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Planning and Executing Your ProjectWORKBOOKReferencesAurelio, J. (1997). Lecture Notes. Appendix ABackground Reading: Planning The ProjectOrganizing time as an individual is difficult and requires planning. In teams people collaborate and each individual member must work to changes how they perceive time management in a group environment. Teams experience special time concerns and team members bring their own unique perspective on how they manage time to the team. Some team members may find that a substantial chunk of their time is flexible, while another team member may be over-committed. How will a team handle over-commitment by an individual team member? Will the other team members give up personal time to maintain an equal work distribution? Or will the team instead discuss the team members’ expectations about an equitable delegation of work? Everyone allocates time for the different activities in their lives. Some are disappointed with their ability to plan, keep to deadlines, and produce quality work. If specific time is not set aside for a task on a team schedule, that task may not get done efficiently (or at all). Creating a Team Monthly Calendar helps the team to organize an equitable distribution of the assigned tasks. To help with time management, consider your personal perception of time. Time PerceptionHow do you perceive time? Do you procrastinate and/or do you get things done? Do you leave papers to the night before the deadline? Your decisions and actions form your perceptions of reality. Your time perspective is part of that reality. When teams clearly define goals, execution is carefully planned, and efficiency increases. Time is a commodity and resource to be carefully considered when doing a collaborative project. Good time management is identical to having well-defined, clearly stated goals. A goal is a desired and valued circumstance toward which people are working (Katzenbach and Smith, 1994). In a team there are two strata of goal-setting: personal goals and the team goals. Understanding the difference will help improve the efficiency of the team. Setting realistic goals both personally and as a team is the hardest part of managing time effectively. Clearly defined team goals are the first step to developing a team vision, motivating the team to perform effectively and with a common purpose. The most important step in team-building is establishing clearly defined goals with specific planned steps to create successful accomplishment of these goals. When teams commit to goals they must consider many outside and inside pressures. Both inside and outside pressures contribute to your development of a team culture. Building a team culture is personal and collaborative. The future success of your team depends on your decisions and actions. The method used to plan and organize your team culture will significantly impact upon how you will think, feel, and behave while on the team. Planning your collaborative effort carefully is of paramount importance. Creating a shared vision motivates individuals to high performance. (this is just a repetition of goals under a different heading). Team Planning and SchedulingMany people assume that they know how to use their time effectively. Usually everyone begins with what they consider to be an effective time management plan. Team members provide each other with phone numbers, schedules and availability and then plunge right into the task. What more could you need? This is not sufficient for effective and efficient planning. Team members must manage time carefully in order to avoid issues. The major complaint about collaborating with others is that the workload is not shared equitably, and progress is hindered by unanticipated problems. When viewing other team member's schedule or your own are you observing whether the team member or yourself left enough time to efficiently perform the goals that are being set by the team? Each team member needs to pay careful attention to the other person's mindset, their time management skills, their communication style, their working style, thinking style, where their competencies lay, and their technical capabilities. Individually, many of these time management tasks are done mentally. But effective team management is only accomplished by recording the thinking process involved in planning and communicating the agreed upon milestones and commitments in writing to clarify the team's goals and how and when they will be accomplished. Imagine your life without a mental “Weekly Planner”, or a “To Do List”, or if you completely stopped communicating your plans to others. How effective would you be? Planning has probably played a major role in your success to date, but most of the planning you have done has been on an individual basis. Planning team and collaborative activities takes more flexibility and patience. In the initial stages of team development planning can be frustrating and slow, but once the team is formed properly collaborating can save you time. Learning how to plan in advance with other people will become as effortless as your individual planning. The