IFI8109 Planning and Running Research and Development Projects Running R&D projects

1. IFI8109 Planning and Running Research and Development ProjectsRunning R&D projects • Peeter Normak • 11.03.2014

2. Plan • Seminar: presentation of development project proposals. • Practice of running R&D-projects: a view of a research group. • General project management practices. • Case study: LearnMix project. • Artificial measures to improve the performance indicators. • Concluding remarks/discussion.

3. Examination dates • 04.04 – IFI8109 (Planning and Running Research and Development Projects). • 18.04 – IFI8101 (Information Society Approaches and ICT Processes).

4. Practice of running R&D-projects (TDTTD):a view of a research group

5. Practice of running R&D-projects: a view of a research group • Being aware of what are the topical and currently heavily discussed problems. • Being aware of what already has been done before in the problem area, and what are the strengths/weaknesses/limitations . • Availability of necessary time resource. • Availability of necessary work environment and tools. • Presence of a work organization and motivation system that support devotion.

6. Being aware of what are the topical and currently heavily discussed problems • Inviting active scholars for presentations and discussions about topical research problems and cooperation opportunities. • Creation and maintaining of discussions inside the research group (research seminars, meetings, blogs, ...). Example: http://tihane.wordpress.com/ (Blog of senior researcher Kai Pata). • Application of funds for direct communication with the international academic community (for attending conferences, network meetings, ...). Examples: COST actions (http://www.cost.eu/domains_actions/ict).

7. Being aware of what already has been done before • Ensuring access to the scientific literature (including electronic access to full-text databases). Example: ELNET consortium. • Promoting information flow (including sharing each other publications) between the research group members and other colleagues. Possible tools: https://www.researchgate.net, http://www.mendeley.com, … • Application of funds for attending and organising systematic training of project team members (courses, series of lectures, for attending conferences, summer schools, ...).

8. Availability of necessary time resource • Finding resources for conducting long-term (2-6 months) research in leading research centers. • Hiring necessary support staff (secretaries, project coordinators, web managers, ...) for freeing researchers’ time for professional activities. Prevent assigning tasks to the researchers that are not related to their professional competence. • Establishing work organisation and procedures that take into account preferences and habits of each team member.

9. Availability of necessary work environment and tools • Establishing permanent personal work places for researchers. • Acquisition of the necessary tools (hard- and software, licenses, …) for research. • Creation of a common space for discussion and other activities (e.g. lunches) with colleagues and partners.

10. Presence of a work organization and motivation system that support devotion • Equal opportunities to attend on scientific discussions, not depending on the academic position of a researcher (junior or senior researcher). • Providing adequate academic support to the team members, and involvement them in decision making processes. • Considering interpersonal compatibility in work organization and assigning tasks. • Recognition of the significance of the research conducted by the team members and stimulating them through scientific discussion and generating new ideas and issues.

11. General project management practices

12. Project management – general methodology General methodology – structural approach (what? instead of how?). Basic structures: • Project management knowledge areas • Project management process groups • Project management activities • Project management artifacts Reason: universality, widely applicable.

13. Project management – knowledge areas • PMBOK Guide: A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge. • The knowledge areas: • Project integration management • Project scope management • Project time management • Project cost management • Project quality management • Project human resource management • Project communications management • Project risk management • Project procurement management • Project stakeholders management. These knowledge areas are applicable to all stages of the project. • PMBOK Guide became in fact a standard in project management; for the 2004 version see http://users.encs.concordia.ca/~hammad/INSE6230/PMBOK3rdEnglish.pdf ).

14. Project management – process groups • Process is defined as a coherent system of activities that results in a certain outcome. • Project management process groups: • Initiating processes • Planning processes • Executing processes • Closing processes • Controlling processes

15. Project management – activities • Project management activities can be divided into general activities and product specific activities. • A systematic approach to general project management activities is presented in Project Management Maturity Model (PMMM). • Examples: • Planning, organizing and coordinating the work of the project team. • Acquiring and allocation of human and other resources. • Create necessary work environment. • Encourage devotion, excitement and creativity inside the project team. • Solving problems/conflicts both inside the project team as well with other parties. • Informing the project team and other parties involved about the state of the art of the project, as well as about success and problems.

16. Project management – artifacts • Project management artifacts are documents that regulate and support the project execution. • Examples: • Needs analysis and/or feasibility study. • Project charter. • Work breakdown structure and/or project schedule. • Change control plan. • Risk management plan and/or table/database of risks. • Communications plan. • Lessons learned document. The artifacts form a project’s portfolio (NB! The concepts project’s portfolio and portfolio of projects are different).

17. Artificial measures to improve the performance indicators(“juriidiliselt on kõik korrektne” – legally is everything correct)

18. Exceeding the number of publications • Big number of colleagues are included among the authors of publications. Example: https://cdsweb.cern.ch/record/1129811/files/jinst8_08_s08003.pdf • Articles are as short as possible. Compare: http://www.mat.univie.ac.at/~neum/contrib/fullkepler-1.pdf • Presentation of a research will be repeated in many articles (with small variations).

19. Exceeding the number of citations • Possibly many of his own earlier publications are cited (the consortia should be different, for avoiding self-citations). • Articles are published only in ISI journals. • Research is conducted in an area where a big number of researchers are active.

20. Dilemma of big research projects/groups • Top-down versusbottom-up. • Bottom-up approach (individual freedom): successful research presumes academic freedom in all aspects – choice of the research topic, methods to be used, structuring the research etc. • Top-down approach (certain aspects are prescribed): research should be focused on a given topic. • Solution: 1) decide collectively on the research problems; 2) form (on a voluntary basis) subgroups for dealing with the problems.

21. The Case Study • Completion of the LearnMix project • Arman Arakelyan

22. Concluding remarks/discussion • There was no prerequisite subject. Should there be (for example – general project management)? • The nature of independent work. For example: more independent reading and less practical exercises (composing project plans and reviewing)? • The content: more/less analysis of real cases, topics of the cases (ICT+education) • Adequacy of the volume of independent work: • Composition of project plans and the presentations – 50 hours • Composition of a review – 6 hours • Other – 20 hours. • Suggestions for further development of the course.

23. Success in applying R&D projects!

24. Example: presentations on IFI research seminar (extract)