Grounded Theory Analysis of Software Teams Strategic Responses to Privacy by Design (PbD) Challenges

This research-in-progress paper explores how Privacy by Design (PbD) principles are incorporated into the work of software development teams. Despite efforts to implement PbD, difficulties remain in putting the principles into practice. Using a grounded theory approach, we conducted a case study at a leading IT service company in South Korea, interviewing senior software development team members who design and develop information systems that collect, process, and utilize personal data. Our findings are presented through 26 first-order concepts, 11 second-order themes, and 3 aggregate dimensions: PbD challenges, software teams’ strategic responses, and organizational outcomes. We identified different episodes where these dimensions materialized and conceptualized them into three general patterns of software teams’ responses to PbD implementation. Our study contributes to the understanding of how PbD principles can be effectively implemented in software development practices, and provides insights for practitioners to improve data privacy in software projects.