Graduation

This page is the starting point for any MBI student wishing to start the graduation project. If you have any questions after reading this page, please contact the Graduation Coordinator at graduateMBI@cs.uu.nl.

Quicklinks

• Planning and procedure - The Planning and Procedure document helps you avoid overruns and explains the full process of graduation 
• Forms mentioned in the procedure can be found here:
  • Graduation request form - To be sent to the student administration before starting.
  • Evaluation form - To be filled out and given to the supervisor before the thesis defense.
  • Old thesis evaluation criteria - For those of you who are interested, please take a look at the old criteria, still used by some.
• FAQ - The FAQ list is found here 
• Previous theses - See all previous MBI theses here
• Scientific paper - Find more information here on writing a scientific paper
• List of projects - Please note a list of projects can be found (recently migrated to Wordpress)here.
• Reference Contract for Companies - If you wish to provide your company with a contract template, please find it here.

Please note that the "previous theses" is only available from within the university, either through a VPN connection or on a UU workstation. 

MBI Procedure Details

There are several additional remarks in regards to the following subjects:

Project Set-up

In the MBI master, the thesis project counts for 40 ECTS (instead of 45 ECTS); the remaining 5 ECTS consist of the MBI Colloquium (4 ECTS), and the Introduction to Business Informatics (1 ECTS) course.

The thesis project generally consists of a trinity: you need a project idea, a graduation advisor, and a graduation project facilitator. In the MBI the project facilitator usually is a company, but under some circumstances the university acts as your facilitator. The predeveloped project ideas come from either companies or professors, which means you only need one other part to start your project. Your own project idea is welcome too, just contact graduateMBI@cs.uu.nl.

Please note that you can always work in the MBI hallway on your project in rooms B221 & B228. For access to the rooms and computers, please view the instructions on the doors of the rooms.

Constraints -> Scope:

Regarding the scope of the final thesis project, the thesis subject should always fit the interest of the O&I-group. Please see the slides of an introductory thesis meeting held in October of 2011. Be careful in giving commitment to a company for thesis project execution, without consulting the O&I-group for research interest match, specifically the O&I-person that has the thesis subject as research interest.

Constraints -> Admission:

In principle, admission to start the final thesis project officially is permitted when you have passed all you courses and is confirmed by the (likely) supervisor of the student, after the supervisor has approved the thesis proposal document. Prior to writing the thesis proposal document, a graduation request (1 A4) needs to be submitted to the graduation coordinator by sending it to graduatembi@cs.uu.nl.

The graduation request should at least contain the following items: problem statement (trigger), research questions, researh approach, main deliverables (max 2 pag).

(Long) Graduation Proposal:

The work plan should be part of the thesis proposal document. E.g. the thesis project can follow the following cycle on which the workplan can be based.

The problem situation occurs in the real world, and is often triggered through a particular company situation (external thesis project), or research activity (internal thesis project). As an MBI student you will abstract this real world situation using theory and models from literature. You may create your own (extension) of theory/models, or use existing theory in a particular unique situation. From the model domain you will try to solve the particular problem through solution finding. Once you have defined your solution in the model world you will implement the solution in the real world and validate your efforts. Note that validation can also take place in the model world or even both worlds. Whether you apply quantitative, qualitative or design research in you thesis project, you can often apply the above generic thesis execuction process. A good example of a work plan can be found here. Find comments included in the document.

The long proposal should at least contain: the problem statement, research questions, research approach (detailed), main deliverables, evaluation method, relevance, most mportant literature, Planning and Deliverables (short), communication, supervisors, references (max 20 pag).

Finalization

Please take into account that for the final presentation there is 30 minutes time for your presentation. This is in conflict with what is mentioned here. The presentation can be in Dutch, but the slides must be in English, in case an english speaker walks in.

Research Methods

Here several links to common research methods are gathered.

• Systematic Literature Review - There is more info available on SLR through this link.