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Project Management for Proposal Development Summer Young Office of the Vice Chancellor of Research
Project Management for Proposal Development
Summer YoungOffice of the Vice Chancellor of Research
Why you should treat your
RESEARCH PROPOSAL
as a
TEAM PROJECT
to be
MANAGED (even if it is a single-investigator application)!
Layers of Project Management Related to Research Proposals
proposal development
process
proposed research project
work breakdown structure
Benefits of Approaching Proposal Development from a Project Management Perspective
> Facilitates working relationships and aids in building
goodwill
> Increases likelihood of meeting critical deadlines
> Results in more thoroughly vetted work breakdown
structure
> Reduces risk and increases agility at subsequent
negotiation and post-award stages
Stakeholders
> Stakeholders from whom you need input to assemble proposal– Involved in research project– Allocating resources to proposed project
> Stakeholders with whom you need consensus for the proposal submission process
Potential Proposal Development Stakeholders
> team members > subawardees> vendors/suppliers> cost share providers> broader impacts
programming contacts> lab directors> center directors> facilities managers> end users
> department/center support staff
> pre-award administrator> Chair> Dean> Authorized Organizational
Representative (AOR)> Vice Chancellor for
Research
Collaboration Platform & Communication
> Choose a Platform
– Google Team Drive, Microsoft One Drive, Dropbox
– Shared Folders
> Make expectations EXPLICIT
– Consider a team charter/agreement/contract that is revisited
and updated regularly
– Track proposal development tasks and responsible entities
Proposal Development Schedule
> Create a schedule for managing the process of developing the proposal itself
> Work backwards from agency deadline using OSP “Proposal Compilation, Vetting, and Submission Milestones” document
> Build in milestones for drafting narrative components, collecting application materials, content reviews by stakeholders, etc.
Proposal Development Schedule
Proposal Development Schedule
Resources to be Identified
> Solicitation & proposal preparation guidelines vary by
agency and by opportunity
– Create solicitation-based checklist
– Create application components outline
> Find, download/know how to access application
package components (templates, files, etc.)
> Make sure you have secured appropriate levels of
access within required submission mechanism
Resources to be Identified
Resources to be Identified
Resources to be Identified
Resources to be Identified
Resources to be Identified
Resources to be Identified
Work/Task Breakdown Structure
> deliverable-oriented hierarchical decomposition of the work that must be executed in order to accomplish the project objectives and create the required deliverables
Work/Task Breakdown Structure
Work/Task Breakdown Structure
> Increases your ability to communicate necessary details about your project to proposal development & project stakeholders
> Requires you to build consensus with your collaborators that will be necessary for them to provide supporting materials (both internal and forward-facing)– descriptions of work they will be conducting for the narrative– subawardee statements of work, letters of commitment,
budgets
Work/Task Breakdown Structure
> Having a well developed and vetted project WBS also
– Reduces risk at negotiation and provides access to a granular level of detail for the purposes of examining options and evaluating the implications of potential changes
– Ensures nuts and bolts needed to finalize contract and subawards are available
– Increases your readiness to execute an awarded project
– Reduces likelihood of post-award surprises by making sure, to the extent possible, budget corresponds to project needs
Work/Task Breakdown Structure
> Gantt chart communicates the WBS over time
– Performance period
– Project tasks
– Task durations and lengths
– Task relationships
– Task personnel assignments
– Budget breakouts
Work/Task Breakdown Structure
Work/Task Breakdown Structure
Layers of Project Management in Proposal Development
proposal development
process
proposed research project
work breakdown structure
Summer N. YoungLead Proposal Developer
Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research [email protected]
573-341-7121
