Stage Two of the Research Project Lifecycle is all about planning for success.
Once you have your ideas, your research question, your design and research methodology in place, it’s time to think about HOW you are going to make this work.
If you were putting on a new play or about to start filming for a new movie, you’d probably have a full dress rehearsal. A chance for everyone involved, from the actors to the director, stage or film crew to the wardrobe department, to put everything together in a trial run. Everyone knows the purpose of the trial run. It’s there so everyone can see what works and what needs fixing before the audience does.
Planning research has a lot in common with the dress rehearsal, except of course, that everything pretty much stays on paper (or computer) rather than the big screen or physical stage. Planning can also be somewhat technical, has more than its fair share of jargon and may be pounced upon by critics.
Our solution is to provide researchers with a simple, flexible, coherent planning process focused on achieving their research goals on time and to budget.
Use it to:
• Break any project into manageable activities you can track easily,
• Create a framework to identify resources and estimate costs,
• Identify activities crucial to your project’s success,
• Set milestones and sequence tasks effectively and efficiently, so you can prioritize your resources,
• Make sure your Research Project Plan contains everything you need when your project goes ‘live’, perhaps before your very own ‘Broadway’ audience.
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For more about our planning process, check out our Introduction to Research Project Management online course, which includes a set of downloadable tools, templates and checklists you can use right now, or grab a copy of our book, How to Manage a Research Project: Achieve your Research Goals on Time and Within Budget.
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