key to effective team planning is good communication. Part of effective communication includes creating and maintaining Team Monthly Calendars, Milestones , Activity Lists, and Action Plans. These can result in making you and the team more efficient and effective. Tracking TimeTime is not infinite, therefore how you make use of it is important. The overall goal of the class is to become high-performing at the project. To check whether your time management has been effective, use time tracking. Setting goals, breaking them down into manageable chunks, allocating those chunks to specific time slots in the team's schedule, ensuring that the action plans are effective on important tasks and keeping each individual team member on track may seem like more work than it is worth. But once your goals and plans for the semester are set, your planning for the rest of the term should take your team no more than an hour or so each week to maintain. Without a systematic plan you would spend more time setting goals and planning tasks. Monthly CalendarThe Monthly calendar is something all of you are familiar with and many of you use. In addition to your individual Monthly Calendar, the team needs a Monthly Calendar.
To exploit this system's full potential as a planning tool, the Team Monthly calendar should be used in concert with your activity lists and milestones. You can view the activity lists as worksheets for managing large goals and the smaller sub-goals. Once the activity lists have been discussed by the team and the tasks assigned, the important benchmarks or milestones for the team can be recorded on the Team Monthly Calendar along with the expected completion date of the goals. The activity lists are the organizing tools and the Team Monthly Calendar becomes the tracking tool for the team, as well as tracking meeting times. The Team Monthly Calendar should be available to all team members. It should be updated as needed, but reviewed at every team meeting. The Recorder is responsible for keeping the Team Monthly Calendar current for the team. The Recorder should record all the daily and weekly assignments at each meeting or whenever the team meets to plan tasks to make sure that the activity lists and milestones are feasible under the present conditions. The Recorder reports signs that changes need to be made in the plans to stay on track. The Team Monthly Calendar allows the team to look at their long range planning and adapt the plan as necessary by more accurately anticipating the unfolding of other time weeks in advance. This information is vital to the team leader to keep the team on track. High performance cannot be attained without being able to manipulate a written plan to save time and adjust for unseen events. Goals, sub-goals, and tasks have to be changed quickly and effectively, and without a team Time Management System in place time is wasted and the team can feel frustrated and confused. With a written time management plan the team has a starting point. The milestones serve as indicators of the team's progress. When one is missed it is an indicator that the team needs to review their activity lists and tighten up their time management. Missing deadlines forces the team needs to reexamine some of their goals because there is a limited amount of time available to finish the project. This ensures that even when a team falls behind in their original plans, they can still redirect the project towards meaningful results. APPENDIX #B Sample Action PlansGoal: Team Oral Presentation on Experiment #2 (Dialysis)Date due: November 13, 1898 1. Outline# of meetings needed: 1 (November 7th, 1898). Person involved: Oral presenter writes the outline based on team inputs # of hours needed to complete the task: 2 hours. Task to accomplish the goal: The format and the content of the outline will be discussed during team meeting. The team presenter will then write the outline and submit it as a part of the team progress report. Obstacles to goal: Team members have different opinions on how materials should be presented. Strategies / Resources used to overcome obstacles: 1) Work on a compromise that is acceptable to all members of the team. 2) Ask team advisor for suggestions. (e.g. How presentations were given in the past.) 2. Gathering laboratory data# of lab sessions needed: 6 (October 23rd – November 6th). Persons involved: Team members work collaboratively on data acquisition # of hours needed to complete the task: 20 hr; 8 hr – calibrations and sample run. 12 hr – do actual runs with and without ultrasound, taking concentration, pressure, and IR measurements. Tasks to accomplish goal: Tasks to accomplish goal: 1) Ally and Allan do Dialysate flow rate and blood-side flow rate calibrations. 2) Aaron and Sally do IR spectrum calibration. 3) Allan and Ally run mass transfer experiments without ultrasound to determine steady state. 4) Ally and Allan run mass transfer experiments with and without ultrasound. Aaron will measure pressure during runs and Sally will do IR readings. 5) Compare data and determine whether ultrasound enhances mass transfer. Obstacles to goal: 1) Unfamiliar with the operation of some lab equipments. 