Projects: From Seeds to Fruits
ELEC-E7110 Trends in Communications Engineering Research
Sassan Iraji, PhD
September 14th, 2015
ELEC-E7110 Trends in Communications Engineering Research
Outline for Today’s Lecture
• Definition of Projects
• Key Topics in Planning and Carrying out the Projects
– Idea Generation
• Creativity
• Innovation
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Planning
Goal Setting
Tasks and Deliverables
Project Schedule
Project Management
• Management vs. Leadership
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Teamworking
Risk Management
Dissemination of the results
IPRs
• Conclusions
Project Definition
• In contemporary business and science a project is a
collaborative enterprise, involving research or design,
that is carefully planned to achieve a particular aim.
• Projects can be further defined as temporary rather than
permanent social systems or work systems that are
constituted by teams within or across organizations to
accomplish particular tasks under time constraints.
• An ongoing project is usually called (or evolves into)
a program.
Source: Wikipedia
Some Key Terms (Not necessarily in exact order)
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Ideas
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Plan
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How do team members work together? What skills are needed?
Risk management
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Project Management approaches? Who is going to lead the projects?
Teamworking
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Deadlines: When to deliver the product or results or outcomes?
Milestones: Is everything OK and going according to the plan before the final deadline?
Management vs. leadership
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What kind of practical tasks can be defined in order to achieve the goals?
What are the deliverables based on goals?
Schedule
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What are targets?
What kind of products you want to bring to the market?
Tasks and Deliverables
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How from ideas come to a working plan?
Goals
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Rationales
How are they generated? Where to get them?
What is creativity? What is innovation?
What are the risks?
How are they going to be addressed in order to minimize their negative impacts?
Marketing, Delivery and Dissemination of the results
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How do you sell your results? Dissemination Plans?
How to continue after that? What is the next product or research topic?
Idea Generation
• Ways to create ideas can vary a lot:
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Methods like brainstorming can be used
Eureka – idea can born in bath or anywhere
Idea can be a result from a systematic study
In many cases it is understood only afterwards that new idea was
generated.
Idea generation
Concept Development
• Concept development is in many cases part of the idea generation
and more considered for making products
• Concept development is a process stems from a set of end-user
needs and target specifications, then they are converted into a set
of conceptual designs and potential technological solutions.
Creativity and Innovation
What is Creativity?
• Creativity refers to the ability to come up with new ideas,
the ability to think widely, to have a free and open mind and
to approach matters in a new way.
• Creativity is the capability or act of conceiving something
original
• Creativity can be described as one's ability to come up with
a clever/practical way of solving a problem, or of doing
something, by thinking outside the box.
• Creativity is about unleashing the potential of the mind to
conceive new ideas. Creativity is subjective, making it hard
to measure
http://www.ask.com/question/what-is-the-difference-between-innovation-and-creativity
Three important levels of creativity (1/3)
• Discovery: it's when you become aware of or stumble
upon something: discover it.
• For example, there is art called "discovered art."
– might be a rock with a unique shape or a piece of wood with an
interesting pattern.
– If you have ever purchased a piece of natural stone or wood art,
that art was discovered art. Many inventions start with a
discovery.
Creativity and Innovation: Your Keys to a Successful Organization | Daniel Burrus
Three important levels of creativity (2/3)
• Invention: A higher level of creativity is invention.
• For example, Alexander Graham Bell invented the
telephone.
– But you have to ask, "Would the telephone have been invented
without Bell?"
– The answer is yes.
– Eventually the telephone would have been invented because
the science was there. It might have taken longer, but it would
have happened.
– So while invention is higher than discovery, it's something that is
going to happen. If you don't invent it, someone else will.
Creativity and Innovation: Your Keys to a Successful Organization | Daniel Burrus
Three important levels of creativity (3/3)
• Creation: Creation is the highest level of creativity.
• For example, the stage play Othello is genuinely a
creation.
– Elizabethan drama would have gone on without Shakespeare,
but no one else would have written Othello.
– Similarly, there are things that only your organization or team
can create!
– The key is tapping in to what those things are.
Creativity and Innovation: Your Keys to a Successful Organization | Daniel Burrus
Portrait of a creative person
• Creative people
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Pay attention to their world,
See things differently,
Challenge assumptions,
Take risks,
Are not afraid to fail,
Strive to generate multiple solutions to problems,
Are passionate about creativity
Seek opportunities to innovate
Everyday Creativity: Principles for Innovative Design. Dr. Larry G. Richards
Tips to enhance the creativity
• Being open-minded: Have one new experience every day;
no matter how small. New experiences stimulate the brain
and help you make new and original connections; critical for
boosting breakthroughs.
