Degree structures Degree requirements

1.4 Stakeholders 11 ‘conceive original ideas’. This emphasises that for a research degree you are expected to make some kind of contribution to knowledge, not just repeat the work of others. This is discussed in more detail in Chapter 5. •

1.4 Stakeholders

1.4.1 Overview

Stakeholders are any individuals who are involved with your project. The most important person in your project is you. You are responsible for the overall completion of your pro- ject, meeting milestones, achieving objectives, satisfying users, satisfying the examiners, and so forth. Your project has many other stakeholders, and they all have significant roles to play. They include your supervisors, your users, your clients, your examiners and any software testersevaluators you might employ as part of your system evaluation if you have one in your project.

1.4.2 Your supervisor

Imagine your project as a large boulder. At the start of your project, this boulder is quite difficult to push stationary objects like to remain stationary. Getting a project started is always difficult. However, once the project is underway the boulder is rolling, it becomes much easier to push and gathers momentum as the project un- folds. Now, picture your supervisor alongside you. It is that person’s role to encourage you as you push this boulder your project along. Your supervisor will encourage you at the start as you try to get the boulder moving. They are also there to ensure you are pushing in the right direction. The supervisor will have an eye on the route you are taking and provide the occasional prod to keep you and the boulder on course. Your supervisor is also there to provide encouragement. If you feel yourself flagging at any stage, your supervisor should be there to support you and give you the help you need. In Chapter 3, we look at ways in which you might be able to choose your supervisor and, in Chapter 7, how to use your supervisor effectively as your project progresses. Sometimes particularly for research degrees, you may have more than one supervi- sor. This is especially common where the area of study straddles two fields of expertise. In addition, research degrees often have a supervisor someone who is responsible for the student overall and a director of studies or director of research. The director of research is sometimes a more senior member of academic staff who is interested in the strategic rather than week-to-week direction of the project. You may see your supervisor once every one or two weeks, but you would see your director of research only every six months or perhaps once a year.

1.4.3 Clients and users

If your project involves the development of a software system or involves action research or case studies, you will probably be working with a client andor a user. It is important to realise the distinction between these two stakeholders. A client is usually the project’s sponsor – the one who has requested the system be developed or study undertaken. The user, on the other hand, will be the one who eventually uses the system or the results of 12 Chapter 1 n Introduction the project. Sometimes the client and the user are one and the same but often, if you are developing a system for a company, for example, they are not. For instance, you might be asked to develop a web site for a company to sell its products. The client is your contact within the company, but your users is anyone who will access that site. Conflicts usually arise when the client and the user are different: for example, should you provide something the client requests that you know the user won’t like? How do you persuade the client that the user needs a particular piece of functionality when the client feels it is unnecessary? In other cases your supervisor may be your client andor user as they may have proposed the project you are undertaking. In this case, your supervisor will be acting in all three roles. This can cause conflicts as their advice as a supervisor may not tally with their needs as a user for example, as a user they may request certain features from your software system, but as a supervisor may recommend that you do not include that feature as it may take too much effort for little reward.

1.4.4 Examiners

The number and type of examiners you will encounter on your course will largely depend on the level of project you are undertaking undergraduate or postgraduate and the regulations your institution has in place these vary by institution and country. At the undergraduate level, for example, your supervisor may be the only person to mark your project. However, it is more likely that another academic in your department or perhaps another department within your university will be involved. Moving to postgraduate projects, external examiners those from other departments and usually other universities will be involved. Any number of examiners can be involved in project assessment – from individual examiners to panels of examiners that act as a committee to evaluate the contribution of your work. The examiners will look for a number of things in your project, from the contribution a PhD project makes, for example, to the use of appropriate processes, methods, and techniques for an undergraduate software development-type project. Chapter 10 discusses the criteria examiners look for when evaluating projects. Depending on the nature of your course, examiners can also be involved at different stages as your project progresses. For example, an examining committee may be involved early on to evaluate your project’s requirements or proposal. Or, an examiner may need to see an annual report or other information. You should be aware of the regulations regarding the evaluation and examination of your project and follow any procedures closely. Institutions are quite strict when it comes to examinations and insist that procedures are followed to the letter. Make sure that your supervisor is aware of the current procedures at your institution and obtain the institution’s advice on the requirements for the examination of your project.

1.4.5 Evaluators and testers

If you are developing a software system as part of your project, you will need to test and evaluate this system at some point. It would be wrong to complete all the testing and evaluation on your own, and so others will be involved. These people can range from your client, who has requested the software, the users who will actually use the software, to people either expert or not – for example, colleagues