What a good week...so far

What a difference a week makes! I can now see clearly to what I have to do to get out of here.

• No, I do not have a good coding template yet, but I am well on the way to having one. The new, new one has a lot of good points going for it, but I will have to go back over it again, which sorta stinks but is better than the previous one.
• The interviews since 1/24 (four, with 2 more for this week and one to reschedule) have been outstanding! I can honestly say that I have learned a lot about the cases that I have been studying and also about the software industry in general. Lots of good info on all fronts!
• Received official invitation to a think-tank that will cover the area that I am doing for my dissertation and my writing for the next 4-5 years. Should be an excellent way to get some great contacts. I can even see how this could lead to some personal equity-building activities.
• Wrote a brief which should set up my dissertation writeup, which my advisors think would be ok. Additionally, they want to work on a separate case, which should satisfy the aspirations of the CEO of the case firm.
• Worked on two other non-dissertation related projects, both of which should lead to publications.

A great, great week indeed! Now for the next week, I need to work very, very hard on coding and data analysis to see if I will be able to produce some meaningful insights...

Failure to meet goals

What a failure. I did not meet the goals stated for the previous week. Not even close. But I have had some successes, though. I conducted four interviews, with another set for tomorrow. I have 1 scheduled for next week with two other interviews very likely. I got good news on two other publications, one that I did not know I was a part of. I have plenty of work to do in addition to this dissertation stuff, but I insist on completing this one. I also got invited to a very, very nice conference in Napa, CA that will do wonders for my professional contacts in the next line of research. Wonders, I tell you.

But I have not finalized my coding scheme or coded more interviews. THAT is disgusting.

I am not making new goals for the upcoming week other than to work as hard as I can!

Anything else is clearly unacceptable.

** EDIT: 5/3/2008: Image removed.

"Auuuugggghhh!!!"

Today's daily blog faffing brings news that several executives from the second and final case site for my data collection have been dismissed in a less than positive fashion. Unfortunately, this probably includes at least six people from my target list. I believe Charlie Brown put it best as Lucy - yet again - pulled the football away from him at the last possible moment: "AUGHHH!"

Who knows what this will do for my data collection efforts? So far, I have conducted a mere seven of the approximately 30 interviews that I want to get for that case, with three more scheduled over the next couple of weeks. One of the interviewees from this week will be the one who 'broke' the story over the blog, so he may be a possible intermediary to get in touch with some of the folks who have been dismissed. I can also contact the old CEO (who has become perhaps the wealthiest house DJ in the world) or the old COO to see if one of them can introduce me.

If neither works and I am forced to go over to another case site, I have a site in mind, but there is little chance of me getting in contact with 30 people soon enough to get sufficient data to prove my case. Then I will be forced to discuss things like having one main case and two mini-cases in support of the main case (a la Leonard-Barton 1989).

Oh well...I didn't want a publishable dissertation anyway.

One at a time, dude

I have made a little progress on my dissertation in that I have scheduled a few more interviews on my second site, three of which promise to be very, very interesting. However, I had also hoped to get eight more interviews but the people have not responded to me. I am having to learn to be patient. I will also have to learn to play the connections from the other end - through personal introductions rather than through trying to make the connections myself.

I have not done any new coding/analysis passes though. Unfortunately life has been extra busy. Today we did a science project for my son. The data and analysis was pretty well done (not precisely enough for 'real science' but probably good enough for a fourth grade project), but I fear that he will not be able to get an acceptable conclusion out of it. Oh well - he may not win, but at least he has a good idea about scientific method.

Also, the car has a major anti-freeze leak that will demand attention (and money) on Monday, so there goes that day. Tuesday, I have a meeting with Maric but I need to read/write a bit before then. I also need to try to get those other interviews scheduled. Add to that the fact that I am having a few more aches and pains than normal (getting old) and I need to address some critical financial issues, and voila' - I am covered up with stuff to do and I am stressed out! How in the hell am I going to finish this dissertation without killing myself?!

Answer: One at a time.

One day at a time, one interview at a time, one transcription at a time, one coding pass at a time, one word at a time, one page at a time, one section at a time, one chapter at a time.

One at a time.

Running Spreadsheet of Data Progress

I have edited the template for this blog (using the new Google tools) to put a running spreadsheet of my data collection and analysis progress at the top of the page. Very nice feature!

To date, I have conducted only 46.6% of my interviews - I have a looong way to go. Let's see where the number will be at the end of January. Target: 80-90%.

Status Report

At least every other week (in other words, every other post), I will post a status report for my dissertation research. So without further ado, here is the first table.

	Case 1		Case 2		Total		Remaining
	Counts	Percentage	Counts	Percentage	Counts	Percentage	Counts	Percentage
Interviews	26	100.0%	30	100.0%	56	100.0%	0	0.0%
Scheduled	20	76.9%	5	16.7%	25	44.6%	31	55.4%
Conducted	18	69.2%	5	16.7%	23	41.1%	33	58.9%
Transcried	10	38.5%	3	10.0%	13	23.2%	43	76.8%
Coded	1	3.8%	0	0.0%	1	1.8%	55	98.2%
Summarized	1	3.8%	0	0.0%	1	1.8%	5	98.2%

What can be immediately seen is that I have a lot of work to do!

At this point, I have identified 56 interviews that I will need to conduct. This number is most likely too low as I will likely need to conduct re-interviews of some people and new people will come into the picture. However, based on the interviews that I have identified so far, 56 is the right number. Of those, 31 remain to be scheduled, 33 have yet to be conducted, 10 others have been conducted but will need to be transcribed, and only 1 has been coded and summarized (but I will likely need to redo it).

The interviews can all be conducted by the end of January (7 per week, not counting those that are done before the EOY). I fortunately have an excellent transcriptionist that can work with me, so if those are done, I think I can have them back to me by the end of Feb. I will likely need to add another transcriptionist to keep from overburdening her, but that can be arranged. I can do one coding / analysis per day (Sat and Sun included) through the interview phase, but when that is done I hope to be up to 10 per week). Again counting revisions, I think I can be done with the coding phase by mid-March. If so, I will have about 5 weeks to really put something together for the April 30th deadline.

At first, this seems like a very bleak picture, but believe it or not, I can still graduate in May if I really push, but August is looking far more likely. Then, the deadline is July 9th for a first draft, July 30 for the final.

The table also shows that I have conducted 77% of the interviews for the first case site, with only six others to go -- and I will schedule these later this week, likely not finishing them until after the first of the year. By the EOY, I will have 5-8 more interviews transcribed and 10-15 of them coded and summarized. This means that during January, I can put together the first case site and try to write a first set of results.

So, it is not quite as bad as it sounds - but it is close to ominous...unless I get off my ass RIGHT NOW!