2011-06 Thessaloniki Case Study Notes by Research Phase

This page organizes the case study ideas from the June 2010 meeting by phases in the research process and begins to add some “general” comments/questions.

Background literature

Methods

Yin, R.K. 2003. Case study research : design and methods. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Examples

[I’ll compile a list from my literature database]

Purpose(s)

General

• (Forsys general) produce decision support guidelines
• Determined by each country or a common set of goals?
  • Build on country reports
  • Continue to implement individual country purposes chosen
  • Use some common structures for comparability (problem types)
• types of case studies: exploratory, descriptive, explanatory
• “how” and “why” questions about contemporary phenomena over which the researcher has little control (Yin 2003)
• Allows attention to the context

WG1

• –Lessons learned !
• –Concrete impacts of DSS in SFM
• –Role of architecture and development process
• –Why DSS are not used ... ?

WG2

• Why are certain DSS used for certain PTs? > innovation diffusion
• Who are using the DSS, how many, how much, how are DSS used? > information systems, social negotiation
  • What are the trends in populating PTs and in DSS tool development within PTs
  • Is there any horizon scanning taking place? –How is this being achieved? Policy practice?
• What makes them successful or a failure? > success factors
  • Uptake success in relation to implementation methods used?
  • Uptake in relation to commissioning body/level?
  • Uptake in relation to champions or not in an organisation?
  • Uptake in relation to data requirements?
  • Are there criteria to predict success for future developments? Outside forestry domain?
• –Impact at which level? E.g. relevance at science policy interface but no take up at local level?

WG3

• Screening of DSS is not enough –analyze certain hypothesis
• What are the similarities/differences in the context of the applications (Who? How?)
• Comparing DSS in most often described problem types
• Comparing DSS for Fire management
• Comparing DSS for adapting forest management under CC
• Comparing DSS for utilization of forest resources for energy use
• Comparing DSS for Sustainable Forest Management
• Comparing the development processes for DSS (regional, forest, stand –strategic, tactical, operational)
• Comparing the process of the DSS application from KM perspective (how the tools Expert Systems, Knowledge Mapping, Web Portal are used and benchmark with others)
• User demand
  • Development (researcher, IT, decision analyst) and application (forest managers)
  • Language, use of terms and layout
  • Training material -/ workshops how to use, how to develop DSS
  • Giving examples demos –what should be applied (main tools, additional tools)
  • Problems to be solved
  • Do‘s and Don’ts
  • Success and failure stories
• Elements
  • Scaling (time, spatial, geographic)
  • GUI
  • Process of development (involvement of decision makers, policy makers)
  • Maintenance of DSS –how to do? (website, guidelines, demo examples, handbook)
  • Integrate planning process with KM process (PI, PS, PM)
  • Reusability of components
  • Architecture –using standards
  • Programming languages –open source (licenses)

WG4

Methods – Developing a case study protocol

Methods - Theory development

• One or more existing theories vs. grounded theory

WG4

(Isabella DeMeo, Fabrizio Ferretti, Teppo Hujala & Annika Kangas have been working on this topic through interviews to users of different sort. Journal article under preparation based on the 15 interviews carried out in Italy and Finland.)

• people use familiar tools that are available
• how you use a tool may be more important than the actual features of the tool

Methods - Case definition

• A particular DSS
• The application of a single DSS to a particular problem
• The application of DSS (possibly multiple) in a problem domain (eg fire)

WG4

• DSS can be a combination of several tools
• The respondents have had several different tools in mind when responding

Methods - Selecting studies

General

• How many are feasible?
• Replication?
  • same DSS & same context, same DSS & different contexts, different DSS & same context, etc

Status_of_Country_Reports_June_5_2011.pdf

• What problems types or management planning dimensions do we want to focus on and produce decision support guidelines for?
• What tools (full DSS or else) are available and being used to address those problems and/or dimensions?
• What information may we have to characterize 1) the development and application context as well as 2) the specifics of the tools in order to be able to produce sound guidelines?

WG1

• •The set of case studies should cover ...
• –most important planning problem types (based on the number of countries mentioning them?)
• –most (all) regions covered by COST FORSYS (group of countries)
• –different types of architectures and development methodologies
• –issues like interoperability, GUI (user friendliness)
• –successful and unsuccessful DSSs (what is successful ?)
• –most of the temporal and spatial scales
• Single case study selection criteria
• –Described in the WIKI (gold flag), presented in the country report
• –Possibility to come in contact with developers, researchers and users?
• •Selection of the case studies –what kinds of case studies ? how many ?
• –Main problem types >assessment >3 case studies
• –Context, tradition, institutional setup (why DSS used, why not) >2

WG2

•By DSS, by problem, by organization, by theory –Probably a mixed approach –Problem type –Do we need to rationalise dimensions? –Implementation –time, space –We suggest case study on common problem type is interesting –Importance in terms of which dimensions –e.g. Key to select case studies offering a wide range of technical solutions –Success failure in uptake? We need examples of both

WG3

• What are the similarities/differences in the context of the applications (Who? How?)
• Screening of DSS is not enough –analyze certain hypothesis

WG4

Methods – Data sources & collection methods

General

• six sources: documents, archival records, interviews, direct observation, participant observation, physical artifacts

WG1

WG2

–Data collection –Using information we have or published mixed with survey interviews

WG3

WG4

Collecting the evidence

Analyzing Case Study Evidence

Reporting results

WG3

• Format/Layout
  • Offline / online
  • Webportal (including FAQ‘s, WIKI, Lessons learned, best practices)
  • Using schematic representations, flowcharts
  • Allowing a snapshot from time to time (semantic web –pdf/portal)
  • Map of DSS in the world –finding appropriate tools (wizard)