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Research coordinators would like to believe they are organized. However, after working with a project manager, I quickly realized how poorly organized my research projects are run. Thus my need for a digital project planner. The research activities can be boiled down to three distinct phases: organization, collecting, and post study research. I use Calligra-plan (C-P) in each of these phases. Let’s do a quick touch-base on the life cycle of a research project. In the organization phase, the investigator develops a plausible research question and will look for grant funding to answer the question. Most of my projects are fully funded by the university. This is called internal funding. Yet I have been assigned to a research project that was funded externally. An external fund is when the government or outside organization offers to pay the cost of research. Once the funding is procured, the research study begins. It is extremely important on externally funded research to track all costs incurred on the research project. This is a caveat for external funds. The investigator will contact me and I begin to lay out all of the tasks for the research project’s life.
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The first step is write the physical documentation: standard of procedures, subject recruitment practices, data management plan, financial tracking, and study closure. I would have a detailed layout of required staff resources at all levels. A true project manager would be able to perform a cost break analysis of each task associated in the study. I use only a small sliver of the PMBOK principles. PMBOK is the overall code book of project management. I do not have any full projects from start to finish loaded into C-P, but I have a small project listed here. This is simple data-polish task on a project that I have guided for the last 5 years. I open C-P to get to the main screen. There will be three options for developing a plan. I choose the basic project template for this example. The user will then be taken to the heart of C-P. It’s here that all of the interconnected principles of project management become exposed. The options I use the most are tasks and Gantt Charts. Tasks are simply the detailed breakdown of the research project; you can think of this as your to-do list. In the easiest of terms, Gantt Charts are a simple timeline bar chart. Let’s move onto setting up the tasks in C-P. If you choose a more complex project management technique, you will have more options. The basic project template autogenerates the task work functions.
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The task ribbon bar becomes enabled. I choose the Project Settings option. This is just left of the Add Task icon. As you can see, to the left I have inserted the required information for the fields. This is what I use to document what the project is aiming to complete, and in what timeframe. After the project settings, I will enter my hand-collated notes into the tasks. This can also be identified as a work breakdown structure. The purpose of this item is to have a granular overview of each step involved in the project. In an ideal world, a project planner, if fully utilized, will allow any research coordinator to pick up and continue the project if fully documented. If you right-click on the blank field and click Add Task, this enables a field that can be edited via a right-click. You can then enter the appropriate information that is needed for that task. The resources would be staff. The Documents could be written protocols in that area. The cost would be the staff billing per hour. Description is the overall detailed information for that task. This is the area where I really notate my work load. I like to think of the tasks settings as an overly detailed outline. The assigned task can be manipulated to be at “sublevels” or primary. As seen below, the task list is easily manipulated for the desired look and intent. The main purpose of the tasks is to illuminate all the work that I will be doing on a particular segment of a study. This helps investigators understand why it takes so long to complete so many aspects of data processing or administrative work. When I am finished, I can export the task as a PDF.