Write the research question(s) you intend to explore through a case study and keep it in a visible place to which you can easily refer throughout the research project. Circle or underline your research object, which most likely is a program, an entity, a person, or a group of people.
Read a variety of literature pertaining to your research question and object to determine what research already exists. Use this to further refine your research question so that your work will be seeking new and insightful information.
Make a list of cases to include in your study. As a researcher, you could choose to use one case, or a small group of cases. The subject of a case may be an individual, a group or an entity. To assist in choosing cases to study, continue to refer to your research question and assess if each case will help answer the research question that you posed.
Collect case data through various methods, including interviews, protocol analysis, surveys, field studies and participant-observations. Using several methods of data collection is referred to as multi-modal and is more highly regarded as research in most cases. As you collect data, use field notes or some type of organizational structure such as a database to track your data.
Read and study the collected data, searching for commonalities and patterns among the data that begin to answer the research question. Many social scientists suggest "coding" the data or "systematically searching data to identify and/or categorize specific observable actions or characteristics." Other analysis methods include charting similarities and differences, tabulating the number of times that a characteristic appears, and cross-checking findings among multiple data sources.
Write a report of your case study. In the December 2008 issue of "The Qualitative Report," Dr. Susan Jack and Dr. Pamela Baxter suggest that as a researcher, you want to share your case study findings in a clear manner that can be easily understood by the reader. Although there is no one right way to report a case study, some methods include telling the reader a story, providing a chronological report, or addressing each variable analyzed. Structurally, some researchers handle each case as a separate chapter or may organize the cases chronologically.