[AISWorld] Ph.D. Studentships Available on Open Innovation, Agile Project Management and Agile Decision-Making

[Morgan, Lorraine]

A number of Ph.D studentships are available in Lero at the National University of Ireland Galway.  These positions are available within the ALPS (Agile Project Management) project and the OPS (Open Innovation Practices in Software Engineering) project, both funded by Science Foundation Ireland:

ALPS (Agile Project Management) Project

This studentship will enable the PhD student to work as part of a team of researchers to identify current issues and practices in decision making in agile/lean software development contexts; develop optimal solutions, implement in industry, and evaluate effectiveness over time, and develop, deploy and evaluate software tools to support best practice decision making. This studentship focuses on supporting best practices in agile/lean decision making through a) determination of best practice(s), and b) creation of decision support system(s) based on such practice(s) to facilitate optimal decision making.  This position will involve the student working with a number of companies and other researcher(s) in the project, and performing research to:

- Develop and conduct surveys with agile and lean software development teams, management and senior personnel at industry partners to benchmark and assess effectiveness of current decision-making practices and processes. Conduct follow-on workshops and/or interview.
- Conduct a gap analysis of current software tools to support agile decision making.
- Conduct recurring workshops with industry partners to iteratively develop requirements for decision support, control, sprint and project management, and data usage.
- Create software decision support tools based on best practices, and refine and assess such tools through continuous trials with industry personnel.

Applicants should have a 2:1 or 1st Class Honours Degree (or equivalent) in an information systems or computing-related discipline.  The studentship is available for four years.  If interested, please contact Thomas Acton (thomas.acton at nuigalway.ie)


OPS (Open Innovation Practices in Software Engineering) project

This studentship will enable the PhD student to work as part of a team of researchers to develop an Open Innovation Methodology for Software Engineering environments and extend existing methodologies to include open and networked innovation principles.  This methodology incorporates an empirical investigation of how software development collaboration efforts at the inter-and intra-team level, as well as the inter-firm level, can be structured to optimise innovative outcomes.  This position will involve the student working with a number of companies and other researchers in the project, and performing research to:

- Evaluate current innovation processes in companies and highlight deficiencies or improvements that could be made.
- Identify prerequisites for open and networked software engineering principles.
- Construct, refine and validate the resulting OI methodology through industry trials.
- Evaluate effectiveness of methodology using an innovation assessment that comprises a clear set of metrics.

Applicants should have a 2:1 or 1st Class Honours Degree (or equivalent) in an information systems or computing-related discipline.  The studentship is available for four years.  If interested, please contact Lorraine Morgan (lorraine.morgan at nuigalway.ie).