Managing your Research Project

Dr Ian Cornelius

Hello

Managing Research Projects

Managing Research Projects (1)

Why must we manage our research?

Research is a complex task with little prescribed structure
Managing your research project can help estimate and allocate time
Creating a hard-copy can help you remember everything that needs to be done
- otherwise known as time management
Allows students to reflect upon their research process

You might be thinking to yourself, is it not a little late to be telling us how to manage our own time at this stage in our academic journey. Well, the answer to that is yes, and I would have preferred to have delivered this material in the first year. However, it’s better later than never, right?

But why am I introducing it now, on one of the most important modules that you will undertake at this university? Well,
due to the sheer volume of work and time that will be put into this module. Research is a complex task with little structure that can be applied to it. When you think you have finished something on your project, you will more than likely need to revisit it. You may have come across this in some of the other modules you have studied — especially if it was programming oriented.

By managing your research time, you will be able to estimate and allocate time to the tasks that you will be required to undertake. Creating a hard-copy of the tasks that need to be completed, and their due date will help you estimate the amount of time you require to allocate to it. Once it has been noted, you do not need to worry about remembering everything that you need to do, and this is otherwise known as time management. This can also help you reflect upon the research process.

I understand that everyone works differently, and what may work for me may not work for you. However, all I can do is provide some examples and ask that you at least try some of these methods. If it odes not work for you, then you learnt something new about yourself, and you will need to seek an alternative method.

Often when it comes to managing my time, I will block time out in my calendar when certain things need to be done. I then give myself this time to work on that task; it is often whey you will see I have limited time available for meeting students as I proactively block out time when I need to work on lectures or other things.

Managing Research Projects (2)

Stages of a Research Project

There are various stages for a research project that need to be met
These are not considered an exhaustive list, but a guide

1. Preparation

Identification of a research project
Refinement of the research question(s)
Refinement of the aims and objectives

2. Literature Review

Literature gathering and review
Evaluation of appropriate research methods

3. Methodology and Data Collection

Design of the research tools
Pilot test of the data collection methodology
Collection of the data for your project

4. Analysis and Review

Comparative analysis of data findings with the literature findings
Evaluate the research question(s) to draw conclusions
- it also requires evaluating the aims and objectives
Reflection on limitations and further work

When it comes to managing your research project, there are a number of stages that you will need to follow. Keep in mind that these stages I provide are not to be considered an exhaustive list, and they can be tweaked and added to where necessary. It will be best to speak to your supervisor to determine whether any additions may be required.

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The first stage is concerned with the preparation of your project. During this stage, you will be identifying your research project, creating or refining your research question(s) and refining the aims and objectives of your research. Remember that you may have more than one research question, but you should also consider having an overarching research question.

The second stage is concerned with the literature review and any related work. This will often be the case of collecting various academic papers that are relating to your project and reading them. It will be expected that students will read many, many papers, and I have an entire lecture coming up on how to read and critique academic papers. However, based upon your reading, you should be highlighting any appropriate research methods that you may wish to undertake for your project.

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The third stage is concerned with the methodology and collection of the data. During this stage, you will need to consider the design of your research tools. This may be an implementation of some sort that will collect that data that you require for the project. Once this has been designed and implemented, you can then consider the collection of your data. Before you begin doing this, you will want to do a pilot test to ensure that the data collection methodology is working correctly. Once you have ascertained that the data is being collected correctly, you can then continue with the main collection of the data.

The fourth stage is concerned with the analysis and review of your data. Here, you will need to do a comparative analysis of the data findings and compare them to those that you have drawn from the literature review. It will also be of interest to evaluate your research questions along with the data to draw conclusions. For example, were you able to answer your research question, if so - how? You will want to ensure that you can back up your claims on how you have answered your research questions(s) by using statistical analysis on the data collected (if applicable).

