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What are the best practice to track and monitor research projects?

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Nini Wang Project Officer| Huawei Technologies Canada R&D Center Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
I work in a PMO supporting Technology research and development projects. Often we have questions about what would be the best practical way to track, monitoring search project progress. It is highly flexible and hard on value estimation. Any thoughts and experience to share?
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Kiron Bondale Retired | Mentor| Retired Welland, Ontario, Canada
Nini -

Research & development projects by their very nature don't lend themselves to a predictive/deterministic approach.

While it's reasonable to ask for a charter to be developed which captures the specific hypothesis or experiment being validated, predetermination of cost or schedule can be challenging.

A progressive funding model coupled with a Lean Startup approach (a la Eric Ries) is one way to ensure that such projects don't experience unmanaged growth.

Kiron
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1 reply by Nini Wang
Dec 04, 2017 12:50 PM
Nini Wang
...
Hi Kiron

Appreciated the comment. I will certainly look into Lean Startup approach you mentioned. unmanaged growth is a really precise term to description the situation. I often find myself in the situation that I am not able to pin point the relationship between project achievement and the increase of expenses execution rate.

thanks
Nini
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Sante Delle-Vergini, PhD Senior Project Manager| Infosys Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
What are the current ways you are tracking these R&D projects?
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1 reply by Nini Wang
Dec 04, 2017 12:42 PM
Nini Wang
...
Hi thanks for the comment. I would at the moment we are running two system on R&D project. Calculate in accounting system for budget vs expenses execution, while actual project deliverables are present and reviewed as tech calendar planned. My question is rather broad and exploring for improvement to link and manage these two factors better.
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Drew Craig Sr. Agile & Product Coach| Vanguard Philadelphia, Pa, United States
What is the goal?
Ensure all deliverables map directly to satisfying the goals
What are the deliverables?
Potentially track progress via tracking deliverables (burnup, cumulative flow).
What value are you tracking, is this a POC effort (Proof of Concept)?
Budget - track value against a capacity-driven model - one team member at 35 hrs/wk x [n] wks = [$], or value return such as business value - validate business value with incremental MVP releases

Just some thoughts ....
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Nini Wang Project Officer| Huawei Technologies Canada R&D Center Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Oct 25, 2017 8:53 PM
Replying to Sante Delle-Vergini, PhD
...
What are the current ways you are tracking these R&D projects?
Hi thanks for the comment. I would at the moment we are running two system on R&D project. Calculate in accounting system for budget vs expenses execution, while actual project deliverables are present and reviewed as tech calendar planned. My question is rather broad and exploring for improvement to link and manage these two factors better.
avatar
Nini Wang Project Officer| Huawei Technologies Canada R&D Center Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Oct 25, 2017 2:05 PM
Replying to Kiron Bondale
...
Nini -

Research & development projects by their very nature don't lend themselves to a predictive/deterministic approach.

While it's reasonable to ask for a charter to be developed which captures the specific hypothesis or experiment being validated, predetermination of cost or schedule can be challenging.

A progressive funding model coupled with a Lean Startup approach (a la Eric Ries) is one way to ensure that such projects don't experience unmanaged growth.

Kiron
Hi Kiron

Appreciated the comment. I will certainly look into Lean Startup approach you mentioned. unmanaged growth is a really precise term to description the situation. I often find myself in the situation that I am not able to pin point the relationship between project achievement and the increase of expenses execution rate.

thanks
Nini

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