Peeter Normak

1. Planning and Running Research and Development Projects(IFI8109.DT)www.tlu.ee/~pnormak/RD-projects-2016 • Peeter Normak

2. My academic background • Graduated from Tartu University (mathematics). • PhD in Moscow Lomonosov University (presentations of semigroups). • Post-doc in Carl v. Ossietzky University in Oldenburg (Germany) • Sabbaticals in USA, Canada (twice), Germany • Currently main courses: • Theoretical Computer Science (BA) • Project Management in Software Engineering (MA) • Planning and Running R&D projects (PhD) • Academic title: Professor of Informatics • Current position (until 31.08.2017): director of SDT (School of Digital Technologies).

3. Plan for 3.02 • Introduction to the course. • Discussion: Course participants’ interests and expectations. • Basic concepts of projects and project management. • Role of R&D projects in academic activities. • Examples of R&D projects. • The role of project proposals. • Methodologies of planning R&D projects.

4. The objective of the course • Understand specificity of research and development (R&D) projects and develop ability to plan, analyze and evaluate them.

5. 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.

6. Example: TLU School of Digital Technologies * The figures of the previous Institute of Informatics. ** CEITER project is not counted.

7. Schedule • 3.02 – Introduction and basics. Methods of planning R&D projects. • 10.02 – Evaluation criteria of R&D-project plans and reports. • 17.02 – Seminar: presentation rationale and objective of a research project. • 2.03– Planning of research projects: determining the objective, research tasks/hypotheses, activities/methodology. Resource planning, estimation of success potential. • 9.03 – Seminar: presentation of research project plans. • 16.03 – Reviewing of development projects. Planning of development projects. • 30.03 – Analysis of development projects. • 6.04 –Application procedures and best practices in running R&D projects. • 13.04 – Seminar: presentation of development projects.

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

9. Organization • Public course materials: www.tlu.ee/~pnormak/RD-projects-2016 • No prerequisite course. Recommendation: read “General_PM-Lecture Notes-2014.pdf”. • There will be home assignments for each class. Necessary files will be found at the web address above. • Estimated time distribution(104 hours): • Classes 18 • Home work 30 • Composition of project plans and presentations 50 • Composition of a review 6

10. General teaching/learning approach • Flipped classroom teaching: • Big part of the time in the classroom will be devoted to discussions of the content previously studied or prepared by the students at home. • Some content is confidential and will be distributed personally via e-mail.

11. Examination • Individual work: • Composition of a research project plan (40% of the grade) on the subject of the individual research. Submission deadline – 13.03 • Composition of a review of a research project plan of a fellow student (The review is form based, 20%). Submission deadline – 24.03 • Group work (groups of 3-4): • Composition of a development project plan (40%). Submission deadline – 20.04

12. Introduction of the course participants and their experience of participating in R&D projects, interests and expectations.

13. Basic concepts of projects and general project management

14. R&D projects related to arbitrary projects Competences for planning and running projects Specific competences for R&D projects

15. Definition of a project • 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/or milestones • resources • outcomes • 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” 15

16. Added value of project management • 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.

17. Wider role of the projects Projects are important tools in realization of an institution’s 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). Vision Current position Desired position The set of all projects – already running and planned – forms the project portfolio. The aim – to find an optimal mix of projects.

18. 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).

19. Definition of project management • Project management is defined as application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to activities of a project for achievement of 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.

20. General scheme of the major models and frameworks PMBOK (Project Management Body of Knowledge) Guide: the aim is to ensure success of a project. Project Management Compe-tency Development Framework: the aim is to ensure necessary competences of project managers. Organizational Project Manage-ment 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 ensures success of the projects.

21. 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

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

23. Specifics of R&D projects • International dimension (even for so-called national sciences). • Objective is described in relatively general terms (“Describe …/Develop …”), no qualitative or quantitative indicators, risky. • Existence of research questions and/or hypotheses. • Importance of project execution (research) methodology, specially in humanities and social sciences. • Involvement of students, for ensuring scientific continuity/sustainability. • High qualification requirements for project implementers (researchers). • Implementation of the results can take time (E: quantum computer).

24. The role of R&D projects in academic activities I • View of the 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). • Success of applications depends largely 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’s qualification. • Specific competence will sometimes be outsourced (Example – IB).

