Master Thesis in Software Engineering (PA2403/PA2503/PA2511) (last updated:2013-02-05)

Status | Material | Rubrics | Presentations | FAQ | Starting Thesis at BTH | | Starting Thesis at other University (DD/EMSE) | (Good) Examples | Course development | Scheduled Lectures


Examiner: Tony Gorschek, tony.gorschek [at] bth.se http://www.gorschek.com/

CRITICAL See Presentations & checkpoints below (YOU are responsible for keeping up-to-date!).
CRITICAL See: Guide to Starting your thesis in SE at BTH
CRITICAL See: Guide to Starting your thesis in SE at other Univeristy (only DD/EMSE)

News

2013-02-18: Good examples (proposals, thesis, opposition reports put up!)
2013-02-05: Guidelines for opposition are updated. See guidelines for opposition.
2012-09-05: The course code and course plan has been updated (PA2511). See course plan.
2012-05-21: Research Fair 2012: http://www.bth.se/com/sfr.nsf/pages/com-research-fair-vt2012
2012-03-05: Referencing tips - how to avoid plagarism! See FAQ item 19.
2012-01-08: tips for (Kitchenham) SLR, see: http://www.cse.chalmers.se/~feldt/advice/sysrev_guidelines.html
2012-01-08: guidelines for opposition have been updated.
2011-06-13: checkpoints below updated. Lectures for introduction to master thesis course have been schduled  (ATTEND!).
2011-06-09: see the bullet below on Submission, Grading, and Examination of final thesis...
2011-06-08: the new process (see Guide to Starting your thesis in SE at BTH ) is up, please be patient as all parts of the home page (e.g. FAQ) is not updated yet according to the new process
2011-05-27: the thesis process (how you register, get supervisors etc) is currently under modification! The guides will be updated, follow the guides published at any given time!
2011-02-23: good news! no more hard copies needed, guide for thesis are updated with the new parts of how you submit the final thesis to ArkrivX.
2011-02-23: good input as to what is a good thesis project and what is a bad one LINK.
2010-10-07: Guides updated (one for students doing their thesis at BTH and one for students doing their thesis at other universities (DD/EMSE)).
2010-08-13: The Software Engineering Master Thesis course has been updated and new registrations will be under PA2503 (will replace PA2403). Read the new course descriptor/syllabus! (e.g. new prerequisites for being able to start the course).
2010-06-16: Guide to Starting your thesis in SE and Guide to Starting your thesis in SE at other Univeristy (DD/EMSE) updated (especially important for DD and EMSE).
2010-06-15: LaTex Thesis template available, see Thesis (LaTex).
2010-01-29: Updates to how and when you can register on the master thesis course and start your thesis, see under "Starting your thesis & Finding a topic" below.
2010-01-29: Updates to the thesis template (new structure for abstract).
2010-01-14: Updated version of the Guidelines for Opposition added.
2010-01-14: Lecture slides updated, see Lecture 1 and Lecture 2 and a rejoinder example was added (see Step 19 in Guide to Starting your thesis in SE).
2010-01-12: Process description updated. See Process description.
2009-12-15: Tony Gorschek takes over Master Thesis Course and Examination.
2009-12-09: Specific rules for EMSE students doing their Master thesis have now been added. Talk to your EMSE coordinator if you have further questions.
2009-10-15: Examples page updated with an academic thesis example as well as two external theses.
2009-09-24: There is a new thesis topic from Ericsson listed here (look under Lars Lundberg) if you have not yet found a topic (and have the right prior experience!).
2009-09-10: Guide to Starting your thesis added.
2009-08-21: Preliminary date for January 2010 presentation added! These might still change so you should not yet do detailed planning based on them!
2009-03-05: Thesis presentation for June 2009 have been moved to 9th of June!
2009-02-16: Added page with examples of thesis projects
2009-02-03: Thesis supervisors for spring 09 have been assigned. Check list! Contact your supervisor ASAP for first meeting!
2008-09-30: Martin Baumer and Patrick Siedler's thesis was awarded a stipend from Sparbanksstiftelsen Kronan!
2008-06-27: Phd positions are now listed on this page.
2008-05-13: "Death by Powerpoint" - great tips for how you should NOT present your thesis
2008-04-25: Added pdf with advice for successfull thesis projects.
2008-04-23: Added another HMT example thesis on HMT page. Text version of Thesis Rubric added.
2008-02-19: Link to presentation podcasts from IEEE Professional Communication Society. Good advice for your presentations.

