Welcome to the assistant professorship of management analytics! We’re happy to see that you apparently find our research interesting enough to think about writing a master thesis at our chair.

Our chair conducts research on data-driven business process management (BPM) by means of process mining and machine learning. We are interested in finding data-driven solutions to real-world BPM problems. Our main research focus topics are user behavior mining and the application of process mining techniques in practice, but we also supervise thesis topics in adjacent fields, such as the digitalization of BPM.

Our chair supervises master students in the Mannheim Master of Management (MMM) and Master of Business Informatics (BI) programs.

If you want to write your master thesis with us, this page will support you in this process.

In general, topics should match the research interests of the supervisor and the experience and preferences of the student. Possible ways to find a topic are:

• We do have concrete thesis topics available. In this case, you will find them on our website. This is not the usual case!
• You already have idea for a topic that emerged while writing your seminar thesis, during the IS 515 course, or in the context of your working student position.
• You read recent relevant publications and see whether those match your interests and offer potentials for a thesis topic. Relevant publications can be found in the current proceedings of the International Conference on Business Process Management (BPM) or the International Conference on Process Mining (ICPM) or the associated workshops. You can also look at the BPM tracks of the European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS) or the International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS). The journals Business & Information Systems Engineering (BISE, Springer) or Information Systems (IS, Elsevier) also publish BPM papers.

Therefore, you should think about concrete topics before you approach us about writing a thesis.

To write a master thesis at our chair, you must fulfill the following requirements:

1. Successful completion of the seminar at the assistant professorship for management analytics (IS 752). Alternatively, seminar theses from other business or business informatics chairs can be accepted if the topic is relevant for the envisioned master thesis topic. This will be checked on a case-by-case basis.
2. Some experience with business process management and/or process mining (proven, e.g., by successful completion of the course IS 515 Process Management & Analytics).

These prerequisites are necessary, because you need at least some level of experience for writing a master thesis in a technically challenging field like process mining. If you start without any previous experience, you spend too much time learning the basics.

If you fulfill the prerequisites and have found one or multiple ideas for a thesis topic, you can apply for supervision. For applying, please send an e-mail with the following documents:

• Motivation for writing a thesis at our chair (in the body of your e-mail)
• Application documents (CV, Current Transcript of Records)
• PDF of your seminar thesis
• Concrete ideas for a thesis topic (at least half a page, “I want to do something with Management Analytics / Process Mining / Machine Learning” is not a concrete idea)

You should address your e-mail to the employee of the chair who in your opinion has the best fit with the topic (check their websites and publication records for details). If you are not sure, you can alternatively address your e-mail to jpmac@mail.uni-mannheim.de.

If we already know you, e.g., because you have written your seminar thesis at our chair, you can skip the application procedure and approach your seminar thesis supervisor about potential thesis topics directly.

You need to submit your thesis as:

1. Electronic submission: On the date of your submission or earlier, via e-mail to your supervisor. This e-mail should contain your finalized thesis document as well as all additional data that is part of your submission (e.g., analysis results, implementations, etc.) as one ZIP file.
2. Printed submission: In addition, you need to submit two printed copies of your thesis. The copies need to be A4, softcover, with an adhesive binding in black. You can submit the printed versions either in person at our office (please make an appointment with your supervisor beforehand) or via mail. Our mail address is

Universität Mannheim

Juniorprofessur für Management Analytics

L 15, 1–6, 4. Stock

68161 Mannheim

The printed submission does not need to arrive on the date of the submission deadline. Only the submission of the electronic version counts.

Make sure that your electronic and printed submissions are identical. Both should contain the required affidavit as specified in the Prüfungsordnung.

• Please read the thesis guideline document. It should answer all (administrative) questions that might come up before or during the thesis process. For any additional questions, please contact your supervisor or the chair at jpmac uni-mannheim.de.
• Please use the current Word template or LaTeX template for writing your thesis.

Good luck on your thesis!