mit phd project

7/27/2019 MIT PhD Project

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Project Management for PhDs

Carlos A. S. Silva

Engineering Systems

1Project Management for PhDs



Motivation

• Candidates idea about the topic is not clear

• Supervisors “coaching” is not sufficient

• The result is:

–

– Less results than expected

Project Management approach to PhD management

may improve the results




Motivation




Overview

• Project Management

– Introduction – Scope / Time / Quality

• “ ”

– Project Manager

– PhD Management Plan

• Communication

• Plan Example

• Conclusions




Project Management

General introduction



Project Definition & Characteristics

• Temporary endeavor

– definite beginning and

end

• Unique Product/Service – definite and

quantifiable result

• Progressive – Developed in steps

6



Project Definition & Characteristics

• Temporary endeavor

– definite beginning and

end

• Unique Product/Service – definite and

quantifiable result

• Progressive – Developed in steps

7



Examples

•Manhattan Project (Good ) – 1942/1945

– $2 000 000 000

–

120 000 people

• Sidney Opera House (Bad )

–1959/1973

– $103 000 000 (15x)

8



Gantt Chart is not Project Management!

• “…bar chart that

illustrates projectschedule”

• First developed by Karol

(harmonogram)

• Gantt developed severalcharts to measure work

and performance from1910-1920 (1917)

9



PERT/CPM are only scheduling tools!

• Program Evaluation and

Review Technique – Developed by Booz Allen

for US Navy project

o ars n

• Critical Path Method

–

Developed by Dupontand Remignton Rand

(UNISYS) in 1950’s

10



Project Management Definition

Application of…

– Knowledge

– Skills

– Tools

– Techniques

… to the project activitiesto attain project

objectives

11

est ract ces



Project Management Tasks

• Planning, executing and controlling all the

tasks that guarantee the project’s success – Promote communication and alignment of

stakeholders

This is different from planning, executing and

controlling the tasks that guarantee the product’s

success




Project Stakeholders

•

Someone whoseinterests may influence

positively or negatively

e pro ec : – Sponsor

– Team

– Client

– Management

– Family

13



Project Life Cycle




Management Process Groups




Project Management Processes

5 management groups

•

9 knowledge areas• 44 processes

(Project Management Institute)




Project Major Documents• Project Charter

– Product Deliverable – Need/Justification

– Time /Cost

–Resources

– Project Manager

– Sponsor

–

Main Stakeholders




Project Major Documents• Preliminary Scope

– Acceptance Criteria – Project Deliverables

– Milestones

–Constraints

– Risks

– High Level work

breakdown structure




Project Major Documents

• Management Plan – Scope management plan

– Communicationmanagemen p an

– Risk management plan

– Schedule

– Costs

• Lessons Learned

19



Scope Definition• Product Scope

– Characteristics and functions

•

ro ec cope – Work that has to be done to guarantee that the

product has the defined characteristics and

functions




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 estimateis 50% (classic definition)




Quality• “…degree to which a set of inherent

characteristics fulfill requirements” – Product Quality

•

– Project Quality

• Including clients requests

• Improving quality means increasing time

and/or cost and/or scope



Project “PhD”

Project Management approach



Defining PhD as a Project• Academic degree awarded to candidates that

develop original scientific research refereed byexperts on the same field

– Unique (original academic work)

Getting a PhD is a project by definition!




The PhD Stakeholders• University

•

Candidate• Supervisor

• Scientific Committee (CAT at IST)

• e ow can a es

• 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 !




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



What if Supervisor doesn’t manage?

• Leadership is:

– Having an idea – Gathering people around the idea

– Assi n tasks to execute the idea

• Leadership can be exercised upwards

If Supervisor doesn’t manage, the candidate hasto play the PhD manager’s role



The PhD Project Management1 – Develop

PhD charter

2 – Define

PhD scope

3 – Define

WBS

4 – Define

Activities

5 – Planning

Quality

6 – Planning

Communication

Initiating


9 – Scope

Verification

11– Quality

Control

10 – Schedule

Control

12 – PhD

Closure

8 – Information

Distribution

7 – Manage

Project




PhD charter

2 – Define

PhD scope

3 – Define

WBS

4 – Define

Activities

5 – Planning

Quality

6 – Planning

Communication

Planning


9 – Scope

Verification

11– Quality

Control

10 – Schedule

Control

12 – PhD

Closure

8 – Information

Distribution

7 – Manage

Project




PhD charter

2 – Define

PhD scope

3 – Define

WBS

4 – Define

Activities

5 – Planning

Quality

6 – Planning

Communication


9 – Scope

Verification

11– Quality

Control

10 – Schedule

Control

12 – PhD

Closure

8 – Information

Distribution

7 – Manage

Project

Executing




PhD charter

2 – Define

PhD scope

3 – Define

WBS

4 – Define

Activities

5 – Planning

Quality

6 – Planning

Communication


9 – Scope

Verification

11– Quality

Control

10 – Schedule

Control

12 – PhD

Closure

8 – Information

Distribution

7 – Manage

Project

Controlling




PhD charter

2 – Define

PhD scope

3 – Define

WBS

4 – Define

Activities

5 – Planning

Quality

6 – Planning

Communication


9 – Scope

Verification

11– Quality

Control

10 – Schedule

Control

12 – PhD

Closure

8 – Information

Distribution

7 – Manage

Project

Closing




PhD charter

2 – Define

PhD scope

3 – Define

WBS

4 – Define

Activities

5 – Planning

Quality

6 – Planning

Communication

Typical PhD Work Plan


9 – Scope

Verification

11– Quality

Control

10 – Schedule

Control

12 – PhD

Closure

8 – Information

Distribution

7 – Manage

Project




PhD charter

2 – Define

PhD scope

3 – Define

WBS

4 – Define

Activities

5 – Planning

Quality

6 – Planning

Communication

PhD Work Plan “Project Management” like


9 – Scope

Verification

11– Quality

Control

10 – Schedule

Control

12 – PhD

Closure

8 – Information

Distribution

7 – Manage

Project



PhD Management Processes

1

23

4

7

9

1

0

1

2

Project Management for PhDs 35

5

6 8

1

1



1 – Develop PhD Charter• Product Deliverable

– Thesis Title → focus

• Need/Justification – Research question to be answered → motivation

• Time /Cost

• 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!




