Difficulty Factors of Obtaining Access for Empirical Studies in Industry

Context: The difficulty (not just effort) of obtaining access for software engineering empirical studies in industry varies greatly. Supposedly, some of this variance in difficulty is particular, stemming from properties of individual contexts (the industrial partners and their work), while the rest is repeatable, related to properties of the research question and research design. Question: What are these recurring difficulty factors that arise from research question and research design? What mechanisms produce their influence? Method: We use ideation and knowledge extraction from research experience to identify potential difficulty factors, use expert discussion to understand their mechanisms, and use concept analysis to arrange them into a taxonomy. We evaluate the result by comparatively applying it to two research efforts pursued by the same research group. Results: We find six scope factors, five problematic intervention effects factors, and seven helpful intervention (side-)effects factors. Conclusion: Considering these factors systematically during the formulation of a research question and the design of a research method can help with balancing data collection difficulty with results validity and relevance.