research with the potential to increase the understanding of the topic. In the research onion, Saunders has explained all the layers from outer to inner direction in chronological order (Saunders et al., 2019).

RESEARCH PHILOSOPHY

Research philosophy is the outer layer of the research onion which helps to determine the nature of the research and investigate the appropriate method to conduct the research. The research philosophies are decided on the basis of nature of the research and can be used to develop the appropriate understanding about the research goal and objectives. The research philosophy is divided in to two parts such as epistemology and ontology (Saunders et al., 2019).

Epistemology is the branch which is concerned with the questions that allow researcher to gain effective knowledge to meet the questions. It also provides a direction to obtain the answers. With the help of epistemology, research can carry the research to find out perception, sensation, intuition, reason, and faith which provides further knowledge to the researcher. Epistemology is divided into three parts such as positivism; realism and Interpretivism which would be discussed further in elaborately form.

Positivism- positivism is based on the idea of scientific knowledge. It is characterized with the testing of hypothesis based on pre-existing theories. In this research philosophy, the researcher finds the information based on the same pre-existing theories that have been done by other researchers in past (Saunders et al., 2019).

Realism- in the realism, the questions formed by the research shows the reality of information based on scientific knowledge. The research can revise all the pre-existing theories and can replace the results with more effective data. The research contributes to increasing the reliability of the data.

Interpretivism- this philosophy method focuses on qualitative analysis over quantitative analysis to obtain the results. The researcher plays a crucial role in making sense with the interpreting information and collecting data (Saunders et al., 2019).

Ontology is the second research philosophy which is concerned with the reality of the information that exists in the research. This philosophy answers the question including physical objects, minds, events, properties, and many others. The ontology is divided into three further parts such as objectivism, constructivism, and pragmatism. All these terms will be discussed further.

Objectivism- in this philosophy the human nature and values determine the nature of reality. It does not focus on the thoughts of people.

Constructivism- this philosophical stance focuses on the ideas which are constructed by the interaction or decisions by humans.

Pragmatism- in this research philosophy the researcher links the theoretical knowledge to the practical knowledge. This research philosophy is the most useful method to find out the solution of the problem easily more than constructivism and objectivism.

In this research the researcher has chosen ontology research philosophy which is more concerned with the reality of the nature (Saunders et al., 2019). In this research, the researcher is looking forward to find the practical challenges which are based on the small-scale IT companies in implementing Scrum in the workplace. Thus, both pre-existing theories and opinion of the people matter to identify the problem in an effective manner. Additionally, the researcher has chosen pragmatism to conduct the research effectively. With the help of pragmatism, the researcher can carry the research to gain information from pre-existing theories and practical knowledge of people involved in the problem.

RESEARCH APPROACH

Research approach is the second layer of the research onion which demonstrate the approaches of research that researcher resort while conducting research. There can be only two approaches such as deductive and inductive. This selection is done by the researcher by evaluating the research aims, limitation and personal opinion. Both the terms will be defined and discussed further (Saunders et al., 2019).

Deductive- this approach takes the flow of research from generic to specific. In this approach, the researcher will first start the research from the theories and then move to the research questions or hypothesis which would be tested in the further research. At the end of the research, the researcher will derive the finding from the data collected from various sources and confirms or reject the research questions and hypothesis.

Inductive – in this approach the researcher first finds the research which is done in past on the same topic. The little information available on the topic helps the researcher to finalise the theory which could be used in the research. In this method, the researcher first defines research questions and hypothesis and then observes the situation. Based on this he chooses theory to meet the desired result.

In this research, the researcher has chosen the inductive research approach. He has designed the research questions and hypothesis as an outline of the research and then finalises the theories to conduct the study further. This approach provides flexibility to the researcher to choose the appropriate theory. It also supports new generation theories (Saunders et al., 2019).

RESEARCH STRATEGY

The third layer of the research onion is the research strategy which is concerned with the intention of the research to collect the data for thesis or dissertation. There are various data collection methods are available for the researcher such as experiment, survey, case study, action research, grounded theory, and archival theory etc. the general strategies choose by an academic researcher are all mentioned above (Saunders et al., 2019). In this research, the research has chosen interview strategy to collect the information. The interview involves a targeted population which are helpful for the researcher to understand the problem. The researcher will develop six interview questions and target the population to collect the information. This research strategy will allow a researcher to not rely on the data collected from secondary research. It will involve the perspectives of the interviewees on the topic. This would be effective to increase the reliability and accuracy of the research data (Queirós et al., 2017).

