Project Plan - FAQ 项目计划 - 常见问题解答
The following questions are answered in this document:
本文档中回答了以下问题：
1. How are deliverables described?
1. 如何描述可交付成果？
I have changed the guidance in the Module Handbook so that deliverables no longer need to be included in the Work Package descriptions. You only need to describe deliverables in the section ‘Deliverables’.
我已经更改了模块手册中的指导，因此可交付成果不再需要在工作包描述中包含。您只需要在“可交付成果”部分中描述可交付成果。
You need to describe each deliverable using enough information to convey to the reader what each deliverable is. For example, “120 interviews will be created for WP2. These interviews will be audio recordings with accompanying text transcriptions.”
你需要用足够的信息来描述每个可交付成果，以便让读者了解每个可交付成果是什么。例如，“将为 WP2 创建 120 次访谈。这些访谈将是音频录音，并附带文本转录。”
You are likely to have overlap and cross-referencing between your Work Package descriptions and the Deliverables section. For example, a WP for user requirements gathering might describe who is being interviewed and why. Do not worry about precisely where every piece of information should go – the rules for what goes in which sections are not rigid.
你可能会在工作包描述和可交付成果部分之间有重叠和交叉引用。例如，一个用于收集用户需求的工作包可能会描述正在采访谁以及为什么。不用担心每条信息应该放在的确切位置——哪些信息应该放在哪个部分的规定并不严格。
2. What is the difference between tasks and milestones?
2. 任务和里程碑的区别是什么？
A task is a significant activity which takes place in a Work Package. A milestone is a point at which something measurable is achieved: e.g. 20 interviews completed, user requirements documented, a prototype completed. If you plan to conduct 100 interviews (a task) you might wish to have five milestones (20 interviews completed, 40 interviews completed etc). A milestone has to be measurable, to show progress.
任务是在工作包中进行的重大活动。里程碑是某个可衡量的成果达到的点：例如，完成了 20 次访谈，记录了用户需求，完成了原型。如果你计划进行 100 次访谈（一个任务），你可能希望设置五个里程碑（完成了 20 次访谈，完成了 40 次访谈等）。里程碑必须是可衡量的，以显示进展。
Not all tasks need milestones. Meetings don’t need milestones!
并非所有任务都需要里程碑。会议不需要里程碑！
Tasks are described in Work Packages. Tasks are things that you do. The WP does not describe how long the task will take.
任务在工作包中描述。任务是你要做的事情。工作包不描述任务需要多长时间。
Tasks are planned in the Gantt Chart, with milestones if relevant. The Gantt Chart tells us when the task will take place, and how long it will take to complete.
任务在甘特图中计划，如果相关则包含里程碑。甘特图告诉我们任务何时进行，以及完成它需要多长时间。
3. Should we include the project team in our description of stakeholders?
3. 我们是否应该在利益相关者的描述中包含项目团队？
No. Stakeholders are people or organisations outside the project team who a) contribute something to the project without being paid and/or b) will benefit from the results of the project.
不。利益相关者是指项目团队外部的人或组织，他们 a)为项目做出贡献但不拿报酬和/或 b)将从项目的成果中受益。
Examples of stakeholders include: a museum providing access to artefacts for digitisation; end-users (ideally, categorised based on user needs or interests); people being interviewed and who will have their interviews used in the product; the funder or client.
The following are not stakeholders: the project team; consultants who are paid by the project to provide a service.
4. Are customers stakeholders?
Yes. If your project is intended to address a customer need, they have a stake in the success of your project. However, customers (and audiences, users, and the public) can be large and diverse. So always try to pinpoint your customer type or profile.
5. Should we divide stakeholders as primary and secondary?
Optional. Personally, I think this is a good idea. It shows that some people and/or organisations have a higher stake / importance in the success of your project than others.
6. What level of detail should we include when describing stakeholders?
See the Module Handbook for the answer to this question.
When describing stakeholders, do not use the names of individuals. However, it is fine to use the names of real organisations and job titles (e.g. CEO, Product Manager, Senior Curator etc).
