There are a number of considerations that go into a good thesis topic:

• Is it interesting to you as a student?
  • Does it have generic appeal? Is it something you already know something about, but would like to know more?
• Is it related to your job in some way, particularly to where you hope to go in the future?
• Does it strengthen your resume?
• Is it doable?
• Does it have a clear focus, rather than being broad and amorphous? Here is where a good proposition can help a lot.
• Is the information you need readily available? You may set out to prove something but getting the information proves too costly or time-consuming. Perhaps the surveys are overly ambitious (or people do not respond). Or needed information is considered confidential by those who have it. Many students find that their own employer makes a good subject, especially because information may be readily available, but you need to make sure the employer is willing to be studied.

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Examples of Theses Around Career Goals

It is often useful to look ahead in picking a topic: what kind of job would you like to have in the future? Look for ways the thesis can help you get there. Two kinds of issues emerge: those involved with getting there and those that appear once you have the job.

• For example, when I first taught EM-798, I was considering running for the Milwaukee School Board (I became a member of that board). So I naturally was focused on getting on the board and what I would do when I got there. Here are some of the possible topics that quickly emerged:
• Getting there (A campaign is essentially a small business organization, operating in the short term with deadlines like a project).
  • Strategy of a campaign
  • Marketing
  • Personnel: managing volunteers
  • Finance: fundraising and budgeting
  • Specific issues to use
• Being there (MPS is an almost $1 billion organization with 100,000 customers and 7,500 employees.)
  • Decentralization
  • Budget
  • Personnel: union contracts
  • Using competition as a management tool
  • Transportation
  • Measurement and assessment
  • TQM
  • Management unions
  • Group dynamics on the board

Note that not every interesting topic around MPS is a management topic. But many are. And for many the management disciplines may bring a useful perspective. For example, the dispute between whole language and phonics in reading may be regarded as strictly a curriculum issue. Yet designing methods to test competing curriculum designs for effectiveness is in many ways analogous to the management of new products in industry.