Siobhan O’Dowd– Post Award Manager (Research Office)

Ross English – Doctoral College Manager

October 2019

Doctoral Milestones and a Brief Guide to Project Management

Workshop schedule

• PhD Manager: an introduction to our online system that manages your doctorate

• The structure of the doctorate at Brighton: what is expected of you, and when.

• The principles of project management and how they apply to your doctorate

Doctoral Milestones, new regulations: the key stages of your research degree

InductionResearch

Plan Agreed

Ethics & Integrity Training

Annual Progression

Review

Exam Arrangem-

ents

Thesis SubmissionViva Voce*

Full time student: 1 months by APR by month 12 4 months by 4 years(usually month 8) month 24 before

month 36 submission

Part time student: 3 months month 48 by 7 yearsetc

Our researcher development workshops offer support and training to guide you through these key stages. * Viva takes place at least 8 weeks after

submission Graduation!

PhD Manager

‘I am not a computer person at all to be honest, and I have found it easy to use and better than writing up notes after my meetings and then circulating to my supervisors. PhD Manager is just so much quicker and easier.’

Jennifer Holland, 3rd year full-time SaSM PhD student

What is Project Management?

• A project is a temporary endeavour designed to produce a unique product, service or result with a defined beginning and end (usually time-constrained, and often constrained by funding or deliverables) undertaken to meet unique goals and objectives, typically to bring about beneficial change or added value.

• The main aim of the Project Manager is to achieve the required deliverables within the constraints of the project.

• Project Management is a distinct skill that requires development and training

Project Management in relation to doctoral research A doctoral research project will require you to organise and balance a much wider variety of tasks, people and goals than during previous academic degrees. Your primary concerns are probably data collection, analysis and writing up, but in the course of your project you will also brush up against funding, progress reports, review/examination, career development concerns, and teaching requirements. Being aware of, and using, project management techniques will help you to plan the best approach for you and your research project.

A note of caution! You will need to flexibleIt is important to remember that, particularly in the research context, the project lifecycle is not linear. The project definition or activities may change as the project evolves: good project management lies in noticing when you are deviating from the plan, and thoughtfully considering whether you should follow the new path.

The Project Management Triangle

Scope

Time

Cost

Quality

Scope• Provide an opportunity statement ; what problem, question or

opportunity is the project looking to address?

• Define the purpose, objective and goals of the project in a concise format

• Define success criteria for the project

• It is essential to clearly define the scope of the project. This is the detail of what requirements need to be achieved to be able to meet the end objective.

• The more effort that is put into clearly defining the requirements in the initial stages of the project the more likely it is to succeed.

• The requirements should be clearly discussed, documented and signed off by all key project stakeholders.

Scope (continued)

• Defining requirements as core and non core can help determine the scope

• Clearly detail inclusions and exclusions. What is not included in the project is just as important as what is

• Misunderstanding of project objectives leads to change controls and impacts on cost and time and/or quality.

• Set baseline scope. Any deviation from this must be treated as a change control and will impact the other project constraints

The Scoping Tool

To ensure that you have all of the required activities in place to meet your objectives you need to scope the project.

•Using a flipchart pad draw a large box just inside the edge.•Draw a smaller box inside the one you have just drawn.•Describe the outer box as ‘IS NOT’ - what you will not cover in achieving the required project.•Describe the inner box as ‘IS’ - what you will cover in achieving the required project.•To allow free thinking, initially think about your 'IS' and 'IS NOT'.•List your 'IS' and 'IS NOT' on flipchart.The scoping tool not only helps you decide what is and is not part of the project, it provides clarity both to you and the project team, and helps manage customer expectations. The tool is also useful if, at a future stage, it is necessary to adjust the scope of the projectto meet budgetary or time constraints.

During these sessions work in groups of three/four

Think about your Research Projects. Use the scoping tool on the previous slide to determine what is and what is not in the scope of your research project.

Break Out Session (15 mins)

Cost

To provide an accurate budget to measure cost the following must be considered at the initiation phase;

• An estimation of all resources required to complete the endeavour

• Creation of a plan of how and when these resources will be used throughout the life of the project

• Addition of contingency. It is recommended to add between 10% and 20% contingency to your budget this is dependant on the size and scale of your project. If there is no contingency this should be noted as a risk

• Prioritise costs so that if you run over budget you know what could be cut

TimeTo enable an accurate estimate of time required to complete a project. You will need to;

• Identify all the tasks that are required to deliver the project

• Estimate the resource and time required for all tasks with some contingency

• Identify key milestones and deliverables

• Identify dependencies (can one task not begin until another has ended, two tasks have to start at the same time)

• Create a critical path which will allow you to understand your baseline schedule (deviation results in change control)

• Detail this out in a Project Schedule (Gannt chart etc)

The critical path

Project Plan Creation

• Identify your priorities so that if you need to make choices you have already done some thinking about how to make the decision

• What will the outcome be. What specific outputs / checkpoints will demonstrate your success

• Who / What – what resources do you need / when and how much ensure you clearly define responsibilities

• When – estimate length of time for each discreet action / which work strands can work independently of each other / identify dependencies

Project plans are there to help you not hinder you. Use it and update it regularly to help you keep track of your progress

Other Important considerations• Research Plan - Objectives/Outcomes/resources (1st month)/or 3rd part-

time.

