research seminar - thesis projects for ictib

Leiden University. The university to discover.

Research Seminar Thesis Projects ICT in Business

Dr. Michel R.V. Chaudron, Leiden Ins7tute of Advanced Computer Science Program director M.Sc. ICT & Business

Leiden University. The university to discover. Michel Chaudron

Agenda

-  Objec7ve of this course -  Logis7cs

-  1st : What and how thesis projects

-  2nd : Case study research (next week?)


Objec;ve -  Execu7ng a research project

-  Learning through experience

-  Start exploring & planning for final M.S.c research thesis project


Objec;ve -  Execute a small research project

-  Define a research ques7on -  Define a research approach -  Get feedback/review on proposal -  Execute (collect data + analyze) -  Report and present


How to get a thesis project -  The student is responsible for

-  crea7ng a research project -  finding a supervisor

-  Involvement of a company is not a university requirement, (but a possibility); examples: -  Effec7veness of in-‐game adver7sing, - What is the value of Enterprise Architecture


How to execute -  Get approval from your university supervisor at the start of your project

-  Get feedback early and o\en Don’t show up in July with your final thesis a\er your last talk was in march. Plan an intermediate presenta7on

-  Make a planning that can accommodate changes

-  The risk of your project should decrease over 7me -  Include a trial phase


How to execute -  Mo7va7on

-  If you radiate that you don’t really like your project, or only complain, …

-  Scien7fic goals

-  High standard on yourself


How to not start a thesis project -  Company internships

-  Internships ≠ research project -  some work needs to be done no intellectual challenge

-  Do not combine internship with research project by splibng 7me across both


Guidelines for grading Category Arguments in favour and against (pro’s and con’s) Grade

Thesis Work (including software, paper)

Publications that came out of the project (if any)

Please mention authors, title, conference/journal and whether the paper has been accepted

Project Execution

Final Presentation

Defense

Other items delivered (poster, exhibit, …)

Overall grade

Grades can be ‘halves’ except for 5.5.


Components of Grading -  Quality of the thesis -  Originality of the research ques7on -  Crea7vity in crea7ng a solu7on -  Depth of Analysis -  Soundness of the approach -  Systema7c applica7on of methods and techniques -  Quality of the repor7ng (structure of the thesis, grammar) -  Cri7cal Thinking: the student does not take presented informa7on for

granted, but challenges this. -  Contribu7on to scien7fic knowledge (Has a publica7on been realized?) -  Characteris7cs of execu7ng the project -  The student has made a good planning and largely stuck to this planning -  Autonomy (self-‐propelling): student has performed the work largely

autonomously with lidle input required from the supervisors


High Diving Grade is determined by

-  Difficulty of the jump -  Quality of the execu7on

Image Source: Wikimedia

-  O\en not easy to increase difficulty during flight



Originality -  A study into success and failure factors of …

-  Best Prac7ces in …

-  Think about the surprise factor of the findings when you define your ques7on.



Contribu;on -  Most important: scien7fic contribu7on Which new knowledge does your project discover?

-  Don’t: label your sec7on ‘relevance’. relevance ≠ contribu7on

-  Avoid the obvious (“open deuren”).



Quality of the thesis (repor;ng) -  Quality of the content! -  Clear Structure -  Clear and Concise English – Grammar -  Be precise and to the point

-  Traceability of the argumenta7on ‘Chain of Evidence’


Example thesis outline -  Introduc7on

-  Context -  Problem descrip7on -  Mo7va7on of relevance/importance

-  Related work -  Exis7ng State of the Art / Literature study

-  Approach -  Process & Method (for collec7ng & analysing data)

-  Results -  Conclusions

-  Future work -  Discussion


Conclusion includes: Chain of Evidence Conclusion è

Claim è

Evidence è


Descrip;on of Research Method -  Don’t:

- We analyzed according to ‘Yin’.


Analysing Interviews -  Yin -  Coding Handbook – Saldana

-  Transcribe – all/most/important parts -  Read -‐> iden7fy theme’s -  Link cita7ons to theme’s -  Analyse theme’s.


Using a DB in analyzing interviews


Depth of Analysis -  Don’t Just list the outcomes of the survey.

