5.6 Tips & tricks
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An external project is more challenging than an internal TUDl project. You may experience one or more of the following:
1) Confidentiality-Non-disclosure Agreement issues (advice).
2) Balancing science and practice from start to finish. As project leader you have to find a compromise. To give direction: The scientific perspective is visible in the way you analyse the problem, your choice and application of methods, the way you collect and analyse data, your evaluation, conclusions and recommendations and your scientific reflection. The practical perspective is visible in the way you describe the company and its context, how you collect data, communicate with company staff, write an implementation plan and in your practical reflection. See the TIL Thesis Rubric for these aspects of your work.
3) Data accessibility and quality. As you already experienced in your TIL Design project, collecting data can be very time consuming and even then data quality can be (far) below your requirements. Familiar situations are the following:
a. Data is collected, but not for your purpose, or not systematic; data sets are unreliable, incomplete or scattered over several databases. Then you have clean up the data using statistical or other filtering techniques. Next you fill in the blanks by collecting data yourself or if this is impractical, by using assumptions and estimations. With time series, try for instance extrapolation. Ask your supervisors or specialist lecturers/researchers at TUD if you lack the knowledge or skills to do this;
b. Another problem can be that data is available, but that the data owner (internal or external to the company) is not willing to cooperate with you. If your company supervisor is not able to solve this issue, then ask your supervisors for advice as in a.
c. If numerical data is not available, choose qualitative data and analysis methods. A good qualitative approach is better than a crippled quantitative approach.*In any case, start data collection as early as possible and limit the time for data collection to a few weeks.
4) Work on other, unrelated, projects. Students are very convenient for carrying out all kinds of small tasks in a company. If it does not take too much time, there's nothing against it. But as soon as it becomes regular and takes more than a few hours per week, say no.
5) Related to 4), sometimes your work place is not the right one. You can be too far from decision makers, from your supervisor or the place is too noisy or there are other inconveniences, such as regular insults by 'co-workers'. Ask your company supervisor ASAP for another work place. Discuss with your TUD supervisors if necessary.
6) Supervision issues (non-TUD). We have had cases, where the company supervisor was very talkative during the official meetings (kick-off etc.), but did not do anything to support a student. This will certainly influence your results. A partially similar situation might occur if your supervisor left the organisation because of a new job. Sometimes he/she stays on as an outsider and helps you to finish your project. In another case, you may get a new supervisor or manager (with a different perspective on the project). Discuss with your TUD supervisors.
7) Company management issues. The reasons why companies seek external advice may be diverse. They range from a lack of time or specialists, creativity, budget, negative experience with consultants or internal 'political status quo' or second opinion. We have experiences where the company lacked leadership and the student was unable to find direction. Discuss with your TUD supervisors.
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Here you can find some additional information regarding your thesis report(s).
Comprehensive research guide: USC Librairies
Mandatory course TIL4020-20 to improve your skills in literature analysis and writing.
Argumentation and logic:
- https://jerz.setonhill.edu/writing/argument/building.html;
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8J63hWQw2hU;
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KKsLuRPsvU;
- https://penandthepad.com/create-argumentative-thesis-statement-4609.html.
Writing excellence: www.tudelft.nl/writingcentre.
English writing:- https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/grammar-and-vocabulary;
- http://www.learnenglish.de/grammarpage.html;
- http://languagelearningbase.com/87546/grammar-and-spelling-rules-for-your-cv.
References: here.
An all-in-one website.
Report length
Writing in a concise way is a sign that you fully master the core subject of your thesis. Our advice is to limit your final report to 80-120 pages; 80 pages main text and 40 pages appendices, including your research paper, in-depth information about research tools, overview of formulas and data etc. Larger reports serve no purpose. You actually waste time. Your supervisors don't have the time to read reports the size of a telephone book either. -
Some chairs and supervisors don't want a presentation, because they read you report in detail. Ask about their preferences before you prepare your sheets. Also ask one supervisor to comment on your draft sheets to correct things you forgot, mistakes, made things too complicated or made it too long. Sheets also change from meeting to meeting, You can't present the whole story anymore once you are past the mid-term meeting. In a green light report, you summarize what you did before the meeting and focus on the results (and conclusions). In a final thesis meeting you do the same with your green light report results and focus on everything after it.
Useful presentation tools and more tips can be found here:
Dynamic scientific presentations
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A graduation project is in many ways different from your previous student experience. Key differences, potential pitfalls and tips to deal with them are given here.
1) There is a lot of freedom. Positive: You can scope the project to your own needs and capabilities. Negative: Not everyone can handle this amount of freedom and some are quite task-oriented. Take sufficient time for scoping. It is better to start with a reduced scope, than to promise a lot in order to convince a commissioner, but later on you can't deliver. Discuss your uncertainties with your supervisors.
2) There are various forms of uncertainty: Content, supervision, company, your personal uncertainties and other private issues. Uncertainty can be reduced by active project planning, good communication with all involved, assertiveness and expectations management. Promise what you feel comfortable with to deliver.
3) You have to work on your own. You can't rely on team mates, but you can rely on many supervisors, you can contact other staff at the university and in the external organisation. You can download reports from the repository, from libraries, from the Internet. You can contact their authors and other students. You can also learn new things.
4) You are Gen Z. Internet, multi-tasking, constant following of peers and many similar treats are in your routines. Being offline, single tasking and minimal comparison of your own work with what other students are (seemingly) achieving is part of a successful thesis project, however. Concentrate on your project and switch-off from time-consuming alternatives to get into flow.
