Master Thesis

Former Member · ‎11-14-2014

Hi mates,

i need some advice about this situation i'm on right now...

Thing is, i started to work as an ABAP Programmer (baby steps, 1 month only hehe ) and i still have to do my master thesis till October 2015.

I dont want to waste time doing a master thesis in something that will not help me on my daily job so i though about doing something related to ABAP. This would be a win-win situation.

I thought about the evolution of ABAP, about ABAP OO... Something like why we needed it and what it brings to our programming. If i had a project where i could compare the evolution with and without ABAP OO i could write about it too...
I dont know if this is too elementary for a master thesis...

I heard about Enhancements and how it should be a good theme too. I dont know if i will use it on my daily routine tough...

Experience programmers, i need some feedback about a good theme in ABAP please!
Thanks! Have a good weekend!

ceedee666 · ‎11-14-2014

Hi Bruno,

what at is the field you are writing your master thesis in? Computer science?

Christian

Former Member · ‎11-15-2014

yes mate. computer science.

although i think i can write a theoric thesis about this, i dont know if it would be enough.

anyway, as i'm working and doing this, i dont mind if i get a bad grade. i just need to finish this asap... hugs and thanks for answering.

ceedee666 · ‎11-16-2014

Hi Bruno,

I would strongly recommend that you care about the grade and the quality of your master thesis. Don't simply write something to get the thesis somehow finished. Try to write the best thesis possible. While you are working right now and this might seem like a wast of effort you don't know what will happen in the future. Maybe you'll need to apply for a job in a challenging economic situation. Managers will look at your grades before they even invite you. Furthermore, depending on the field of the position people might also want to have a look at you thesis. Therefore, it should be something you are confident with regarding both, the topic and the quality.

Besides that you should discuss the topic with your professor before starting to work on it. Make sure a theoretical topic is OK if you choose to write a theoretical thesis. Furthermore, be sure to have regular meetings with your professor to discuss the progress of your thesis. The worst thing that can happen to you in your situation is that after a few month of work you show the results to your professor and he tells you it is not sufficient.

Regarding the topic; I think the best for you would be to work on something that is inline with you current job. What is you project at work? Maybe you work in a large project where you design and implement some component. This would already be a nice thesis topic. You could have a theoretical part with the requirements and the design of the component, a practical part where you talk about the implementation, and even some kind of evaluation where you describe your experience once the component went productive. This could IMHO make up a excellent thesis. Plus you have the advantage, that your day job and your thesis are somewhat aligned. Of course you would have to talk to your manager and/or customer if this approach would be possible. However, from my experience when supervising master thesis its usually not a bit issue.

In contrast to Kartik and Paul I'm not so sure if the evolution of ABAP is a good topic. You can't predict what will happen in the future to ABAP. Unless you talk to you won't find out what are the next steps for the language. If you take a look at the evolution you could probably try to show how architectural (e.g. client server, in memory and mobile) and programming paradigms (structural programming, object orientation, functional programming) influenced the change of the language. However, I suspect that writing a good thesis in this area will require you to do a lot of research on historic developments etc.

Best,

Christian

paul_bakker2 · ‎11-17-2014

Hi,

Christian: Nice, passionate reply!

I fully agree, you should do the best job you can - you might even learn something from it 🙂

Having said that, it's unlikely (in my experience) that any future employer will ever ask to see your Master's thesis. Do it for yourself.

If you are on a very challenging / high tech project and can use that as a topic, that would be perfect.

I'm not sure where you work, but most commercial ABAP programming work is not that exciting.

( I once did some very interesting ABAP work on packing boxes for a Scandinavian telecommunications company, but nowadays it's all arithmetic and financials .. )

Whatever your topic, I think that a Masters would require a thorough literature/history review. Is that correct? I assume you're doing it in Australia?

cheers

Paul

Former Member · ‎11-17-2014

Thanks! That's an awesome reply! I really appreciate it.
It's always important to have some feedback from people with some experience on SAP, so i can merge all info i can get and, hopefuly, take a good decision.

We will have a big project in the next months. It will be a fusion between two companies.

I don't know anything precisely yet but surely we can find a good topic about that...

I totally agree on having a good grade, however, if i don't finish this until october 2015 i will have to do some more lectures at the university (as my course changed a little bit last year).

Working and studying is hard when you're on this area (IT). You arrive home at the end of the day without any motivation to get your PC (after 8/9h in from of a Desktop) and start writing/searching about anything...

But i will DO THIS!

I'll give some feedback to you guys after i talk with my project manager and the professor that will guide me through my master thesis.

By the way, @Paul Bakker, i'm working at Portugal !! hehe

Any master thesis need some history research, yes! You need to explain the context and your motivations about that topic. Thanks for the feedback!

former_member205763 · ‎11-15-2014

Take up Hana and/or how much open sql has evolved up till ABAP 7.4

May be u can take up In memory db and take up hana as case study

Message was edited by: Kartik Tarla

paul_bakker2 · ‎11-16-2014

I agree, that would be a good topic for a thesis - the current and future impacts of HANA on the ABAP language and its usage..

With an introductory chapter on the history of ABAP and how it has evolved from the 70s until now (to incorporate pointers, OO etc)

cheers

Paul

Former Member · ‎11-17-2014

Thanks for the reply mates! I will search a little bit of HANA and see if it would be a good topic depending on what i will do and on what projects i will be envolved.
It seems like a good topic.

Former Member · ‎12-02-2014

I've talked with the professor and my boss at my company and we decided to do something about the topic - Enhancements in SAP.

I want to know the history of it. How it came into SAP and a brief description of where it's used now.

I probably can pick some projects here at my company where we used some Enhancements and write a conclusion about it.

Do you recommend any specific documentation?

About this specific topic. Thanks mates!