Managing Your Time

Managing Your Time (1)

Time management is concerned with choosing how to use and organise your time
Effective management can enable you to make the most of your day
- i.e. achieving tasks quickly and prioritising those with most impact
There is not one solution for all, everyone is different
Nine types of time management techniques:
- Pareto Analysis
- Pomodoro Technique
- Eisenhower Matrix
- Parkinson’s Law
- Time Blocking
- Getting Things Done (GTD)
- Rapid Planning Method (RPM)
- Pickle Jar Theory
- Eat That Frog Technique

Over the last few slides we discussed research projects and why you need to plan and manage them. Over the next few slides, we shall look at the various ways in how you can manage your time. The term time-management is defined as choosing how to use and organise your time. It can be applied to any stage in your life, university, work-life and/or home-life. Effectively managing your time can enable you to make the most of your day, such as accomplishing tasks quickly and prioritising those that will have the most impact.

There is not a one solution fits all approaches to time management. Each one of you will have your own preferred ways or methodology in which you will manage your time. Can you see it listed on the screen? For this section of the lecture, I will briefly introduce nine different time management techniques. You may have come across some of these before, and others you may not have. If you already do not employ a time management technique, then you may want to pay attention and try some of these techniques to find the right one for you.

Managing Your Time (2)

Different Methods to Manage your Time

Pareto Analysis

Sometimes referred to as the 80/20 rule
A technique whereby 20% of the actions are responsible for 80% of the outcomes
Helps you prioritise tasks that are most effective at solving problems
Benefits people who are problem solvers and analytical thinkers

Methodology

List the problems you are facing
Identify the root cause of each problem
Assign a score to each problem
Group problems together by cause
Add up the score of each group
Take action!

Pomodoro Technique

Use a timer to break down your work into intervals
Each interval is known as a pomodoro
- named after a tomato-shaped timer
Can teach you to set goals and methods to achieve them
Benefits people who are creative thinkers or those who are burnt out

Methodology

Choose a task that needs to be completed
Set a timer (i.e. 25 minutes)
Focus on the task at hand
When the timer rings, put a checkmark on a piece of paper
Take a short break
Repeat steps two to five

The first time management technique we shall be looking at is known as Pareto Analysis. This may sometimes be referred to as the 80/20 rule, whereby 20% of the actions you undertake are responsible for 80% of the outcomes. This time management technique is simple in that it helps you focus efforts on the problems that offer the greatest potential for improvement. This technique is often beneficial to people who are problem solvers or analytical thinkers.

By applying the 80/20 rule, tasks can be sorted on their problems. You are then required to identify the root cause of each problem which in-turn a score would be applied. This score will then prioritise the problem based on the level of negative impact. You will then group these problems into groups by their cause. For example, if some tasks are associated with the literature review of a project, then they will be grouped together. You then add up the scores for each group and implement an action plan, focusing on those groups that scored the highest. These will be the first set of problems that would need action.

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The second time management technique is the pomodoro technique. This is where a timer is used to break down your work into intervals, typically of 25-minute stretches with a five-minute break after. Longer breaks are taken after four consecutive work intervals have been completed. Each interval of work is known as a pomodoro, which is the Italian word for tomato — you always learn something new in my modules! This sort of time management technique can teach you to set goals and create methods to achieve them. This sort of technique is often beneficial to those who are creative thinkers or are burnt-out.

The methodology in which you would follow this tima management technique is to locate a task that requires to be completed. Once you have found a task, you would then need to start a timer for 25 minutes and begin working/focusing on the task at hand. It is only when the timer rings that you can stop and put a checkmark on a piece of paper. You can then take a short break for five minutes, and then go back working at the task if it has not been completed. You continue doing this for four intervals (or when four checkmarks have appeared on a piece of paper). Once you have reached this magic number four, you can take a longer extended break, typically between 15 and 30 minutes.

Managing Your Time (3)

Different Methods to Manage your Time (Continued)

Eisenhower Matrix

Helps organise a task list into four quadrants:
- important vs not important and urgent vs not urgent
Urgent tasks are those that need to get done immediately
Important tasks are those that contribute to long-term goals
Tasks in the top two quadrants should be focused upon
- other tasks should be delegated or deleted
Benefits people who are in leadership positions or critical thinkers

!include master_files/lectures/html/eisenhower_matrix.html

The third time management technique is the Eisenhower matrix. This technique helps you organise your tasks into one of four quadrants, which is important vs not important, and urgent vs not urgent. Urgent tasks are those that need to get done immediately, whilst important tasks are those that will contribute towards your long-term goals.

