Qualitative research and process implementation

Being trained as an epidemiologist, where quantitative analyses are the core of what we do, it always surprises me the incredible of amount of appreciation I created over time for qualitative research. In any of its forms -- grounded theory, phenomenology, or ethnography (Christina, 2005) -- it is impressive how extremely rich information can be obtained for these studies, frequently serving as the basis for quantitative research that can then test a statistical hypothesis.

Now, all of this is common knowledge but, perhaps even more important, is the idea that qualitative research can guide research during the implementation process (Smit, 2003). The central concept here is that qualitative analysis is an iterative process and, during the implementation of any process, the attempt to achieve a saturation point is somewhat elusive. In qualitative research, a saturation point is theoretically reached when researchers can no longer extract new information from their data.

Although a working concept that can guide qualitative research practice in a variety of scenarios, when translated into implementation research it is hardly reachable since subjects are being exposed to new situations all the time. Rather than aiming at a static saturation point, qualitative research becomes then a dynamic sensor, constantly monitoring new changes in the environment while guiding researchers in how to adapt their design and implementation approaches.