2) Systematic errors in data acquisition. 3) Having air bubbles trapped inside the dialyzer. 4) Lack of background knowledge on mass transfer. Strategies / Resources used to overcome obstacles: 1) Ask lab instructors or team advisor for assistance when problem regarding equipment operation arises. 2) Resort to textbooks or other scientific literatures for background information on mass transfer. 3) Discuss team’s progress with advisor regularly. 3. Analyzing and discussing data and results.# of meeting needed: 2 (November 7th, and November 9th) Persons involved: All four members of the team. Data analysis will be broken down into four parts. Each member of the team will be given one part to work on individually. The results will then be integrated during team meeting. # of hours needed to complete the task: 4-6 hours for each person Tasks to accomplish goal: 1) Dialysate flow rate and blood-side flow rate calibration curve. 2) IR spectrum calibration curve. 3) Mass balances on each dialysis test run. 4) Comparison on mass transfer data before and after using ultrasound bath. Obstacles to goal: 1) Lack of data. 2) Lack of background knowledge that is essential to data analysis. 3) Team members disagree on methods of calculation. 4) Team members have different standards on work quality. Strategies / Resources used to overcome obstacles: 1) When differences arise, either on methods of calculation or on standards of work quality, try to come up with a compromise that is acceptable to all team members. When compromise cannot be reached, bring the issue up at meetings with advisor. 2) Read about mass transfer before plunging into doing calculations. 3) Write down every observation made in the lab. 4. Creating Graphic Representations# of meeting needed: 1. (November 11th) Persons involved: Each member of the team will work on _ of the task. The results will then be integrated during team meeting. # of hours needed to complete the task: 4-5 hours for each person. Tasks to accomplish goal: 1) Calibration curves (e.g. Flowrates, IR spectrum). 2) Comparison of mass transfer data before and after using ultrasound. Obstacles to goal: 1) Differences of opinion among team members. 2) Members of the team didn’t finish work on time. 3) Members of the team have trouble making a certain graph. Strategies / Resources used to overcome obstacles: 1) Willing to make compromises when differences in opinion arise. 2) If a member did not finish work on time, the team leader should ask him to finish his work before the next team meeting. If the situation persists, resort to advisor for help. 3) If a team member has trouble on a particular problem, the team should help him by working through the problem with him. 5. Creating overheads# of meeting needed: 1 (November 11th) Persons involved: The team presenter makes overheads based on team inputs. # of hours needed to complete the task: 6-8 hours. Tasks to accomplish goal: Making the overheads, including graphs, tables and text. Obstacles to goal: Team members have different opinions on what material should be put on the overheads. Strategies / Resources used to overcome obstacles: Make compromises when differences in opinion arise. If compromise cannot be reached, ask for assistance from advisor. 6. Practice presentation with team# of meeting needed: 1 (November12th) Persons involved: Presenter practices in front of the rest of the team. # of hours needed to complete the task: 1 hour. Tasks to accomplish goal: The oral presenter will give a practice talk to the rest of the team. Obstacles to goal: Team members have different opinions on presentation style. Strategies / Resources used to overcome obstacles: Make a compromise that is acceptable to each team member. 7. Practice presentation with advisor# of meeting needed: 1 (have to be scheduled with team advisor) Persons involved: Presenter practices in front of his teammates and the team advisor. # of hours needed to complete the task: 1 hour. Tasks to accomplish goal: The oral presenter will give a practice talk in front of his teammates and the team advisor. Obstacles to goal: 1) Schedule conflicts. 2) The oral presenter didn’t finish making overheads. Strategies / Resources used to overcome obstacles: 1) Schedule a meeting with advisor one week in advance. 2) Team should remind the presenter of the meeting at least two days in advance. 8. Final critique by presenter# of meeting needed: 1 (November12th) Persons involved: Presenter receives final critiques from his teammates. # of hours needed to complete the task: _ to 1 hour. Tasks to accomplish goal: 1) Revision of overheads. 2) Do another practice presentation if necessary. Obstacles to goal: 1) Overheads are still not organized. 2) The presenter did not make changes on overheads based on the suggestions he had received from both his teammates and the team advisor. Strategies / Resources used to overcome obstacles: 1) Team should remind the presenter to make changes on overheads. 