Six months ago I began the course work for my Ph.D. degree. Obtaining a doctorate has been a personal goal ever since practical considerations prevented me from pursuing a Ph.D. in astrophysics some 20 years ago. Instead, I became a programmer in the newly deregulated telecommunications industry. As I rose through the ranks over the years I became keenly interested in engineering communication and culture. The more I studied, the more I realized that communication among software engineers was under-researched. Since research opportunities were limited as a manager, I entered the Engineering and Technology Management Ph.D. program at Portland State University. I seek the Ph.D. degree because I believe it is the most practical way for me to study software development communication and culture. My personal goal is to complete the Ph.D. by 2006, and afterwards to devote myself to research, writing, and teaching. This paper describes the process I followed to decide on a topic for my dissertation research. I considered two dissertation topics deriving from my past industry experience.