There is a common misconception that NVivo is only suitable for grounded theory projects. Nothing could be further from the truth (see the QSR Forum for a brief discussion of this), and in fact we’re often asked by workshop participants how on earth they should go about using NVivo with a grounded theory approach, as it’s not always immediately obvious. A lot of the writing on this topic can be a little dense and not very practically orientated. However, a couple useful references are as follows:

Bringer, J. D., Johnston, L. H., & Brackenridge, C. H. (2004). Maximizing transparency in a doctoral thesis:  The complexities of writing about the use of QSR NVivo within a grounded theory study. Qualitative Research, 4(2), 247-265.

Hutchison, A. J., Johnston, L. H., & Breckon, J. D. (2009). Using QSR-NVivo to facilitate the development of a grounded theory project: An account of a worked example. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 1-20. doi: 10.1080/13645570902996301

You might also like to view our list of useful qualitative research texts, as some of them also cover grounded theory in relation to the NVivo software.