Supporting communication within industrial doctoral projects: the thesis steering model

Abstract

This study presents the Thesis Steering Model (TSM), an instrument supporting systematic communication and collaboration between the different stakeholders involved in industrial doctoral projects. The results describe TSM and illustrate its introduction for seven doctoral projects within a postgraduate school in applied informatics. The experiences from the first two years in use are: enhanced communication, mutual understanding of academic and business values, and opportunity to the doctoral students to build a research identity associated to their own project.