Tasks that are placed in the top two quadrants are those that should be focussed upon, and the other tasks should be either delegated or deleted. This sort of technique is often beneficial to those who are in leadership positions or are critical thinkers.

Managing Your Time (4)

Different Methods to Manage your Time (Continued)

Parkinson’s Law

Based on the quote:

“the amount of time given to a task is the amount of time required to complete the task”

Not a time management technique as such, but a law
- when applied, it can be one of the most beneficial time management techniques
Requires some work and effort by the student
- i.e. working in short bursts of time
Benefits people who are procrastinators or people who work well under pressure

Methodology

Try and work without a computer charger
Get the task completed early
Set a deadline for the task
Limit the amount of time to be spent on tasks

Time Blocking

Assign each time block in the day with a task
Tasks can be anything, i.e. eating breakfast to studying for a test
Benefits people who are students or analytical thinkers

Methodology

Divide a piece of paper into two columns
- on the left, write down each hour of the day
  - create blocks of time, such as half-an-hour or hourly chunks
Estimate the amount of time it takes to complete each of the tasks
- assign them to your time blocks
Add buffer times in-between each time-block
- allows for adjustments throughout the day
- i.e. if a task was to overrun

The fourth time management technique is Parkinson’s Law. This technique is based upon a famous phrase from historian Cyril Northcote Parkinson: work expands to fill the time available for its completion. This essentially means that the amount of time that you give yourself to complete a task will be the amount of time that it will take you to complete the task.

Whilst this may not be considered a time management technique, it is considered to be a law that when applied can be one of the most beneficial time management methods. Unfortunately, it does require that you put some work into it to get the most out of it. This means that you will need to work in more efficient short bursts of time. Some tips to help you achieve this are:

try and work without a computer charger, this will force you to finish a project before your computer dies
get it done early, whereby instead of finishing an assignment at midnight (or just before the deadline) try and get it completed sooner, for example, the afternoon or two/three days before the submission deadline
set a deadline for the work to be completed, but then cut it in half
limiting the amount of time taken for the tasks, you may want to consider giving yourself only twenty minutes in the morning to write a section for a chapter

This sort of technique is often beneficial to those who are procrastinators or people that work well under pressure.

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The fifth time management technique is the time blocking method. This technique works from the moment you wake up, and you assign each time block of your day to a task. These tasks can range from being an activity as part of your normal working day, such as eating breakfast, to something more project related, such as writing a section for a chapter. This sort of technique is often beneficial to those who are students (such as yourself) or analytical thinkers. To help you understand how this works, here are some tips/guide on how to block your time.

Firstly, you should take a sheet of paper and split it into two columns. On the left-hand-side of the paper, you will want to write down each hour of the day and create blocks of time, such as half-hourly blocks or hourly blocks. Secondly, for each task that you wish to complete, you need to estimate the amount of time it will take to complete each task, and you will want to then fit them within your time blocks. Thirdly, you may want to add buffers between each time block, this allows for you to make adjustments during the day, for example, if a particular task overruns or a family member turns up unexpectedly.

Managing Your Time (5)

Different Methods to Manage your Time (Continued)

Getting Things Done (GTD)

Helps complete tasks by recording them on a piece of paper
- akin to a to-do list
Tasks are broken down into actionable work items
Benefits people who struggle to focus on one item at a time or people overwhelmed with daily tasks

Methodology

Capture the actions that have your attention
Clarify what these actions mean
Organise the actions
Reflect
Engage

Rapid Planning Method (RPM)

Developed to train your brain to focus on a vision of what you want
Benefits people who are working students or people who have long-term goals

Methodology

Capturing
Chunking
Create your own RPM blocks
Create an empowering role for yourself

The sixth time management technique is getting things done. This process will help you get work completed by recording tasks on a sheet of paper and breaking them down into more actionable items. This sort of technique is often beneficial to those who struggle to find time to focus on one thing at a time or people who are overwhelmed in their daily lives. On the screen, you will see the methodology you will need to follow to use this time management technique.

