Before Starting the Project In this article, we will take the road with the student, from the moment s/he knows that s/he passed the exams of third year, till the start of fourth year. In our faculty, graduation projects are done at the fourth year. Students are one of three types: Category A: The one that knows exactly who is s/he gonna work with, her/his capabilities Category B: The one that has an idea of which group s/he is gonna join, knowing that s/he is a close friend to someone who can manages the graduation project, and s/he is definitely gonna make use of this Category C: The one that has no idea what is a graduation project is, s/he heared about it before, s/he knows it is something that s/he has to go through, but still not interested about it. s/he might have plans to think about it once the next term begins You must be sure that there is no student that can not be categorized in any of those categories. Wanna check, let’s start: The student that knows s/he is good in database systems, has ORACLE background, and wanna get a project that focuses on database systems, wanna have the chance to design a huge database [one with more than 50 tables and 20 relations], is absolutely in Category A. The student that utilizes home broadband internet use, knows s/he has a lil back ground of MySQL, Php, and knows that s/he can just have a simple web site of an online air tickets reservation company, or online Real Estate, or Library Management System, belongs also to Category A. The one that knows s/he do not want to make the effort to learn [or enhance what s/he has already learned before] considering the fact / fiction[i] that they should have gone through one of the tools[ii]during the last three years, but still have some of her/his friends to join and s/he is going to offer money and prepare good presentations and search results from the internet, I consider this one belonging to Category B. I think you know that Category C pals do exist. If you are one of the teaching stuff members, and you have not met any of them, believe me you are lucky. But, if you are dealing with those pals day and night (just like me) due to personal characteristics, I believe you are lucky too :) Anyway, I have always refused to believe that someone is better than another because s/he does things that the other can not do. You are not better than me because you write better essays than those I do, and I am not better than you because I am writing this blog for example. We are all equal, some of us are talanted, actually, I believe everyone has a special talent, and it is only a matter of time before s/he finds out what this talent is really about. I hope I am talanted with the capability to help students manage their lives in the faculty, and survive the Graduation Project Trip. I think I have done this thing more than once before, and I hope Allah will give me the power and wisdom to make it again, and again. So, Category A students, for example, are not better than Category C students. They are just more aware with their capabilities and needs more than others. I also believe that you; as a Graduation Project supervisor, should help students formalize their goals from the graduation project. Ah! I think that graduation project is the chance for students to handle real life situations, go throguh real analysis, design, and implementation that mimics what they shall be dealing with in their professional life, while doing so,they must be applying the theoretical concepts they have been learning in the faculty for the last four years, and they can masterize one or more of the available tools that they feel comfortable to. If you put those tips in your mind, I am sure you are ready to take the first steps towards the successful supervising of graduation projects. ToDo
Not To Do
Define Your Own Goals It will be easy for you to define the goals of the Graduation Project if you belong to Category A or Bfrom the above mentioned categories, and it might be not !!! Goals differ from one to another based on personality (from my point of view). Your Goal of the Graduation Project might include One/All/None of the following: It is a project I have to go through, it equals 200 Degrees out of 4200 (Cummulative), I can make use of that to increase my cummulative to become the next rank incae it is close to [iii] I am one of the first ranked students in the faculty, and I need (200 / 200) to become a Teaching Assistant Next Year I need to catch up what I have missed learning in the last four years in this project, it might be the last chance to apply practical practices before I leave the faculty I need to apply the conepts I have been learning for the past four years in the graduation project, because I did not had the chance to apply them in the projects I have been implementing outside the faculty I am working on a project right now, and will make the graduation project the same project I am working on I hope I can join certain company (Water Holding Company for example) after I graduate, so I will start designing and implementing their system to be my graduation project, hoping they will like the work I have done, and get a JOB there ;) I want to sell this project after I graduate !! I paid lots of money and want to get some back[iv] I want to have a good graduation project that I can take with me while I am going to get interviews in the companies after I graduate, and my graduation project shall be good to present me well I want to pass this year, finalize my relation to the faculty, I don't care even if I got C in the graduation project, what is the use of the graduation project anyway ? :) I will not try to map Goals with