In-depth one-to-one interviews - RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND METHODS

CHAPTER 5: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND METHODS

5.12 In-depth one-to-one interviews

The interviews are considered one of the most important techniques widely used for collecting the data, especially in Information Technology case study researches; this will

allow the researcher to gain a rich description about the reality (Myers & Newman 2007).

Therefore, interviews are used as a primary source for data collection in this study. Similarly, Yin (2014) argued that interviews allow researchers to focus on individual participants’

points of view and meanings regarding a phenomenon.

Actually, to avoid the elite bias, which is interviewing a specific type of participant, participants have been interviewed from different levels, including the external participants – i.e. selected citizens, so the research can capture multiple points of view. Furthermore, as an example, the researcher interviewed the IT manager, the Business department manager, the Customer Care department, the Government general manager and selected groups from the public users, i.e. citizens.

Indeed, having participants from both inside and outside the government departments is not only for gaining clarity, further insight and depth into the data, but also for including various voices. The interviews with individuals from several levels with different perspectives allowed the researcher to identify relationships and interactions between different network actors during the adoption of the Blockchain technology.

The interviews’ duration was on average between 1 hour to 2 hours, depending on the participant’s availability. Moreover, all interviews were recorded digitally whenever it was possible, then were transcribed. Further, the transcriptions were shared with participants for corrections or to answer certain clarifications if required. Sharing the transcriptions with participants is part of human ethics, in addition to increasing the confidence in the captured evidence that will maintain the research quality.

The researcher aimed to interview at least one participant from each Blockchain project stakeholder group, in order to collect data from all project perspectives. Behrend (2005) argued that a total of 12 interviews is the lowest acceptable number of interviews in order to achieve an acceptable information‐richness for each case study. The total conducted interviews in this study is 38. Moreover, a 20‐month period needed for concluding the data collection from January 2019 and October 2021.

The below table shows the key stakeholders’ groups and their role in the Blockchain adoption project:

Table 4: List of stakeholders’ groups in the Blockchain adoption project

Source: developed for this study

Stakeholder Group Internal/External Role

Department ICT Manager

Internal The ICT manager’s role is mainly to plan, direct, coordinate and develop the overall ICT strategy, moreover ensure the maximum efficiency of the ICT department’s daily operation.

Department Project Manager (PM)

Internal Manage, plan, supervise and control the Blockchain project. The Department PM is responsible for day-to-day activities of resources allocation, project timeline, prioritization and task assignment, and achieve project mission, objectives, milestones and deliverables as planned within allocated budgets.

Department Innovation Manager

Internal Define, plan and develop innovation strategy.

Department

Infrastructure Team

Internal Define Infrastructure management and operation plan, strategy and maintenance.

Operate day-to-day activities for monitoring Infrastructure.

Department ICT Architect

Internal Define overall software components, software and architecture. Define integration strategy between all in place business applications.

Department ICT Analyst

Internal Gather business requirements and needs.

Analyse gathered requirements and define business architecture and solutions functionalities.

96 Stakeholder Group Internal/External Role

Department ICT Support Team

Internal Receive end users’ support tickets, coordinate with 2^nd and 3^rd support levels until each ticket closure.

Implementer Project Manager (PM)

External Manage, plan, supervise and control Blockchain project. The Implementer PM is responsible for day-to-day activities of resources allocation, project timeline, prioritisation and task assignment and achieving project mission, objectives, milestones and deliverables as planned within allocated budgets.

Implementer Development Team

External Develop all Blockchain components and functionalities including Application, Front End, Database and integration layer.

Implementer Analysts Team

External Gather business requirements and needs.

Analyse gathered requirements and define business architecture and solutions functionalities.

Implementer Quality Assurance Team

External Execute software testing plan, define test cases to ensure the highest level of quality for each software deliverable.

Solution End User External/Internal Concerned internal/external end user, those intending to use the delivered software.

Subject Matter Expert External Expert in the domain of software development, mainly Blockchain, that make him responsible to ensure the

97 Stakeholder Group Internal/External Role

Blockchain project outcomes will fulfil the stakeholders’ needs, in-place policies, developed standards, followed legislation, and best practices.

Source: Adopted for this study

Moreover, the below table shows the list of participants interviewed for each case study in this research:

Table 5: List of participants interviewed for each case

Source: developed for this study

Stakeholder Group Case Study 1 Case Study 2

Department ICT Manager

 IT Director  IT Manager

Department Project Manager (PM)

 Project Manager  Program Manager

 Project Manager Department Innovation

Manager

 Innovation Expert  Director of Digital Transformation and Innovation Dept.

Department

Infrastructure Team

 Infrastructure Support Engineer

 DevOps Expert

 Infrastructure Dept.

Manager

 Infrastructure Support Engineer Department ICT

Architect

 Solution Architect

 Business Architect

 Solution Architect

Department ICT Analyst

 System Analyst  Business Analyst

 System Analyst Department ICT

Support Team

 Support Engineer  Head of support dept

 Support coordinator

Stakeholder Group Case Study 1 Case Study 2

 Support Engineer Implementer Project

Manager (PM)

 Implementer PM  Implementer PM

Implementer Development Team

 Blockchain Developer

 Integration Developer

 Technical Leader

 Blockchain Developer

 Database Developer Implementer Analysts

Team

 Business Analyst  Business Analyst

Implementer Quality Assurance Team

 Quality Assurance Specialist

 Quality Assurance Leader

 Quality Assurance Specialist

Solution End User  External End User  Internal End User

 External End User Subject Matter Expert

(SME)

 IBM SME

Total Interviewees per case study

16 22

Total Interviewees 38

Dalam dokumen Developing a Framework for guiding Blockchain implementation in UAE public sector based on Structuration and Actor Network Theories: A qualitative case study examination (Halaman 110-115)