Planning and Running Research and Development Projects IFI8109

1. Planning and Running Research and Development ProjectsIFI8109 • Peeter Normak

2. Plan • Introduction to the course. • The basic concepts of projects and project management. • The role of R&D projects in academic activities. • Examples of R&D projects. • Methodologies of planning R&D projects. • Discussion: Course participants’ interests and expectations.

3. Course objective • Develop ability to plan, analyze and evaluate research and development (R&D) projects, as well understanding peculiarity of R&D projects

4. The reason • Research and development has become almost completely project based. • Planning and running projects has become more professional. • Consequence: to succeed in applying and conducting R&D projects, certain specific competences are needed.

5. Example: TLU Institute of Informatics * The financing model has been changed; the financing was reduced by 10%.

6. Schedule • 28.01 – Introduction and basics. • 4.02 – Evaluation criteria of R&D-project plans and reports. Peculiarity of R&D projects. • 11.02 – Seminar: presentation and rationale of the objective of research projects. • 18.02 (4 hours) – Planning research projects: determining an objective, research tasks/hypotheses, the title, activities/methodology. Resource planning, estimation of application potential. Analysis of research project plans. • 25.02 – Seminar: presentation of research project plans. • 4.03 – Reviewing R&D projects. Planning of development projects. • 11.03 (4 hours) – Usage of principles of general project management in executing R&D projects. Application procedures and best practices. • Seminar: presentation of development projects.

7. Learning outcomes • A student is: • able to develop an R&D project plan, • able to review an R&D project plan, • aware of major problems of executing R&D projects, and possibilities of their solving.

8. Organization • Public course materials: www.tlu.ee/~pnormak/RD-projects • No prerequisite course. Recommendation: read “LECTURE-NORES-General-Project_Management-2013.doc”. • There will be home assignments to each class. Necessary files are find on the address above. • Estimated time distribution(104 hours): • Classes 18 • Home work 30 • Composition of project plans and presentations 50 • Composition of a review 6

9. Examination • Individual work: • Composition of a research project plan (40%) on the subject of the individual research. Submission deadline – 28.02 • Composition of a review of a research project plan of a fellow student (The review is form based, 20%). Submission deadline – 9.03 • Group work (group size – 3-4): • Composition of a development project plan. Submission deadline – 20.03

10. The basic concepts of projects and project management

11. Project • Definition. A project is a timely restricted original endeavour that has a predetermined amount of resources for achieving certain objective. • Attributes of a project: • objective • beginning and end (or duration)‏ • Activities and outcomes/milestones • Resources • Funding institution, executor, uncertainty/risks, ... • PRINCE2: • “A management environment that is created for the purpose of delivering one or more business products according to a specified Business Case”; • “A temporary organisation that is needed to produce a unique and predefined outcome or result at a specified time using predetermined resources” 11

12. Project definition - conclusions • Skills and knowledge about project management are needed for everybody who should: • Perform a task during a certain period of time; • Deal with complex problems requiring solutions by activities that will run partly in parallel; • Accomplish the tasks with limited resources; • Co-operate in performing tasks with other people; • Solve fuzzy or nondeterministic exercises; • Take into account the changing needs of bosses, colleagues, customers etc. • Methods of instruction that base on abovementioned principles are called project methods.

13. Project, vision and strategy Visionis a long-term view describing how the institution would like to be in the future. A long-term objective of an institution is often presented in the form of a vision statement. Strategy is a roadmap describing the path from the current position towards the vision (desired position). Projects are important tools in realization of a strategy. NB! Project management is a prerequisite subject for a course “Information technology strategic management”. Current position Desired position

14. Project’s life cycle – the phases 1. Project initiation (determination of the main objective and forming a clear understanding about the necessity and suitability of the project; this stage should answer the questions what? and why?): • Identification and initial analysis of business needs • Determination of the main objective • Resource analysis (people, equipment, finances; needs and availability) • Determination of possible partners • Composition of the project charter (initial plan). 2. Project planning (determination of an optimal scheme/algorithm for project execution; this stage should answer the question how?). 3. Project execution (achieving the project objectives without violating the constraints of the project). 4. Closing the project (formal completion of the project and building solid bases for follow-up activities): • Composition of the final report and the Lessons Learned document, • Filing and archiving the project documentation, • Planning the follow-up activities (including PR activities).