Firstly, you will need to begin with capturing the actions that have your attention. These actions are the tasks that need to be completed and can be related to anything from your project to your personal life. Once you have captured these actions, you then need to clarify what they mean. At this stage, you will need to decide whether the tasks that have your attention are actionable or not. If the task is not actionable, then you will want to ignore it for now. However, if the task is actionable, then you will either want to do it, delegate it or set it aside for another time.

Thirdly, once you have clarified your tasks and which ones are actionable, you will now want to organise the actions. This is where you will prioritize your to-do list according to what needs to be done and when. Once this has been done, you can move onto the fourth step which is to reflect and review your list of actions. You will want to review your actions frequently to determine which task or action is your next priority. Any actions or tasks that are completed will be crossed off to show that they have been accomplished. Finally, you will want to engage with those actions that are smaller or can be completed right away to make progress.

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The seventh time management technique is the rapid planning method. This technique was developed by Tony Robbins as a method to train your brain to focus on a vision of what you want to make it real. This sort of technique is often beneficial to those who are students (yourself) or people who have long term goals. To benefit from using this technique, you will want to do the following:

write down all the tasks you need to accomplish for the week, this stage is often referred to as capturing
you will then want to group your tasks together by their commonality, for example, which items are relating to the project? which items are personal? etc.
using a new sheet of paper, you will want to make three columns: one for the task, the other for a result you want from completing the task, and another for the purpose to complete it; once you have these three columns you will want to list the actions that you can take to reach the end-goal
finally, you will want to create some sort of role for yourself to empower you; for example, you might want to refer to yourself as the “study beast” to get you excited and enthused to complete your goal

Managing Your Time (6)

Different Methods to Manage your Time (Continued)

Pickle Jar Theory

Help you figure out what is useful or not useful in your daily life
It allows you to plan tasks with time to spare and set priorities throughout the day
Imagine a jar that is full of sand, pebbles and rocks
- the sand is at the bottom, with the rocks at the top
Benefits people who are visual or concrete thinkers

Methodology

The sand represents disrupting elements of your day
The pebbles represent tasks that need to be completed but
The rocks represent the most important tasks

Eat That Frog Technique

Based upon a quote by Mark Twain:

“eat a live frog the first thing in the morning, and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day”

Essentially, start your day with onerous tasks first to get them out of the way
Benefits people who are abstract thinkers or people with long-term goals #### Methodology

Get clear on a goal
Write it down
Set a deadline
Compile a list
Organise the list in order of priority
Task action
Repeat this cycle every day

We are on the last slide of time management techniques, and we just two more to review.

The eighth time management technique is the pickle jar theory. This technique will help you to figure out what is useful and what is not in your daily life or whilst managing your project. It will allow you to plan tasks with time to spare and set priorities throughout your day. For this to work, you will want to imagine a jar full of sand, pebbles and rocks; whereby the sand is at the bottom and the rocks sit at the top.

In this case, the sand will represent the disrupting elements of your day, and these are the text-messages, WhatsApp or Discord messages etc. The pebbles on the other hand are the tasks that you need to complete that can be done on another day or by someone else. Finally, the rocks are the most important tasks, and those are the tasks that need to be done on the day.

For this technique to work, you will need to begin thinking about how your tasks for the day would fit into the aforementioned categories. You can then start by making a task list and start with the rocks, and ending with the sand. When making your list, you will want to think about a time-estimate that each task will take and put it next to the item. Try and not to plan for more than six hours of an eight-hour working day, as this will leave some buffer time for the pebbles and the sand. This sort of technique is often beneficial to those who are visual people or concrete thinkers.

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The final, and ninth technique is the eat that frog technique; and no, I am not turning you into French people who enjoy the delicatessen of eating frog legs; although I do hear it tastes like chicken. However, I digress…

This technique is named after a quote by Mark Twain: eat a live frog the first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day. What the quote is trying to get at is that you should start your day with the most onerous of tasks first and get them out of the way. his sort of technique is often beneficial to those who are abstract thinkers or those who have long-term goals.

To make the most of this technique, on the screen is a methodology that you can adhere to. The first step is that you would need to set a clear goal for the day, i.e. what is it that you want to achieve the most? Once you have this goal in mind, you will want to write it down and set a deadline. Once you have created a deadline, you will want to then compile a list of things that you need to do to achieve this goal. You will want to then organise your list in order of priority, with the most important items being the most challenging, and these will be your frogs.

