By Samantha Avina
When PhD candidates decide to dive into their thesis projects, excitement fills their minds as they begin to imagine swaths of experiments that can propel their research further. However, upon analyzing a project grant, students can see how managing the multiple factors necessary for setting a project in motion leads to becoming one’s own project manager for their thesis work. In this iJOBS event, project management professional (PMP or PM) Claudia Cambell led virtual attendees through a seminar and interactive simulation event focused on the project manager profession. Importantly, in exposing attendees to some fundamentals of project management, Ms. Cambell highlighted how skills developed during doctoral training can directly translate to critical skills needed in the life sciences project management field.
Presenter Claudia Campbell has over 30 years of experience in project management and is a certified PMP. She has previously led a successful career as a PM consultant for in vitro diagnostic and medical device industries. She has also worked as a quality systems internal auditor. Claudia is now an independent consultant for startup companies as a PMP for CNCM Consulting LLC. Additionally, she is a volunteer chairperson for Project Management Institute of NJ Life Sciences LCI, which operates to promote the PMP profession and conduct PM outreach and networking opportunities. The Rutgers alumnus emphasized that in every career, you will be utilizing project management skills. “Life is one big project, the trick is managing it,” Claudia said, quoting renowned PM Dr. Harvey Maylor. Her presentation took us solidly through two main phases: describing the role of a PMP in managing project life cycle integration-processes and leading a project charter case for attendees to interact and get a feel for what PMs do on a broad scale.
Claudia started directly, laying out the definitions of what a project is and what project management means in the scope of project initiation to completion. Firstly, a project is defined as a temporary endeavor undertaken to create something unique. Secondly, project management itself is the application of knowledge, techniques, and skills needed to efficiently and successfully ensure a project meets its requirements.
The phases of project management through the eyes of a PM. Each step plays a critical part in ensuring the outcome of the project meets set objectives, expectations, and closing phase appropriately. These phases serve as the backbone for project completion from inception to completion. Image courtesy of Claudia Campbell PMINJ & Life Sciences LCI 2020.
She then explained how project managers provide the necessary structure to ensure deliverable outcomes that will meet objectives and stakeholder expectations. “Life sciences projects create a lot! Drugs, Allograft Donor Tissues, 3D Printed Prosthetics, Medical Devices, BioMed Tech. Even things like aspirin are a life science project that has been methodically planned out to ensure from start to finish that the project outcome meets the required objectives and outcomes of the project,” Claudia stated.
She continued by explaining that a PM's role in a project consists of 5 main phases which are to: Initiate, Plan, Execute, Monitor & Control, and Close. These phases represent the backbone of project completion and ring similar to what we as Ph.D. candidates face in our own thesis project development. We initiate our projects, plan experiments, stay the course with committee meetings, and eventually close our concluding experiments to defend our thesis work. Ms. Campbell also emphasized how key PM competencies involve subject matter expertise and require PMs to be knowledgeable in applicable regulations and standards, specifically in biomedical science project management. Specifically, Claudia pointed out the importance of knowledge in the policies and procedures of regulatory agencies, which is needed to ensure that projects abide by health and safety regulations.
Project managers must be competent in the subject matter of the projects they manage, including regulations and standards for the outcomes of their projects. Knowledge in varies fields predominantly comes from years of experience. These knowledge areas are critical key components to ensuring the 5 main phases of the project are executed efficiently and precisely. Image courtesy of Claudia Campbell PMINJ & Life Sciences LCI 2020.
Following the overview of project management, attendees got to participate in a hands-on interactive case study. For the simulation, attendees were divided into breakout groups and tasked with filling out a project charter. A project charter is a document that covers a broad number of concepts and factors which PMs have to consider when working on real projects! Use of the charter is mandatory and necessary in the conception phase of any biomedical project, as many of the charter sections are critical to laying project foundation. To begin, breakout groups were tasked with developing an in-vitro diagnostic tool for any area of their choice. Critical components of initiating the project charter included describing the team project, identifying a team project manager and project sponsor, and declaring the project's purpose or relevance. In more detail, Claudia laid out important concepts regarding project management that attendees had to consider when filling out their charter, as listed below.
Project Management schematics of pharma drug versus medical device project development phases. Projects in the biomedical sciences go through several critical steps from initiation to market release that include preclinical management, application, development and safety regulation. Image courtesy of Claudia Campbell PMINJ & Life Sciences LCI 2020.
Important considerations for filling out a charter:
- Scope: What could be in scope and out of scope for your project?
- Schedule: What would be some milestones (key point achievements or developments)
- Budget: What information would you need to plan the budget? What funding is available?
- Resources: What resources might be needed for the project? (people, materials, equipment)
- Risks: What could be a few risks that need to be reduced?
- Stakeholders: Who are your stakeholders, internal and/or external?
- Quality: What could be a few key quality requirements to meet stakeholder expectations, or what are a few key success factors?
Being in charge is harder than it seems. Dealing with different obstacles include managing pitfalls in your plan including time reduction, reduction of budget, and larger application. iJOBS attendees had to deal with real life difficulties faced by PMs on current COVID-19 based projects where time is of the essence, but many hurdles still impede progress. Image courtesy of Claudia Campbell PMINJ & Life Sciences LCI 2020.
iJOBS attendees were highly engaged in the simulation run by Claudia. Many imagined how the diagnostic and experimental drug projects related to the COVID-19 pandemic were affecting the projects coming into PMP’s queue line up in real-time. Project names like COVID19NOW! and QuickCOVID popped up on charter titles in the simulation. And similar to what actual PMPs have probably had to deal with in real life, students found their fair share of roadblocks along the way towards completing their projects. Factors attendees had to consider included budget, test subjects, safety regulation, public health experts, logistics of mass production, and product distributions.
In conclusion, the iJOBS project management simulation event, led by Rutgers Alumnus and PM expert Claudia Campbell, was extremely helpful in providing great insight into the field of project management and the roles of a PM. The more I listened to Claudia, the more I realized that Ph.D. candidates, regardless of their area of study, truly attain skills which help make them marketable in many careers, including project management! Students who enjoy the organization and streamlining of their thesis project can certainly find the Project Management profession an exciting and invigorating career option!
This article was edited by Junior Editor Janaina Pereira and Senior Editor Brianna Alexander.