Table 1.

Techniques to maximize rigour

Technique
Use of three theoretical perspectives to guide research design, analyses and interpretation, helping to build a wider explanation of SRT implementation and a means of exploring a range of plausible theoretical interpretations.
Strategic selection of cases to support greater confidence in findings.
Pilot work to refine data collection and analyses processes, and inform the final study design.
Interview guides that included questions/probes reflective of all constructs present in the three theoretical perspectives, but open-ended questions to minimize non-biased responses and to elicit a variety of perspectives and viewpoints.
Key informants across four units of analysis (clinician user, implementation team, organization and larger system) and multiple data collection methods, permitting triangulation.
A single researcher to collect all data. Audio-recording, verbatim transcription and auditing of all interviews.
Considering other plausible explanations for the findings and seeking out additional evidence where inconsistencies or contradictions existed.
Maintaining a case study database, or a complete set of all the data collected for each case and all records related to the treatment of the data during the analytic process.
Maintaining a chain of evidence throughout data analysis, or an explicit trail that identified the links between the data collected and the interpretations/conclusions.
Member checking to verify specific factual data and to ask participants for their responses/reactions to findings.
Multiple meetings /discussions of the research team to review the analytic procedures and discuss and question the findings.