A field study of the software design process for large systems
Communications of the ACM
Inside a software design team: knowledge acquisition, sharing, and integration
Communications of the ACM
Qualitative research in information systems
MIS Quarterly
A set of principles for conducting and evaluating interpretive field studies in information systems
MIS Quarterly - Special issue on intensive research in information systems
Distance, dependencies, and delay in a global collaboration
CSCW '00 Proceedings of the 2000 ACM conference on Computer supported cooperative work
Investigating information systems with action research
Communications of the AIS
Investigating information systems with ethnographic research
Communications of the AIS
An empirical study of global software development: distance and speed
ICSE '01 Proceedings of the 23rd International Conference on Software Engineering
Two case studies of open source software development: Apache and Mozilla
ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology (TOSEM)
An examination of software engineering work practices
CASCON '97 Proceedings of the 1997 conference of the Centre for Advanced Studies on Collaborative research
Global It Outsourcing: Management of Software Development Projects
Global It Outsourcing: Management of Software Development Projects
Generalizing Generalizability in Information Systems Research
Information Systems Research
An Ethnographic Study of XP Practice
Empirical Software Engineering
Group awareness in distributed software development
CSCW '04 Proceedings of the 2004 ACM conference on Computer supported cooperative work
Proceedings of the 27th international conference on Software engineering
Socialization in an Open Source Software Community: A Socio-Technical Analysis
Computer Supported Cooperative Work
Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
A view of 20th and 21st century software engineering
Proceedings of the 28th international conference on Software engineering
Computer Supported Cooperative Work
Trouble in Paradise: the Open Source Project PyPy, EU-Funding and Agile Practices
AGILE '06 Proceedings of the conference on AGILE 2006
Editorial: For the Special issue on Qualitative Software Engineering Research
Information and Software Technology
Ethnographically-informed empirical studies of software practice
Information and Software Technology
Self-organization of teams for free/libre open source software development
Information and Software Technology
Information and Software Technology
Coordination Practices in Distributed Software Development of Small Enterprises
ICGSE '07 Proceedings of the International Conference on Global Software Engineering
Awareness in the Wild: Why Communication Breakdowns Occur
ICGSE '07 Proceedings of the International Conference on Global Software Engineering
Representations and requirements: the value of ethnography in system design
Human-Computer Interaction
The transformation of open source software
MIS Quarterly
Sprint driven development: agile methodologies in a distributed open source project (pypy)
XP'06 Proceedings of the 7th international conference on Extreme Programming and Agile Processes in Software Engineering
Challenges of applying ethnography to study software practices
Proceedings of the ACM-IEEE international symposium on Empirical software engineering and measurement
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Context: Qualitative methodologies hold much potential for building an understanding of the principles and practices of free and open source software (FOSS) communities. Yet there is a scarcity in the literature of discussions focused on the practical and methodological challenges of this particular research context. Objective: This paper formulates and addresses a number of questions regarding the applicability of qualitative methodologies for the study of FOSS communities. It reflects on the challenges of such approaches as seen in previous research efforts and discusses how they manifest in research practice through a thorough description of a case study of a community called PyPy. Method: The paper primarily discusses interpretive research approaches which are based on ethnographic data collection methods. The study under discussion was an exploratory case study utilizing multiple methods, including participant observation, virtual ethnography, and open-ended questionnaires. Grounded Theory was used for data analysis. Results: Two broad sets of challenges are highlighted in relation to the multidimensionality of the FOSS phenomenon and the difficulty of qualitative analysis of activities in long-term context. Additional issues identified relate to potential problems with focus and the need for reflexivity, but also to the extent of the study and the importance of maintaining an active relationship with the core community group. Conclusion: This paper provides an overview - grounded in practical research experience and linked to insights from the literature - of methodological issues in the specific research area of qualitative studies of FOSS communities, which up until now has been lacking.