10
Presenting and Analysing your Data
As you follow the objectives you will start to gather data (e.g. data from simulations, data from interviews, or data from literature analyses). The collected data needs to be properly presented to the reader. In Sects. 10.1 and 10.2 we briefly describe techniques and guidelines for how to present both non-numerical and numerical data. Once the data has been presented, it can be analysed. Briefly, to analyse the data means that you evaluate the data against the objectives of your project. Guidelines for how to analyse your data are described in Sect. 10.3. The outcome of the analysis represents your results (or findings). Section 10.4 discusses the nature of a good result, and the evaluation of a hypothesis in light of the data obtained.
10.1
Presenting Non-Numerical Data
In this section, we present guidelines for presenting non-numerical data such as: ● ● ● ●
Data from a literature analysis Data from interviews Data from questionnaires Data from implementations
10.1.1
Presenting Data from a Literature Analysis
When you present what you have found in your literature analysis, the most important thing to keep in mind is its purpose in your project. This purpose must always be at the forefront when you decide how to structure your presentation. For example, if you are using a literature analysis as your method for identifying differences between two software engineering methods (for simplicity, we just call them 73 M. Berndtsson et al. (eds.), Planning and Implementing your Computing Project - with Success! © Springer 2008