RESEARCH CHOICES

It is the fourth layer of the research onion which is concerned with the research methodologies used by the researcher in order to collect the information. There are three types of research choices available for the researcher to complete the data collection process such as qualitative, quantitative and mixed-method. All the terms will be elaborate further.

The quantitative research methodology relates the numbers, measurement, and quantity. On the other hand, qualitative research is concerned with the data including collection from different literature sources and opinion of the interviews. The researcher may collect the information from academic textbooks, articles available on the internet, journals, magazines, and other websites (Saunders et al., 2019). Basically, the research onion is consisting of three methods which can be understood by taking the knowledge of specific research onion layer.

Mono method- in the mono method the researcher chooses any one of the methods either qualitative or quantitative method for data collection. The decision made by the researcher is based on the previous actions taken to conduct the study (Saunders et al., 2019).

Mixed method- in the mixed method the researcher collects information from both methodologies such as qualitative or quantitative research methodologies. Both methods are used equally to collect information. The mixed-method is the popular framework for effective academic research which helps the researcher to collect the information in an effective manner and reduces the limitation of the research. This method also increases the accuracy of the data collection (Queirós et al., 2017).

Multi-method- in this method both qualitative and quantitative data collection techniques are used by the researcher in the study. However, analysis of the collected data is done using one perspective only. In this research, the researcher will use the mono method for data collection. In this research, the researcher will be focused on qualitative research choice (Saunders et al., 2019).

TIME HORIZON

It is the fifth layer of the research onion which is concerned with the timeframe used in the research. There are two types of time frame chosen by the researcher for the data collection method such as cross-sectional and longitudinal method (Saunders et al., 2019).

Cross-sectional- in this research, the researcher chooses a short period of time for the data collection process. This duration includes confined data collection which takes the research to the end result.

Longitudinal- this type of research studies events and behaviours using concentrated samples over a long period of time.

DATA ANALYSIS AND DATA COLLECTION

It is the last layer of the research onion which is the central part of the onion. The layer is reflecting on the reliability and validity of the research through its data collection. Both data analysis and data collection methods are dependent on different methodologies. It provides information about the various aspects of the process which plays a crucial role in the completion of the study such as sampling size, sampling technique, sample ethics, sample limitations and research reliability and validity. The generally two data collection methods are available for the research including primary and secondary data collection method (Saunders et al., 2019).

PRIMARY DATA COLLECTION

The primary data collection method helps the researcher to collect the first-hand data. In the research, the researcher involved the opinion of the population. There are several techniques used to collect the primary data in the research such as questionnaires, oral and written interview questions. In this research, the researcher has used the primary method in which he has chosen to conduct the interview (Saunders et al., 2019). The interview questions will be designed by the researcher by keeping the research topic in mind. The interview questions were easy and understandable for the interviewees to avoid confusion and misunderstanding (Queirós et al., 2017). Before conducting the interview, the researcher has taken the permission of interviewees. The researcher fixed the date for the interview so that he could get more accurate information on the topic. Also, it will reduce the chances of a lack of information among the interviewees. The opinions of the respondents would be helpful for the researcher to understand and evaluate the problems.

SECONDARY DATA COLLECTION

The secondary data collection method involves the opinions of the other researcher. The secondary information includes pre-existing theories and past research papers. The secondary information can be collected from the literature sources such as textbooks, academic papers, journals, and magazines (Queirós et al., 2017).

DATA COLLECTION METHOD

All the layers of research onion show refer to the procedure and techniques of the research. The research onion layers refer to the choice of method which is used to collect the information and analysed it. In this research, the researcher has used qualitative research methodology to collect the data. The researcher has designed the hypothesis and research questions based on the aims and objectives of the research (Rahman, 2020). To accomplish it the qualitative research methodology has chosen by the researcher. In this research, the secondary data has collected by the researcher from the articles available online and presented in the form of a literature review. Based on pre-existing theories the researcher has drawn the interview questions. The researcher has targeted 10 managers from Small scale IT companies Company and prepared a list of questions to conduct the interview. There is a face-to-face interview conducted by the researcher to collect the information in less time. The researcher has chosen the non-random sampling technique to select the interviewees based on their knowledge and experiences. Their working experience and knowledge would help the researcher to collect the information with more accuracy and will decrease the chance of inappropriate information (Rahman, 2020).