Categories, though it is applicable, but many times during the road, goals differ and graduation project orientation changes from one person to another, no matter to which group they belong. Define Your Relation to Your Friends It took me a while defining friends' realtions to each other. You do not have to supervise graduation projects to feel what I am talking about right now. I am sure you will feel it once you read it, because all of us have been through it. You might be one of those who believe that Friends are the main asset in our lives, we have friends close to us exactly as our families, and my friends are preciuos to me like eyes, hands, and legs. You might be one of those who can sacrifice everything for your friends, no matter what they do in return. You might be a moderate thinking person. One that classifies her/his relations to her/his friends as: Brothers, Friends, Colleges, and People I know. Those categories might differ from someone to another, definition of those categories might also differ, but what remains important now is the ability to categories people you know into categories [v]. If you are one of thoose who take friends for granted, it is alose fine. I am not here to judge you. According to your type and your point of view to your friends, you can manage your Graduation Project Group and relationship among all of you. I always believe that Frienship is more important than anything in the Graduation Project Team. I have met three different people within Graduation Projects: People who compose the Graduation Project Team of their close friends, and no one else than their close frinds. People who join graduation project teams based on the advantages they will gain from this team rather than others, disregarding the previous relationships with team members. I have met students join teams that they know no onw there as a close friend. People who make Graduation Projet Team as a hybrid between close friends, and technically smart people. With all my respect to you, no matter what you think the strenghts of each category, I have seen the three of them. Let us take a quick discussion. If you are convinced that choosing your friends as your Graduation Project Team, then you can skip reading this paragraph, otherwise, please continue reading. I believe that Friends are the main asset, and you will survive the Graduation Project time period by your friends. Because, your friends are reflection to you. Generally, if you are one of the guys who is in real interest in programming, your friends will be exactly like you, so you will join them in the graduation project, and it will be great. If you are not interested in programming, and you spent the four years hanginig out, enjoying your life, then, your friends will be like you, and joining them will be also great, but you still need someone to manage the graduation project, and believe me, that would be the easiest part to manage in your Graduation Project. Problems and issues Graduation Project Team faces are much more than coding. Believe me, I have supervised teams that - literally - told each other one day before the final discussion "Well, now we know exactly what you are going to say in the final seminar, and we will say it, leaving you with nothing to say" !!! Can you believe this is a way to treat someone ??? I think if they are friends, they would not have said so to each other. No matter what, I encourage Friends teams. If you think joining a bunch of friends; specially if they are programmers, and offering your efforts will save you.. Believe me you are mistaken, because you will be, always, the bate. You will be the forgotten one; the one that they will forget to tell about the meeting with the supervisor; the one that the supervisor will be told that s/he does nothing in the graduation project, even if you do. And if you think, combining your friends; as a team, with other progrmmers, will solve the problem, believe me you are also mistaken. I have met this group before, where one of my best friends, thought about getting her friends with her in the group; because she can not make it through Graduation Project without them, and thought about bringing others (programmers) to help the team with the graduation project. But here comes the bad news, programmers are not single, they are more than one, so the Graduation Project Team has turned to be two teams in one project, with the problem that The Majority are not so effective in the project like the programmers. I really had to handle tons of silly situations and problems in this Graduation Project Team, silly ones more than you think. Stick to Your Friends, This is the Only Way to Manage Graduation Project Pick Up the Topic to Implement Believe me, it is a WRONG Practice; not just NOT RECOMMENDED [iix] to go ask your supervisor: "What is the topic we shall implement in our Graduation Project?" Before you start attacking me, you might need to note that: Supervisors prepare a list of Topics of Interest to them. This list shall be available to you, so you pick up one of the topics of interest to you, from the list of the supervisor's list. I'd rather if you have a list of topics of interest of yourself. This list reflects yours points of interest. Believe me, you will need graduation project in your future life more than you think, and it is better to be of one of your topics of interest If, unfortunatly, this is not the scenario that happens in your faculty, and supervisors there ask you to pick up a topic and prepare a propsal to them, believe me you are lucky. Because in this case, supervisor left the door open for your imagination and creativity, and your ability of convincing her/him