Abstract:

A dissertation project is a unique project with limited resources and a defined goal. With the planning uncertainty, the different availability of resources and the unclear formulation of the overall result, the dissertation seems to show a high degree of complexity where agile project management approaches are appropriate. A dissertation project can extend over a period of several years, where the largest portion of responsibility is lying in the hands of a single person - the doctoral student. Many stake-holders such as conference organisers, magazine publishers and even family members are involved. Various supervisors, the professor and the university administration provide advice and set require-ments and goals, but rarely provide a management methodology. We hereby report on the use of agile methods in a dissertation project and compare our findings to classical approaches. We examine different scenarios where a special emphasis is given to the feasibility and intuitiveness of various planning procedures. In addition, this work provides a framework for improving communication, collaboration and planning for the doctoral student.

Keywords:

PhD, dissertation, doctoral program, agile, Scrum, project management, empiric research method.