case study 6 1

• Kids, Exercise, and Technology: An Ethics Case Study
• Markkula Center for Applied Ethics
• Focus Areas
• Internet Ethics
• Internet Ethics Resources

Kids, Exercise, and Technology

An ethics case study.

A fitness tracker aimed at children raises issues of design ethics, incentives, and more.

"Oh the adventure..." Silhouettes of three children jumping on a trampoline by Lauren Manning, used with permission under CC-BY 2.0 DEED.

" Oh the adventure..." S ilhouettes of three children jumping on a trampoline  by Lauren Manning,  (cropped), used with permission under CC-BY 2.0 DEED.

A technology company recently released a “fitness watch” aimed at children and designed with the goal of getting users to exercise more. According to an Endgadget review , the product looks like other smartwatches, and allows kids to communicate with people from a list of curated contacts, but its primary function is activity tracking.

As the reviewer described it, “celebratory animation” is triggered when the user reaches pre-set activity goals (kids are supposed to set their own goals in the watch’s companion app). The watch also features a “customizable humanoid creature that lives in the device, whose happiness is dependent on the completion of daily health goals.” After customizing her own character, the reviewer added that she

couldn’t help but get attached. It turns out there are a bunch of skin colors, eye shapes, hair types and mouths to choose from, so you can make your [creature] as human or non human as you want. Creating a character is always fun, and I could see kids getting really into crafting their virtual friends and switching up their outfits as they unlock more clothing and accessories.

The reviewer also noted that “[a]fter the first time [she] saw how dejected [the creature] looked when [she] accidentally neglected [her] goals for a few days, [she never wanted to let [the creature] down again.”

There are also “daily quests” for the user to complete. Some of those include playing games on the watch (without needing to move)—but the playing will be cut off after some time, and the user will only be allowed to return to the game after reaching activity targets (this can happen repeatedly). The watch also sends users notifications/reminders about reaching their activity goals.

Discussion Questions:

• Who are the stakeholders impacted by the development and deployment of this product? Who should be consulted in the process of developing and deploying such a product?
• What additional facts (not included in the description above) might you need in order to evaluate the ethical impact of this product?
• What ethical issues do you spot in the description above, in terms of both benefits and harms? Evaluate this project through the ethical 'lenses' of rights, justice, utilitarianism, the common good, virtue ethics, and care ethics : See “A Framework for Ethical Decision Making” for a concise discussion of those lenses.

Irina Raicu, director, internet ethics, quoted by NBC Bay Area.

Irina Raicu, director, internet ethics, quoted by San Francisco Chronicle.

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Computer Science > Software Engineering

Title: developing a llama-based chatbot for ci/cd question answering: a case study at ericsson.

Abstract: This paper presents our experience developing a Llama-based chatbot for question answering about continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) at Ericsson, a multinational telecommunications company. Our chatbot is designed to handle the specificities of CI/CD documents at Ericsson, employing a retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) model to enhance accuracy and relevance. Our empirical evaluation of the chatbot on industrial CI/CD-related questions indicates that an ensemble retriever, combining BM25 and embedding retrievers, yields the best performance. When evaluated against a ground truth of 72 CI/CD questions and answers at Ericsson, our most accurate chatbot configuration provides fully correct answers for 61.11% of the questions, partially correct answers for 26.39%, and incorrect answers for 12.50%. Through an error analysis of the partially correct and incorrect answers, we discuss the underlying causes of inaccuracies and provide insights for further refinement. We also reflect on lessons learned and suggest future directions for further improving our chatbot's accuracy.

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Case study 6.1- adapting to a changing world.

This activity was selected for the On the Cutting Edge Reviewed Teaching Collection

This activity has received positive reviews in a peer review process involving five review categories. The five categories included in the process are

For more information about the peer review process itself, please see https://serc.carleton.edu/teachearth/activity_review.html .

• First Publication: June 24, 2014
• Reviewed: July 17, 2017 -- Reviewed by the On the Cutting Edge Activity Review Process

In this activity, students consider how several communities are adapting to climate change-related problems including drought's impacts on agriculture, loss of assets due to climate-related hazards, freshwater availability, and extreme heat waves. They will read brief case studies about agro-forestry, insurance strategies, the "Room for the River" program in the Netherlands, water storage from retreating glaciers, and city planning for heat waves. Based on these examples and knowledge of their own community, they will suggest possible adaptation strategies that will be most beneficial to their area.