-  Do’s Try to explain – build a theory! Find rela7ons, contradic7ons, … Relate to theories/findings in related literature. Have the goal in mind to publish your work


Soundness


Traceability – Chain of Evidence

claim claim

claim warrant

warrant warrant


Why?


Create a theory


Future work -  Not: … more case studies … survey in addi7on to a case study

-  Suggest ques7ons that delve deeper:

-  In this thesis we found that Reviewing Requirements is cost effec5ve for preven5ng defects.

-  Future work: for all types of defects? Maybe you have a suspicion about something…


Planning -  A plan includes:

-  Reading relevant literature -  A phase of exploratory research

• Either interviews, surveys, … • Perform a trial before the real thing

-  A phase of in-‐depth research • This builds on the findings of the exploratory research

-  No exploratory research only


Manage risk -  In your planning you can have some decision points where you can resort to ‘plan B’


Be realis;c -  Is it realis7c to:

-  Get access to all CIO’s of AEX companies?


Finishing a research project -  The quality of the work determines the grade -  Not how much 7me you spent on it

-  On average thesis projects take longer than 6 months to finish.

-  “Dear supervisor, my project needs to be finished by august.”


Confiden;ality -  We need to be able to assess the difficulty (and amount) of work

-  We will sign an Non-‐disclosure if asked

-  We will not sign off IP

-  We do not provide insurance


Administra;ve procedure -  Send Judith Havelaar an e-‐mail that you would like to join a diploma ceremony

-  Your last grade need to be in 5 weeks before the diploma ceremony


Final Presenta;on & Defense -  Select a date with your supervisors -  Reserve a room

-  Presenta7on: -  about 30 minutes -  ques7ons: un7l the commidee is sa7sfied

-  Send your presenta7on to your supervisor(s) for review


-  BinckBank – rela7on between corporate strategy and IT strategy

-  Walter Kosters / Frank Taakes (LIACS) Social Networks (find company yourself)

-  Pieter Kwantes (ABNAMRO)

Domain Specific Language for Securi7es Trading

-  Thomas Ba”ck -  Op7miza7on , Gene7c Algorithms


-  Chaudron: -  Empirical studies in So\ware Engineering

•  Cost of Quality/Defects over lifecycle

-  Architecture (value, offshore, modeling, reasoning) -  Risk measurement

-  Katzy -  E-‐learning -  Innova7on Management, Entrepreneurship -  Virtual Teams


Other contacts -  ING -  Na7onale Nederlanden -  KPMG -  Heineken -  KLM -  So\ware Improvement Group (SIG) -  Ministry of Finance -  ChipSo\ -  T-‐mobile -  …. -  Check out ICTIB alumni on LinkedIn


Objec;ve -  Execute a small research project

-  Define a research ques7on -  Define a research approach -  Get feedback/review on proposal -  Execute (collect data + analyze) -  Report and present


Ques;ons


Ideas TB -  Give a list of good ICTiB thesis topics which we consider of high quality

-  Outline table of contents of a thesis

-  We could introduce a masterclass ICTiB (similar to the masterclass CS; I am happy

to explain this in further detail)

-  I think we should have topics in collabora7on with industry, may be not

necessarily combined with an internship

-  Emphasize the idea to produce scien7fically publishable work


Ques;ons to address in your plan -‐ A Time plan with intermediate milestones (to monitor the

progress of the project , and to get early warning signals if something goes wrong)

-  What are the necessary resources (data, money, access to

interviewees, IT) and where do you get them from? (to avoid surprises and delays in the process)

-‐ Project risks and how to mi7gate them

(e.g. case/company/person/... disappears, etc.)


Ques;ons to address in your plan -‐ What is the scien7fic domain and what are the literature

keywords and the main literature? (make sure what to contribute to)

-  How does your research relate to the research agenda of the

group? (so that they integrate and re-‐use work instead of repea7ng it endlessly)

-  What is the intended academic contribu7on?

-  What is the intended concrete result?

-‐ What is the research method? (to make sure the work is scien7fically credible/rigorous)

research seminar - thesis projects for ictib

Education

university supervisor

university requirement

ict business leiden

research project nding

research project learning

research approach

small research project

research ques7on dene