2 – Define PhD Scope• Scope describes the necessary work that

will be done to ensure that the researchquestion is answered

–

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




3 – WBS definition• Deliverable oriented hierarchical decomposition of

the work

Dissertation

The time estimation cannot be done at this level!

Introduction Modeling Methodology I Methodology II Results Conclusions

Problem

Statement

Literature

Review




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 !



5 –Quality Planning• Degree to which the research activities fulfill

the requirements:“Methodology that improves performance in 10%”

–

– Standards compliment

– Quality metrics

“Results have to pass statistical tests (t-test)”


Important step for results evaluation!



6 – Communication Planning• Determine the information and communication

needs of the stakeholders – Different persons

– Different cultures

Rule of thumb says 90% of projects problems arecommunication problems…

• Are 90% of PhD problems communication problems?

– Supervisor /candidate relationship issues?

– Bad communication with the reviewers?




Communication in Teams

(Ned Herrmann Model)

• 60% of people have 2 of

the profiles• Communication is

“ ”

Know Create

• There are specific waysto get to each type:

– A: Facts, Quantity

–

B: Detail, Process – C: Empathy, References

– D: Global, Metaphor

Do Feel



Mental Software• Portuguese Software:

– Collectiveness – Need for Control and

Safety

• American Software:

–

Individualists – Power delegation,

empowerment

–

Cultivate distance topower

– Feminine (no conflict)

– Plenty of Time

– Poor self—esteem

– Proximity to Power

– Conflict is positive

– Planning driven

– Rewards

– Open to changes

– Status (economic)

– Less formalism



How to manage Portuguese• Be positive

• Severe with time

• Practice planning

•

Close relations• Direct feedback (performance)

• Few norms, but strict



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!



7 – Project Management

• Update:

– Scope Definition

– Schedule

Progress Reports

– p ate ua ty ann ng

– Update Communication Planning

• …based on the information from:

– Scope Verification

– Schedule Control

– Quality Control



8 – Information distribution• Weekly meetings with the supervisors

• Semester progress reports• Local Seminars

•

CAT presentation• Conference papers

• Journal papers

• Dissertation



9 – Scope Verification• Check if quality criteria required for the

deliverables are met• Obtaining the stakeholder formal acceptance

deliverables:

– Chapter acceptance by supervisor and co-

supervisors

– Journal paper submission /acceptance




10 – Schedule Control• Determine current status of PhD

–

Weekly meetings using• performance reports and

• schedule baseline

•

Update WBS, Activities estimationExercise this often, this is an iterative process

• Implement corrective actions if necessary

– Reduce scope or increase time→ From this point on, quality is compromised




11 – Quality Control• Monitoring specific results to determine

whether they comply with criteria defined inQuality Planning

, ,

• Determine the cause and effects of possible

errors and failures

–

Implement corrective actions if necessary




12 – Close PhD• Finalize the PhD

– Compilation of final thesis – Verification of final thesis

–

– Administrative procedures




Plan Example

A fictitious example…



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)



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 planningIncludes Work Plan Example IV, V, VI



Work Plan Example (I)• Title

– “Project Management for PhDs”

• Summary – “PhDs are projects that usually take longer than planned

and present less results than expected. In this work I aimto develop a new management tool for PhDs based on

Project Management techniques to improve scope, timeand quality of PhDs.”

• State-of-the-art – “Project Management is a body of knowledge that

describes the skills, tools and techniques considered to bethe best practice to manage the project activities in orderto attain projects objectives [PMI]”



Work Plan Example (II)• Detailed description

– “In this work, I will develop a new management technique, based on ProjectManagement (PM) body of knowledge.

– Usually, PhD are managed based on the supervisors experience, there is noformal methodology.

– Some authors have already considered the PM for PhDs [LSE]. However, to thebest of my knowledge, in his work he describes the PM concepts, presents an

.

– In this work, I will present a formal methodology and compare its results withthe 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 currentmethodologies (1 year)

• References – [PMI] - www.pmi.org

– [LBS] - www.lse.ac.uk/collections/TLCPhD/projectManagement.htm



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]

– –

– 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]



Work Plan Example (IV)• Activities definition, sequencing and durantion

estimation – Phase I

•

• Case-study development: find supervisor with twocandidates /define candidates characteristics/choose

candidate with highest probability of failure under

current methodology

• Formalize current supervisor methodology /analyze

past examples (duration /scope)



Work Plan Example (V)• Quality Planning

– Define quality criteria• PM approach cannot fail time and scope

–

• Number of failed milestones• Total weeks of delays [milestones]

• Number of issues pointed out by reviewers



Work Plan Example (VI)• Communication Planning

–Weekly meeting with supervisor

– Delivery of documents to supervisor

–

– Submission of journal papers

– Delivery of thesis chapters to supervisor

– Delivery of dissertation to supervisor



Conclusions

Implement this plan formally