Through Phase II of the iJOBS program, I was able to take a project management course at Rutgers Business School. As I progressed through the course, I gradually realized that the experience acquired while pursuing a PhD could easily translate to the knowledge and skills necessary for project management.
There are five major phases in project management: initiating, planning, executing, monitoring & controlling, and closing.
Phase I: Initiating
To assess a new project, the project manager (PM) first evaluates the project feasibility within given assumptions and/or constraints based on available information and meetings with the sponsor, customer, or other subject related experts. In Phase I, the PM develops a project charter by further gathering and analyzing stakeholder requirements to document project scope, milestones, and deliverables.
Initiating a new grant is similar to initiating a new project. We assess a prospective grant proposal idea based on available information, meetings with university grant managers, and experts in the field, so we can evaluate the feasibility of the new idea. We develop an initial grant proposal by further analyzing the organization of grant requirements in order to initiate documentation of hypothesis, aims and methodologies.
Phase II: Planning
A project plan is a series of detailed documents such as a scope statement, schedule, budget plan, human resource plan, communication plan, quality management plan, change management plan, risk management plan and procurement plan. In order to assess and ensure the project plan meets stakeholders’ requirements, the PM will need to review lessons learned from previous projects, identify the key stakeholders, and conduct the kick-off meetings with the key stakeholders.
Writing and applying for a grant is similar to this planning phase in project management. We need to have a clear vision of the proposed research project, which not only includes literature reviews, new scientific hypotheses, detailed experimental methods, but also the documents detailed in grant management such as a proposed schedule, budget plan, and human resource plan. These skills we execute in writing a grant proposal are applicable and readily transferable to writing a project plan. During the grant application process, the key stakeholders would be our collaborators, grant managers, and reviewers for the grant. The communication skills necessary for the success of a grant application are analogous to the ones used to ensure a project plan will meet stakeholders’ requirements.
Phase III/IV: Executing, Monitoring & Controlling
In these two phases, the PM and project team will execute and monitor the tasks as defined in the project plan to complete their goals with the required quality, within budget, and on schedule. Implementing and updating approved changes and actions to meet the project requirements and minimizing the impact of negative risk events on the project are crucial for success of the project. The PM will also need to maximize the team performance through leading, mentoring, training and motivating team members, as well communicate the project status with stakeholders to ensure that the project aligns with business need.
After getting the grant for a research project, from writing and updating IRB documents to executing and monitoring every experiment as defined in the grant, all these processes are similar to executing and monitoring a project. (Basically the goal outlined in a research grant IS a project) As a PhD student, we may not have many chances to act as a PM; however, we do have many chances to get involved in team work through research by ensuring our own experiments are on schedule and within the budget.
Phase V: Closing
In the last phase, the PM obtains final acceptance of the project deliverables by working with project sponsors or customers in order to confirm that the project scope and deliverables were met. Collating lessons learned through project review are critical to create and update the organization’s knowledge base.
From writing a simple updated protocol in the study to writing a manuscript, we have learned how to manage the final acceptance of a project and lessons learned through project review.
Overall, we can excel as project managers with the knowledge, skills, and training we have obtained during our PhD.