A Review of Meta-ethnographies in Software Engineering

Context: Data synthesis is one of the most significant tasks in Systematic Literature Review (SLR). Software Engineering (SE) researchers have adopted a variety of methods of synthesizing data that originated in other disciplines. One of the qualitative data synthesis methods is meta-ethnography, which is being used in SE SLRs. Objective: We aim at studying the adoption of meta-ethnography in SE SLRs in order to understand how this method has been used in SE. Method: We conducted a tertiary study of the use of meta-ethnography by reviewing sixteen SLRs. We carried out an empirical inquiry by integrating SLR and confirmatory email survey. Results: There is a general lack of knowledge, or even awareness, of different aspects of meta-ethnography and/or how to apply it. Conclusion: There is a need of investment in gaining in-depth knowledge and skills of correctly applying meta-ethnography in order to increase the quality and reliability of the findings generated from SE SLRs. Our study reveals that meta-ethnography is a suitable method to SE research. We discuss challenges and propose recommendations of adopting meta-ethnography in SE. Our effort also offers a preliminary checklist of the systematic considerations for doing meta-ethnography in SE and improving the quality of meta-ethnographic research in SE.