TY - GEN
T1 - Practices for Supervising Master's Theses in Company Context
T2 - International Convention on Information, Communication and Electronic Technology
AU - Jaakkola, Hannu
AU - Mikkonen, Tommi
AU - Systä, Kari
AU - Henno, Jaak
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Croatian Society MIPRO.
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - Software Engineering (SE) university students often work part-time during their studies. In this setup the students can reform the practices of companies by transferring what they have learned to companies and correspondingly utilize what they have experienced at work in their studies. This symbiosis often continues as the students begin to work towards their thesis. The topic of the thesis relates to the problems in the company. These topics often solve a practical problem, which are not always in a perfect match with academic expectations. On the one hand the employer has certain expectations in terms of working for the company, whereas the supervising professor needs to follow the university guidelines. In this paper, we study this tension by focusing on the problems appearing in MSc thesis process in company context. We propose ways to act so that the different stakeholders - the student, the professor, and the company - reach the best possible results. We have analyzed the problems and their root causes. We have also taken the first steps toward anti-patterns for analysis and salvaging of the problems. The study is based on the authors' collective supervision experience, which covers over 1000 MSc theses, with the combined supervision experience of over 100 years.
AB - Software Engineering (SE) university students often work part-time during their studies. In this setup the students can reform the practices of companies by transferring what they have learned to companies and correspondingly utilize what they have experienced at work in their studies. This symbiosis often continues as the students begin to work towards their thesis. The topic of the thesis relates to the problems in the company. These topics often solve a practical problem, which are not always in a perfect match with academic expectations. On the one hand the employer has certain expectations in terms of working for the company, whereas the supervising professor needs to follow the university guidelines. In this paper, we study this tension by focusing on the problems appearing in MSc thesis process in company context. We propose ways to act so that the different stakeholders - the student, the professor, and the company - reach the best possible results. We have analyzed the problems and their root causes. We have also taken the first steps toward anti-patterns for analysis and salvaging of the problems. The study is based on the authors' collective supervision experience, which covers over 1000 MSc theses, with the combined supervision experience of over 100 years.
KW - industry-academy collaboration
KW - Software engineering education
KW - thesis supervision
U2 - 10.23919/MIPRO55190.2022.9803528
DO - 10.23919/MIPRO55190.2022.9803528
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85133911035
SP - 609
EP - 614
BT - 2022 45th Jubilee International Convention on Information, Communication and Electronic Technology, MIPRO 2022 - Proceedings
A2 - Vrcek, Neven
A2 - Koricic, Marko
A2 - Gradisnik, Vera
A2 - Skala, Karolj
A2 - Car, Zeljka
A2 - Cicin-Sain, Marina
A2 - Babic, Snjezana
A2 - Sruk, Vlado
A2 - Skvorc, Dejan
A2 - Jovic, Alan
A2 - Gros, Stjepan
A2 - Vrdoljak, Boris
A2 - Mauher, Mladen
A2 - Tijan, Edvard
A2 - Katulic, Tihomir
A2 - Petrovic, Juraj
A2 - Grbac, Tihana Galinac
A2 - Kusen, Benjamin
PB - IEEE
Y2 - 23 May 2022 through 27 May 2022
ER -