Case study
A case study is a research design that examines one case, or a small number of cases, in depth and in its real-life context: a person, a team, an organization, an event or a project. It uses several data sources to understand how and why something happened.
How it works
The researcher defines the case and its boundaries in time and place, then gathers evidence from multiple sources, typically interviews, observation, documents and records, and compares them to build a triangulated account. A single case may be chosen because it is typical, extreme or a critical test of a theory; multiple cases allow comparison.
Case studies suit questions about process and context that cannot be separated from their setting, such as how a company adopted a new tool. They explain one situation deeply; generalizing from them depends on theory and careful case selection. In business, the term also names published customer stories, which serve marketing rather than research.
A worked example
Trucks at one port authority's gates now wait 30 percent less, and a university team sets out to learn why. Over 3 months, researchers interview 24 staff, observe 12 shifts and review 2 years of gate records. The port credits its new booking software, but the case traces most of the gain to a dispatcher who checks each truck's paperwork before it arrives.
Related
Automate this in Pulse
A case study of one customer organization can gather Pulse interviews from people in several of its departments, giving the case the finance, operations and frontline views of the same rollout.