Supervising Diplom Projects at the Chair for Applied Software Engineering (DRAFT)
DRAFT This page is under construction and does not constitute official policy of the chair for applied software engineering. DRAFT
Discuss this topic in the section below or by sending mail to Martin Bauer? and Allen Dutoit.
Draft Status and Open Issues
- We still need to figure out how the global list of DAs would look like and if whether or not SEPs should be merged into it. See this page for a mockup and discussion.
- A couple of additional sections could be added for special cases, such as how to run and grade group DAs, what are the constraints associated with external DAs. Volunteers wanted for writing these sections.
- Could use the same or a similar template for SEP and DA Wiki topics. The current SEP template proposal can be seen here.
--
AllenDutoit - 21 Jul 2003
Audience
This handbook topic is intended for supervisors of Diplom projects (Diplomarbeiten) at the chair for applied software engineering. Following the process outlined below will minimize the problems encountered during the project and during the grading. It will also result in better visibility and archival of Diplom projects.
Stakeholders
- The professor (Aufgabensteller[in]) sets the scope of the topic and grades the thesis.
- The student realizes the project and learns something in the process.
- The supervisor (Betreuer[in]) monitors the status of the project, advises the student, and reviews of the thesis (and also learns something in the process).
- The rest of the chair who may contribute to the Diplom project or may generally be interested in learning about it.
Prerequisites
Diplom projects at the chair for applied software engineering usually feature substantial system design and programming work. In many cases, this is the first opportunity for the student to work independently on the development of a complete system and to make system level decision. For this reason and from past experience, it is strong recommended that the student's programming skills are up to par before the start of the Diplom project. Moreover, a Diplom project is a full-time activity and can easily consume more time than planned.
Hence, the following preconditions:
- the student completed an SEP
- the student completed a software engineering (or similar) praktikum
- the student either completed the DHP or plans to take the DHP after the submission of the thesis.
- the student does not have a full-time job unrelated to the Diplom project
Diplom Wiki topics
All Diplom topics, available, in progress, or completed, should be documented as a Wiki topic. The Diplom Wiki topic serves as a home page for the Diplom project and includes links to all relevant material, such as thesis, software products, and links into the CVS/SVN repository.
This makes the Diplom topic visible to interested students, to the chair, and provides a standardized mechanism for archiving Diplom projects. Using Wiki as opposed to CVS or SVN also makes it possible for external Diplom projects to be tracked in a uniformed matter.
DiplomTopicTemplate should be copied when creating a new Diplom Wiki topic. As the Diplom topic is assigned, started, and archived, the relevant sections should be filled or commented. For an example of completed Diplom Wiki Topic, check
Rationale-Based Analysis Tool (Timo Wolf).
Announcing Topics
All Diplom topics start with a tentative title and an abstract. When announcing a topic, do the following:
(to be done: global chair list of topic, link to the drehscheibe)
Project Statement
The scope of the work should be agreed upon with the professor, the supervisor, and the student before the start of the project. To ensure that there is a mutual understanding, the student should write a 1-2 page problem statement describing:
- The problem addressed
- An outline of the solution (e.g., a top-level design)
- An initial timeline with milestones
Some tips for time estimates:
- Writing a Diplom thesis takes at least 4 weeks and more typically 6.
- After the problem statement is written, a typical software development thesis spends at least 4-6 weeks in requirements and technology survey.
The professor approves the topic before the project statement presentation and the registration. The professor will not approve a topic solely based on the title.
The student includes the problem statement as a pdf attachment or as plain text in the DA Wiki topic. The milestones are included as a table in the Diplom Wiki topic.
Project statement presentation
A short 20 minute presentation of the problem statement to the rest of the chair is required. This enables the professor and the supervisor to provide feedback on the project if necessary. Other participants at the chair to become aware of the project and, if interested, contribute to the project. Finally, students have the opportunity to practice their presentation skills before the final presentation.
The presentation should occur within the first month of the project. The student attaches a pdf of the slides to the DA Wiki topic.
Registration
The form for the registration can be found at:
http://wwwpa.in.tum.de/inf-diplom/Aushaenge/anmeldungDA.html
The form should include the title of the thesis (English and German). Three copies are needed:
- the original for Frau Maschmeyer, at the Board of Examination (Prüfungsamt)
- a copy for Monika Markl, for the chair records
- a copy for Martin Bauer for the planning of the teaching obligations.
For internal projects, the formal registration should be done before the project is started. For external projects, the registration should be done after the student resolved all infrastructure issues (key, account, pay, housing) with the company and shortly after the work starts. This ensures that the required time for the thesis is available.
Tips:
- Do not register a DA retroactively. It confuses everybody and doesn't accomplish anything.
Supervision
Once the topic is defined, the supervision of the project is the most critical aspect in providing an educational opportunity for the student (briefly: students need feedback).
Internal Diplom projects typically have weekly status meetings. External projects can have as little as one meeting every two or three weeks, because the daily supervision is assumed by the company.
Tips:
- Schedule a one-hour weekly meeting. If the meeting is not needed, it can be easily shortened or canceled.
- Have the student send a brief agenda (e.g., a 5-line email) with the list of topics before the meeting.
- Use concrete artifacts (e.g., diagrams, demos, source code) as support for the meeting. This forces both supervisor and student to confront upcoming issues.
- If a student cancels more than two meetings in a row, start worrying. There may be a personal issue that would justify requesting an extension.
Thesis
The Diplom thesis is the formal deliverable of the project that is used for grading the work. Other aspects (e.g., final presentation, software deliverable, observation from the supervisor) may affect the grade, however, the thesis is the main document that weighs on the grade. In other words, a well-polished and usable software product without a thesis constitute a failure of the Diplom project.
