Doctoral Development Seminar: Project Planning

(March 27, 2009)

Guests: Ixchel Faniel, Paul Conway, and Ann Zimmerman

Ixchel:
Ixchel teaches SI 501: Contextual Inquiry and Project Management.

The following factors need to be considered when developing and executing a project plan:
1. Requirements and goals of the project.
2. Resources, including people.
3. Scheduling.

Managing schedule is the most difficult part. Useful advice:
1. Knowing your major milestones and steps.
2. Estimating time carefully. Asking other people who have similar experience.
3. Being realistic! Don’t overlook personal obligations.
4. Shared calendar like Google Calendar works well for collaborative projects.

Managing project plan:
1. Ixchel creates very detailed plan in planning stage and thinks about how it should change each semester.
2. As for human resource, making the roles and responsibility clear! Discussing author order and make associated roles and responsibilities clear up front are important.

Paul:
Being able to delegate is very important. There are two ways to delegate:
1. Supervisor-supervisee relationship. It’s easier to get things done.
2. Collaborating relationship with shared responsibility and credit. For instance, co-authoring might be difficult with different writing styles.

Developing a project:
1. Identifying a research question based on your experience or wholes in literature.
2. Tying/adjusting your research question to funding opportunity.
3. Developing a research program.
a. Thinking about your long-term goal and what you want to get from the partnership (if any).
b. Designing a project that data can be collected and analyzed efficiently.

Publishing is a validating and rewarding system.

Don’t forget to balance your research and life.

Ann:
Ann is research professor. 90% of her salary comes from outside sources.

Advice on project management:
1. Arranging meetings and spending time to know a person before collaboration.
2. Keep your short-term and long-term goals around you!
3. Being able to push little things back – prioritizing your to-do list.

We have great research support at SI!
Making sincere efforts to meet deadlines is the key of managing relationship with staff.

Advice on managing relationship with collaborator:
1. Value other people’s expertise.
2. Share similar research interests.
3. Negotiate for an agreement.

It’s never too early to start working on publication, so start early!

General discussion:
Both expertise and network are essential for getting early opportunities.

Starting small, showing your accomplishments before considering bigger grants.