Writing the Literature Review 13th December 2013

writing the literature review…..© Dr. David Sammon, Business Information Systems, University College Cork

email: dsammon@afis.ucc.ie tel: 021 4903836 ie.linkedin.com/in/davesammon

N. W. Agnew and S. W. Pyke, The Science Game: An Introduction to Research in Behavioural Sciences. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1969.

writingborin

g

important

challenging

frustratingconfusi

ngenjoyable

Straightforward

time consuming

the literature review

impossible

necessary

inspiring

scary

what is the best literature review you

have read?what is its defining

characteristic?

what is known?

an effective literature review should:

a new way of seeing things

If you can’t draw

it… you don’t

understand it!

i keep six honest serving-men they taught me all I knew

their names are What and Why and When

and How and Where and Who

Do you see these?

Do the articles

you read ever

look like this?

reflexivity &

sense-makingcategorising articles

theoretical strength

concept centric

matrices

what does a good literature review look like?

Google Scholar: 247 citations

Google Scholar: 250 citations

Google Scholar:

949 citations

eating my own dog food!

drinking my own champagne!

a quick exercise

A Concept-Centric Matrix

write a paragraph based on your

observations around this matrix

Sammon (2013) stated that the sky is black . Nagle (2002) has observed that the sky is often grey. However, Adam (2009) argued that the sky is always blue.

Existing research suggests that the sky can have many different colours ranging from black (Sammon, 2013) to oftentimes grey (Nagle, 2002) to always being blue (Adam, 2009).

Google Scholar: 1332 citations

In the last number of years there has been an increase in the volume of empirical case study research focusing on Agile methods and their adoption/adaption in organisational environments. These studies have examined Agile teams in large organisations (c.f. Conboy, 2009; Matook and Kautz, 2008; Fitzgerald et al., 2006; Wang and Vidgen, 2007; Sharp and Robinson, 2006) and in small firms (c.f. Mathiassen and Vainio, 2007; Vidgen and Wang, 2006), and comparative studies across organisational size, project type, project size and software development methodology (c.f. Cao et al. 2009; Vidgen and Wang, 2009). Furthermore, these studies have utilised a variety of theoretical perspectives, for example, complex adaptive systems (c.f. Vidgen and Wang, 2009), adaptive structuration (c.f. Cao et al. 2009), dynamic capabilities (c.f. Mathiassen and Vainio, 2007), distributed cognition (c.f. Sharp and Robinson, 2006), agility (c.f. Conboy, 2009) and mindfulness (c.f. Matook and Kautz, 2008). Across the majority of these empirical research studies one of the main contributions has been the development of a framework to facilitate a better understanding of Agile development practices and the management of Agile teams. As a collective, these empirical research studies have strengthened the theoretical core of Agile methods, while further presenting recommendations for further research in the area.

First Draft Paragraph

c.f. is used in this context to mean ‘see’

Final Version Paragraph

questions……© Dr. David Sammon, Business Information Systems, University College Cork

email: dsammon@afis.ucc.ie tel: 021 4903836 ie.linkedin.com/in/davesammon