Once you have highlighted your challenges, you will want to then take action. If you have multiple frogs on your plate, then you will want to begin by eating the one that is the most challenging first. This process can be repeated daily, and following this will ensure that you are taking one step further towards the direction of your goal.

Managing Your Time (7)

Which method suits you?

flowchart TD
    A(What do you need help managing?) --> B(Day)
    A --> C(Week)
    A --> D(Month)
    
    B --> E(Are you a visual person?)
    E -->|Yes| F(<strong>Pickle Jar Theory</strong>)
    E -->|No| G(Do you have trouble focusing on one thing at a time?)
    G -->|Yes| H(<strong>Pomodoro Technique</strong>)
    G -->|No| I(Are you faced with tough decisions daily?)
    I -->|No| J(<strong>Eat That Frog Method</strong>)
    I -->|Yes| K(<strong>Eisenhower Matrix</strong>)
    
    C --> L(Do you struggling finding time to get everything done?)
    L -->|Yes| M(<strong>Time Blocking</strong>)
    L -->|No| N(Do you procrastinate?)
    N -->|Yes| O(<strong>Parkinsons Law</strong>)
    N -->|No| P(Do you like to make lists?)
    P -->|Yes| Q(<strong>Get Things Done Method</strong>)
    P -->|No| K
    
    D --> R(Are you a creative or analytical thinker?)
    R -->|Creative| S(Do you have long-term goals?)
    S -->|Yes| T(<strong>Rapid Planning Method</strong>)
    S -->|No| N
    R -->|Analytical| U(Do you prefer to have data to back something up?)
    U -->|Yes| V(<strong>Pareto Analysis</strong>)
    U -->|No| W(Do you have trouble focusing on one thing at a time?)
    W -->|No| P
    W -->|Yes| N

Organising Yourself

Organising Yourself (1)

Why should you be organised?

Organisation is key to a successful project
Ensure that all files and documents relating to a project are kept in a single area
- this does not apply to participant consent forms and their data, they must be separate
Plan your project accordingly by setting clear expectations and priorities
- can be in the form of a Gantt chart

When it comes to a successful project, organisation is key. It is essential that you organise yourself and know what is to be expected of you. One key way to achieve this is to read the assignment brief and make a clear checklist on the objectives that are expected. For example, are there certain chapter headings that are required for the report/paper?

You will also want to ensure that any academic papers or other files that you collect during your project are stored in a single area. Typically, whenever I am working on a module, I create a GitHub repository where I can upload all my files to and have it all stored in a single area that can be easily accessible between different machines. This may be Microsoft OneDrive, or any alternative cloud service.

However, you will want to ensure that there is some organisation applied to this repository/folder. For example, have you gathered some academic papers for your literature review? Then you will want to possible store these under a folder called papers or something similar. You may even want to use reference management software such as Mendeley. Mendeley is particularly useful, as it allows you to store the PDF version of the paper, along with any notes that you would have made on that paper.

However, it is important to remember that when it comes to storing your participant consent forms for your data collection, that they are stored separately from the data. Therefore, you will want to consider maybe using an alternative cloud service to store the data or consent forms, and not having them on the same service or in the same folder.

You will also want to consider making a project plan, as this is essential to a successful project. Having a clear vision of what and how something needs to be done is crucial for success. A project plan will ensure that you stay on track. The project plan itself does not need to be overly complicated, it can be something as simple as listing all the tasks that need to be done, akin to the checklist I mentioned earlier. This can then lead to adding dependencies.

It is often the case with a project that one task cannot be started until another one has been completed. For example, you are unable to begin collecting data until the implementation or survey has been created. To aid you in planning your project, you may want to create a Gantt chart, something that I touch upon later on in this lecture.

This leads me to setting clear expectations of the project. You will want to ensure that you do not leave room for interpretation. You must be extremely clear on what needs to be done and when it needs to be done. This can be baked into the Gantt chart you will create for your project, whereby you will need to provide a list of tasks and the duration it will take to complete a said task. There will be milestones, where certain deadlines will need to be met and in some cases this may be set by the supervisor themselves, or it could be your own deadlines.

