We are organising a half-day seminar at the University of Oulu on “Grounded Theory Method (GTM) in Software Engineering”. The event is open to everyone who wishes to attend, but we particularly invite FAST doctoral researchers to attend. Please see the details and the registration link below. This seminar gives you an opportunity to sharpen your skills in qualitative methods with a hands-on approach focused on writing your work-in-progress/next paper!
Title: Grounded Theory Method (GTM) in Software Engineering, Doctoral Seminar
Organiser: Prof. Burak Turhan, University of Oulu
Instructor: Assoc. Prof. Pilar Rodríguez , Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (Spain)
Date and Time: 20.11.2025 – 13:00-16:00
Place: University of Oulu Campus (Room TBA)
Participation: In-person, free, requires registration
Registration (Deadline 18.11.2025): Please fill out the form at https://link.webropolsurveys.com/EP/AAEE27FA70298268
Seminar description:
This 3-hour seminar will provide participants with a solid understanding of the Grounded Theory Method (GTM), covering its main variants, relevant data collection and analysis techniques, as well as practical guidance on scaling up and writing up a GTM study. It will include hands-on exercises and examples from published studies that have applied GTM for qualitative data analysis and theory generation. Students who wish to obtain 1 ECTS for attending the seminar will be required to complete a post-seminar assignment.
Post-Seminar Assignment:
Students will write the “Research Method” section of a GTM study, which could be part of a journal article. Ideally, this section will be connected to the student’s own PhD research, provided that they are conducting qualitative research. If not, the section can be based on an imagined study applying GTM. The length of the section should typically be around 1,500–2,000 words. The due time for the assignment is 11.12.2015.
Instructor’s Bio:
Pilar Rodríguez (BSc, MSc, PhD) is an Associate Professor of Software Engineering at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (Spain) and a Docent at the University of Oulu (Finland). Since earning her PhD in Software Engineering from the University of Oulu in 2013, she has published extensively in leading software engineering journals such as IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (TSE), Empirical Software Engineering (EMSE), Information and Software Technology (IST), and Journal of Systems and Software (JSS). Her research focuses on empirical software engineering, with broad experience in applying qualitative research methods to areas such as Agile and Lean software development, software process improvement, and value-based software engineering. In the latter area, she and her co-authors developed a theory of value for value-based feature selection, using the grounded theory method. Associate Professor Rodríguez regularly serves as a reviewer for journals such as TSE, TOSEM and EMSE, and as a member of organizing and program committees for major SE conferences, including ICSE, ESEM, and XP. Further details are available at: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=wZQtLdUAAAAJ
Have questions?
Please contact burak.turhan@oulu.fi