Expand for more detail and links to related resources

Activity Classification and Connections to Related Resources Collapse

Grade level.

View Standards Details »

Science and Engineering Practices

Analyzing and Interpreting Data: Analyze and interpret data to determine similarities and differences in findings. MS-P4.7:

Engaging in Argument from Evidence: Evaluate competing design solutions to a real-world problem based on scientific ideas and principles, empirical evidence, and/or logical arguments regarding relevant factors (e.g. economic, societal, environmental, ethical considerations). HS-P7.6:

Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions: Design, evaluate, and/or refine a solution to a complex real-world problem, based on scientific knowledge, student-generated sources of evidence, prioritized criteria, and tradeoff considerations. HS-P6.5:

Disciplinary Core Ideas

Global Climate Change: Though the magnitudes of human impacts are greater than they have ever been, so too are human abilities to model, predict, and manage current and future impacts. HS-ESS3.D1:

Performance Expectations

Engineering Design: Evaluate a solution to a complex real-world problem based on prioritized criteria and trade-offs that account for a range of constraints, including cost, safety, reliability, and aesthetics as well as possible social, cultural, and environmental impacts. HS-ETS1-3:

Earth and Human Activity: Evaluate or refine a technological solution that reduces impacts of human activities on natural systems. HS-ESS3-4:

Learning Goals

During this activity, your students will:

• Identify to which climate change opinion group they belong (alarmed, concerned, cautious, disengaged, doubtful, or dismissive) using a climate change survey instrument.
• Compare the class distribution of climate change opinions to the national distribution.
• Determine their own and their community's social vulnerability to climate change based on demographic factors.
• Distinguish between climate change mitigation and adaptation and the potential pros and cons of each strategy.
• Summarize several methods of 21st-century adaptations to climate change, including agroforestry, floodplain reclamation, insurance policy changes, and response to extreme heat waves.

My goals in creating this activity were to:

• Provide an understanding of current national attitudes about climate change.
• Illustrate the difference between climate change mitigation and climate change adaptation strategies.
• Provide structured opportunities to identify effective 21st-century climate change adaptation efforts.
• Encourage reflection about one's own beliefs about the existence of climate change, humans' contribution to climate change, and the potential impacts of climate change on society.
• Provide opportunities for reflection about the inequity of climate change and the need for climate resilience in industrialized and developing countries.

Context for Use

Educational level: introductory geology, meteorology, oceanography, or other geoscience-related course

Class size: can be adapted to serve a variety of class sizes.

Class format: This activity is suitable for use in a lecture or lab setting but can also be done outside of class as a homework assignment. If this activity is done in class, the desired format is a gallery walk , during which groups of two to four students read several examples of climate change adaptation case studies, followed by a compilation of ideas about personal and local adaptations to climate change in the future. Alternatively, students may read the case studies individually outside of class and write a response to personal and local adaptations to climate change in the future.

Time required: approximately 50 minutes, including a discussion on public opinion about climate change, climate change adaptation vs. mitigation, and the adaptation case studies.

Special equipment: Each student should receive a copy of the preparation exercise (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 135kB Sep9 12) . Each student should have access to the climate change adaptation case studies. If the activity is done during class, the instructor should provide copies of the case studies. If the activity is done as a homework assignment, students can access the case studies online.

Skills or concepts that students should have already mastered before encountering the activity: Students should have an awareness of the concept of anthropogenic climate change due to greenhouse gas emissions, as well as measured trends in greenhouse gas emissions (as studied in case study 5.2 of the Climate of Change module. Before coming to class, each student should have taken the "6 Americas" online survey and completed the social vulnerability survey.

• as an in-class activity on its own or in conjunction with Case Study 6.2, depending on time constraints;
• as a lab on human responses to climate change when combined with Unit 1 and Case Study 6.2;
• as part of the complete Climate of Change InTeGrate module.

Description and Teaching Materials

• Preparation Exercise: What's your Climate Change Personality? (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 135kB Sep9 12) (student handout)
• Adapting to a Changing World: Climate Change and the Insurance Industry (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 428kB Sep15 12) (student handout)
• Adapting to a Changing World: Heat Waves (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 2.9MB Sep15 12) (student handout)
• Adapting to a Changing World: Flooding (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 791kB Jun24 14) (student handout)

Climate Adaptation and the Insurance Industry

• In these case studies, how is the response of the US insurance industry (Alfa and State Farm Florida) different from the HARITA partners?
• Why do you think that HARITA has responded so differently to weather and climate-related insurance issues than Alfa and State Farm Florida have responded?
• How, if at all, is the Alfa and State Farm Florida response an effective climate change adaptation strategy?
• How, if at all, is the HARITA response an effective climate change adaptation strategy?
• Which response—Alfa and State Farm Florida OR HARITA—do you believe is a more effective climate change adaptation strategy?