• Nurture diversity: Involve others in your problem-solving
efforts who bring a different perspective or cultural
experience than yours.
• Mental floss: Relax; Stress, exhaustion, boredom and
even pain can block our pathways to creativity.
• Stop looking for the right answer: Look for many right
answers.
• Discover your creative rhythm: Start paying attention to
when you get your best ideas.
• Health makes wealth: Regular exercise not only benefits
your body, it boosts brain performance as well.
Innovative Thinking: Six Simple Secrets by Padi Selwyn, M.A.
Last but not least on creativity
What is innovation?
• Innovation is the ability to confine the creative ideas and
make them turn into reality so as to achieve successful
performance.
• Innovation is the implementation of something new.
– When people come up with new ideas, this display of creativity but
there is no innovation until you take the risk of implementing it.
• Innovation is the implementation of a creative idea, the
action of solving a problem or creating something in a
way no one has thought of before.
• Innovation usually stems from creativity.
• The difference between creativity and innovation is simply
that creativity refers to the ability to generate new ideas while
innovation is the ability to turn new ideas into reality.
http://www.ask.com/question/what-is-the-difference-between-innovation-and-creativity
Types of Innovation
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Product innovation: involves the introduction of a new good or service
that is substantially improved.
– Such as improvements in functional characteristics, technical abilities,
ease of use, or any other dimension.
•
Process innovation: involves the implementation of a new or significantly
improved production or delivery method.
•
Marketing innovation: is the development of new marketing methods with
improvement in product design or packaging, product promotion or pricing.
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Organizational innovation: involves the creation of new organizations,
business practices, ways of running organizations or new organizational
behavior.
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Business model innovation: involves changing the way business is done
in terms of capturing value e.g. Compaq vs. Dell.
Innovative Thinking: Six Simple Secrets by Padi Selwyn, M.A.
Tools and Methods for
Creativity and Innovation
Few Tools for Generating and
Cultivating Ideas
http://kenmillergroup.com/2010/06/16/another-original-cartoon-ideation-frustration/
Brainstorming
• Objectives: Bring about creative solutions (even for
unidentified!) problems
• Take solution candidates one after another until
unusual solutions are generated
• Generate ideas without critics! Thus
– many potential solution candidates are generated
– whole problem dilemma may change!
• To continue
– Analyze results for instance by SWOT, Force Field Analysis
(FFA) and/or Mind Mapping
• SWOT= Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats
– Condensed and classified ideas can be used to support new
sessions or other applications
Brainstorming - Leader and Group Tasks
• Session leader
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definition of the start-up point
gives limits to the problem
gives limits to discussions (These limits must be very broad)
minute amount of critics
encouraging and enthusiastic
follows (the fixed) session time table!
Takes care that ‘idea jamming’ is only temporary!
• Session participants
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have diverged orientations related to the problem at hand
their background is as different as possible
good communication skills
substance should be known preferably by everybody (at least by
somebody!!!)
Individual vs. Group Brainstorming
• Individual BS
– many ideas
– tendency to jam into some fixed trails
– easy to find unresolved questions
• Group BS
– ideas develop themselves into more elaborated form
– ideas develop more efficiently
– there might be less ideas (group follows the group behavior
laws!)
• One may mix individual and group barnstorming: For
instance each member might first BS of his own and then
one may have a meeting based on each individual’s BS
sessions
Getting more fruitful Brainstorming
• Methods of Six Thinking Hats (Edward de Bono) or Six
Eyes (Rodney King) can be used to get Brainstorming to
work better
• Assign a different hat for each group member & mix the
hats!
5) creativity: alternatives,
1) facts: figures,
2) intuition:
proposals,
what
is
interesting,
information needs
feelings and
provocations,
possibilities
and gaps
emotions
and changes
4) Logical Positive:
why something works,
Benefits, values
3) logical negative:
judgment and risk
Caution, assessment
6) meta-cognition:
creativity process
control, looking
at thinking, next steps
Mind Mapping
• Mind Mapping is a technique to organizing information in
its natural associative way, that is multidimensional.
• Procedure:
– List the main topic, subtopics and facts. Search short
expressions for them all.
