How To Write A Case Study As A Developer?
If you are a developer and want to write a case study, keep reading to understand how you should proceed.
When you are showcasing a project, explaining why behind every step becomes an essential element, you often get asked, “why did you decide to go with x and not y?”
That’s where the case study enters! Let’s understand what a case study is.
What is a case study?
Generally, a case study is research that involves a detailed analysis of a specific situation or problem. An example could be a business case study that might analyze how a company successfully launched a new product. Through these cases, people can gain insights into what works and what doesn't, and use this knowledge in the future.
Now, if you are a developer and want to write a case study, keep reading to understand how you should proceed.
Case Study: As a developer
As a developer, you proceed a bit differently, you might be writing the case study to explain why you are implementing a feature, or why you migrated from one technology to another, etc.
Follow the mentioned format to decrease friction while writing a case study.
Choose the project -
Identify a project or situation that demonstrates your technical skills and expertise. It could be an individual or team project.
Outline the problem -
Clearly state the problem that needed to be addressed and provide context about the project. Explain why the project was significant and what the objectives were.
Explain your approach -
Describe the strategy you chose to address the problem, including the tools and technologies used. Explain the reasoning behind selecting that approach and the benefits it provided.
It should be in the following order -
Showing how to select/pick up the right stack/technologies.
Explaining why that particular stack will be useful.
Detail your process -
Provide a step-by-step description of how you handled the problem, including any challenges encountered and how they were overcome. Provide examples of your decision-making process and how you evaluated alternative solutions.
It should be in the following order -
Explain the code. Show the steps.
Explain the issues with the code.
Mention the examples and explain them.
How did you overcome those?
What platforms did you decide on for deployments?
How to select the right platform to deploy?
Discuss the outcome -
Explain the results of your work and how they aligned with the project's objectives. Provide any relevant metrics or data to support your claims. Showcase the positive impact your work had on the project or organization.
Future preferences -
Mention how you can improve it in the future and how you would proceed if you have to do it again.
Conclusion -
Summarize the project, give the final insights, and close the case study with lessons learned. Don’t forget to mention how your work can be leveraged in other contexts and mention the advantages it can provide.
Bonus -
Write about your bias and why/how you would have done things differently if you started with a different mindset.
Avoid jargon. Technical details are essential but remember to frame the case study in a way that is easily readable for non-technical members too.
Include visuals to explain concepts!
Let’s say you are writing the case study to explain why you implemented a particular feature, then include the below-mentioned. Customize it according to your needs.
Feature description -
Describe the feature you implemented in detail, including how it works and how it was implemented. This should include technical details that are relevant to the feature.
Implementation approach -
Explain the approach you took to implement the feature. This should include any technologies or tools you used and how you integrated the feature with the existing system.
For a better understanding, go through - Everything about our migration from ReactJS to NextJS written by Yogini! It is one of the good ways to write a case study.
Do you know you can also add your case studies to the Peerlist profile?
How? Select My Projects and add your case study to your portfolio with all the necessary information.
Don't forget to share your case studies with us on the Peerlist Scroll!