• The organization of the project

• iteratively /phased approach/ sub-projects ?

• RESEARCH Specific:

• Part of Induction - IPR consider whether you need permission from anyone or need to protect anything – who will own your IP? (Default – they copyright while UoB has IP) Any point.

• Data Management Plan and Ethics review (iterative)

• GENERAL

• Key assumptions - and killer

• Creation of a risk register and determine risk management strategy• Creation of Issue log and issue management approach

• Reporting/Supervision agreed

Managing risk and issues

• Risk: Something that if it occurs would have an impact on the project delivery / cost or quality

• Issue: Something that has already occurred and needs an action plan to resolve

• Identify risks and issues early and keep a risk and issue register

• Manage risks according to impact and likelihood to enable you to prioritise and focus on the big ones

• Communicate and escalate them as soon as you can

• Regularly revisit open risks/issues

• Assign owners to each risk/issue

Managing risk and issues (2)

HIGH (3) (likely to occur)

MEDIUM (2)(may occur)LOW (1)(unlikely to occur)

LOW (1)(insignificant)

MEDIUM (2)(reasonable impact, to be

HIGH (3) (significant impact)

LIKELIHOOD

IMPACT

Risk Responses

• Prevention: Acting to stop the threat occurring or preventing it from impacting the project

• Reduction: Taking action to reduce the likelihood of the threat happening or reducing the impact to the project should it happen

• Transference: passing responsibility for the risk to a third party, for example, taking out insurance

• Acceptance: tolerating the risk

• Contingency: planning actions to be taken should the risk occur

Spend some time to consider assumptions that you are making and consider risks, issues and dependencies.

Use one project to give an example of risk, dependencies and assumptions and feedback to the group. What risk response do you think is appropriate?

Break Out Session 2 (15 mins)

Project Roles and Responsibilities• You! You might not think of yourself as a 'stakeholder' but you have a

key interest in your project's success, be it to generate new knowledge or simply to gain your PhD or other form of doctorate and advance your career.

• Your supervisors, who will provide advise on and review of progress of your research and thesis, and who may even be leading a wider research project of which your own research project is a part. Their level of input will vary depending on discipline.

• Co-researchers (if you are collaborating with others)• Funding bodies (including research councils and commercial

companies)

Potential Stakeholders• Research participants (and possibly their families)• Administrative or oversight bodies, such as ethics, legal or financial

committees (who may have to approve your project)

• Examiners/reviewers (who will judge whether the project has sufficiently met institutional or other standards to allow them to award a degree or deem the project 'successful')

• Your institution (which may gain funding revenue or prestige as a result of successful research carried out by students or academic staff)

• Your library or information services department, if there is a requirement to archive a copy of your thesis or results in a university repository

• Other researchers (who may be able to use your work to develop your field of research)

• The public (who might benefit from the new knowledge generated by your project) or end-users (who might benefit from a tangible product, such as a piece of software you write).

Project Management at the University of Brighton

Project Management at the University

This five stage Project Management Framework has been developed from established methodologies and good practice. This frameworkprovides a set of workflows with document templates and guides that are designed to be used together to work through a project from its conception (Think It) through to evaluation of the project's outcomes.

The framework allows us to build a clear picture in the early stages of what we are aiming to do and why, and gives us a better understanding of projects, making it easier to learn from them, and plan in the future.

Five stage model - the five 'Its'. The Project Management Framework is a five stage model into which all projects across the University will fit.

Think It - Capturing opportunities, ideas, reasons and some possible risks that are approved for further investigation. This 'It' provides a high level understanding of What and Why and concludes with a completed Business Case.

Plan It - Defining and planning the project. Identifying the scope, timescales, costs, resources and communication. This 'It' provides the What, Why, Who, When and How.

Do It - Designing and developing the deliverable(s) as well as monitoring and managing the detailed tasks required to deliver the project. Also establishing the project team and completing the procurement process.

Deliver It - Implementing the deliverables or outcomes of the project, providing training and local support to the customer and to operational support teams in user departments.

Close It - Review the effectiveness of the project and of the processes used, capturing lessons learned, closing the project and then communicating the closure.