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

26. Examples of R&D projects

27. Examples of personal R&D projects • DAAD (Deutsche Akademische Austauschdienst): “Representations of semigroups” (postdoctoral research, 13 months in Germany). • Estonian Science Foundation*: “Equivalence and constructions of two-based algebras”. • Estonian Science Foundation: “Compactness properties of act-type algebras”. • AUCC (Association of Universities and Colleges in Canada) grant “Innovation Management at the Universities” – a development project. • Estonian Science Foundation: “The framework for supporting and analysing self-directed learning in augmented learning environment”. • * From 2012, Personal Research Grants (PUT) of Estonian Research Council.

28. Examples of Estonian institutional R&D projects • EU social fund, “Research Group and Curriculum in New Media”. • Target-funded research* “Pedagogical foundations and implementation models for constructivist web-based environments in Estonian higher education context”. • Target-funded research* “Distributed learning environments, their interoperability and models of application”. • Estonian IT Foundation, “Development of Studies and Research in Interaction Design in Tallinn University“. • 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”. * From 2012, institutional research grant – IUT.

29. 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: “Grandparents&Grandsons” (http://www.geengee.eu/geengee/index.jsp?locale=en). • 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; http://nm.wu.ac.at/nm/icoper). • 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 – 17 partners, 9,9M€). • http://learning-layers.eu/ 29

30. Example 1: doctoral project “Learning Flow Management and Teacher Control in Online Personal Learning Environments” • Duration: 1.09.2006-21.08.2013 • Research question 1: How to design and implement a non-destructive adaptation of blog-based PLE, which provides pedagogical semantics and functionalities that support the main types of online learning flows in the context of formal education? • Research question 2: In what way and to what extent can a dedicated course coordination tool sustain the teacher’s control over learning flows in blog-based personal learning environments, without inhibiting the self-direction of learners? • Methodology: design-based research with four iterations.

31. Example 1: doctoral project “Learning Flow Management and Teacher Control in Online Personal Learning Environments” NB! There were objectives set for each iteration.

32. Example 1: doctoral project “Learning Flow Management and Teacher Control in Online Personal Learning Environments” • Outcome: • PhD thesis, having the following structure: • Introduction • Research questions • Methodology • Theoretical foundation • Findings • Conclusion • References • Six appendices (6 publications)

33. Example 2: 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 of a framework that contains teaching principles, as well as examples of learning environments and activity patterns together with the examples of their adaptation and dissemination. • Evaluate the framework.

34. Example 2: 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?

35. Example 3: H2020 CEITER project “Cross-Border Educational Innovation thru Technology-Enhanced Research “ • Duration: 1.07.2015-30.06.2020 • Budget: 2 396 363€ • Objective: to facilitate structural changes to foster excellent interdisciplinary research combining methods, instruments and experts from educational sciences, cognitive psychology, human-computer interaction, media studies and learning analytics by establishing an ERA Chair position at Tallinn University helping thus the university to achieve its scientific vision and contribute to European Research Area.

36. Example 3: H2020 CEITER project “Cross-Border Educational Innovation thru Technology-Enhanced Research “ • Aims (extract): • Establish the necessary conditions for developing the existing and emerging research competence. • Establish the necessary research management principles. • Developing a strategy and a cooperation framework for aligning research directions. • Increase the participation of the TLU in Horizon 2020 and other EU innovation funds. • Enhancing the capacity of TLU to contribute to national and European (social) economy. • Increase the visibility and leadership of TLU research excellence. • …

37. Role of project proposals

38. The main purpose and approach • The main purpose of R&D project proposals: • To allow the decision making body to decide about the financing of the project. • The approach normally used: • Comparative (compared with other project proposals).

39. Example: a structure of a simplest R&D project proposal • Proposal abstract • Problem description • Historical overview of prior research (what has been done) • Objective of the project (can be structured to general objective and specific objectives) • Research questions and/or hypotheses • Research methodology • Work plan • Budget • References

40. Methodologies of planning R&D projects

41. 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 and/or hypotheses 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.

42. Top-down • General objective • Sub-goals/research questions/hypotheses • Research methodology • Research plan

43. 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 formulates problems, research questions etc to be solved. • Problems etc will be grouped and each group will be treated as a separate project (with objectives etc). • Separate project plans will be merged 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).

44. Bottom-up A list of problems/use cases/personas etc Similarity groups Obj. 1 Obj. 2 Obj. 3 Obj. 4 Obj. 5 Holistic proposal

45. 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.

46. 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

47. 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). • Answer the following questions: • What aspects had to be discussed more thoroghly in the project proposal and what aspects could be presented more briefly? • What aspects are not covered in the review form you consider important to be assessed? • What were your biggest difficulties in assessing the project proposal?

48. Next class:Wednesday, February 10, at 14:15-15:45in A-402Topic: Evaluation of R&D project plans