Using focus groups in studies of ISD team behaviour

This paper discusses an innovative focus group approach used to study an Information Systems Development (ISD) environment. The research had to cope with the application of a broad framework, untested in practice, seeking to elicit potentially highly sensitive opinions and judgments in a highly pressurised, time-restricted environment. The researchers? design of the case research is discussed, in particular the use of focus groups. Through a description of how these were conducted some of the novel aspects of the data collection technique used to address the specific issues mentioned above are illustrated. This is followed by an exploration of various frameworks proposed in the literature for evaluation of focus groups in particular, and interpretive research in general. Future work proposed includes the evaluation of this research using a set of 7 criteria proposed in the literature based on critical interpretive epistemology.