Project Management Key Resources and Documents

https://staff.brighton.ac.uk/is/projects/Pages/Home.aspx

• Strategic Planning and Project Office website where you can find examples of risk and issue registers, PM Framework documents etc :

• Project Initiation Document (PID)

• Project Highlight Report

• Research Office Project Managers Handbook (specific to Research Grant Management)

• Lynda.com – Project Management Training

• Doctoral College Student Central – Managing Your Research Project

• Mind Genius – SPPO Website

https://staff.brighton.ac.uk/is/projects/Pages/Home.aspx

University of Brighton

Project Management Framework

Project Initiation Document

Project Name:

Project Size:

Choose an item.

Project Manager:

Extn:

Project Number: (if known)

Date:

Revisions

Version No.

Revised By

Revision Date

Notes

Contents

1Project Description2

2Project Size2

3Business Case2

4Project Benefits, Outputs and Outcomes2

5Acceptance Criteria3

6Project Scope3

7Data Protection3

8Risks, Constraints and Assumptions4

9Project Organisation4

10Project Controls5

11Reporting5

12Stakeholders and Communication6

13Budget6

14Planning Approach7

15Project Tolerances & Exceptions7

Project Description

Project Size

Business Case

Overview

Details of support for Strategic Plan Objectives

Reasons why the project is needed

Project Benefits, Outputs and Outcomes

Benefits

Outputs

Outcomes

Acceptance Criteria

Project Scope

Includes

Excludes

Dependencies

Interfaces

Data Protection

Data Privacy

Data Security

Risks, Constraints and Assumptions

Risk Management

Risk Management Roles and Responsibilities

Identified Risks

Constraints

Assumptions

Project Organisation

Project Board

Project Board Role

Responsibilities

Project Sponsor

Senior Supplier

Senior User

Project Manager

Finance Representative

Project Team

Project Team Role

Responsibilities

Project Manager

Team Members

Project Controls

Issue Management

Change Requests

Lessons Learned

Financial Management

Quality Management

Information Management

Project Assurance

Reporting

Level

Frequency

Project Manager to Project Board

Project Team to Project Manager

Sponsor/Project Manager

Sponsor to Senior Management

Project Manager to Programme Manager (if appropriate)

Other

Stakeholders and Communication

Stakeholders – Identification and Analysis

Communication & Engagement

Stakeholders

Expected Communications

Frequency

Media

Budget

Existing UoB Staff costs

New or Increase to existing staff

Non-staff costs

Future Running Costs

Contingency

Planning Approach

Milestone Plan for Project

Stage

Milestone

Completion Date

Detailed Plan

Project Tolerances & Exceptions

The Risk Assessment, Project Sizing Tool and a detailed task plan should be attached to this document in the appendices.

12-Dec-2015PID_05Page 1 of 1

University of Brighton

Project Management Framework

Project Highlight Report

Project Name:

Project Number:

Report Date:

Project Manager:

Report Period:

start date - end date

Project Status Summary

Overall Status

Budget

Timeline

Scope

Risk/Issues

RAG Rating =

Approved Project Budget

Spend to Date

Forecast Spend for Project

Start Date

Original End Date

Latest End Date

Summary Text:

Project Milestones

Milestone

Original

Date

Revised Date

Completed Date

Comments

Activities due this Reporting Period

Key Activities

Original

Date

Completed

/Revised Date

Status: Started/ Complete/ Problem

Notes

Activities Due Next Reporting Period

Key Activities

Original

Date

Revised Date

Status:

On Track/ Risk / Issue

Notes

Summary of Key Issues and Risks outstanding for Report period

New risks identified

Ref

Risk description

Comments & Action to Address

Owner

Priority

New issues identified

Ref

Issue Description

Comments & Action to Address

Owner

Priority

Requests for Change raised for this Report period or still pending

Budget – impact of any changes this period

Schedule – impact of any changes this period

Lessons Identified this period

For certain projects it may be appropriate to list current lessons in the following table, otherwise delete this table:

Ref

Lesson Description

Noted by

Date

Recommendation for Future

Project Summary for External Communication

Please send a copy of your highlight report to StrategicProjectsTeam@brighton.ac.uk

23-Feb-2016Project_Highlight_Report_04.docxPage 1 of 1

Doctoral Milestones and a Brief Guide to Project ManagementWorkshop scheduleDoctoral Milestones, new regulations: �the key stages of your research degree�PhD ManagerWhat is Project Management?Project Management in relation to doctoral research The Project Management TriangleScopeScope (continued)The Scoping Tool�Break Out Session (15 mins)CostTimeThe critical pathProject Plan CreationOther Important considerationsManaging risk and issuesManaging risk and issues (2)Risk ResponsesBreak Out Session 2 (15 mins)Project Roles and ResponsibilitiesPotential StakeholdersProject Management at the University of BrightonProject Management at the University Project Management Key Resources and Documents