2) Give constructive critiques GOAL: ORAL PRESENTATION ACTION PLANDate due: October 18th, 1898 1. OutlineDue date: October 10th, 1898 # of meetings needed: 1 (October 5th, 1898). Person involved: All four members of the team. # of hours needed to complete the task: 2 hours. Task to accomplish the goal: The format and the content of the outline will be discussed during team meeting. The team presenter will then write the outline and submit it as a part of the team progress report. Obstacles to goal: Team members have different opinions on how materials should be presented. Team members who cannot attend team meeting. Strategies / Resources used to overcome obstacles: 1) Work on a compromise that is acceptable to all members of the team. 2) Ask team advisor for suggestions. (e.g. How presentations were given in the past.) 3) Implement ground rules concerning conflict management and task delegation. 2. Gathering laboratory data# of lab sessions needed: 9 (September 14th – October 16th). Persons involved: All four members of the team. # of hours needed to complete the task: 30 hours. Tasks to accomplish goal: 1) Calibration of the densitometer. 2) Calibration of the thermocouples. 3) A distillation run with total reflux taking time versus temperature data. Take sample concentrations at various time intervals corresponding to changes in heater power. 4) Run true batch distillations, varying reflux ratios in order to maintain constant product stream concentration. Obstacles to goal: 1) Inaccuracy of lab instruments. 2) Unfamiliarity with operation of various lab equipment. 3) Breaking of lab equipment. 4) Lack of real world experience with batch distillation versus our theoretical knowledge. Strategies / Resources used to overcome obstacles: 1) Ask lab instructors or team advisor for assistance when problem regarding equipment operation arises. 2) Resort to textbooks or other scientific literatures for background information on batch distillation. 3) Discuss team’s progress with advisor regularly. 4) Be careful when handling lab equipment. 5) Practice makes perfect. 3. Analyzing and discussing data and results.# of meeting needed: 2 for data analysis and 2 for discussions (September 28 – October 12). Persons involved: All four members of the team. Data analysis will be broken down into four parts. Each member of the team will be given one part to work on individually. The results will then be integrated into one complete analysis during team meeting. # of hours needed to complete the task: 6-8 hours for each person Tasks to accomplish goal: 1) Construct McCabe-Thiele diagrams for batch distillation. 2) Mass balances and energy balances of the distillation system. 3) Calculation of vapor velocity, reflux ratio, and distillate concentration for each run of batch distillation. 4) Stage efficiency calculation. 5) Temperature change inside the column. Obstacles to goal: 1) Lack of data. 2) Lack of background knowledge that is essential to data analysis. 3) Team members disagree on methods of calculation. 4) Team members have different standards on work quality. Strategies / Resources used to overcome obstacles: 1) When differences arise, either on methods of calculation or on standards of work quality, try to come up with a compromise that is acceptable to all team members. When compromise cannot be reached, bring the issue up at meetings with advisor. 2) Read about distillation before plunging into doing calculations. 3) Write down every observation made in the lab. 4. Creating Graphic Representations# of meeting needed: 2. (October 12th – October 15th) Persons involved: Each member of the team will work on _ of the task. The results will then be integrated into one during team meeting. # of hours needed to complete the task: 4-5 hours for each person. Tasks to accomplish goal: 1) McCabe-Thiele diagrams for batch distillation. 2) Column efficiency graphs. 3) Graphs of temperature variation as a function of time. Obstacles to goal: 1) Differences of opinion among team members. 2) Members of the team didn’t finish work on time. 3) Members of the team have trouble making a certain graph. Strategies / Resources used to overcome obstacles: 1) Willing to make compromises when differences in opinion arise. 2) If a member did not finish work on time, the team leader should give him a stern warning and ask him to finish his work before the next team meeting. If the situation persists, resort to advisor for help. 3) If a team member has trouble on a particular problem, the team should help him by working through the problem with him. 5. Creating overheads# of meeting needed: 1 (October 12th – October 15th) Persons involved: The team presenter will make the overheads based on the inputs she receives from her teammates during meeting. # of hours needed to complete the task: 6-8 hours. Tasks to accomplish goal: Making the overheads, including graphs, tables and text. Obstacles to goal: Team members have different opinions on what material should be put on the overheads. Strategies / Resources used to overcome obstacles: Make compromises when differences in opinion arise. If compromise cannot be reached, ask assistance from advisor. 