Setting up your project (How students should run projects — Part 2)

This is the second article in a series of articles that aim to provide college and university students with the knowledge and tools necessary to successfully run school projects. No boring theory or extensive models, just a no-nonsense guide how to not suck at student projects.

In the previous article I talked about why you should learn about project management. In this article I provide some suggestions on how to start a project.

Two different ways to think about projects

There are numerous methods and frameworks designed to help people run successful projects, ranging from very simple to mind-boggling complex. However, these can generally be broken down to two fundamentally different ways of structuring projects based upon how much uncertainty there is.

Plan-driven (predictive)

A plan-driven approach is one where you make a detailed project plan upfront. If you have very little uncertainty in your project, meaning that you have a good chance of predicting how it will go, have prior and repeatable experience doing it and have a detailed understanding of what the results of the project should be, then it makes sense to make a plan up front for how to run the project. Thus, plan-driven methods are a good approach if you have little uncertainty and know what you want to do.

This approach is also know as predictive or waterfall method and can be considered the classic project paradigm.

Need-driven (adaptive)

If on the other hand there is a great deal of uncertainty, where you are not sure what the results should be like, have little experience doing it or can’t predict how it would go, then focusing on the needs that the project is trying to fulfil is a good approach. Instead of making a detailed plan upfront, you define which needs the project should fulfil. Then during the project period you keep coming back to how you can fulfil these needs. Thus you adjust the project as it is running. As long as you fulfil the needs one way or another, the project is a success.

A need-driven method is a good choice when you have a high amount of uncertainty and are open for adjusting as it goes.

This approach is also known as agile or adaptive, and is particularly popularised by the scrum method.

Predictive vs adaptive thinking

They way you think about your project often influences your approach to the project.

Some typical differences between working with a predictive and an adaptive project structure are:

Predictive

• Mentality: must finish everything
• Uncertainty: plan away the uncertainty with detailed plans
• Typical process: plan → research → do → (evaluate)
• Task management: delegate tasks and control who does what
• Success criteria: when the planned tasks are done

Adaptive

• Mentality: must do what is most important (but not necessarily complete all tasks)
• Uncertainty: accept the uncertainty
• Typical process: do → evaluate → learn (and then repeat)
• Task management: team commit to tasks, self-managed
• Success criteria: When the needs have been fulfilled

How do you choose?

Choosing between the two fundamental approaches essentially boils down to the following:

• How do you handle uncertainty, and
• What information collection is needed

High level of uncertainty

• Unclear output of the project
• Information exploration is required
• No “right” answers or way to do it
• Suitable for a need-driven approach

Low level of uncertainty

• Predictable output
• A clear and proven process
• A “right” way to do it
• Suitable for a plan-driven approach

Research vs exploration

Different projects have different needs for information. Do you need to conduct research or do you need to explore an area?

Research means that you want to learn more about a situation or topic in order to advance the project. You have a good idea about the data you want. A plan-driven approach would allow you to set aside the predictable time you need to collect and process this information.

Some time you don’t know what data you want or you are not sure what the correct questions would be. Exploration means that you have to explore the topic area and can be required to make educated guesses to get to the end result. Not all projects require exploration. Exploration often involves testing and validation. A need-driven approach would allow you to put exploration in as a task that you evaluate upon and finish when you have enough actionable information.

In the next article I will examine the different roles you can come across in your project and why you should even care about that.