– Identify the main connections between themes
– Set the main theme in the middle of the paper and arrange the
sub-themes to surround the main theme
– Recognize idea groups (for instance by colors)
– Indicate interdependencies as the cause and consequence by
arrows
– Use symbols and figures and even sub-maps to give to total
picture
Example of a Mind Map
Mind Manager (www.mindman.com)
Alternate Mind Mapping
• Fishbone* diagram (Ishikawa): Enables to focus
onto the problem and perceive the causes and its
relative importance
• After drawing the diagram the next step is to analyze
the magnitude of each of the identified causes
*http://web.singnet.com.sg/~axon2000/index.htm
SWOT analysis
• SWOT is applicable for sorting unorganized
knowledge bases and analyzing current status
• Successful SWOT yields structured mapping of the
problem at hand
• For instance in method analysis
– identify strength and weaknesses of the method
– search through possibilities and threats
• Realization: List all the relevant properties and sort
them into SWOT boxes!
Strength
Weakness
Opportunity
Threats
SWOT Example: SWOT of LTE
http://iipta.com/ipr/book/export/html/1527
Project Planning
• Once the great ideas are set and acceptable, you need to
plan.
• What relevant skills do exist (part of team building process)?
And what skills are needed to be acquired?
• What resources are needed? This might be as simple as set
time for regular meetings, number of people are needed,
needed tools, physical space to rehearse etc.
• What kind of information do you need to accumulate? How to
make sure the correctness of the information? Where to find
them? What are the good sources?
• What are the schedules (we discuss in more details later)?
The start date, the end date, …
Goal Setting
• A goal is something a
person intended to
accomplish and
achieve.
• Goals are either shortterm or long-term.
• Goal setting helps
people visualize
SMART Criteria in Goal Setting
SMART is a mnemonic acronym, giving criteria to guide in
the setting of goals in project management, personal
development, etc...
Target a specific area for improvement.
Quantify or at least suggest an indicator of progress.
Define tasks that can be performed successfully.
State what results can realistically be achieved.
Specify when the result(s) can be achieved.
Tasks and Deliverables
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After setting the goals, you can create a list of tasks to be
accomplished and things that the project needs to deliver in order to
meet the goals.
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Specify when and how each item must be delivered.
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Specify how much resources are needed for each task and deliverable
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Specify who actually take the responsibility of each task and
deliverable.
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Add the tasks and deliverables to the project plan with an estimated
delivery date. More accurate delivery dates will be established during
the scheduling phase, which is next.
Project Schedule
• For each task identify the amount
of effort (hours or days) required to
complete the task (based on all
resources you have)
• After that, workout the effort
required for each deliverable, and
an accurate delivery date.
• Update your deliverables section
with the more accurate delivery
dates.
• For this you can use different tools
such as Microsoft Project to
create your project schedule.
Project Schedule: Milestones and Deadline
• Milestones are used to mark specific points
along a project timeline.
– These points may signal anchors such as a project
start and end date, a need for external review or
input and budget checks, among others.
– Usually milestones do not impact project duration.
Instead, they focus on major progress points that
must be reached to achieve success.
Project Schedule:
Milestones and Deadline
• Deadline is the final time point to which a given project
is targeted and by which the project should be
completed.
– Ideally, project deadline equals project completion time, i.e., the
project is completed on time.
– In practice, deadlines do not follow completion time because of
some factors such as inadequate project scheduling, high risks,
undefined project requirements, etc.
– Sometimes, projects are completed before their desired
deadlines. This does not necessarily mean that those projects
are effective and produce desired outcomes. Completion prior to
deadline is often caused by intensified use of project resources,
increased investments, etc.
Project Management
• Discipline of carefully planning, organizing, motivating and
controlling resources to achieve specific goals and meet
specific success criteria.
• The primary challenge of project management is to achieve
all of the project goals and objectives while honoring the
preconceived constraints.
• The primary constraints are scope, time, quality and budget.
• The secondary — and more ambitious — challenge is to
optimize the allocation of necessary inputs and integrate
them to meet pre-defined objectives.
Source: Wikipedia
Project Management Approaches
• Including Lean, Iterative, Incremental, and Phased
approaches, etc.
• Regardless of the methodology employed, careful
consideration must be given to the overall project
objectives, timeline, and cost, as well as the roles and
responsibilities of all participants and stakeholders.
• The traditional approach: five developmental
components of
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Initiation
Planning and design
Execution and construction
Monitoring and controlling systems
Completion and finish point
Source: Wikipedia
Project Management Approaches - Agile
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Agile project management encompasses several iterative approaches, based
on the principles of human interaction management and founded on a process
view of human collaboration.
