Project Management for PhDs. Carlos A. S. Silva Engineering Systems

Transcription

1 Carlos A. S. Silva Engineering Systems 1

2 Motivation Candidates idea about the topic is not clear Supervisors coaching is not sufficient The result is: PhD taking longer than required Less results than expected Project Management approach to PhD management may improve the results 2

3 Motivation 3

4 Overview Project Management Introduction Scope/ Time / Quality Project PhD Project Manager PhD Management Plan Communication Plan Example Conclusions 4

5 Project Management General introduction

6 Project Definition & Characteristics Temporary endeavor definite beginning and end Unique Product/Service definite and quantifiable result Progressive Developed in steps 6

7 Project Definition & Characteristics Temporary endeavor definite beginning and end Unique Product/Service definite and quantifiable result Progressive Developed in steps 7

8 Examples Manhattan Project (Good) 1942/1945 $ people Sidney Opera House (Bad) 1959/1973 $ (15x) 8

9 Gantt Chart is not Project Management! bar chart that illustrates project schedule First developed by Karol Adamiecki in 1896 (harmonogram) Gantt developed several charts to measure work and performance from (1917) 9

10 PERT/CPM are only scheduling tools! Program Evaluation and Review Technique Developed by Booz Allen for US Navy project Polaris in 1958 Critical Path Method Developed by Dupont and Remignton Rand (UNISYS) in 1950 s 10

11 Project Management Definition Application of Knowledge Skills Tools Techniques Best Practices to the project activities to attain project objectives 11

12 Project Management Tasks Planning, executing and controlling all the tasks that guarantee the project s success Promote communication and alignment of objectives and efforts between all the stakeholders This is different from planning, executing and controlling the tasks that guarantee the product s success 12

13 Project Stakeholders Someone whose interests may influence positively or negatively the project: Sponsor Team Client Management Family 13

14 Project Life Cycle 14

15 Management Process Groups 15

16 Project Management Processes 5 management groups 9 knowledge areas 44 processes (Project Management Institute) 16

17 Project Major Documents Project Charter Product Deliverable Need/Justification Time /Cost Resources Project Manager Sponsor Main Stakeholders 17

18 Project Major Documents Preliminary Scope Acceptance Criteria Project Deliverables Milestones Constraints Risks High Level work breakdown structure 18

19 Project Major Documents Management Plan Scope management plan Communication management plan Risk management plan Schedule Costs Lessons Learned 19

20 Scope Definition Product Scope Characteristics and functions Project Scope Work that has to be done to guarantee that the product has the defined characteristics and functions 20

21 Time Planning Define work packages Measurable in deliverables Connected to Milestones Define activities/tasks Units of work measurable in time/cost/resources Don t overestimate Realize that the probability of failing time estimate is 50% (classic definition) 21

22 Quality degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfill requirements Product Quality Meet clients requirements Project Quality Including clients requests Improving quality means increasing time and/or cost and/or scope

23 Project PhD Project Management approach

24 Defining PhD as a Project Academic degree awarded to candidates that develop original scientific research refereed by experts on the same field Temporary endeavor (3-4 years) Unique (original academic work) Getting a PhD is a project by definition! 24

25 The PhD Stakeholders University Candidate Supervisor Scientific Committee (CAT at IST) Fellow candidates Scientific experts in the field (papers) Project Partners (faculty, universities) All of them will, at some point, influence both positively or negatively the PhD work! 25

26 The PhD Project Roles Sponsor: University (MIT-Portugal,FCT) Project Manager: Supervisor Define work plan Scope Time Quality requirements Manage milestones (papers, dissertation) Project Team: Candidate Fellow candidates Experts This role has to be progressively played by the candidate 26

27 What if Supervisor doesn t manage? Leadership is: Having an idea Gathering people around the idea Assign tasks to execute the idea Leadership can be exercised upwards If Supervisor doesn t manage, the candidate has to play the PhD manager s role

28 The PhD Project Management 1 Develop PhD charter Initiating 2 Define PhD scope 3 Define WBS 4 Define Activities 5 Planning Quality 6 Planning Communication 7 Manage Project 8 Information Distribution 9 Scope Verification 10 Schedule Control 11 Quality Control 12 PhD Closure 28