Adaptation to Extreme Heat Waves

• Name one benefit of installing a cool roof.
• Uncertainty related to climate change means that many cities may need to adapt to increased climate variability. How do projects like the Green Streets Initiative have the potential to help cities adapt to both heat waves and flooding?
• What are some of the differences between adapting to heat waves in a major metropolitan area like New York City vs. a smaller city like Wangaratta? In which type of settlement do you think that adaptation to heat waves would be more challenging? Why?
• Which, if any, of these adaptations to heat waves would be feasible where you live?

Adaptation to Flooding

• How does the Dutch strategy for adapting to climate change-related flooding differ from flood adaptation strategies in the United States? Which country's strategy do you believe is more effective?
• How has the Dutch government differed in its approach to adaptation in rural areas compared to adaptation in urban areas?
• How do you feel about the Dutch government relocating individuals like Jacques Broekmans, whose land lies in a designated flood zone, and widening areas along the Rhine River, allowing some communities to flood?
• The Netherlands is a wealthy, industrialized country. Which of their adaptations would be feasible in poorer, developing countries? Which of their adaptations would not?

Teaching Notes and Tips

• Potential procedure for comparing the class "Six Americas" data to the national data: instructor has alarmed, concerned, cautious, disengaged, doubtful, and dismissive written on the board. As students enter the classroom, they are instructed to put a mark under their climate personality from the survey. Instructor tallies the totals for each climate personality and writes the totals on the board, then asks students to calculate the percentages of each climate personality. When finished, the class data can be compared to the national data. Reasons for any observed differences may be speculated upon by the class.
• In getting students to differentiate between mitigation vs. adaptation, there are many geologic and nongeologic analogies that may be utilized other than "the aging starlet" story provided in the PowerPoint slides. For example, faculty using this case study in an environmental geology or natural hazards course could discuss public response to debris flow hazards in Southern California. The instructor could present two debris flow response scenarios and ask students to consider which is an adaptation strategy, which is a mitigation strategy, and pros and cons of each. An interesting adaptation strategy is described in John McPhee's The Control of Nature : "At least one family has experienced so many debris flows coming into their backyard that they long ago installed overhead doors in the rear end of their built-in garage. Now when the boulders come they open both ends of their garage, and the debris goes through to the street" (189).
• There are several methods that may be used in implementing the climate change adaptation examples activity:
• Gallery walk #1:
• Each student is given a handout with all of the climate change adaptation examples.
• Questions about each set of examples are displayed on large pieces of paper, whiteboards, etc., around the classroom.
• In groups, students visit each station, read the climate change adaptation examples from their handout, and write their responses to the questions directly on the large pieces of paper/whiteboards.
• If the instructor chooses/if time allows, a group discussion summarizing the answers to the questions may follow.
• Gallery walk #2:
• Enlarge the font for the climate change adaptation examples and display the examples on large pieces of paper, whiteboards, etc. around the classroom.
• Each group is given a handout with questions for each climate change adaptation strategy.
• In groups, students rotate around the classroom and read the climate change adaptation examples.
• In groups, students answer the questions (on their handout) for each set of examples.
• Virtual gallery walk: if students have computer access, they may read the climate change adaptation examples online on the climate change adaptations page .
• Seated, small-group discussion: same procedure as gallery walk #1, only rather than students answering the questions on large pieces of paper/whiteboards around the classroom, they answer the questions on their handout in small groups.
• If possible, the audio clips on flood adaptation in the Netherlands would be an excellent addition to this activity during class. In a gallery walk setting, students could be prompted to listen to the audio clips before their group answers the flood adaptation questions. Alternatively, the clip could be played for the entire class at once.

