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Preparing to Research

Steps To Follow Before You Begin Library Research

Effective library research begins before an actual search is undertaken. Consider the following activities.

  • For topic selection help, see the Selecting a Topic page in the MSEM Thesis Guidelines. The suggestions and exercises on this page are helpful in determining Thesis and Capstone project topics. Some of the suggestions can also be employed to help select a topic for reports, research papers and other projects in MSEM courses where a student is given the option of selecting a topic.
  • A second approach to selecting a topic is to examine current literature in a broad field of interest. Do this by consulting some of the resources described elsewhere in this tutorial. The idea in this case is to carry out a quick search in one or two relevant resources to see what has been recently published in a field of interest.

    For example, a quick search of the ABI/Inform database (see the Finding Articles page for details) for articles published between 2000 and the present, and that specifically mention Software Project Management, retrieves 193193193193193193193193193 articles.


    Not all of the article titles appear to be relevent, but some are clearly concerned with Software Project Management, including (bold words added):

    • Darren Dalcher, Oddur Benediktsson, "Managing Software Development Project Size: Overcoming the Effort-Boxing Constraint," Project Management Journal June 2006, Vol. 37(2), p. 51+.
    • K. U. Sargut, O. Demirörs, "Utilization of statistical process control (SPC) in emergent software organizations: Pitfalls and suggestions," Software Quality Journal June 2006, Vol. 14(2), p. 135+.
    • Hayward P Andres, "The Impact of Communication Medium on Virtual Team Group Process," Information Resources Management Journal Apr-June 2006, Vol. 19(2), p. 1+.
    • Gina C Green, Alan R Hevner, Rosann Webb Collins, "The impacts of quality and productivity perceptions on the use of software process improvement innovations," Information and Software Technology 1 June 2005, Vol. 47, Iss. 8; p. 543+.
    • Terry L Fox, J Wayne Spence, "The Effect of Decision Style on the Use of a Project Management Tool: An Empirical Laboratory Study," Database for Advances in Information Systems Spring 2005, Vol. 36, Iss. 2; p. 28+
    • Moataz A Ahmed, Moshood Omolade Saliu, Jarallah AlGhamdi, "Adaptive fuzzy logic-based framework for software development effort prediction," Information and Software Technology 1 Jan 2005, Vol. 47, Iss. 2; p. 31+.
    • Panagiotis Sentas, Lefteris Angelis, Ioannis Stamelos, George Bleris, "Software productivity and effort prediction with ordinal regression," Information and Software Technology 1 Jan 2005, Vol. 47, Iss. 2; p. 17+.
    • Eric Deakins, Stuart Dillon, "A helical model for managing innovative product and service initiatives in volatile commercial environments," International Journal of Project Management Jan 2005, Vol. 23, Iss. 1; p. 65+.
    • James J Jiang, September 2002, "A measure of software development risk," Project Management Journal Vol. 33(3), pp. 30+.
    • David Milstein, August 2002, "Buyer oversight and participation in a fixed price software development project," Computer and Internet Lawyer Vol. 19(8), p. 10+.
    • J. Drew Procaccino, 15 January 2002, "Case study: Factors for early prediction of software development success," Information and Software Technology Vol. 44(1), pp. 53+.
    • David Moyer, 2002, "Estimating at the speed of light," AACE International Transactions, p. IT61+.
    • Mercedes Ruiz, 15 December 2000, "A simplified model of software project dynamics," The Journal of Systems and Software Vol. 59(3), p. 299+.
    • Dan X Houston, 15 December 2001, "Stochastic simulation of risk factor potential effects for software development risk management," The Journal of Systems and Software Vol. 59(3), p. 247+.
    • John McManus, October 2001, "Risk in software projects," Management Services Vol. 45(10), p. 6+.
    • Sun-Jen Huang, August 2001, "Early project estimation in the formal communication protocol development," Information & Management Vol. 38(7), p. 449+.
    • Henri Barki, "An integrative contingency model of software project risk management," Journal of Management Information Systems Vol. 17(4), p. 37+.
    • Roy Schmidt, Spring 2001, "Identifying software project risks: An international Delphi study," Journal of Management Information Systems Vol. 17(4), p. 5+.
    • Bruce Abbott, 5 March 2001, "Requirements set the mark," InfoWorld Vol. 23(10), p. 45+.
    • James J Jiang, March 2001, "Software project risks and development focus," Project Management Journal Vol. 32(1), p. 4+.
    • Leah V Zimmerman, 2001, "Plan for training to ensure software quality," AACE International Transactions , p. IT51+.
    • Roy Rada, December 2000, "Standardizing software projects," Association for Computing Machinery. Communications of the ACM Vol. 43(12), p. 21+.
    • James J Jiang, December 2000, "Project risk impact on software development team performance," Project Management Journal Vol. 31(4), p. 19+.
    • Mokhtar Amami, June 2000, "Project management and communication of product development through electronic document management," Project Management Journal Vol. 31(2), p. 6+.
    • James Jiang and Gary Klein, 15 May 2000, "Software development risks to project effectiveness," The Journal of Systems and Software Vol. 52(1), p. 3+.

    These article titles begin to suggest a number of possible topics, including:

    • Prediction in software projects.
    • Project size
    • Communication
    • Virtual teaming
    • Risk in software management projects.
    • Customer participation in the software development process.
    • Success in software projects: What are the success factors?
    • Software project standardization and quality.
  • After selecting a topic, describe -- or think about -- the "ideal" article or book about your topic. If you've seen such an article or book in a previous class, or in your professional reading, try to obtain a copy. By searching for other works by the author, by searching for subject indexing that may have been assigned to the document, and by searching for occurrences of the document in other literature, this book or article can be employed to begin library research.
  • Write up a list of concepts associated with your topic. Think broadly. Work outward to the "big picture." How does your topic fit in the organizational picture? How does it fit in terms of management, generally? Is it an accounting topic? A finance topic? A human resources topic? It is not unusual to find relevant literature under a broadly-indexed subject heading. This activity is particularly useful for thesis and capstone work; for shorter papers, it may not be necessary.
  • Write a description of your topic with professional jargon whose intended target is knowledgeable professionals. Use this description to generate a list of search terms.
  • Write a description of your topic for a layperson with little or no knowledge of your topic. Use the description to generate a list of search terms.
  • Use the Ulrich's Database to identify any journals that may publish articles on your topic or related to it (or use other resources described elsewhere in this tutorial). Find out where those journals are INDEXED by also looking in the Ulrich's Database. Focus on those databases where the relevant journals are indexed.
  • Identify any professional associations, organizations, groups, etc. that may be related to your topic. Look them up in the Encyclopedia of Associations. It is also not unusual to discover associations and groups when you start searching the literature. Try to verify if the group has a library and if it sponsors research.
  • Establish a plan or a system for tracking bibliographic information. Be prepared to provide copies of all work cited in your report, research paper or project. This is particularly crucial for thesis and capstone work.