Sabine Matook

PhD Topic1: Agile Software Development – Forming and Maintaining High Performance Software Development Teams in Dynamic and Rapidly Changing Environments

Agile development is praised as a method that superiorly handles rapid and constant change in all aspects of the development process. It requires that the team possesses high levels of trust and can rely blindly on each other’s knowledge and skills. As a result, very little knowledge is codified in documents and rahter resides with the individual. Thereby team members need to be able to tranform the disruptive changes into positive energy for the development process and product. At the same time, a newly formed team lags the trust necessary to be high performing and able to manage the frequent change demands from the beginning of the project.

Little research exists about questions such as those below which could be the topic for a higher degree research thesis (MPhil or PhD).

Potential Thesis Questions:

1) How can an agile software development team become early on a high-performance team?

2) What factors increase and decrease team performance in agile teams?

3) Why and how do agile software development teams outperform traditional-waterfall development teams?

Please contact Dr Sabine Matook if you are interested in pursuing one of the outlined research topics in a higher research degree program with the UQ Business School.

PhD Topic 2: Agile Software Development – Understanding the Role of Workplace Relationship in Agile Software Development Teams

Agile development is a development method that focuses on the team and their interactions as a means to develop software under conductions of frequent changes in project scope and customer requirements. Agile software development teams are small, cohesive teams (seven to nine professionals) that develop software in weekly iterations in a collaborative manner with little formal control. These team members are highly intrinsic motivated to achieve their shared goal of delivering software to satisfy customer needs.

Little research exists about questions such as those below which could be the topic for a higher degree research thesis (MPhil or PhD).

Potential Thesis Questions:

1) What factors contribute and impair the formation of different workplace relationships in agile software development teams and what is their impact on team performance?

2) How does an agile software team ensure motivation and avoid effort-withholding of their team members?

3) What aspects of the agile method and workplace relationships impact on the flow of development critical information in and out of the team?

Please contact Dr Sabine Matook if you are interested in pursuing one of the outlined research topics in a higher research degree program with the UQ Business School.

PhD Topic 3: Social Media – How Individuals and their personal Relationships impact Behaviors

Worldwide, more than half of all Internet users regularly use social media applications to connect, interact, and exchange information online with others. Social media applications, such as Facebook and Twitter, have emerged to satisfy the desire of people to form and maintain personal relationships online. However, not all online relationships are lasting and a user’s behaviors may positively and negatively affect different aspects of any online relationships.

Little research exists about questions such as those below which could be the topic for a higher degree research thesis (MPhil or PhD).

Potential Thesis Questions:

1) What factors – for example physical appearance or similar interests – impact on the formation of an interpersonal relationship in an online environment?

2) How do people decide who to add as a ‘friend’ and thus, give access to their online social media network?

3) What behaviors but also characteristics, e.g., personality affect on how people use social media?

PhD Topic 4: Social Media - How Individuals and Companies gain Benefits and create Value through Exploration and Exploitation of Social Media

Companies worldwide discover online social media applications as a means to get closer to their consumers and connect with suppliers and customers more easily. Social media communities are used to develop software collaboratively, to promote a new product via Facebook, or hire a financial manager through LinkedIn. Despite the various benefits that stem from social media use, it bears risks and challenges for companies and users alike. Nevertheless, social software applications have become an integral part for individuals and companies – now they need to know how to explore, manage, and exploit social media to benefit from them and generate value.

Little research exists about questions such as those below which could be the topic for a higher degree research thesis (MPhil or PhD).

Potential Thesis Questions:

1. What benefits can users and companies generate from their memberships in different social media applications?

2. How are social integration, trust, and closeness achieved in anonymous social media applications, such as open source software communities and healthcare communities?

3. What is the role of social media in a company’s supplier and customer relationship strategy?