(1) There are several methods that may be used to assess the climate adaptation gallery walk. General suggestions for formal and informal assessment of gallery walks are on the SERC website . Ultimately, students should be able to describe how the insurance industry is adapting to weather and climate-related policy claims; the flood adaptation steps being taken by the Netherlands; strategies used by cities of various sizes (Chicago, New York City, Wangaratta) to adapt to heat waves; and adaptive agricultural responses to drought. This could be assessed orally (for example, at the end of the class meeting as students summarize the answers to the posted gallery walk questions), as a short answer question on an exam, or as a written homework assignment.

(2) The following items represent hypothetical strategies to address climate change. Classify each as either a climate change mitigation strategy or a climate change adaptation strategy by placing an X in the appropriate box.

(3) short answer question: adaptation in Providence, RI (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 380kB Sep15 12)

References and Resources

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Can we avoid 1.5º of global warming? Probably not and our best case scenario is 1.6º, scientists say

Our international goals to stay under 1.5º of warming are no longer feasible, a new study has found, by matthew rozsa.

When almost 200 nations signed the Paris climate agreement in 2015, they pledged to keep Earth's average temperature to no greater than 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

Now a recent study in the journal Nature Climate Change reveals that the 1.5 degree threshold is effectively out of reach at this point, and 1.6 degrees is the best humanity can likely hope to achieve. Climate change is spiraling out of control and emissions from burning fossil fuels aren't dropping fast enough. The researchers arrived at this conclusion after modeling different emission scenarios through 2023, one that included "alternative scenarios with institutional, geophysical and technological feasibility constraint."

The scientists learned that even within all but the most ambitious projections regarding limiting greenhouse gas emissions, humans still fail to fall below the 1.6 degrees Celsius threshold. Given the feasibility constrains involved in those more ambitious agendas, however, the scholars also argue those outcomes remain very unlikely.

"Accelerated energy demand transformation can reduce costs for staying below 2º C but have only a limited impact on further increasing the likelihood of limiting warming to 1.6 °C," the authors write, alluding to the need to transition to carbon neutral energy technologies.

Speaking to Salon last month — when it was announced that humanity had reached 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels for 13 consecutive months — one climate change expert emphasized that this benchmark carries significant in real-world consequences.

"A year above 1.5C is unprecedented in human history," Dr. Ken Caldeira, an atmospheric scientist at the Carnegie Institution for Science's Department of Global Ecology, said. "Nevertheless,  it is important to remember that each carbon dioxide emission causes another increment of global warming and so each emission avoided is an increment of global warming avoided."

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• Mass extinction is a choice. A new study shows how we can dramatically reverse it

Backwards Planning with Generative AI: Case Study Evidence from US K12 Teachers

34 Pages Posted:

Samantha Keppler

University of Michigan Stephen M. Ross School of Business

Wichinpong Park Sinchaisri

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - School of Engineering; The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania - Operations, Information and Decisions Department; University of California, Berkeley - Operations and Information Technology Management Group

Clare Snyder

University of Michigan, Stephen M. Ross School of Business

Date Written: August 13, 2024

Backward planning is an effective and efficient operational process when working towards a goal: work backward from the desired outcome to figure out the steps needed to accomplish them in the time allowed. While many organizations and workers might use it, backward planning is a universal practice among US K12 teachers. The emergence of generative AI has stimulated many conversations about its impact on teacher work, but it is still unclear if and how generative AI fits within the backward planning approach adopted by most every teacher. Given backward planning is standard workflow process in K12 education, we ask: How are teachers using generative AI to support their teaching work? Our methodology is a case study of 24 US public school teachers, sampled to vary by subject area and grade level, during the 2023-2024 school year. We conduct interviews, observations, and surveys at different points in time to understand their evolving generative AI use. In fall 2023, all teachers were novice users or had never tried generative AI. By spring 2024, the teachers separate into three distinct groups: (1) those who seek generative AI input (i.e., thoughts or ideas about learning plans) and output (i.e., quizzes, worksheets), (2) those who only seek generative AI outputs, and (3) those not using generative AI. The teachers in the first group-but not the second group-report productivity gains in terms of workload and work quality. Our findings have implications for understanding how to integrate generative AI into backward, goal-oriented workflows.

Keywords: generative AI, productivity, workflow, education operations, algorithm aversion

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Samantha Keppler (Contact Author)

University of michigan stephen m. ross school of business ( email ).

701 Tappan St Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1234 United States

Wichinpong Sinchaisri

Massachusetts institute of technology (mit) - school of engineering ( email ).