Tools and Software

There are various tools and software available to help organise yourself
They range from backing up your files and data, to arrange boards on what needs to be done, etc.
Some common tools are:
- Kanban Boards: Trello or Miro
- Microsoft OneDrive
- GitHub: Coventry University GitHub

There are some popular tools available online that can assist you in the organisation of your project and ensure that you are keeping on track. On the screen, you will see a list of some tools and software that is recommended to help you stay organised. You do not have to use these tools and software, they are optional. However, they can be beneficial.

The first tool/piece of software is Kanban boards. These are sometimes referred to as a “do, doing, done” board. It is an approach often used by software development teams to help team members visualise the work that is required to be done. On the screen are a couple of links to free pieces of software that help you create a Kanban board. You may be required to sign up for an account, and you may want to use your Coventry University e-mail address to facilitate the account creation process. It will also ensure you do not get spam to your personal e-mail.

The second tool/piece of software is Microsoft OneDrive. This can be particularly useful for backing up your files of your project. Especially if you are prone to losing data due to hard drive failure or reinstalling the operating system numerous times. As part of your course at Coventry University, you get access to the full suite of Microsoft 365 products, which includes Word, PowerPoint and OneDrive. All you need to do is login with your university credentials to get access to these tools.

The third tool/piece of software is Git/GitHub. Similar to Microsoft OneDrive, this can be useful for backing up your files, either PDF or source code. Whilst it may generally be used as a version control system for source code, I find it extremely useful for backing up my files for each module I am a leader of. You will have come across me using GitHub to deliver a lot of the content I use for my modules, and this module is no exception. However, what you do not see behind the scenes is that all of my master files for my lectures are also included in that repository. It is a single point of access for all stuff pertaining to that module.

Organising Yourself (3)

Gantt Charts

Introduced back in 1910–1915 by Henry Gantt
A visual representation for a project schedule
- based upon tasks and deadlines
Provides an instant overview on the status of the project
Outlines all activities involved in a project against a timescale
Essentially a list of what needs to be done and when

Earlier in this lecture I mentioned that Gantt charts can be a useful way in which you may want to plan your project. For this module, it is an expectation that students will be creating a Gantt chart to manage their project, and showcase tasks, deliverables and milestones to their supervisor. However, before you begin creating a Gantt chart, it is best that we introduce what they are, and how they should be designed.

Gantt’s charts were introduced many, many years ago, back in the 1910’s by Henry Gantt. They are a visual representation of your project schedule which is based upon a series of tasks and deadlines. They are most particularly useful as they can provide an overview to the supervisor on the status of the project, and how you are currently progressing. It will outline all the activities that are involved in the project, against a timescale (in this case the duration of semester two). You may want to consider this to be a list of what needs to be done, and by when.

Organising Yourself (4)

Why do we use Gantt Charts?

Identifying and planning activities with their expected durations
Monitoring and tracking the progress of a project
Serving as a communication tool
- shows the project supervisor and students the progress being made

It was briefly touched upon before, but you may be thinking why we need to use a Gantt chart? Can I not just summarise this in a table of tasks and dates? The answer to that is… no. By using a Gantt chart, you and I can identify and plan activities around their expected durations. For example, we can take a section of our research design and map out what tasks need to be done for it, and the duration in which they will take.

Let’s have a look at the literature review chapter. For this chapter, we need to source articles, read them, make notes and summarise our findings. This can be broken down into a few tasks:

Source academic papers
Review papers and make notes
Critique and summarise the paper
Categorise papers based upon their topics

These tasks will then come together to form our final chapter. However, each stage may take a different amount of time. It makes it take a day or two to source the academic papers that you want to review and read. However, reading and making notes on these papers will take several days, etc. This is why a Gantt chart can be useful, as it can help you manage your time and plan how long each task/activity is going to take. It will also help you monitor and track the progress of your project, as you can highlight certain tasks as and when they are completed.

Organising Yourself (5)

Benefits of using a Gantt Chart

Provides a simple method to schedule your activities
See how a project is performing at a quick glance
It Allows students to focus efforts and react quickly to unexpected changes
Communicate efficiently with the supervisor on progress and issues
Understand the required resources for the project

It may already be apparent to you, but there are some key benefits to using Gantt charts for the project, Not only can it help organise what needs to be done for your project, but it will provide a method of being able to manage your time and schedule when certain activities or tasks need to be completed.

