Things to consider when writing a thesis
Write a Four Sentence Abstract “Kent Beck” Style
In 1993, Kent Beck suggested how to get a paper accepted at the OOPSLA conference. In essence, he suggested to write a four sentence abstract:
The first states the problem. The second states why the problem is a problem. The third is my startling sentence. The fourth states the implication of my startling sentence.
Try to use this as a tool, when starting your writing process or when elaborating potential different “stories” of your thesis. It will improve your entire document since it forces you to be clear in thoughts.
Template
I suggest that you write your thesis using a template of a relevant conference or journal. Also, I suggest that you follow their recommendations of number of pages. However, for your theses, the number of pages is only a guideline. If you really need more space, use more pages.
For theses that I supervise, relevant conferences could be:
- The International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE): Find a link to their LaTeX template and page limit here
- The Mining Software Repositories (MSR): Find a link to their LaTeX template and page limit here
- The International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement (ESEM): Find a link to their LaTeX template and page limit here
- The International Conference on Agile Software Development (XP): Find a link to their LaTeX template and page limit here
Guides to Conduct Software Engineering Experiments
- Ko, Amy J., Thomas D. LaToza, and Margaret M. Burnett. “A practical guide to controlled experiments of software engineering tools with human participants”
- Juristo, Natalia, and Ana M. Moreno. “Basics of software engineering experimentation”
- Wohlin, Claes, et al. “Experimentation in software engineering”
- Basili, Victor R., Richard W. Selby, and David H. Hutchens. “Experimentation in software engineering.”
Examples of Previous Theses
BSc SWU
- Alexander Grønnegaard Nielsen and Rumle Sakarias Flanding “License incompatibilities in open source projects”
- Caspar Marschall, Christoffer Kjærsgaard Gram, Frederik Rothe, and Jakob Lyngsie Hjalgrim “Prototyping and Technical Evaluation of a Parameterizable Software Quality Assessment Tool”
- Benjamin Lindgren Christensen and Christian Skovsgaard Rieck “Estimating runtime code reuse of Node.js dependencies via dynamic analysis”