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The project is seen as a series of relatively small tasks conceived and executed
to conclusion as the situation demands in an adaptive manner, rather than as a
completely pre-planned process.
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Advocates of this technique claim that: It is the only technique in which the
client will be actively involved in the project development.
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The only disadvantage with this technique is that it should be used only if the
client has enough time to be actively involved in the project.
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Agile is an umbrella term for multiple project management methodologies,
including:
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Scrum - A holistic approach to development that focuses on iterative goals set by the
Product Owner through a backlog, which is developed by the Delivery Team through the
facilitation of the Scrum Master.
Source: Wikipedia
Manager vs. Leader
• As Project Manager are you a Leader or a Manager?
What are your leadership qualities?
• On the management side, we focus on the tasks, processes,
resources, milestones, schedule, and performance. What
about Leadership?!
• Leaders: Focus on the strategic; set direction; align
resources; and empower and inspire.
• Managers: Focus on the tactics; plan and budget;
organize and obtain resources; exert control over
situations; and solve problems.
• Managers focus on predictability and order, while leaders
focus on being catalysts for change.
Source: http://www.mastering-project-management.com/leader-vs-manager.html
Some Characteristics of Leaders
• Set big, bold goals: Challenge your project team to achieve
something they haven’t done before.
• Get team members that are better than you
are: Successful leaders know they are building a team to
achieve a goal, not to build their ego.
• Set the example for the Team: You set the context for them
to achieve; you establish the work ethic; and your attitude
determines the attitude for the entire team.
• Give all the credit to the Team: Recognizing the team’s
success builds their confidence to continue to achieve their
goals.
• LISTEN, LISTEN, LISTEN: The greatest leaders listen to the
people around them - Listen more than you speak.
Source: http://www.mastering-project-management.com/leader-vs-manager.html
Teamworking
• For the project team to function effectively, members of the team
must attend to both the climate within their team and the process by
which they accomplish their tasks.
• To function successfully in a project, team members need to be able
to communicate clearly on intellectual and emotional levels.
Effective communicators:
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Can explain their own ideas
Express their feelings in an open but non-threatening way
Listen carefully to others
Ask questions to clarify others’ ideas and emotions
Can sense how others feel based on their nonverbal communication
Will initiate conversations about team climate or process if they sense
tensions brewing
– Reflect on the activities and interactions of their team and encourage other
team members to do so as well
Source: https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-teaching-excellence/teaching-resources/teaching-tips/tips-students/being-part-team/teamwork-skills-being-effective-group-member
Teamworking Skills
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Openness: Team members are willing to get to know one another, particularly those with different backgrounds. They are
open to new ideas, diverse viewpoints, and the variety of individuals present within the team. They listen to others and elicit
their ideas.
Trust and self-disclosure: Team members trust one another enough to share their own ideas and feelings. A sense of
mutual trust develops only to the extent that everyone is willing to self-disclose and be honest yet respectful. Trust also
grows as team members demonstrate personal accountability for the tasks they have been assigned.
Support: Team members demonstrate support for one another as they accomplish their goals. They view one another not
as competitors (which is common within a typically individualistic educational system) but as collaborators.
Respect: Team members communicate their opinions in a way that respects others, focusing on “What can we learn?”
rather than “Who is to blame?” See constructive feedback in the process section for more details.
Individual responsibility and accountability: All team members agree on what needs to be done and by whom. Each
member then determines what he or she needs to do and takes responsibility to complete the task(s). They can be held
accountable for their tasks, and they hold others accountable for theirs.
Constructive Feedback: Team members are able to give and receive feedback about team ideas. Giving constructive
feedback requires focusing on ideas and behaviors, instead of individuals, being as positive as possible, and offering
suggestions for improvement. Receiving feedback requires listening well, asking for clarification if the comment is unclear,
and being open to change and other ideas.
Problem solving: Team members help the team to develop and use strategies central to their group goals. As such, they
can facilitate group decision making and deal productively with conflict. In extreme cases, they know when to approach the
professor for additional advice and help.
Management and organization: Team members know how to plan and manage a task, how to manage their time, and
how to run a meeting. For example, they ensure that meeting goals are set, that an agenda is created and followed, and
that everyone has an opportunity to participate. They stay focused on the task and help others to do so too.
