Week 38: 3rd – 9th June
I’m starting to view the PhD as a template for future projects (as well as a project in its own right), so I’ve decided to think more about the kinds of project management structures I might learn and implement in order to keep track of the project and plan timescales for the different elements of the work. As usual, the University offers free training to support its PGR students by way of the Effective Researcher Programme, so I dutifully signed up for the Project Management Seminar with the hope that it would help me develop a more organised way of working.
Something that often stops me making plans is the idea that once they have been made, they are somehow set in stone. However, on arriving at the seminar we were handed a learning journal which was intended as a personal guide where each person wrote their thoughts, feelings and lessons they’d learned about the necessary aspects of the project they were undertaking. This element of reflexive practice therefore confirmed the nature of project management as a framework which could be changed and developed throughout the life of the project.
Understanding the project
The first tasks involved tuning into the project through asking a series of questions relating its requirements and the resources available, as well as reminders of why you were undertaking the project for clarification and motivation purposes. Questions highlighted in the journal were split into 5 sections:
What? (is expected of me? resources do I have? obstacles are in my way?)
How? (am I going to achieve this? will I overcome my obstacles?)
Why? (am I doing this? has the project been developed? is this an ‘original contribution’?)
Who? (am I responsible to? will be able to help me? is interested in my work?)
When? (does it finish? will I know when I’ve done enough? are the internal deadlines?)
PhD planning
After considering the questions required to understand a generic project, it was onto thinking more specifically about project milestones relating to the PhD. This kind of planning usually revolves around answering a specific problem or research question, through identifying the gaps in knowledge in the field. PhD research is also usually required to be delivered in a timely manner (3 years for full-time students), so creating a plan not only allows you to navigate the research, but also helps to mitigate potential risks, in order to deliver the project in accordance with the agreed deadline. Specific questions to help plan the research according to timescales and importance are detailed as follows:
Aim: What is the scope of the research?
Tasks: What tasks need to be done to achieve the aim?
Risks: What could go wrong and how can you mitigate that?
Organise: In which order do the tasks need to be done and are there external factors affecting this?
Implement: Are there issues with implementing the plan?
Review: Reflect on the research to identify if/where changes need to be made.
Project management tools
After establishing the requirements of the project the next step was to apply project management tools to help shape the information into a more structured form. Mind mapping can help with idea generation, as well as seeing connections within the different elements of the project. The drill down stage helps you to breakdown each element of the project into straightforward tasks and actions. Risk analysis tools enable you to consider possible problems that may arise in the project in order to avoid them or minimise their impact. Finally, a Gantt chart creates a timeline for the project to be structured over and allows the options for different elements to occur simultaneously where necessary.
The session was interspersed with group tasks which allowed us the opportunity to apply our new project management techniques, and finished with a plan to transfer this knowledge to our own projects, a task which I’m pleased to say that I completed in the form of my first ever Gantt chart.
Further information:
http://www.vitae.ac.uk
http://www.mindtools.com/fulltoolkit.htm