MA United States

The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania - Operations, Information and Decisions Department ( email )

3641 Locust Walk Philadelphia, PA 19104-6365 United States

University of California, Berkeley - Operations and Information Technology Management Group

United States

University of Michigan, Stephen M. Ross School of Business ( email )

701 Tappan Street Ann Arbor, MI MI 48109 United States

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Judge orders Trump to update him on unanswered Secret Service subpoena tied to Jan. 6 civil case

Left: President Donald Trump arrives to speak at a rally in Washington, on Jan. 6, 2021 (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin). Right: In this Jan. 6, 2021, file photo violent insurrectionists loyal to President Donald Trump supporters try to break through a police barrier at the Capitol in Washington, D.C. (AP Photo/John Minchillo).

A federal judge overseeing civil litigation brought against Donald Trump by lawmakers and police who endured the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol has agreed to give the former president and convicted felon more time to obtain records from the Secret Service and Metropolitan Police Department that have been missing in action since June.

As Law&Crime previously reported , during a status conference in the civil matter in early August before U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta , attorneys for Trump and attorneys for the plaintiffs revealed that subpoenas the parties sent to the Secret Service and Washington, D.C. ‘s Metropolitan Police Department have gone totally unanswered for over a month.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs told Mehta that the deadline they put for response for their subpoenas sent earlier this year was June 18. Neither the Secret Service or MPD wished to comment to Law&Crime.

Mehta had told the parties he would reach out to the D.C. Attorney General’s Office to determine whether the subpoenas were lost in the mail or if the agencies were being nonresponsive, but on Tuesday Mehta put the ball squarely back in Trump’s court and asked him to give an update in a little over a week.

“Defendant Trump shall file a Status Report by August 29, 2024, which updates the court on his efforts to obtain records from the Secret Service and the DC Metropolitan Police Department,” Mehta ordered.

The judge, a onetime public defender appointed to the bench by former President Barack Obama, has had this case on his docket for a little over three years and he plainly told attorneys during the early August status conference that he was intent on hearing summary judgment arguments before the fall.

The lawsuit is a consolidated case known as Lee v. Trump, and as Law&Crime has reported, it stems from a complaint made by lawmaker plaintiffs Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the former chairman of the now-defunct House Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol , as well as lead plaintiff Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., and nine other current or former House members. In addition to Trump, the Lee-led plaintiffs have named the since-dissolved Proud Boys organization and its imprisoned leader  Henry “Enrique” Tarrio , as the former president’s co-defendant.

The plaintiffs say Trump’s use of intimidation in the run-up to and on Jan. 6 was not part of his official role as president and that this conduct impeded them from discharging their duties.

Notably, the Secret Service was one of many agencies sued in 2022 by the federal watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, when it was revealed that a trove of Jan. 6-related text messages were potentially deleted without authorization after the House Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol requested them.

As Law&Crime reported , the group obtained hundreds of pages of text messages from Department of Homeland Security in March.

The Secret Service has denied any wrongdoing or improper destruction of the texts in question and instead has said that the deletions were the result of a systemwide “migration” that unfolded from Jan. 27, 2021, to April 1, 2021.

Specifically what Trump or the plaintiffs in the Jan. 6 civil case seek with their still-unanswered subpoenas is unclear, but attorneys for the plaintiffs and Trump alike revealed that much of the discovery in the case is publicly sourced.

During an Aug. 7 status conference, attorneys for the National Archives in attendance said their agency has produced 1,500 of 4,700 total documents flagged in the case.

Those records pertain to Trump’s “ Stop the Steal ” rally at the Ellipse, official communication between government officials about that rally, the logistics for how Trump got to the Ellipse and left , and communications about his speech.

Federal prosecutors meanwhile said that they had received about 1,650 pages of records from the Interior Department and that the department was on track to finish production by Aug. 19.

Neither party expressed any concern over privilege issues.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs and defendant did not immediately return a request for comment to Law&Crime on Wednesday.

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Disgraced George Santos loses to the federal government and Jimmy Kimmel in a matter of hours

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• What Is a Case Study? | Definition, Examples & Methods

What Is a Case Study? | Definition, Examples & Methods

Published on May 8, 2019 by Shona McCombes . Revised on November 20, 2023.

A case study is a detailed study of a specific subject, such as a person, group, place, event, organization, or phenomenon. Case studies are commonly used in social, educational, clinical, and business research.

A case study research design usually involves qualitative methods , but quantitative methods are sometimes also used. Case studies are good for describing , comparing, evaluating and understanding different aspects of a research problem .