Knowledge of roles: Team members know which roles can be filled within a team. They are also willing to rotate roles to
maximize their own and others’ group learning
No nagging or complaining: A focus on not complaining creates a happier and more positive environment.
Source: https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-teaching-excellence/teaching-resources/teaching-tips/tips-students/being-part-team/teamwork-skills-being-effective-group-member
Risk Management
•
Risk management is the identification,
assessment, and prioritization of risks (the
effect of uncertainty on objectives) followed by
coordinated and economical application of
resources
– To minimize, monitor, and control the probability
and/or impact of unfortunate events or
– To maximize the realization of opportunities.
•
Risk management’s objective is to
assure uncertainty does not deflect the
endeavor from the project goals
• Generally it consists of:
1. Identify, characterize threats
2. Assess the vulnerability of critical assets to specific threats
3. Determine the risk (i.e. the expected likelihood and consequences of
specific types of attacks on specific assets)
4. Identify ways to reduce those risks
5. Prioritize risk reduction measures based on a strategy
Source: Wikipedia
Dissemination of the results
• It means the disclosure of knowledge by any appropriate means
• The dissemination plan (which is a part of the overall project
plan) explains how the project will share outcomes with
stakeholders, relevant institutions and organizations, and how it will
contribute to the overall dissemination strategy for the project or
program.
• The dissemination plan will explain:
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What you plan to disseminate – the message
To whom – the audience
Why – the purpose
How – the method
When – the timing
• The purpose of the dissemination activity may be to:
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Raise awareness – let others know what you are doing
Inform – educate the community
Engage – get input/feedback from the community
Promote – ‘sell’ your outputs and results
Source: http://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/archive/20140614222502/http://www.jisc.ac.uk/fundingopportunities/projectmanagement/planning/dissemination.aspx
How to Disseminate the Results
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Message:
What is the key message to be sent out? It’s often useful to think of the
person on the receiving end. What do they need to know about your
project? How can you communicate it clearly?
– Focus on clear, simple messages .
– Get the right message to the right audience.
– Coordinate messages within and across program. Messages from a group of
projects often have greater impact than messages from a single project.
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•
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Audience:
Think about who you want to reach and what they can do for your
project.
Consider the following audiences:
– Internal – They supported the project bid, so keep them informed about what
you’re doing. Use dissemination to make sure the project has a high profile.
– Other programs – Share your results with other projects.
– External stakeholders – Think about who might take up your outputs and the
stakeholders that can help you to ‘make it happen’.
– The community – Think about who could learn from your knowledge and
experience and share it in case studies, journal articles, etc.
Source: http://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/archive/20140614222502/http://www.jisc.ac.uk/fundingopportunities/projectmanagement/planning/dissemination.aspx
How to Disseminate the Results
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Methods: The trick is to select the right one(s) to get your message to the
target audience and achieve your purpose:
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Newsletters
Press releases
Brochures
Program/Cluster meeting
Conference presentations, Posters
Workshops
Demonstrations
Online discussion lists
Journal articles
Case studies
Reports and other documents
Timing
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Decide when different dissemination activities will be most relevant. Messages will vary
during the timeframe of the project.
For example, at the start, focus on awareness of your project, and at the end on ‘selling’
achievements.
Also think about time commitments - there are periods in the academic year when it will be
difficult to reach academic staff.
Source: http://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/archive/20140614222502/http://www.jisc.ac.uk/fundingopportunities/projectmanagement/planning/dissemination.aspx
Intellectual Property Right (IPR)
• Some results or outcomes of a project could be in the form of
Intellectual Property Rights.
• Intellectual property (IP) is a legal concept which refers to creations
of the mind for which exclusive rights are recognized.
• Under intellectual property law, owners are granted certain
exclusive rights to a variety of intangible assets, such as musical,
literary, and artistic works; discoveries and inventions; and words,
phrases, symbols, and designs.
• Common types of intellectual property rights include copyright,
trademarks, patents, industrial design rights, trade dress, and
in some jurisdictions trade secrets.
Wikipedia, Intellectual Property
Conclusions
• We define projects
• We talked about key topics from idea generations to planning, goal
setting, managing, scheduling, dissemination of the results.
• We discussed about some methods of idea generating, creativity vs
innovation, tasks and deliverables, management vs. leadership,
Teamworking Skills, Risk Management, and IPRs.
• Remember:
You should try to come out of it in some way a "better" person,
maybe with greater knowledge, maybe with greater skills etc, you
name it!
Thank You!