One key benefit is the fact it can help boost your productivity, as it will enable you to focus on the tasks that need to be finished. This level of transparency will enable you to be accountable for tasks that need to be completed and also react quickly to any unexpected changes.

It is also useful to have a copy that is visible by your project supervisor at all times. This will enable them to review the document and see the progress you are making, even if you have mot arranged a meeting with them. Whilst this may require you to make continuous updates to the Gantt chart to update your progress, it can also keep your supervisor from breathing down your neck and asking for status updates. To facilitate this, you will want to make use of the Microsoft OneDrive account you have at this university, and create a shareable folder with a copy of your Gantt chart that can be accessed by your supervisor.

Organising Yourself (6)

What, When and Who?

A Gantt chart is used to show the following:
- the activities of a project (what)
- the duration of the activities (when)
- the person responsible for completing each task (who)
  - this will be you, the student
- the order in which they will be accomplished

Over the last few slides, we have looked at what a Gantt chart is, why we use them and some key benefits as to why we use them for this module. But what exactly does a chart of this type show? Well, we can split this into three keywords: what, when and who.

A Gantt chart will show the activities of a project, which is often referred to as the what, whilst the duration associated with these activities is known as the when, and the person who is working on the task is referred to as the who. Now, unfortunately, the nature of this project means that who is only going to be you. However, if you were managing a project out in the real-world, then there may be multiple people working on the project.

Finally, the Gantt chart will also show the order in which certain tasks and activities will be accomplished. However, do not fall into the trap of when a task is marked as completed, that is it. It’s finalised and requires no further work. You may be required to revisit a task or activity and do some additional work, especially if something arises later on in the project.

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Extended Information of a Gantt Chart

The Gantt chart is also used to show the following:
- the required resources
- key project milestones
- dependencies between activities
- progress and status of the project as a whole

There is also some extended information that is often required with a Gantt chart, and these are some key pieces of information that is often left out by a student. For example, at some point in your project, there may be some resources that are required. This could be hardware related, or people required to participate in a survey. You need to make clear which resources are required and when.

There will also be key project milestones, and this will be when you expect certain artefacts to be created. For your project, you will be expected to be writing chapters for a report or paper, and as such, these can be some milestones you include in your Gantt chart. However, other milestones can be personal deadlines you set yourself for when you need a certain artefact to be created. For example, are you developing some form of neural network or machine learning algorithm? If so, when do you expect this to be completed by? Another milestone may also be relating to the data collection process — when do you expect all your data to be collected? When will it be analysed etc?

There may also be dependencies to the work that you undertake. For example, before you can begin collecting data of sorts, you will need to ensure that the survey has been created and distributed, or the machine learning algorithm has been implemented. You need to show these dependencies between your tasks and activities.

Finally, you will need to show the progress and status of the project as a whole. Therefore, you should be marking tasks or activities as completed or done. This will be most helpful to a supervisor when reviewing your document to see where you are in the project schedule and how you are progressing.

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Creating a Gantt Chart

Charts can be created by hand or using applications
There is dedicated project management software that provides more elaborate features
Common applications:

When it comes to creating your Gantt charts, they can be created by hand or via the use of a software tool. Now, the former will be frowned upon (creating them by hand) and as such, I will be expecting students to be creating their charts using an application. There is dedicated project management software out there that can help you create your charts and provide more elaborate features. You are welcome to select your own software, based upon your requirements and ease of use. However, some common applications that I have used to create charts are Microsoft Excel or Mermaid JS.

Over the next couple of slides, I have used Mermaid JS to create the example Gantt charts. This is a great way of generating your Gantt charts if you enjoy any aspect of coding. I am especially a lot quicker in creating a Gantt chart using Mermaid than I am in Excel. Interacting with a GUI and individual cells to create a Gantt chart is too time-consuming for me, especially when I can just type out what I need in a quicker manner.

If you do enjoy the more programmatic method of writing your reports and Gantt chart, LaTeX can also be used. This may be of interest if you are using LaTeX to write your report.

