Case study research has become an important research methodology for
exploring phenomena in their natural contexts. Case studies have earned a
distinct role in the empirical analysis of software engineering phenomena which
are difficult to capture in isolation. Such phenomena often appear in the
context of methods and development processes for which it is difficult to run
large, controlled experiments as they usually have to reduce the scale in
several respects and, hence, are detached from the reality of industrial
software development. The other side of the medal is that the realistic
socio-economic environments where we conduct case studies -- with real-life
cases and realistic conditions -- also pose a plethora of practical challenges
to planning and conducting case studies. In this experience report, we discuss
such practical challenges and the lessons we learnt in conducting case studies
in industry. Our goal is to help especially inexperienced researchers facing
their first case studies in industry by increasing their awareness for typical
obstacles they might face and practical ways to deal with those obstacles.Comment: Proceedings of the 4th International Workshop on Conducting Empirical
Studies in Industry, co-located with ICSE, 201