Presentations & checkpoints

OBSERVE. The checkpoints below are continous. That is if you miss to get your thesis Proposal OK by one date then you automatically roll over to the next. You continue working as normal (no change in supervisor etc) even if you miss a checkpoint. This also means that when your proposal is OK:ed by the supervisor you can earliest present/defend your thesis 15 weeks later. As a student you are allowed to miss three (3) checkpoints then you risk getting failed which means that you have to start over the course from scratch (new supervisor, new partner). If this happens you have to wait until the next course start (Sep or Jan each year).

Presentation date
(P)
 Proposal OK
(P -15weeks)
 Final draft to Supervisor
(P -3weeks)
 Supervisor: "Ok for Presentation"
(P -2weeks)
 Report to opponents
(P -1week)
2012-12-17 and 2012-12-18** 2012-09-03
 2012-11-26 2012-12-03 2012-12-10
2013-01-28 and 29***
 2012-10-15
 2013-01-07 2013-01-14 2013-01-21
2013-03-26 and 27***
 2012-12-11
 2013-03-05 2013-03-12 2013-03-19
2013-06-03 and 04***
 2013-02-18
 2013-05-13 2013-05-20 2013-05-27
2013-09-09 and 10
 2013-05-27
 2013-08-19 2013-08-26 2013-09-02
2013-12-16 and 17
 2013-09-02
 2013-11-25 2013-12-02 2013-12-09

*Presentation will be in Room J1630 at Campus Gräsvik, Karlskrona
**Presentation will be in Room J1610 at Campus Gräsvik, Karlskrona
*** Presentation will be in Room  J1650 at Campus Gräsvik, Karlskrona

Submission, Grading and Examination (of final thesis)

After the thesis defense, you should use input from the opponents, examiner, general QnA during the defense, as input for improving your thesis. Talk to your supervisor.
Once the final version of your thesis is finished send it to your Supervisor AND the Examiner in PDF. Format the file name according to "ThesisNo_Sirname_Sirname2.pdf", e.g. "MSE-2011:7_Gorschek_Svahnberg.pdf". Do not forget, all communication with (email) Examiner should contain 1. Student name(s), 2. Soc. Sec. No., 3. Email(s), 4. Thesis Ref. No., 5. Thesis Title. When the Supervisor and Examiner have recieved the final thesis the thesis will be graded according to the following process: Supervisor and an independent Faculty Reviewer will evaluate the thesis using the thesis rubric. The evaluations and a grade recommendations is then sent to the Examiner, who evaluates and grades the final thesis (using the recommendations as input). Observe, that the final grade is often reached in agreement between the Examiner, the Supervisor and the Faculty Reviewer, however, formally the Examiner decides.
The point of having three senior researchers grading every thesis is to assure that subjectivity and bias is minimized, and that all are treated as fairly as possible. The drawback is that the grading process can take a little time. A tip, talk to your supervisor, and ask your supervisor to push if grading takes too long. You should be able to expect a grade within 1-2 months of handing in your final thesis (allow for vacations etc).

Presentation schedule (latest always up)

http://iaser.tek.bth.se/pa2403/studinfo/presentations.html

Starting your thesis & Finding a topic

The master thesis course in SE starts two times a year, in January and in September. At these times you will get information and preparation lectures, and it is during Jan-Feb and Sep-Oct you can register on the course and be assigned a supervisor and formally start your work.
However, it is always a good idea to start your thesis work well before the formal start date. A tip is to think about a topic, write a short description of your ideas (like a thesis proposal) and talk to supervisors that might be interested. That way you will be well under your way to start your project when the official time comes! Thus, don't wait, but get started!

Guide to Starting your thesis in SE at BTH (step-by-step instructions!)

Guide to Starting your thesis in SE at other university (DD and EMSE only) (step-by-step instructions!)

Special rules/requirements for students of the EMSE program.

Course development

Course material

You should have studied all of these. You should not ask questions that are trivially answered in these. Please follow this so that we can focus our efforts on really helping you with "harder" and more important issues.

Rubrics for grading and feedback

Supervisors

Scheduled lectures

The lectures will go through what is expected from you when doing a master thesis (practical process etc), but also tips and successfactors. It is HIGHT recommended that you attend the lectures!
Introduction lectures are given in Jan and Sep (normally). If you want, and can collect a group of people, just send an email to me (Tony Gorschek), and I will schedule an extra lecture. This can be intro or general QnA.