Hi folks,

I will be graduating computer science university this year with my diploma thesis in hardware accelerated neural network algorithms, and I am looking for a PhD position in switzerland.

However I would like to do research in the field of Project Management and Software development methodology. My aim is to find an optimise a software development process, with priority to speed and preservation of quality of the software produkt.

From the currently available informations (mostly internet search) I have found very few PhD positions in this field (Project management in IT).

I was wondering if anybody knows about any free positions in this field or a good source?

Any information will be very appriciated.

It sounds like a bit of a niche field. What you might do is try to figure out the journals and conferences which cover it, and then from there figure out where the people are doing actual research on the subject. Well, "actual" research in the sense of being in academia, publishing papers on the subject. I daresay that a large number of its practitioners are busy managing projects, rather than writing papers about the results.

As a starting point, you might do a search for academic references to the "The Mythical Man Month", though I'm sure that the field has advanced since that was published.

Finally, for both regular jobs and PhD studies, I would never recommend that somebody limit their search to a particular European country. Maybe you have your reasons, but it is hard to imagine somebody who would be totally happy in Zurich but totally unhappy in Munich, and good research groups can be hard to find.

Good luck!

Hi hardtec and welcome to the forum.

Have a look at the PhD programs being offered at the University of Lugano, in the southern part of CH. http://www.inf.usi.ch/dottorato.htm
The informatics faculty there has been established not so long ago and the professors are looking for brilliant PhDs. Good luck.

Thank you guys,

Thomassss: looking for a references of The Mythical Man Month seems like a good approach, I will give it a try...

Femme T: thanks for a tip, I will take a look...

I suggest to check HSG (University of St.Gallen) which might be offering such topics. But its very hard to find i guess, since there is not much space/interest to produce new research in the area of Project management.

For PhD programs in Switzerland you can check this list: http://www.myscience.ch/jobs_and_careers/phd_programs

Another good source is http://www.qual.ch with doctoral and postdoctoral programs across Switzerland

Try http://www.qual.ch and check listings -- there were such offerings recently at EPFL and in Geneva