QAB 4032FINAL YEAR PROJECT I

Abdul Halim Abdul Latiff

Department of Geosciences

Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS

FYP Project Management

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the lesson, students should be able to:

Understand the principles of project management.

Identify the risk and problems associated with FYP work.

Carry out the FYP project effectively.

Why Project Management?

Academic project is a complex task which has little prescribed structure.

Everyone has their own project.

Helps you to estimate and allocate time

Once noted you don’t need to worry about remembering everything that you need to do better time management.

It also contributes to your reflections on the learning process.

Principles of Project Management

Phases of Project Management

Cornerstones of Effective Project Management

Initiation

Planning

Execution

Monitoring

Closing

Milestone-based

Accountability

Managing Risk

Initiation & Planning of Projects

Identify the strength of SV & co-SV (think about external experts!)

Identify goals, establish milestones / aims.

Create a project plan (simple or detailed)

Specific project activities & tasks.

Timing of activities.

Interdependencies among work streams.

Cost.

Important milestones.

Why is it a project?

Quality expectations see assessment requirements

Time start and end date

Cost do you (or your SV) have financial resources?

Scope How much are you planning to deliver

The Optimum Project Triangle

Time

Cost

Quality

Scope

Project Triangle – Too Expensive!

Time

Cost

Quality

Scope

Project Stages

1. Identify a project / research problem.2. Refine aim and objectives.3. Refine problem questions.4. Conduct and document a literature review.5. Evaluate appropriate research methods.6. Design your research tools (survey, questionnaire, observations

etc.).7. Pilot test your data collection.8. Carry out your data collection.9. Compare and contrast data findings with the literature findings.10. Draw conclusions by evaluating your research questions,

research objectives and research aim.11. Reflect on limitations and potential further studies in the area.12. Write your documentation.

Project Workflow

Using GANTT charts

Named after Henry Gantt (1861–1919).

Visual representation of tasks/basic elements of the diagram.

Showing dependence.

Showing parallel activities and overlaps.

Showing milestones.

Building in constraints.

Many other project management features such as adding in costs; dealing with resource conflict.

Detailed Project Plan and Timeline

Simplified Project Plan and Timeline

Accountability

Regularly scheduled meetings with SV & co-SV.

Create agendas for meetings and follow them.

Meeting minutes with ACTION ITEMS assigned.

Review ACTION ITEMS at next meeting to ensure they have been completed.

Careful tracking of documentation/data.

Risk Management Now that you know your project

activities, next: What is the Risk Identification? What is the probability of these

things happening? How severely will they impact on

the completion of your project? Assessment - How important is

the individual obstacle What can be done to minimize

the obstacle preventing you completing your project?

Finally – having considered all obstacles - is the project still viable?

Risk Examples

:

Risk Identification: Probability:

(1 [low] –

5 [high])

Impact:

(1 [low] -

5 [high])

Assessment Management /

Mitigation

Not being able to

access academic

journal articles due to

paid access

2 2 =2 x 2 = 4 Use online journals

and where possible

books via

GoogleScholar

Computer hard disk

drive failure

2 5 =2 x 5 = 10 Daily back up of

data and email of

latest copy to my

Gmail account

Little data available to

capture for this project

5 5 = 5 x 5 = 25 Conduct pilot study

and revisit research

area if not possible

to get data

Project Tracking

Weekly or at key stages of a project’s milestones - a review of the project plan and risks.

Once the project reach one milestones:

A review of the original and the final version allows reflection on the project’s developments.

What was anticipated and what surprises are there?

The updated plan and risk can be used by similar projects in the future as a starting point.

Basic writing skills

Top down:

Start with a draft structure and fill out the sections and paragraphs.

Bottom up:

Write and then re-format and re-structure to present a logical flow of your work.

DPCA:

Draft.

Pre-write.

Check.

Submit your work.

Writing Style

Reports are written in third person form, that is, the use of “I” or “We” and their respective cases are not used.

Instead of writing “I found that ….” write “It was evident that ….” “The statistics revealed that ….”

There are exceptions: – logbooks, personal reflections etc.

Plagiarism

Citing others work is good – evidence of research.

Using someone else's work without attribution – very bad practice and carries substantial penalties.

Learn to paraphrase and reference your sources.

You will be required to check similarity in the Turnitinwhen submitting your Dissertation.

Formatting

FYP Project Management To ensure your FYP project is on track, a new submission

has been introduced:i. FYP Gantt Chart – 5%

ii. FYP Progress Update – 5%

Submission on:i. Week 05 (14 October)

ii. Week 07 (28 October)

iii. Week 09 (11 November)

iv. Week 11 (25 November)

v. Week 13 (09 December)

Template for Progress Update Sheet will be send to your email.

Upload into Google Drive before the dateline.

Important Dates / Reminder Extended Proposal: 7 October (Friday) – 11.59pm / Upload into Google Drive To ensure uniformity, please rename your Extended

Proposal to: EP_{First Name}_{Last Name}_{Matrix ID}

FYP Proposal Defense: 13 & 14 October (Thursday & Friday) - 8.30am to 5.00pm /

Block 16

FYP I Session #05 - IRC Program (EndNote & E-Resources): 21 October (Friday) - 3pm to 5pm / IRC Basement (Near to

Locker Room)

FYP I Session #06 - Data Collection and Mapping Techniques (by Mr Yazid Mansor):

25 October (Tuesday) - 11am to 1pm / Lecture Theatre C2