29 The PhD Project Management 1 Develop PhD charter 2 Define PhD scope 3 Define WBS 4 Define Activities 5 Planning Quality Planning 6 Planning Communication 7 Manage Project 8 Information Distribution 9 Scope Verification 10 Schedule Control 11 Quality Control 12 PhD Closure 29

30 The PhD Project Management 1 Develop PhD charter 2 Define PhD scope 3 Define WBS 4 Define Activities 5 Planning Quality 6 Planning Communication 7 Manage Project Executing 8 Information Distribution 9 Scope Verification 10 Schedule Control 11 Quality Control 12 PhD Closure 30

31 The PhD Project Management 1 Develop PhD charter 2 Define PhD scope 3 Define WBS 4 Define Activities 5 Planning Quality 6 Planning Communication 7 Manage Project 8 Information Distribution 9 Scope Verification 10 Schedule Control Controlling 11 Quality Control 12 PhD Closure 31

32 The PhD Project Management 1 Develop PhD charter 2 Define PhD scope 3 Define WBS 4 Define Activities 5 Planning Quality 6 Planning Communication 7 Manage Project 8 Information Distribution 9 Scope Verification 10 Schedule Control 11 Quality Control Closing 12 PhD Closure 32

33 The PhD Project Management 1 Develop PhD charter Typical PhD Work Plan 2 Define PhD scope 3 Define WBS 4 Define Activities 5 Planning Quality 6 Planning Communication 7 Manage Project 8 Information Distribution 9 Scope Verification 10 Schedule Control 11 Quality Control 12 PhD Closure 33

34 The PhD Project Management 1 Develop PhD charter PhD Work Plan Project Management like 2 Define PhD scope 3 Define WBS 4 Define Activities 5 Planning Quality 6 Planning Communication 7 Manage Project 8 Information Distribution 9 Scope Verification 10 Schedule Control 11 Quality Control 12 PhD Closure 34

35 PhD Management Processes

36 1 Develop PhD Charter Product Deliverable Thesis Title focus Need/Justification Research question to be answered motivation Time /Cost Resources Project Manager Supervisor Sponsor University / Industry partner / Research project Main Stakeholders References the ones you would like to referee your work This should be fix throughout the project! 36

37 2 Define PhD Scope Scope describes the necessarywork that will be done to ensure that the research question is answered Deliverables (journal papers, dissertation, progress reports) Define assumptions, constraints, boundaries The work required to create the deliverables Doesn t have to be completely defined till the end Roll wave planning 37

38 3 WBS definition Deliverable oriented hierarchical decomposition of the work Dissertation Introduction Modeling Methodology I Methodology II Results Conclusions Problem Statement Literature Review The time estimation cannot be done at this level! 38

39 4 Activities definition, sequencing and duration estimating Activity is the smallest unit that can be estimated from the WBS decomposition Sequencing the activities: Finish-Finish, Start-Start, Start-Finish, Finish-Start Duration estimating as accurate as possible Bottom-up estimation (decompose until estimation is possible and then sum up) Literature Review Months Sequencing Relations A - Search journal papers (10) 1 - B - Read journal papers 2 SS(A) C - Writing 1 FF(A,B) Only here is possible to design a Gantt chart! 39

40 5 Quality Planning Degree to which the research activities fulfill the requirements: Methodology that improves performance in 10% Definition of acceptance criteria Standards compliment Quality metrics Results have to pass statistical tests (t-test) Important step for results evaluation! 40

41 6 Communication Planning Determine the information and communication needs of the stakeholders Different persons Different cultures Rule of thumb says 90% of projects problems are communication problems Are 90% of PhD problems communication problems? Supervisor /candidate relationship issues? Bad communication with the reviewers? 41

42 Communication in Teams (Ned Herrmann Model) 60% of people have 2 of the profiles Communication is harder on diagonals There are specific ways to get to each type: A: Facts, Quantity B: Detail, Process C: Empathy, References D: Global, Metaphor Know Do Create Feel

43 Mental Software Portuguese Software: Collectiveness Need for Control and Safety Cultivate distance to power Feminine (no conflict) Plenty of Time Poor self esteem American Software: Individualists Power delegation, empowerment Proximity to Power Conflict is positive Planning driven Rewards Open to changes Status (economic) Less formalism

44 How to manage Portuguese Be positive Severe with time Practice planning Close relations Direct feedback (performance) Few norms, but strict

45 Leadership Autocratic Crises Affiliative Change Participative Plan Formalist Control Mobilizer Execute Reference Feedback Trainer Initiating Different types of leadership have to be used according to the situation!

