Social research projects,
however large or small, have the potential to unravel in the absence
of effective project management. The ‘art’ of project
management may require skills of specification, communication, negotiation,
time and resource management, damage limitation. In addition to the
social research design and methods. The purpose of this course is
to equip researchers with the basic knowledge and understanding to
help them to effectively manage a research project.
Objectives:
The objectives of the course are:
To
identify what makes for effective project management
To
introduce participants to the need for effective planning
To
consider the elements necessary for an effective project plan
To
identify potential project management pitfalls and suggest ways
to overcome them.
Topics:
The course will cover:
The
factors that contribute to good research project planning
The
elements in an effective project plan
Resource (time, people,
money) management
The contribution of effective communication,
monitoring and review to project management
The management
of expectations and dealing with responses to research project
outputs
Anticipating and responding to issues and problems
Who will benefit?
Social researchers across sector
who are new to research project management.
Learning outcomes:
By the end of the course participants
will:
Have an appreciation of the factors that contribute
to effective project management
Have a good understanding
of the elements that contribute to a research project plan
Have
acquired basic skills in relation to project management
Have
had the opportunity to engage in a range of practical exercises
to develop and test out their understanding.
Course tutor:
The
workshop will be facilitated by SRA member and social research firm
director Dr Simon Haslam. Simon
has twenty years consulting experience with clients spanning the
public, private and voluntary sectors. This experience covers single-person
consulting assignments and assignments involving consulting teams,
including strategy consulting work with a recent Queen’s Award
winning organisation). He is a Fellow of the Institute of Business
Consulting, a Chartered Management Consultant and his PhD explored
practices of management consultants.
Simon regularly delivers workshops on this and related subjects for a range of
bodies including the Institute of Directors, the Law Society, IDM Group, and
Durham Business School – where he is a Visiting Fellow. He is part of a
2008 UK National Training Award winning team.