that the point you are interested in is worthy Supervisors choose the topic related to their research field, the topic that will guide them through a new research field. It is really rare when you find a supervisor that will guide you through a topic that is not related to her/his research field. It does not make any sense actually to waste a supervisor time without gaining value for both, Graduation Project Team, and Supervisor. I have been working in: Business Process Management Service Oriented Architecture University Management Systems Learning Management Systems Software Agents (Mobile Agents Specifically) for the last three years, and I think students expect topics related to those fields. I have seen many lovely amazing graduation projects. I have seen Mobile Projects that utilizes amazing technologies, but do not expect me to be part of those projects, no matter what you think about the need of patterns and practicies of systems analysis and design, those are not my points of interest. Do not Leave yourself to someone else to pick up the topic you want to implement for you. Believe me, your Graduation Project will stick to you longer than you think. I am about to pick my doctoral specification point based on the poing I choosed for the Graduation Project. Even if you will not continue Masters and Dotoral, I know many of my friends guaranteed jobs based on their Graduation Project. Arabization topics for example are so important nowadays to the extent that you can get a job in Google, OR Microsoft. Graduation Project Topic Sticks to You More than You Think Pick it Carefully Pick the Right Supervisor There is no Good and Bad Supervisor, there is Best Fit Supervisor. Each supervisor has her/his own way of dealing with students and handling the graduation project, and the team. Best Fit Supervisoris the supervisor where: Supervisor personal characteristics and attitude meets the Graduation Project Team charactersitics and attitude. Personal characteristics; like flexibility, is important, but that does not imply that flexible supervisor is better than non-flexible supervisor. Lousy Graduation Project Teams might need strict supervisor to manage the graduation project. S/he is so sincere and dedicated to the project, the team, and the scientific theory behind the project. Sincerity refers to the usage of all supervisor capbilities to help the Graduation Project Team, provide reuired facilities, and follow activity details of the graduation project. Supervisor resources; as books, research papers, previous graduation project documentations, previous analysis, design, and implementation details, systems details, relations to technological companies, relation to other professors are examples of supervisor resources that shall be available for Graduation Project Teams. Supervisors have duty for their graduation projects to do carefully. Choose the Most Deidcated Supervisor But Take Care Dedicated Supervisors Need Dedicated Graduation Project Teams Summary This article presents a guide to the importat step every graduation project team member takes before composing the Graduation Project Team. You shall think carefully about: Goals of the graduation project Team you will join Topics of interest and, Supervisor There are many early steps to be taken before starting the graduation project. They will be discussed in the following aticles. -- [i] Please check the blog entry: http://helghareeb.blogspot.com/2007/10/frustration.html  for further information regarding facts and fictions I am talking about[ii] Regarding one of the tools [yes, as being a teaching assistant, I’m one of the folks who is really happy to make the clarification that: Microsoft, Sun, ORACLE, and other folks present: TOOLS that turns us to end users, and by US, I mean: Software Developers. [iii] In our Faculty, Ranks are as follows: Fail [F] = Less than 50% Accepted [D] = From 50 % : 64 % Good [C] = From 65 % : 74 % Very Good [B] = From 75 % : 84 % Excellent [A] = From 85 % : 100 % Cummulative grades in our faculty is 4200 (10 subjects every year for Four Years, the subject is out of 100) and 200 grade the degree of the Graduation Project (added to the cummulative) Honorship degree is the result of [at least] Very Good Rank for the Four Years. You can have: Very Good with Honorship, OR Excellent with Honorship I never expected to find someone who has 100% as her/his score, but I can name few. [iv] Really, I have never expected to meet guys who think this way till I really did this year, and I was told it direct and straight: I want to sell the graduation project after I finish !!! I have not asked her/him to whom you are going to sell the graduation project ? To students of the same faculty so they can present it again next year, or to organizations like the one you are implementing the graduation project for !!! Anyway, I was really surprised to find out that there are students taking this as their goal of their project, but what shall I say ? Nothing !!! [v] For further personal and philosophical discussions related this topic, check the following entry:http://helghareeb.blogspot.com/2007/11/classification-and-categorization.html [iix] The Difference between WRONG and NOT RECOMMENDED should be clear to you. Wrongpractices lead to un-wanted results. NOT RECOMMENDED practices lead to unexpected results, different from supervisor to another according to personality of each one. You are highly recommended to take care of Wrong Practices, and also Not Recommended practices. [ix] For further discussions related to the role University Stuff Member plays, please check the upcoming articles. |
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