It has now been five years since the launch of the postgraduate Master of IT Management at TU Delft. A host of students have now completed the programme. This publication showcases the results of a handful of these graduates. It presents summaries of eight theses written between 2003 and 2008, selected to provide an excellent picture of the full range of graduation projects.

Since all of our theses focus on real-life management problems, they have gone on to influence processes and progress within a range of business environments. This overview therefore not only gives you an insight into an academic programme, but also into the IT issues that have helped shape various organisations. In other words, it gives you a flavour of IT management improvement over the last five years. All of the graduates personally reflect on their completed project, applying the knowledge they have since acquired. In most cases, their colleagues and managers also look back on developments.

The book ends by addressing two fundamental questions. The first question, “What is the academic value of this work?”, is answered by Anne Persson, Professor at the University of Skövde, Sweden. Udo Groen, member of the executive board of ProRail in the Netherlands, answers the same question from a business perspective. These two perspectives perfectly mirror the structure of the master programme: bringing academic knowledge to business experience and vice versa.

The book as a whole is an outstanding example of cooperation between university and industry. It not only demonstrates how an academic programme can initiate successful projects within businesses but also shows how business experience can enrich an academic programme. It is the ideal illustration of cooperation as the dissemination of knowledge and experience in both directions.

The process of creating such a publication is in itself an exercise in life long learning. The participating graduates were all given a unique opportunity to revisit and reflect on their own thesis project. Most of them had little experience of writing articles and had to take up the challenge of developing this competence.

The theses were written for the Master of IT Management at TU Delft. It is a part-time post academic master for experienced IT managers, aimed at developing their skills at strategic level. Life long learning is a key aspect of education at TU Delft and is the very reason why Delft TopTech was founded in 1986. The chapter written by the programme director, Dr Gerard Wijers, provides an interesting insight into the educational programme and the context in which the theses were produced.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those involved in this book. The candidates invested a great deal of time and effort in producing their summaries. It was far from easy to capture the essence of their theses in texts that were both readable and accessible. Furthermore, the need to remove all confidential information entailed a lot of extra work. All of the graduates worked on a voluntary basis and clearly relished the experience. As one of them said “It's nice to have an assignment again”. They received guidance and feedback on their drafts from experts involved in the programme: Albert Plugge, Nico Brand, Marijn Janssen and Frank Grift. The book you have in your hands is the result of fruitful cooperation between writers and editors.

Many other people were involved in this project, too many to mention by name. They include those who worked on the layout of the book, the proofreaders and those who supported the project in other ways.

Creating this book and compiling the various elements has been a fascinating challenge. It was very rewarding to see the enthusiasm of the writers and the learning process they underwent. If you enjoy reading this book as much as I enjoyed producing it, you will not be disappointed.