The thesis should include a description of the problem, the approach, the solution, and an evaluation of the solution. Optionally, the thesis can include a description of the problem domain, but this should not represent more than a chapter.
The evaluation chapter of the thesis is the most important, since it describes the status of the project and the student's own assessment of whether or not the original goals were met. There are good Diplom projects that do not meet their original goals, because the goals were ambitious. However, a good thesis always include an evaluation chapter, as self-assessment is a critical step for the student to absorb the lessons learned.
A typical thesis can be anywhere between 60 and 110 pages, excluding appendices. In all cases, the main body of the thesis should not exceed 110 pages. Longer documents are not justified for a six-month project. When the thesis is too long, the student should move non essential material into the appendix or summarize. In all cases, the content is graded, not the number of pages.
The student submits two hardcopies of the thesis to the board of examination on or before the due date and two hard copies to the chair (one for the professor and one for the supervisor). A requirement that is often overlooked is that the title and the name of the student should be printed on the edge of the thesis.
Upon formal submission, a pdf of the thesis should be attached to the DA Wiki topic and the source of the thesis should be checked in CVS/SVN.
Tips:
- The supervisor should provides feedback a chapter at the time, as it is written. This motivates the student, improves the thesis quality, and forces the supervisor to read the entire thesis before the submission. This is necessary for the grading to occur soon after the final presentation.
- Provide feedback on both language and content.
- Encourage the student to start writing early. A good thesis takes at least four weeks to write on an accelerated schedule.
- The student should not include the source code in the thesis appendix, instead, it should be submitted in CVS or SVN or burned on CD-ROM.
Final presentation
The final presentation summarizes the problem, solution, approach, and contribution of the thesis. The presentation lasts 20 minutes with 10 minutes for questions. Minimally, the professor and the supervisor for the thesis are present to the final presentation, since it can affect the final grade. The other members and students at the chair are encouraged to attend.
Naoufel Boulila schedules final presentations and reserves the room. He announces the presentation approximately one week before the presentation via the chair discussion notes bboard. Ideally, the final presentation should occur within 2 weeks after the thesis is submitted, so that the student prepares the presentation with the context.
The student links the slides for the final presentation (source and pdf) into the Diplom project Wiki topic before the final presentation. This ensures that the slides are not lost and that the correct version of the slides are captured.
Tips:
- Have a dry run of the final presentation with the supervisor and the student. This will address any problem with the form beforehand (e.g., typos on the slides, diagrams that are too small) and have the audience focus on the content.
Grading
Diplom students are graded by the professor based on input from the supervisor and on the professor's own review of the thesis and the final presentation.
The grade constitutes the formal feedback of the professor to students on their performance. To minimize surprises and manage the expectations of all three stakeholders, it is critical that the student and the professor are kept up to date during the project about the current progress. In particular, it is critical to communicate negative feedback (in the form of a constructive criticism) early enough in the project. For problem cases, requiring a midterm presentation with the professor and the supervisor can be an effective way at communicating feedback and suggested remedies.
Shortly before the final presentation, the supervisor sends the professor a review of the thesis. This is normally done with a 1-page email. It provides context to the professor before the presentation and allows for a quick resolution of the grade shortly after the presentation.
The review should address the following:
- Project information (title, student, type of DA)
- Proposed grade
- Summary of the topic
- Summary of the results
- Summary of the student's approach
- Evaluation of thesis (as a document)
- Evaluation of the project and justification for the grade
(to be done: example evaluation with names removed)
The professor and supervisor meet briefly after the presentation to settle the grade. The grade is communicated to Monika Markl. Once the student completes the DHP, the board of examination will send a form to the chair to request the grade.
Project Archiving
The supervisor makes sure the Diplom Wiki topic includes the thesis, the final slides, and links to the appropriate work products in the repository. After the final presentation, the supervisor moves the link to the Diplom Wiki topic from the current projects section to the completed projects section.
Discussion on Page with Theses Offers
Below are three different mockups for the global list of theses, including available thesis topics and theses in progress. There are two end users in mind:
- The student looking for a topic, checking the list of available topics and the topics in progress to get an idea whether or not s/he wants to work for the chair.
- The chair member becoming aware of existing topics or past topics that could facilitate his or her research.
Proposals:
- Most recent first: Our recent work is usually better and more relevant than our past work. -- AllenDutoit - 21 Jul 2003
- ACK -- MartinBauer? - 25 Jul 2003
- Few lists: Many lists are harder to keep up to date. A single list could also create opportunities for topics that cross groups. -- AllenDutoit - 21 Jul 2003
- ACK -- MartinBauer? - 25 Jul 2003
- Short enough that a student can scan through it (e.g., 1 screen height for available topics, 1 screen height for in progress topics). -- AllenDutoit - 21 Jul 2003
- This depends on the number of available theses, does it? -- MartinBauer? - 25 Jul 2003
- Keep SEP and the rest separate, as SEPs have a tendency to be (or should be) more programming exercises while the others are theses. -- AllenDutoit - 21 Jul 2003
- ACK -- MartinBauer? - 25 Jul 2003
Other Issues:
- Should there be the possibility to add kind of abstract projects, similar to "Several User Interface Related Theses: ask DWARF.ChristianSandor?" ? -- MartinBauer? - 25 Jul 2003
Table
List
cat tmp.txt | awk 'BEGIN {FS=";"} {print " * " $4 ", " $5 ", " $6 "<br> [[DiplomTopicTemplate][" $7" ]] <br> _" $3 "; " $1 "-" $2 "_ " } END' | pbcopy
Overview List
(see current chair's page with list of theses)
Using Form Fields
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