5) You have to deal with many advisors. Many people, many different opinions. You are project manager, which means that you decide what you do with the advice you receive. Use the meetings with your supervisors to reach common ground. If the positions remain too far apart and affect your progress seriously, then contact a TIL Graduation Coordinator to see if external intervention is needed.
6) You may have taken too much work on your shoulders. If you gradually feel that the work is too much in terms of size or you can't manage the (proposed) methods etc., then the best way is to be open about it and share your feelings with your supervisors. In many cases they are not aware of psychological issues of their students and usually willing to help you. Any project can be refocussed if the situation demands it.
7) You are uncertain about your results and how they are valued and assessed by your supervisors. Your project gets its form gradually. From the way your supervisors approach your work you can get some idea how they value your work. You can also ask them how your work compares to the work of others. Read the TIL Thesis Grading Rubric to see what elements should be included and which criteria are used to assess your work.
8) If you don't know how to use your time effectively and efficiently, then the best way is to make a short list with priorities. Take the biggest tasks first, not the smallest, easiest, ones. Work steadily. Postponing things does not help. Making excessive working weeks does not either. Unlike your exam schedule where you have the typical peaks and valleys, this is more the way a long distance runner approaches his/her job. Take regular breaks, like a short vacation, relax with friends or family. Don't push yourself over limits, take a break and then the energy returns for the next step. Detailed time management is counter productive; sooner or later you will reach a burnout. Learn to work smart by a good organisation of your work and of the people that provide you with information. Say yes to challenges that you can meet and no if you can't.
9) Managing your project also means managing your private affairs. Yes, your friends and relatives will see and hear less from you for some time. Accept it and make them aware of the future benefits.
10) Finally, if you worry because results do not come as expected and time is running out, then think about it this way. There are situations that you can control and there are also situations which you can't. If you have good supervision, rich data and the right tools, then life is easier than when you experience the opposite. A commissioner may not be satisfied with your work, but if he or she did not provide you with the right data and/or sufficient supervision, are you then the one to blame? In either case a good description of and reflection on how you carried out your project will help you to get an objective assessment.
A thesis project topic can be very interesting. There are however some hurdles to take. Some are better than others in this.
As in any project, planning is a vital activity. But how do you plan a large project, like a thesis?
The master programme officially has a length of two years. Six of these twenty-four months is reserved for a thesis, right?
The answer is no, because a thesis project takes much more time. To start with, what do you take as the starting point of a thesis project? Is it the day you start thinking about it for the first time or when you seriously start with your project preparations? Or is it the scheduled kick-off date?
Then, a thesis project is not a simple extension of your previous courses. If you are so fortunate to continue with a subject you already took in an earlier course, then you are lucky. However, most students have to start from scratch. This means that you have to face a long list of uncertainties. Most of you will master them, but this takes effort and time.The following is an overview of the most relevant ones:
- Finding a commissioners and topics is not like picking something from a shelf in a (virtual) supermarket. You have to do a lot of work to get on board. You may get many rejections, even at a crucial moment.
- Writing a sufficient project proposal takes a lot of time.
- Lecturers (professors) may or may not like your first ideas (if you have them). It takes time to convince them that you found a research gap. That explains the advice to prepare yourself by readling literature, search the repository, contact a graduation coordinator, before you contact potential supervisors.
- You experience that the master programme is actually a set of introductions into a certain field or topic. The interdisciplinary nature of the programme and diversity of teaching staff goes along with a lack of integrating theories. As a result, many students struggle with their literature study. What theories did I study earlier (when: BSc or MSc?)? Are there also others? Help, which of these should I apply?
Then, there is the relative value of a literature study. After reading through a pile of scientific papers, most of you realise that most authors reduce reality rather considerably and sometimes even misrepresent it (ivory tower behaviour). Finding a paper that matches your case is rare, but you can at least learn from the approach, the use of theories and methods and the way data is used.
- The tools you became familiar with in your earlier courses may not always work in practice. Many companies and government organisations lack data-driven management. If data is collected, then it frequently turns out that what is in their databases (or heads) does not reflect the reality you experience (during your problem analysis). This is frequently a main reason why the organisation has the problem. The data quality may also not match with your (software-)technical requirements. This means that you do not get the data you need for your project. A major cause of delay in a thesis project is data collection and analysis, due to waiting for non-available data and finding a way to compensate this.
- You could have a mismatch with your external commissioner. For instance, you aim to carry out a technical analysis, but your commissioner is a policy person.
- In most other courses, you worked at least in pairs. Here you have to work on your own. You have to cope with your weak points.
- You may be asked to do carry out small tasks, not related to your project. Advice: Don't, because you will loose many weeks in this way. Add a clause in your graduation contract to restrict or prevent it.
- You may have supervisors with rather different opinions. How do you find a middle of the road?
- You may experience health or other private problems or your relatives and friends may.
- The preparation period is usually drastically extended due to unfinished courses.
- There are vacation breaks, in particular the summer period. It is difficult or even impossible to plan one of the four official meetings in the summer break. Supervision is also a challenge.
Advice
The average time spent is far more than 6 months. 8-10 months is more realistic, with outliers. Do not postpone, but start your preparations early.
Discuss your uncertainties and questions regularly with your supervisors. Graduation coordinator dr. Fazi may be next in line to advise you.
Success with your project.