The presentation is devoted to the topic of introducing practically oriented thesis writing in the Department of Computer and Systems Sciences of Stockholm University. The paper considers both legal and practical aspects of introducing practically oriented thesis. The material is based partly on the literature study, and partly on the experience of supervising practically oriented BS and MS thesis in the department. The research presented in this paper is of the Action Research type. The paper introduces a rough classification of practically oriented thesis, and discusses problems that need to be solved, such as proper disposition, grading, and method-related courses

1. DSV SU
RESEARCH-ORIENTED PRACTICAL
PROBLEM SOLVING AS A LEARNING
GOAL FOR THESIS COURSES
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Ilia Bider, Paul Johannesson
12th IADIS International
Conference on
Information Systems 2019
Article text:
http://bit.ly/2JgF4kQ
http://bit.ly/2JgF4kQ

2. 7/4/2019 Ilia Bider and Paul Johannesson, DSV SU
Background
1. Organization:
• Department of Computer and System Sciences (DSV) at SU
• Teaching (BS,MS, PhD) + Research
• 5 400 students, 180 Staff members
2. Thesis projects
• About 180 new thesis project is started per year about 130 BS and about 50 MS
• Majority of the projects are of a small (pseudo) research projects of empirical
character
3. The majority of the students work in the industry
• Never do anything of the sort that resembles an empirical thesis project
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Practical considerations
1. There are no legal requirements (at least in Sweden) that
prohibits having practically oriented thesis projects.
2. The research oriented thesis prevail due to tradition/culture
rather than any practical difficulties in having practically oriented
thesis
3. Actually Swedish regulations prescribes the education having
both a scientific base, and being related to practice.
4. Swedish companies and organizations are ready to take accept
students for practical MS thesis work
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Relevant literature
Comes from the educational domain and concern doctoral education.
"Although many doctoral mentors doubtless have misgivings about training someone to do
research who is not going into professional research, such misgivings have not translated
into organized efforts at change or even much public deliberation on the subject"
Archbald, D., 2008. Research Versus Problem Solving for the Education Leadership
Doctoral Thesis: Implications for Form and Function. Educational Administration Quarterly,
44(5), pp.704-39.
Archbald, D., 2010. “Breaking the Mold” in the Dissertation: Implementing a Problem-
Based, Decision-Oriented Thesis Project. The Journal of Continuing Higher Education, 58,
58(2), pp.99–107.
Belzer, A. & Ryan, S., 2013. Defining the Problem of Practice Dissertation: Where’s the
Practice, What’s the Problem? Planning and Changing, 44(3/4), pp.195–207.
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Difference between theoretical vs practical thesis
1. Pragmatic problem, not theoretical question
2. Multiple questions, not a single “hypothesis” or
research question
3. Persuasion, not proof
4. Recommended actions, not conclusions
5. Professional report, not a research monograph
From:
Archbald, D., 2008. Research Versus Problem Solving for the Education Leadership Doctoral
Thesis: Implications for Form and Function. Educational Administration Quarterly, 44(5), pp.704-
39.
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Satisfying the requirements - a classification
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The education having both a scientific base, and being related to practice
Higher Education Ordinance

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Example 1 –Testing a theory
Business case - IT consulting company
Business goal - Analyze communication in
business processes and suggest
improvements
Theory - A LAP based theory for analyzing
communication capabilities of business
process support systems
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Example 2 – Finding a theory
Business case – Manufacturing company
Business goal – Find the cases behind a
dysfunctional business process
Theory – Several approaches to process
modeling have been used to analyze the
causes and suggest ways of solving the
problem
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Example 3 – Finding areas of applicability of a
theory
Business case – IT solution provider
Business goal – None from the company
Theory – Fractal Enterprise Model (FEM)
Research goal – find new areas of
applicability for FEM
http://bit.ly/2IvlylQ http://bit.ly/2IvlylQ
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Practical thesis disposition/template (1/3)
1. Introduction that includes a short description of:
 Business settings
 Problem to solve, if any, or task to complete
 Theory to test if any
 Goal to reach or a question to answer
 Limitation of the work
 Disposition of the rest of the report
2. Extended background that includes information needed for the reader to understand and
assess the rest of the text. Extended background includes a more detailed description of:
 Business case
 Problem to solve, if any, including review of the literature devoted to the problem
 Review of accepted in practice solutions for the problem, if relevant
 Theory or theories, methods, techniques, etc. used in the thesis work
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Practical thesis disposition/template (2/3)
3. Method that includes:
 Description of the empirical base for completing the work and how it has been obtained, e.g.
interviews, surveys, observations, reading the internal documents. These should include
argumentation why particular methods have been chosen, mentioning also the reason why
other possible methods have not been used.
 Description of a process as a series of steps, possibly with interactions, to show how the results
have been obtained. This can be illustrated by a simplified flowchart.
4. Findings that dependent on the type of work and goal/question (from Section 1) may include:
 Identified causes for a problem
 Suggested solution
 Suitability of certain theories, methods for a specific task
To each item on the findings list, there should be detailed explanation on how it was obtained
supported by facts gathered during the fieldwork, models built in the process, etc. Lengthy
technical details could be moved to appendixes.
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Practical thesis disposition/template (3/3)
5. Assessment of practical usefulness that should include description of:
 How the results have been presented to the management and workers
 How the feedback from the organization has been gathered, e.g. discussions after
presentation, interviews, survey, etc.
 Detailed description of the feedback received
 If relevant and possible any kind of benchmarking the results
6. Own reflections on the thesis project that may include:
 Difficulties/challenges encountered in the process of completing the work
 Personal preferences to certain theories, methods
 Knowledge and skills acquired in the process
7. Conclusion:
 Summary of results achieved
 What else could be done in the project, provided that more time and resources are assigned to
it
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Work to be done
1. Design specialized templates according to the project
types
2. Adapt grading criteria to include the new type of thesis.
3. Aligned methodology courses to practically oriented
thesis projects
4. Investigate the impact on students learning through
surveys/ interviews with current and former students.
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Opinions from other Swedish
IS departments
http://bit.ly/2NF4MQg
http://bit.ly/2NF4MQg

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Q & A
Thank you for your time and patience
Questions and comments
Please complete the form
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Contact:
ilia@dsv.su.se