Table of contents

When to do a case study, step 1: select a case, step 2: build a theoretical framework, step 3: collect your data, step 4: describe and analyze the case, other interesting articles.

A case study is an appropriate research design when you want to gain concrete, contextual, in-depth knowledge about a specific real-world subject. It allows you to explore the key characteristics, meanings, and implications of the case.

Case studies are often a good choice in a thesis or dissertation . They keep your project focused and manageable when you don’t have the time or resources to do large-scale research.

You might use just one complex case study where you explore a single subject in depth, or conduct multiple case studies to compare and illuminate different aspects of your research problem.

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Professional editors proofread and edit your paper by focusing on:

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Once you have developed your problem statement and research questions , you should be ready to choose the specific case that you want to focus on. A good case study should have the potential to:

• Provide new or unexpected insights into the subject
• Challenge or complicate existing assumptions and theories
• Propose practical courses of action to resolve a problem
• Open up new directions for future research

TipIf your research is more practical in nature and aims to simultaneously investigate an issue as you solve it, consider conducting action research instead.

Unlike quantitative or experimental research , a strong case study does not require a random or representative sample. In fact, case studies often deliberately focus on unusual, neglected, or outlying cases which may shed new light on the research problem.

Example of an outlying case studyIn the 1960s the town of Roseto, Pennsylvania was discovered to have extremely low rates of heart disease compared to the US average. It became an important case study for understanding previously neglected causes of heart disease.

However, you can also choose a more common or representative case to exemplify a particular category, experience or phenomenon.

Example of a representative case studyIn the 1920s, two sociologists used Muncie, Indiana as a case study of a typical American city that supposedly exemplified the changing culture of the US at the time.

While case studies focus more on concrete details than general theories, they should usually have some connection with theory in the field. This way the case study is not just an isolated description, but is integrated into existing knowledge about the topic. It might aim to:

• Exemplify a theory by showing how it explains the case under investigation
• Expand on a theory by uncovering new concepts and ideas that need to be incorporated
• Challenge a theory by exploring an outlier case that doesn’t fit with established assumptions

To ensure that your analysis of the case has a solid academic grounding, you should conduct a literature review of sources related to the topic and develop a theoretical framework . This means identifying key concepts and theories to guide your analysis and interpretation.

There are many different research methods you can use to collect data on your subject. Case studies tend to focus on qualitative data using methods such as interviews , observations , and analysis of primary and secondary sources (e.g., newspaper articles, photographs, official records). Sometimes a case study will also collect quantitative data.

Example of a mixed methods case studyFor a case study of a wind farm development in a rural area, you could collect quantitative data on employment rates and business revenue, collect qualitative data on local people’s perceptions and experiences, and analyze local and national media coverage of the development.

The aim is to gain as thorough an understanding as possible of the case and its context.

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In writing up the case study, you need to bring together all the relevant aspects to give as complete a picture as possible of the subject.

How you report your findings depends on the type of research you are doing. Some case studies are structured like a standard scientific paper or thesis , with separate sections or chapters for the methods , results and discussion .

Others are written in a more narrative style, aiming to explore the case from various angles and analyze its meanings and implications (for example, by using textual analysis or discourse analysis ).

In all cases, though, make sure to give contextual details about the case, connect it back to the literature and theory, and discuss how it fits into wider patterns or debates.

If you want to know more about statistics , methodology , or research bias , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

• Normal distribution
• Degrees of freedom
• Null hypothesis
• Discourse analysis
• Control groups
• Mixed methods research
• Non-probability sampling
• Quantitative research
• Ecological validity

Research bias

• Rosenthal effect
• Implicit bias
• Cognitive bias
• Selection bias
• Negativity bias
• Status quo bias

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Project Management: Achieving Competitive Advantage, Fifth Edition by Jeffrey K. Pinto

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CASE STUDY 6.1 Columbus Instruments

Problems have been building at Columbus Instruments, Inc. (CIC) (not its real name) for several years now with the new product development process. The last six high-visibility projects were either scrapped outright after excessive cost and schedule overruns or, once released to the marketplace, were commercial disasters. The company estimates that in the past two years, it has squandered more than $15 million on poorly developed or failed projects. Every time a project venture failed during this time, the company conducted extensive postproject review meetings, documentation analysis, and market research to try to determine the underlying cause. To date, all CIC has been able to determine is that the problems ...

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