Thesis
Formatting
Please consider the following hints and guidelines for working on your thesis:
- The thesis has to be written using the \documentclass[preprint,review,12pt]{elsarticle} Latex template. You can use the overleaf template for writing your thesis.
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A bachelor thesis has a page limit of 40 pages text (not including cover, table of content, references, appendices).
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A master thesis has a page limit of 80 pages text (not including cover, table of content, references, appendices).
Prerequisites
The candidate is expected to be familiar with the general rules of writing a scientific paper. Some general references are helpful for framing any thesis, no matter which topic:
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Jan Recker: Scientific Research in Information Systems: A Beginner’s Guide. Springer, Heidelberg, Germany (2012). www.springer.com/business+%26+management/business+information+systems/book/978-3-642-30047-9#
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Jan Mendling, Benoit Depaire, Henrik Leopold: Theory and Practice of Algorithm Engineering. Arxiv Report 2021. https://arxiv.org/abs/2107.10675
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Ken Peffers, Tuure Tuunanen, Marcus A. Rothenberger, Samir Chatterjee: A Design Science Research Methodology for Information Systems Research. J. of Management Information Systems 24(3): 45-77 (2008). http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.535.7773&rep=rep1&type=pdf
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Barbara Kitchenham, Rialette Pretorius, David Budgen, Pearl Brereton, Mark Turner, Mahmood Niazi, Stephen G. Linkman: Systematic literature reviews in software engineering - A tertiary study. Information & Software Technology 52(8): 792-805 (2010). www.cin.ufpe.br/~in1037/leitura/Kitchenham%202010%20-%20tertiary%20study.pdf
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Lagendijk, Ad. Survival Guide for Scientists: Writing, Presentation, Email. Amsterdam University Press, 2008.
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Adam LeBrocq: Journal of the Association for Information Systems Style Guide. http://aisel.aisnet.org/jais/JAIS_Style_Guide_2013.pdf In agreement with the supervisor an individual list of expected readings should be studied by the student in preparation of the actual work on the thesis.
Grading
The grading of the thesis takes various criteria into account, relating both to the thesis as a product and the process of establishing its content. These include, but are not limited to:
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Correctness of spelling and grammar
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Aesthetic appeal of document and figures
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Compliance with formal rules
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Appropriateness of thesis structure
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Coverage of relevant literature
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Appropriateness of research question and method
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Diligence of own research work
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Significance of research results
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Punctuality of work progress
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Proactiveness of handling research progress
Recent Topics
If you are interested in one of the following topics, please send an email expressing your interest to Prof. Dr. Jan Mendling. Please explain why this topic is interesting for you and how it fits your prior studies. The next deadline is 15 September 2021.
Topic 1: Review of Process Models before the end of World War I
Process modeling has its roots in the scientific management of the late 19th and the early 20th century. So far, research publications around that time has never been analyzed systematically for process models and related visualizations. The goal of this thesis is to conduct a systematic review of the literature, identify different categories of models and visualizations, and compare them with contemporary concepts.
References:
- Mendling, J.: Business Process Modeling in the 1920s and 1930s as reflected in Fritz Nordsieck’s PhD Thesis. Enterprise Modelling and Information Systems Architectures, 2021.
Topic 2: Visual Analytics of Waiting Times for Process Mining
Process mining is a family of analysis techniques that takes event sequence data as input and generates meaningful visual representations for analysts. So far, the analysis of waiting times has been limited in prior research. The goal of this thesis is to review contributions that explicitly show the timeline of event, identify opportunities for improvement and implement and evaluate a new visualization technique.
References:
- Aigner, W., Miksch, S., Schumann, H., & Tominski, C.: Visualization of time-oriented data. Springer Science & Business Media, 2011.
- van der Aalst, W. M. P.: Process Mining, 2nd edition. Springer-Verlag, 2016.
Topic 3: Process Improvement at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Various processes at HU Berlin are currently executed with only partial IT or workflow support. It is at this stage not clear, which methods and tools are best suited to implemented an end-to-end support for such processes. The goal of this thesis is to evaluate methods and tools for their suitability, to design and implement a prototypical solution, and to evaluate its benefits.
References:
- Dumas, M., La Rosa, M., Mendling, J., & Reijers, H. A.: Fundamentals of Business Process Management, 2nd edition. Springer-Verlag, 2018.
