FINAL PROJECT (CE3216) PLANNING & TIME MANAGEMENT Dr DEEPAK T.J. SCHOOL OF CIVIL ENGINEERING

The Importance of Planning The Research Process will require that a number of tasks are completed These tasks will need to be completed within a given time This will inevitably require that planning is undertaken, both to think about how and when the tasks will be carried out

Breakdown of Tasks Rather than look at the time and the report as a whole, it helps to break this down into a number of smaller tasks A typical task breakdown might be as follows: a)Decide on a topic b)Investigate the work of others c)Critique the work of others d)Carry out own investigations e)Analyse findings f)Discuss own and/or others findings g)Present work in report

Time Framework for Final Year Projects There is a time framework for completing both the entire project and for completing various individual tasks This framework is set out in the Project Module Specification, which defines the following ‘milestones’ for full time students:

Semester A Week 3: Submit your project title and your designated supervisor Week 5: Submit a program of work (FP-A) to your project supervisor

Semester A Week 12: Hand in your Research Proposal to SOCE Week 13: Submit a program of work (FP-B) to your project supervisor Week 14 You must make a 15 minutes oral presentation based on your Research Proposal to a small group of lecturers and students

Semester B Week 2: You will receive feedback from your supervisor on the submissions you have made so far By this point you should have made significant progress on your project Week 10: Submit a draft copy of the Research Report to your supervisor in both paper and electronic formats

Semester B Week 12: Final completed project submitted to SOCE Week 14: 20 to 30 minute viva with your supervisor and a second assessor/s

Organising the Order in which you carry out the Tasks Having established the list of tasks to be completed, they will generally fall into one of two categories: a)Tasks which can be carried out independently of progress on other tasks b)Tasks which can only be undertaken once some other task has been completed

Organising the Order in which you carry out the Tasks This will be the case for any type of project undertaken, including engineering construction. For example, if you are building a house you have to complete the walls and the superstructure before you can construct the roof. Where a task depends on another task in this way, the relationship is called a “dependency”

The Importance of Dependencies Tasks which are dependent on other tasks will have the greatest influence on the final programme for your project If you do not take adequate account of this: –It is possible that you will end up with a programme that cannot be completed on time For this reason, you also need to identify such items as early as possible: –DON’T wait until the last minute to start planning your project

Task Definition Returning to the original list of tasks, we can now look at a slightly different, and perhaps more helpful, definition of what is required at each stage: a)Decide on a topic - Define the Topic b)Investigate the work of others - Literature Review c)Critique the work of others - Preliminary Analysis d)Carry out own investigations - Laboratory Testing e)Analyse findings - Analysis of Test Results f)Discuss own and others findings - Develop Theory g)Present work in report or paper - Writing Up

This will then allow us to look at some timings, particularly in terms of the dependencies that may need to be considered…………

Refining the Project Definition Although you will have defined the project prior to commencing the literature review, this definition is likely to have been quite broad. Once you have completed the first pass of the literature review, you will need to refine the definition of the project. Consequently, the detail of the project may change even after it has effectively begun and time must be allowed for reviewing this

Writing the Introduction This could in theory be written quite early on. However, one of the main purposes of the introduction is to inform the writer of the structure of the report – what s/he can expect to find in each chapter. As a result, the Introduction cannot be written properly without knowing the general format and contents of the report. Consequently, it may not be the first part of the report to be written and may also need to be revised as the content and structure of the report develops.

Writing the Abstract This summarises the findings of the report and consequently cannot be written until the whole of the report is finished. Despite the fact that this comes at the start of the report, it will usually not be written until a final draft of the report is complete.

Completing and Writing up the Literature Review The literature survey will be of primary importance in determining the information that you will need to obtain by laboratory investigation or data collection For this reason, a particular effort will need to be expended on the literature survey at the start of the project

Completing and Writing up the Literature Review Despite the fact that the literature review is usually one of the first parts of the project to be “completed”, the researcher should continue to keep up to date with the literature throughout the project in case some new theory or theories are developed which will have an effect on the research findings. Consequently, the Literature Review can be written up early on, but may need to be revised as the research progresses

Completing and Writing up the Literature Review It is possible that the research may be quite advanced when the researcher finds or becomes aware of a source which invalidates the basis of the research (i.e. means that the research has no value). It would, however, be very unlucky for this to happen

Time Planning in Data Collection Time planning is vital in collecting data in order to ensure that: a)You have enough time to collect sufficient data to complete your report b)That you have sufficient time to analyse the data once it has been collected

Time Planning – Lab Tests When carrying out your laboratory tests, you must allow time for: a)Purchasing and/or constructing test equipment b)Collecting and/or constructing test samples c)Carrying out preliminary testing d)Carrying out the required testing once the preliminary testing has been completed and a final test method has been established

Lab Tests – Resources It is essential that you consider resources when you are planning laboratory tests. These will include: a)Financial resources b)Laboratory equipment c)Samples to be tested d)Time

Lab Tests – Resource Limitations In order to complete your tests, you must ensure that adequate resources are available to complete the required number of tests. For example: a)If you intend to carry out 10 consolidation tests that take 1 months each to complete and there is only one oedometer available, you will obviously have a problem with resources b)If there is a resource problem of this type, you will need to change your test programme

Lab Tests – Resource Limitations In order to complete your tests, you must ensure that adequate resources are available to complete the required number of tests. For example: c)If it is not possible to change your test programme so that you can collect an adequate amount of data in the time available, the you MUST change your project so that adequate data can be obtained, even if this means changing the subject being researched

Time Planning for Lab Tests (An Example) You plan to carry out compressive strength testing of concrete with tests carried out at ages of 3, 7, 30 and 90 days. What factors do you think will be important in planning your test programme?

Planning a Lab Test Programme (Number of Tests) The number of tests required will depend both on the number of independent variables being considered and the number of different values of each independent variable to be tested. Put simply: Total No of Tests = (No. values variable A) x (No. values variable B) x ……..

Planning a Lab Test Programme (Number of Tests) Hence, in order to find the total time required for testing, you need to obtain an estimate of the time taken to carry out a single test (allowing for all preparation, cleaning up after test, preliminary analysis etc.) and multiply this by the total number of tests

Putting it all together It is important to produce a program for your research project This needs to allow for all of the main activities identified here For each activity, you will need to identify what you are intending to do and how long it will take Once these individual elements have been decided on, you will need to produce and overall programme. It is suggested that one of the most convenient ways to present the programme will be in the form of a bar chart.

An Example Programme The following represents a simple bar chart programme for a 20 week research project There are two important things to note here: a)Firstly, although the programme itself appears fairly simple, there will be a considerable amount of background information which has been used in its development b)Secondly, the programme is a ‘live’ document and needs to be revised and updated as the project proceeds.