46 7 Project Management Update: Scope Definition Schedule Update Quality Planning Update Communication Planning based on the information from: Scope Verification Schedule Control Quality Control Progress Reports

47 8 Information distribution Weekly meetings with the supervisors Semester progress reports Local Seminars CAT presentation Conference papers Journal papers Dissertation

48 9 Scope Verification Check if quality criteria required for the deliverables are met Obtaining the stakeholder formal acceptance of the completed scope and associated deliverables: Chapter acceptance by supervisor and cosupervisors Journal paper submission /acceptance 48

49 10 Schedule Control Determine current status of PhD Weekly meetings using performance reports and schedule baseline Update WBS, Activities estimation Exercise this often, this is an iterative process Implement corrective actions if necessary Reduce scope or increase time From this point on, quality is compromised 49

50 11 Quality Control Monitoring specific results to determine whether they comply with criteria defined in Quality Planning Analyze progress reports, papers, chapters Determine the cause and effects of possible errors and failures Implement corrective actions if necessary 50

51 12 Close PhD Finalize the PhD Compilation of final thesis Verification of final thesis Dissertation discussion Administrative procedures 51

52 Plan Example A fictitious example

53 FCT work plan template Title Summary (max 150 words) State-of-the-art (max 500 words) Objectives (max 300 words) Detailed description (max 1000 words) Tasks Chronogram References (max 20)

54 From FCT to PM PhD plan The FCT template basically covers the: Project Charter (title, summary, objectives) Scope Definition (objectives, state-of-the-art, detailed description) WBS Definition (detailed description) Includes Work Plan Example I, II, III The candidate and the supervisor should go further with: Activity definition, sequencing and duration estimation Quality planning Communication planning Includes Work Plan Example IV, V, VI

55 Work Plan Example (I) Title Summary PhDs are projects that usually take longer than planned and present less results than expected. In this work I aim to develop a new management tool for PhDs based on Project Management techniques to improve scope, time and quality of PhDs. State-of-the-art Project Management is a body of knowledge that describes the skills, tools and techniques considered to be the best practice to manage the project activities in order to attain projects objectives [PMI]

56 Work Plan Example (II) Detailed description In this work, I will develop a new management technique, based on Project Management (PM) body of knowledge. Usually, PhD are managed based on the supervisors experience, there is no formal methodology. Some authors have already considered the PM for PhDs [LSE]. However, to the best of my knowledge, in his work he describes the PM concepts, presents an example but has not formalized the methodology. In this work, I will present a formal methodology and compare its results with the current management methodologies The work plan is the following: 1st phase Literature Review /Case study development/current methodologies implementation (1 year) 2nd phase Development of the PM methodology for PhDs (1 year) 3rd phase -Implementation of methodology and comparison with current methodologies (1 year) References [PMI] - [LBS] -

57 Work Plan Example (IV) Milestones definition Literature Review - document (thesis chapter) [3 months] Formalize current methodology document (thesis chapter) [9 months] Journal paper I [12 months] Describe current methodology and performance Performance report I [12 months] Develop new methodology document (thesis chapter) [21 months] Journal paper II [24 months] Describe new methodology Performance report II [24 months] Describe case study analysis document (thesis chapter) [27 months] Describe case study results document (thesis chapter) [33 months] Journal paper III [36 months] Compare both methodologies Dissertation (thesis compilation) [36 months] Performance report III [36 months]

58 Work Plan Example (IV) Activities definition, sequencing and durantion estimation Phase I Literature review: search papers /read papers/ writing Case-study development: find supervisor with two candidates /define candidates characteristics/choose candidate with highest probability of failure under current methodology Formalize current supervisor methodology /analyze past examples (duration /scope)

59 Work Plan Example (V) Quality Planning Define quality criteria PM approach cannot fail time and scope Define metrics Number of failed milestones Total weeks of delays [milestones] Number of issues pointed out by reviewers

60 Work Plan Example (VI) Communication Planning Weekly meeting with supervisor Delivery of documents to supervisor Delivery of journal papers to supervisor Submission of journal papers Delivery of thesis chapters to supervisor Delivery of dissertation to supervisor

61 Conclusions Implement this plan formally