DATA ANALYSIS

Data analysis is the term which allows the researcher to interpret the information based on the data collection process. Data analysis includes collection of information with the help of information collected from literature sources and by understanding the opinions of people. The data collected from different sources is beneficial for the researcher to critically evaluate the information and use effective information to complete the study. The descriptive research is highly important to increase the accuracy. With the interview process the researcher will try to increase the interaction with the interviewees to understand their perspectives. With the help of data collection, the researcher will recommend various ways to solve the problem of organisation.

RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY OF RESEARCH

Reliability and validity are the concepts which are used to evaluate the quality of the research. This indicates how well the researcher has used method, technique, or test to measure something in research. Reliability shows the consistency of the data while validity shows the accuracy of the data. Thus, reliability and validity become important when researcher creates own research design and planning methods and using data in qualitative research (Munthe et al., 2019).

The data collected with the help of qualitative research include the discussion in depth. The deep information about the topic allows the researcher to focus on all the important aspects that complete the research. The qualitative research is challenging for the researcher as it becomes difficult for the researcher to ensure meeting of aims and objectives of the research (Munthe et al., 2019).

ETHICAL ISSUES

There are no major ethical issues faced by the researcher. The researcher will complete the study by following the data protection law. This act will allow researcher to keep secure the collected data and no one has access to change or leak the data. Also, the researcher will refer the information from the past research papers and provide proper references to avoid data cheating and plagiarism.

LIMITATION OF THE RESEARCH

The limitation shows the weak points of the research which affects the study. The study has been conducted by the researcher to identify the practical challenges faced by the researcher in using scrum in Small scale IT companies. This study has potential limitations which may play a crucial role in affecting the study. The researcher has chosen qualitative research methodology to collect the information in which data has been collected from literature sources and interview process. The researcher has only targeted higher authorities of the company. Thus, it allows researcher to hear only their point of view instead of employees. There may be different perspectives or challenges from the point of view of employees. Thus, this may affect the data collection method of the research. The researcher may collect the biased information about the challenges faced by company due to implementing scrum in Small scale IT companies.

The other limitation includes the researcher did not check the collected data with the help of quantitative research including survey method or observational method. The data has been collected from literature sources such as articles available on online websites which must be updated with time.

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

Are you aware of agile methodology? How effectively Small-scale IT companies are using this method?

What is scrum and how it is beneficial for Small scale IT companies?

What is the need of scrum in Small scale IT companies?

What are effective scrum management practices used in Small scale IT companies?

How scrum contributes in the growth of the company?

What are the practical challenges faced by Small scale IT companies in implementing scrum?

What could be the strategies to solve the challenges related to scrum?

SUMMARY

The current chapter is about the research methodology. The chapter has given full detailed information about the concepts of research onion and how this information is helpful for researcher to select the right research philosophy, research approach and research strategy to meet the desired results. This chapter has also discussed the ethical issues faced by the researcher while completing the research. Also, the chapter is effective as it has mentioned the limitations of the study. Thus, researcher can work further on the topic in future to fulfil limitations.

REFERENCES

Munthe-Kaas, H.M., Glenton, C., Booth, A., Noyes, J. and Lewin, S., 2019. Systematic mapping of existing tools to appraise methodological strengths and limitations of qualitative research: First stage in the development of the CAMELOT tool. BMC medical research methodology, 19(1), pp.1-13.

Queirós, A., Faria, D. and Almeida, F., 2017. Strengths and limitations of qualitative and quantitative research methods. European Journal of Education Studies.

Rahman, M.S., 2020. The advantages and disadvantages of using qualitative and quantitative approaches and methods in language “testing and assessment” research: A literature review.

Saunders, M., Lewis, P. and Thornhill, A., 2019. Research Methods for Business Students. 8th ed. Harlow: Pearson.