FIT4005 Chap.1 What Research Is and Why Methods Matter
What Research Is and Why Methods Matter
Week 1 reframes research as something every IT team does whenever it needs to know something it does not yet know. Most definitions share three features: research generates new knowledge, it relies on critical thinking, and it uses systematic methods.
The chapter walks through the five-step process from question to interpretation, the cycle of theory, observation and experiment, and the spectrum from basic to applied research on which most IT work sits. It closes on the principle that runs through the whole unit: every method is flawed in some way, and understanding those flaws is how you choose well.
The worked model splits a vague product brief into two questions that need different evidence.
The week's studio puts these ideas to work on a product scenario: a team first plans interviews to understand how people use a feature, then designs a way to measure a prototype's effect from the platform's logs, and finally plans a short video that explains the recommendation to the people who decide.
That sequence previews the shape of the whole unit, which moves from asking people, to analysing numbers, to communicating what was found.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Research as systematic creation of new knowledge
- 02
Research questions inside everyday product work
- 03
The five-step research process
- 04
Theory, observation and experiment
- 05
Basic and applied research, science and engineering
- 06
The four families of method in the unit
- 07
Why every method has limits
Worked example · free
Match two product questions to two methods
- +1Separate the bundle: one question concerns experience and opinion, the other a measurable change in behaviour.
- +1Study the experience question by asking customers directly, for example in short interviews, to learn why they use or ignore the button.
- +1Study the behaviour question by comparing weekly orders of customers with and without the button over the same period.
- +1Name a limit for each: a few interviews cannot show how common a view is, and a short comparison may not hold in other seasons.
Key terms
- Research
- A systematic, critical process of answering questions that generates new knowledge or information.
- Applied research
- Research that applies existing scientific understanding to solve a real-world problem rather than to build new theory.
- Novel prediction
- A theory's correct forecast of something never observed before, regarded as one of the strongest forms of support.
- Case study
- A study of technology in one specific context, whose challenge is to argue why its results apply elsewhere.
What Research Is and Why Methods Matter FAQ
Why does a technology professional need research methods?
Because product decisions turn on questions such as whether a redesign changes user behaviour or how a new algorithm compares with the old one. Answering those reliably needs a method chosen for the question, not opinion or habit.
Is IT research science or engineering?
It draws on both. The lecture contrasts scientists, who create knowledge and test theories, with engineers, who apply knowledge and design artefacts. Most IT research is practically inclined and borrows methods from the sciences, social sciences and humanities.
What does the Week 1 studio practise?
A product team scenario taken through three moves: understanding people through interviews, understanding a system through its usage logs, and communicating the results in a short video to the people who decide on the feature.
What are the main reasons for doing research?
The lecture gives several: solving problems that improve social and economic wellbeing, producing knowledge as a public good, driving innovation and commercial value, and the intellectual challenge itself. In IT the practical reasons usually dominate, which is why most IT research sits toward the applied end.
Why does the unit say every method is flawed?
Each method trades something away. A lab experiment cannot control every variable of real software practice, a case study must argue why one setting generalises, and a survey can suffer self-selection and respondents saying what they think is wanted. Knowing those trade-offs is what lets you choose.
Assessment move
Use Week 1 to build the habit the rest of the unit relies on. For any question you meet, decide whether it asks to explain, to compare or to measure, then name a method and one limit of that method. Keep these notes as a running log, because the assignments repeatedly ask you to justify why a method fits.
Review the four families of method so you can place each later week, and revisit the five-step process whenever a plan feels disorganised: most weak plans skip the objectives step between the question and the design.
A good self-test is to take the four industry questions the week lists, such as how a new search algorithm performs against competitors, and say for each whether it calls for asking people, counting behaviour, or both.
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