15. Project management – definition • Project management is defined as application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to activities of the project for achievement the project objectives. • Project management triangle: • NB! The actual dependence is not linear. • Project management can be considered as solving an optimization exercise: achieve an optimal relation between the costs and outcome. Duration Cost Scope* * Some authors use performance instead of scope.

16. General scheme of models and frameworks PMBOK (Project Management Body of Knowledge) Guide: the aim is to ensure success of a project. Project Management Competency Development Framework: the aim is to ensure necessary competences of project managers. Organizational Project Management Maturity Model: the aim is to implement project management, program and portfolio practices that support achieving strategic goals of the institution. Project Management Maturity Model: the aim is to develop organizational culture that ensure success of projects.

17. Characteristics of effective (ineffective) project managers An example. Thomas W. Zimmerer, Mahmoud M. Yasin: • Leadership by example (Sets bad example) • Visionary (Not self-assured) • Technically competent (Lacks technical expertise) • Decisive (Poor communicator) • A good communicator (Poor motivator) • A good motivator • Stands up to upper management when necessary • Supportive team members • Encourages new ideas For a more recent study read also http://busm1271.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/leadership-competency-profile1.pdf

18. Specifics and role of R&D projects in academic activities

19. Specifics of research (development) projects • International dimension. • Objective is described in relatively general terms (“Describe …/Develop …”), no qualitative or quantitative indicators. • Existence of research questions and/or hypotheses. • Importance of project execution (research) methodology, specially in the case of “soft” sciences. • Involvement of students, for ensuring scientific continuity. • The high qualification requirements for project implementers (researchers).

20. The role of R&D projects in academic activities I • The view of an academic staff: • Most – if not all – of the income of researchers comes from project-based activities, and therefore: • Competitions for R&D projects are very high (normally 10-30% get financed). • The success of applications largely depends on the satisfaction of fixed criteria, which causes certain conformational behaviour. • The projects are also targeted to ensuring possibilities for follow-up activities – to increase the competitiveness of subsequent project applications. • Skills of drafting project applications have become an integral part of researcher qualification. Preparation of project proposal has become a profession.

21. The role of R&D projects in academic activities II • The view of an academic institution: • The total volume of R&D projects is one of the key performance indicators of an academic institution (the others are publications and the number of doctoral degrees awarded). Example: the three key performance indicators are the only parameters that determine the volume of basic R&D funding of academic institutions in Estonia. • The volume of R&D projects largely determines the success of doctoral studies. • The capacity of R&D projects of an academic institution is one of the indicator that is taken into account in assessment of project proposals.

22. Examples of R&D projects

23. Examples of personal R&D projects • DAAD (Deutsche Akademische Austauschdienst): “Representations of semigroups” (postdoctoral research, 13 months in Germany; 10 K€). • Estonian Science Foundation*: “Equivalence and constructions of two-based algebras” (5 K€/year). • Estonian Science Foundation: “Compactness properties of act-type algebras” (3 K€/year). • Canadian Research grant no. A4494 (1300 €) – two weeks in WLU (Waterloo). • AUCC (Association of Universities and Colleges in Canada) grant “Innovation Management at the Universities” (800 €) – a development project. • Estonian Science Foundation: “The framework for supporting and analysing self-directed learning in augmented learning environment” (12 K€/year). • * From 2012, Personal Research Grants (PUT) of Estonian Research Council.

24. Examples of Estonian institutional R&D projects • Open Estonia Foundation grant “Active Learning into Action” (20 K€). • EU social fund, “Research Group and Curriculum in New Media” (140 K€). • Target research financing*, “Distributed learning environments, their interoperability and models of application” (94 K€/year). • Estonian IT Foundation, “Development of Studies and Research in Interation Design in Tallinn University“ (166 K€). • Estonian National IT Programme: “LEARNMIX, The re-conceptualization of the e-Textbook as aggregations of both professionally developed and user-contributed content accessible through a wide range of devices” (224 K€). • - Institutional research grant „Digital learning ecosystems“ (263 K€/year). * From 2012, institutional research grant – IUT.