6. Practice presentation with team# of meeting needed: 1 (October 16th) Persons involved: Presenter practices in front of the rest of the team. # of hours needed to complete the task: 1 hour. Tasks to accomplish goal: The oral presenter will give a practice talk to the rest of the team. Obstacles to goal: Team members have different opinions on presentation style. Strategies / Resources used to overcome obstacles: Make a compromise that is acceptable to each team member. 7. Practice presentation with advisor# of meeting needed: 1 (have to be scheduled with team advisor) Persons involved: Presenter practices in front of her teammates and the team advisor. # of hours needed to complete the task: 1 hour. Tasks to accomplish goal: The oral presenter will give a practice talk in front of her teammates and the team advisor. Obstacles to goal: 1) Schedule conflicts. 2) The oral presenter didn’t finish making overheads. Strategies / Resources used to overcome obstacles: 1) Schedule a meeting with advisor two weeks in advance. 2) The team should remind the presenter of the meeting at least two days in advance. 8. Final critique by presenter# of meeting needed: 1 (October 17th) Persons involved: All members of the team # of hours needed to complete the task: _ to 1 hour. Tasks to accomplish goal: 1) Revision of overheads. 2) Do another practice presentation if necessary. Obstacles to goal: 1) Overheads are still not organized. 2) Presenter has not make changes on overheads since the last practice presentation. Strategies / Resources used to overcome obstacles: 1) Remind the team presenter to organize overheads during team meetings. 2) Let the presenter know that she could always ask her teammates for help. GOAL: EXPERIMENT ACTION PLANDate Due: October 11th Important Milestones for getting the Goal accomplished:
1. Running batch column at steady state.# of lab sessions needed: 2: September 20th – September 25th. Tasks to accomplish goal: 1) calibrate densitometer and thermocouples. 2) prepare McCabe-Thiele diagrams for the methanol-water solution. 3) make standards to check densitometer drift every lab period. 4) run column and record temperature profile, and sample for compositions. 5) vary heater power to see how the degree of boil up affects separation. Obstacles to goal: 1) Column is defective and doesn’t run properly. 2) Don’t have adequate supply of methanol. 3) Temperature gets too high and we get poor separation. Strategies to use to overcome goals: 1) seek help from lab technicians and faculty advisor. 2) Turn power down and wait for column conditions adjust. Persons assigned to each task: Sheng – research background information on batch distillation. Sally – prepare M-T diagram. Allan – basic project schedule. Aaron– lab procedures. Sally and Allan – make standards for densitometer calibration curve. Allan and Aaron – operate column and record data. # of hours need to complete task: 8 – 2 lab periods. 8 – to complete review of theory and planning. Resources needed to do the task: distillation column, background information, methanol/water solution. densitometer, thermocouples, syringes to take samples. 2. Run a true batch column.# of Lab Periods necessary to complete: 2 (September 27th – October 2nd) Tasks to accomplish Goal: 1) run column and vary reflux ratio. 2) take reflux ratio versus overhead composition data. Obstacles to Goal: 1) broken reflux gate. 2) unfamiliarity with procedure. Strategies to overcome goal: 1) report broken equipment. 2) consult faculty advisor about procedure. Persons assigned to each task: Ally– record temperature data. Sally – take samples and measure density. Aaron– make adjustments on column as necessary. Allan – manages overall procedure and help where needed. Start to analyze data. Liaison between faculty advisor and team. Support people involved: Prof., lab technicians. 3. Run a packed column.# of Lab periods necessary to complete: 2 (October 4th – 11th) Tasks to accomplish goal: 1) install the packed column. 2) run at steady state. 3) Find limits of flooding and maldistribution. 3) Compare separation obtained to that of the tray column. 4) Also run batch column to compare results in a similar fashion. Obstacles to goal: 1) Not having packing material for column. 2) Unfamiliarity with concepts behind packed column. Strategies to overcome obstacles: 1) make sure before hand that material is available on time. 2) Have a faculty meeting to discuss concepts and make sure we understand. Persons needed: all members of team working together on all aspects. One installs the equipment, and divide up measuring of data same as in other labs. GOAL: WRITTEN ACTION PLANDate due: October 18th, Important Milestones for getting the Goal accomplished:
1. OutlineDue date: October 10th, 1898 # of meetings needed: 1 (October 5th, 1898). Person involved: All four members of the team. # of hours needed to complete the task: 2 hours. Task to accomplish the goal: The format and the content of the outline will be discussed during the team meeting. The team will then write the outline and submit it as a part of the team progress report. Obstacles to goal: Team members have different opinions on how materials should be written. Team members who cannot attend team meeting. Strategies / Resources used to overcome obstacles: 1) Work on a compromise that is acceptable to all members of the team. 2) Ask team advisor for suggestions. (e.g. How presentations were given in the past.) 3) Implement ground rules concerning conflict management and task delegation. 2. Gathering laboratory data# of lab sessions needed: 9 (September 14th – October 16th). Persons involved: All four members of the team. # of hours needed to complete the task: 30 hours. Tasks to accomplish goal: 1) Calibration of the densitometer. 2) Calibration of the thermocouples. 3) A distillation run with total reflux taking time versus temperature data. Take sample concentrations at various time intervals corresponding to changes in heater power. 4) Run true batch distillations, varying reflux ratios in order to maintain constant product stream concentration. Obstacles to goal: 1) Inaccuracy of lab instruments. 2) Unfamiliarity with operation of various lab equipment. 3) Breaking of lab equipment. 4) Lack of real world experience with batch distillation versus our theoretical knowledge. Strategies / Resources used to overcome obstacles: 1) Ask lab instructors or team advisor for assistance when problem regarding equipment operation arises. 2) Resort to textbooks or other scientific literatures for background information on batch distillation. 3) Discuss team’s progress with advisor regularly. 4) Be careful when handling lab equipment. 5) Practice makes perfect. 3. Analyzing and discussing data and results.# of meeting needed: 2 for data analysis and 2 for discussions (September 28 – October 12). Persons involved: All four members of the team. Data analysis will be broken down into four parts. Each member of the team will be given one part to work on individually. The results will then be integrated into one complete analysis during team meeting. # of hours needed to complete the task: 6-8 hours for each person Tasks to accomplish goal: 1) Construct McCabe-Thiele diagrams for batch distillation. 2) Mass balances and energy balances of the distillation system. 3) Calculation of vapor velocity, reflux ratio, and distillate concentration for each run of batch distillation. 4) Stage efficiency calculation. 5) Temperature change inside the column. Obstacles to goal: 1) Lack of data. 2) Lack of background knowledge that is essential to data analysis. 3) Team members disagree on methods of calculation. 4) Team members have different standards on work quality. Strategies / Resources used to overcome obstacles: 1) When differences arise, either on methods of calculation or on standards of work quality, try to come up with a compromise that is acceptable to all team members. When compromise cannot be reached, bring the issue up at meetings with advisor. 2) Read about distillation before plunging into doing calculations. 3) Write down every observation made in the lab. 4. Creating the First Draft# of meeting needed: 2. (October 12th – October 13th) Persons involved: Each member of the team, excluding the presenter, will work on 1/3 of the task. The results will then be integrated into one during team meeting. # of hours needed to complete the task: 4-5 hours for each person. Tasks to accomplish goal: 1) Writing of the introduction, abstract, materials and methods, results, discussion, and conclusion 2) Preparation of all graphs and tables Obstacles to goal: 1) Differences of opinion among team members. 2) Members of the team didn’t finish work on time. 3) Members of the team have writing problems Strategies / Resources used to overcome obstacles: 1) Willing to make compromises when differences in opinion arise. 2) If a member did not finish work on time, the team leader should give him a stern warning and ask him to finish his work before the next team meeting. If the situation persists, resort to advisor for help. 3) If a team member has trouble on a particular problem, the team should help him by working through the problem with him. 5. Creating the Second Draft# of meeting needed: 1 (October 14th – October 15th) Persons involved: The entire team, the Writing Center, revision suggestions from the Faculty Advisor or TA # of hours needed to complete the task: 6-8 hours. Tasks to accomplish goal: Improving the First Draft with the suggestions given by the Writing Center, TA, Faculty Advisor, Practicum Teacher; Any additional or revised data workups will also be incorporated Strategies / Resources used to overcome obstacles: Make compromises when differences in opinion arise; Seek as much input from outside sources as possible; Plan ahead to make sure that the resources needed (i.e. people, references, data) will be available when time comes to write the second draft. 6. Creating the Final Draft# of meeting needed: 2 (October 16-17th) Persons involved: All team members excluding the presenter # of hours needed to complete the task: 6-8 hour. Tasks to accomplish goal: With input from the first and second drafts, finalize the paper Obstacles to goal: Team is preparing for the oral presentation concurrently Strategies / Resources used to overcome obstacles: Practice time management skills that will make sure both written and oral presentations will be given full attention |
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