Case Study Research in Software Engineering: Guidelines and Examples

APPENDIX B

EXAMPLE INTERVIEW INSTRUMENT (XP)

This appendix gives an example of an interview instrument. The instrument was used in the XP case study, which is described in Chapter 10.

General (~10 min)

• Explain about the study, what we are looking for, how they will benefit from the results and that they will be anonymous.
• Subjects personal history in the company (keep short)
• Describe how this project fits into the overall organization structure and product portfolio.

Gate Model (~10 min)

• About the corporate gate model (ask for any documents that can be provided)
• What is required as exit criteria from tollgate 3?
• Which documents are used at tollgate 3?
• How is the tollgate 3 decision taken?

XP (~15 min)

• XP introduction, how was this performed?
• XP generally, how did it work, describe the most significant aspects.
• What worked well?
• What did not work as well?
• XP experiences compared to your previous way of working.
• Did you adapt XP to fit the gate model?

Adjustments to Gate Model (~20 min)

• How was the tollgate 3 decision affected by you using XP?
• Describe any adaptations of the gate model in general.
• Any adaptations specifically due to XP?
• How was it apparent to people outside your team that you were using XP?
• How did you work with the documents required by the gate model?
• Did you use the software product as a form of communication in itself?
• How did the planning game affect your project?
• How did you perform time estimation?
• Could you start development at a different stage than ...