25. Examples: international institutional R&D projects • - UNESCO: “Creation of an Estonian Centre for Educational Software”‏. • TEMPUS JEP (Joint European Project): 12418 “Master Programme in Multimedia and Learning Systems” (IR, NE, FI; 289100€)‏. • EU eLearning programme Internet: “Grandparents&Grandsons” (IT). • EU eContentPlus programme: project iCoper („Interoperable Content for Performance in a Competency-driven Society”; AT, UK, CY, NL, FI, DE, FR, SL, GR, ES, PL, LT, NO, BE, IT, SE). • EU 7th Framework Programme: large-scale integrated project Learning Layers (“Scaling up Technologies for Informal Learning in SME Clusters”; ES, AT, UK, DE, FI, NO – 20 partners, 9,9M€). • http://learning-layers.eu/ 25

26. Example: ESF “The framework for supporting and analysing self-directed learning in augmented learning environment” • Duration: 1.01.2008-31.12.2010. • Budget: 12 143 €/year. • The main goal: development of theoretical framework for self-directed learning in augmented learning environment. • Sub-goals: • Mapping learning environments and activity patterns that are planned and used by self-directed learners in an augmented learning environment. • Development the framework that contains teaching principles, as well as examples of learning environments and activity patterns together examples of their adaptation and dissemination. • Evaluate the framework.

27. Example: ESF “The framework for supporting and analysing self-directed learning in augmented learning environment • Research questions: • How learners understand and apply pedagogical allowances of augmented learning environments and how they plan self-directed learning activity patterns? • What are effective activity patterns that take into account pedagogical affordances of augmented learning environments? • What are the mechanisms in transferring activity patterns into augmented learning environments? • What properties of activity system influence the competences of learners for performing self-directed learning in augmented learning environments?

28. Methodologies of planning R&D projects

29. Metodology 1 – top down (from general to specific)* • The research group agrees on the general objective of the project, on the base of the competence, prior experience and the priorities of the institution. • Earlier research on the topic – domestic and international – will be analyzed. • Based on the general objective and the analysis, sub-goals and/or research questions will be formulated. • Concrete research for answering the research questions is planned. • The research proposal will be composed. • * The predominant method for individual R&D projects.

30. Metodology 2 – bottom-up (from specific to general)* • The members of research group inform each other of their interests, and the group agrees on the general topic of the project proposal. • Each member of the research group sets sub-goals, research questions and drafts the research. • The principal investigator generalizes and binds the individual members’ research plans into a holistic and compact project proposal. • The holistic project proposal will be discussed and possibly adapted with the team members. • * Will be applied mainly for preparing large-scale institutional projects. • Threat: inconsistency of the text, non-integrity of the problem handling (SF 2002).

31. Metodology 3 – combined version • The team members agree on the research goals, research questions and/or hypotheses. • Principal investigator prepares an initial version of the project proposal, indicating the spots in the text where input from other team members is expected. • The team members provide the principal investigator with their suggestions. • Principal investigator integrates the supplements into the project proposal. • The holistic project proposal will be discussed and possibly adapted with the team members.

32. Example: application of Methodology 3 PI to the team Team to the PI PI to the team Team to the PI Tom John ? • TO – agreement on goals, research questions and/or hypotheses, and on the deadlines T1...T4. John John John Robert Robert ? Laura Mary, Laura Mary Laura Mary ? Laura Laura All Mary, John, Tom John ? PI All John, Laura T2 T3 T4 Deadline T0 T1

33. Homework • Analyse the project proposal “The framework for supporting and analysing self-directed learning in augmented learning environment” (file The_Framework-project_proposal.doc). • Compose a form based review, filling in the table in the document Review_form.doc, and based on the evaluation guidelines (Guidelines-for-evaluating-exploratory-research-grants.doc).

34. Discussion: Course participants’ interests and expectations.

35. Next class:Tuesday, February 4th, at 12:15-13:45in A-402Topic: Evaluation of R&D-projects