Chapter 14. Managing a Research Project
Richard Whittington
▪ Introduction
▪ Project management for beginners
▪ Project management when externally funded
▪ Case study
▪ Conclusion
Introduction
Research projects differ in terms of their complexity and, more importantly, in terms of the level of support available from others. Researchers also differ in terms of experience. They can include the undergraduate student doing research for the first time for a dissertation with the close support of a supervisor, the postgraduate student who has completed such a dissertation but now has to take the lead in the conduct of a larger, more innovative project over several years, and the experienced researcher who will have learned from these previous experiences but who has a particular set of additional demands to consider when managing funded research. In addition, research projects should be unique in their focus in that they are attempting to produce new knowledge. Whatever the level, no two research projects are the same and it is not possible to reduce research project management to a simple routine (Meredith & Mantel 2000). A ‘cookbook’ with effective research project management menus cannot be offered and the creative satisfaction of the activity itself would be lost if this approach were adopted. Despite all these differences, there are certain core research project management skills and these will be considered below. Other skills such as budget management are specific to the more advanced types of study and these will be considered afterwards.
Project management for beginners
A research project is like any other sort of discrete, time-limited project and the principles of good project management can be used to steer towards the delivery of a successful outcome (Lock 2003 and Meredith 2000). Most projects have clear, specified outcomes which may be educational (e.g. learning outcomes) or scientific. These objectives may be fixed by outside parties, such as external funders or those setting the learning outcomes for a dissertation module, and thus they may be non-negotiable. Alternatively, the researcher may have a free hand to set the objectives, as is often the case with postgraduate research. Whichever situation applies, the first, and most important, requirement for researchers is to make absolutely sure that they know what the objectives of the project are and that these objectives are clearly defined and understood by all the relevant stakeholders. With no idea of the endpoint, navigation through the project will quickly become impossible.
All projects have a life cycle and activity over that life cycle is inevitably variable, with periods of low activity punctuated by times of high demand and effort. This means that the successful researcher must have a clear sense of the deadline for completion of the objectives and what is needed along the way to get to that point. Every project is composed of sub-tasks (sometimes known as work packages) and these can be further broken down into more specific activities (sometimes known as work units). Each of these activities can be given a deadline for completion and thus the researcher can start to see when the periods of high demand are likely to occur and to plan accordingly. Box 14.1 lists some of the sub-tasks which might need to be considered in working towards an overall project objective.
Box 14.1
Some typical research project management tasks
1 Draw up deadlines for work packages and sub-tasks
2 Establish responsibility for each sub-task
3 Write and submit REC application
4 Attend REC meeting and make necessary revisions
5 Submit update reports to REC
6 Write and submit application for access to health care organisation
7 Liaise with individual health care staff with access to potential participants
8 Obtain copies of questionnaires and other instruments
9 Obtain necessary equipment, e.g. tape recorders
10 Draw up and arrange testing of new instruments
11 Operationalise recruitment procedures
12 Administer data collection instruments
13 Check data quality as collected and make preliminary interpretations
14 Transcribe textual data
15 Load data into analysis software
16 Check quality of loaded data (data cleaning)
17 Conduct data analysis
18 Prepare and circulate draft final report
Lock (2003) identifies four types of project which need to be managed in some way. Of these four types (industrial, manufacturing, management and research) the research project is viewed as the type carrying the highest risk of failure. The best way of dealing with this risk is always planning ahead, constantly anticipating likely problems and mapping out some potential solutions to the potential problems if and when they occur. Having identified what needs to be done by when, it is a good idea to have Plan B ready in case Plan A fails, as it often does! It is always best to operate with the expectation that the worst case scenarios will actually happen and, thus, be ready to deal with them. This imagining and working through takes considerable mental effort and creativity but it is the best way of avoiding the sense of panic which inevitably descends when the worst happens and the project is facing failure.
Health or nursing research projects have quite specific aspects which make them different from projects generally (e.g. construction) and even from other types of research project. Most projects in this area are concerned with investigating people and many are concerned with people who are ill or vulnerable in some way. Some projects, like those testing a new nursing intervention, involve doing things to people which may cause pain, distress or carry some other sort of risk. Therefore, health research projects always carry an extra level of ethical and political demand which is absent in other disciplines where, for instance, research takes place exclusively in laboratories or libraries. This is particularly a challenge for new researchers in health who, as a result, have to start off at the deep end having to navigate ethical and organisational contexts before the data can be collected. Some of the necessary tasks to be considered prior to data-collection are listed in Box 14.1.
Stakeholders, roles and responsibilities
Any project will have a number of people involved who contribute to its successful completion. There will be a researcher and one or more study participants but very few projects involve only these, and health research projects always involve a wider array of stakeholders. One approach (Department of Health 2005) identifies ten different types of stakeholder who may need to be consulted or need to give permission for a study to take place (Box 14.2). Some of these are ‘core’ stakeholders in that almost all projects will involve them, i.e. participants and researchers. More advanced projects will involve many stakeholders who must be engaged in the project in some way including investigators, funders, sponsors, researchers’ employers, care providers and care professionals.
Box 14.2
Potential stakeholders in a research project (Department of Health 2005)
• Participants (and potential participants)
• Researchers
• Investigators
• Chief investigators
• Research funders
• Sponsors
• Universities and others employing researchers
• Organisations providing health care
• Health care professionals
• Research Ethics Committees
With regard to participants, clearly any study involving collecting data from human participants generates the need to make moral and ethical decisions which may be highly complex. Any approved project will be governed by strict ethical principles established by the local Research Ethics Committee (REC) or equivalent. The researcher (or their supervisor) will have steered the proposal through the relevant REC prior to starting and must ensure that the delivery of the project fits within the specification approved by the REC. The REC will expect regular updates on progress and any variations to the protocol which become necessary after the study has started will need to be approved. The researcher, as defined by the Department of Health (2005), is the person with day-to-day responsibility for conducting the research by, for instance, conducting interviews or distributing questionnaires, and part of their role is to adhere to the protocol, report adverse events and keep the data confidential, safe and secure.
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