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Example: Simple Gantt Chart

gantt
    title Project Example 1
    dateFormat YYYY-MM-DD
    section Preparation
        Identification of a Research Project            :a0, 2024-01-15, 5d
        Define Research Question(s)                     :a1, 2024-01-15, 5d
        Define Aims and Objectives                      :a2, 2024-01-15, 5d
    section Literature <br> Review
        Gather and Review Academic Papers               :b0, 2024-01-20, 14d 
        Evaluation of Research Methods                  :b1, 2024-01-20, 14d 
    section Methodology
        Design of the Research Tools                    :c0, 2024-02-03, 8d 
    section Data <br> Collection
        Pilot Test                                      :d0, 2024-02-11, 8d 
        Collection                                      :d1, 2024-02-19, 8d
    section Analysis <br> and <br> Review
        Analyse the Data using Statistical Formulas     :e0, 2024-02-27, 7d
        Evaluate Research Question(s)                   :e1, 2024-03-05, 1d
        Evaluate Aims and Objectives                    :e2, 2024-03-06, 1d
        Reflect on Limitations                          :e4, 2024-03-07, 2d
        Consider Further Work                           :e5, 2024-03-09, 2d

On the screen is an example of a simple Gantt chart. These are often the type of Gantt chart that is submitted by students, and whilst it does provide some information about the tasks and activities that were undertaken by the student, it is not detailed enough.

What is most notably missing is key information about when a milestone is required to be met. For example, for the literature review section, when will the chapter be written and sent to the supervisor for review. There is also detail lacking any certain dependencies that need to be met before progressing on with the project.

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Example: Detailed Gantt Chart

gantt
    title Project Example 2
    dateFormat YYYY-MM-DD
    section Preparation
        Identification of a Research Project            :done, a0, 2024-01-15, 5d
        Define Research Question(s)                     :active, a1, 2024-01-15, 5d
        Define Aims and Objectives                      :active, a2, 2024-01-15, 5d
        Research Question and Aims Defined              :milestone, a3, 2024-01-20, 0d
    section Literature <br> Review
        Gather and Review Academic Papers               :b0, 2024-01-20, 14d 
        Evaluation of Research Methods                  :b1, 2024-01-20, 14d 
        Write Literature Review Chapter                 :milestone, b2, 2024-02-03, 0d
    section Methodology
        Design of the Research Tools                    :c0, 2024-02-03, 8d 
        Write Methodology Chapter                       :milestone, c1, 2024-02-11, 0d
    section Data <br> Collection
        Pilot Test                                      :d0, 2024-02-11, 8d 
        Collection                                      :d1, 2024-02-19, 8d
        Format and Structure Data for Analysis          :milestone, d2, 2024-02-27, 0d
    section Analysis <br> and <br> Review
        Analyse the Data using Statistical Formulas     :e0, 2024-02-27, 7d
        Evaluate Research Question(s)                   :e1, 2024-03-05, 1d
        Evaluate Aims and Objectives                    :e2, 2024-03-06, 1d
        Write Analysis Chapter                          :milestone, e3, 2024-03-07, 0d
        Reflect on Limitations                          :e4, 2024-03-07, 2d
        Consider Further Work                           :e5, 2024-03-09, 2d
        Write Conclusion Chapter                        :milestone, e6, 2024-03-11, 0d

This is an example and is not to be considered an exemplar of what is expected.

The second example is a more detailed Gantt chart that we will be expecting as supervisors. This is just an example, and you may need to add more detail to your Gantt chart, and you should liaise with your project supervisor on what they are expecting.

As you can see, I have the same tasks and activities as last time, but now I am adding some milestones to each of my sections on when a certain deliverable or artefact will be created. You will also notice that some tasks in the preparation section are highlighted in green and red. These are symbolic of tasks that have been completed, and tasks that I am currently working on. In this case, green means the task has been completed, whilst red means I am currently working on this task.

Goodbye

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Questions and Support

Questions? Post them in the Community Page on Aula
Additional Support? Visit the Module Support Page
Contact Details:
- Dr Ian Cornelius, ab6459@coventry.ac.uk
- Mr Terry Richards, ac6860@coventry.ac.uk