08.12.07
10 steps toward better research
Although this post was directed at students, it also applies to anyone who has to do research and report the results—including many who do this as part of their job.
The list is here, but let me add one important rule that should be first:
- Early!
That is, start early, set deadlines early, make the deadlines earlier than necessary. “Early” gives you the ability to recover from setbacks, the ability to expand your initial scope, and—at the end—time to revise and improve your final report. If the final research report is due in 6 months, by all means start today and schedule work on it heavily for the next two weeks. The earlier the better.
Tom Gilb emphasizes this important point in his excellent book Principles of Software Engineering Management, a book that I highly recommend to anyone working in software development. (The book is a mother lode of great advice and insights—for example, establishing metrics to measure project progress and success, and then checking those metrics against existing best practices. If you do that, you may discover that your goal is well beyond the current “best” in the industry, which means you’re taking on advancing the state of the art. Sure you want to do that?) Gilb’s other books are also worth a look.
anhlhvn said,
12 August 2007 at 12:44 pm
thanks