7. Does the project team refer to just the people in my group, or can we include other people?
You can include other people. This comes down to judgements about expertise and planning how many staff you need. Your project might need a 3D animator, so it makes sense to employ somebody on the team with these skills. Or your project might need 10 3D animators!
Also, your project team might have people who are on the project from the beginning to the end, or people who are consultants for short periods of time. So think about management as well. You probably don’t want a consultant who is only on your project for one week to be part of the management team!
8. If we include a software developer on our project team, do we need to name a real person or can we just use the name "software developer"?
Just use the name “software developer”.
9. Should we name ourselves in the project team?
Yes! It’s important to think about how you personally would fit into such a project – on the project team and in the work packages.
10. Can a team member lead more than one WP, and do team members need specific expertise?
Yes, a team member can lead more than one WP. This is a planning question, so it depends on how the WPs relate to one another, and whether or not the team member will have time available.
Leading a WP is a management and leadership exercise, so the WP leader does not necessarily need to be an expert in the topic of the WP. For example, people who lead software development WPs are rarely software developers themselves – they are different skill sets.
11. Do we have to name a person who will be responsible for each work package?
Yes. I would recommend that each WP has a leader. If it is being led by a person in your group, name them. If it is being led by a person who you would plan to hire, so you don’t know their name, then you could use their job title instead.
12. Should work packages be described using tables or normal prose text?
Optional. You can use either approach.
13. Is there a scientific formula for calculating risk in the Risk Assessment?
Unfortunately, no. Calculating risk (and deciding how to solve problems when they happen) relies on knowledge, experience and pragmatism. So it comes down to judgement. This is why it is better to have multiple people identify the potential risks in a project.
14. Do we need to include real costs in the Justification of Resources?
If you are describing travel from London to Glasgow, you need to consider how many trips, by how many people etc. You can also get a cost for this by using a train ticketing site.
If you are hiring a software developer, you can find out the average salary of a software developer, maybe by using a job site, but you won’t know what the additional employer’s costs are.
And of course, each of you would have a salary on the project, but you don’t know what your salary would be.
So, please use estimated costs where possible. If you can estimate a cost, use your estimate. If you have no idea what the cost would be, leave it out. You won’t be penalised.
In the examples above, I would include costs for the train tickets, I would use an estimated cost for the software developer, but I would not include a cost for yourself because you have no idea what that would be.
15. How do we decide how much things cost when planning resources? Do we need to provide accurate costs?
See previous question. Your costs don’t need to be accurate, but try to estimate them where possible by using resources on the web. Some costs will be impossible to estimate – that’s fine. There will be no penalties for inaccurate costs or costs that you were unable to estimate.
16. Should we complete the product first, then find an investor, and then optimise the product with user requirements. Or should we have an investor who asks us to do the product first?
In real life, there will be different scenarios. But for your project plan, you should imagine that an investor has already agreed to give you all the money you need to do the project. So you already have the investor, and they are paying you to create the product. User requirements gathering should be part of the project that the investor is paying for.
17. Could we invite some friends or members of our group to act as a focus group and gather their requirements on the Jam Board?
Remember that you do not need to do the actual project. But if you want to do an example of user requirements for an Appendix, then it is okay for your group (or anyone else) to imitate your client and/or end-users by pretending to develop some example requirements.
18. Are the users of user requirements about investors (e.g. investors who ask us to make an application) or end-users (e.g. how they like to use an application or the features they want the application to have)?
User requirements can be the requirements of the client, the requirements of the end-user, or both, depending on the circumstances. Here are some examples:
a) If the client is also the end-user, then the client's requirements are the user requirements. For example, a bookshop owner wants you to design a database for managing her stock.
b) If the client is not the end-user, and she wants you to design an app which will be used to sell her products to a specific group of people, then the client has requirements, and the end-user has requirements. For example, an app to sell home products.
c) If the client has a vague idea for a social media platform that will be targeted at the general population, then the emphasis will be on end-user requirements.
d) If the client wants you to build something, but she has a limited budget and/or limited time, you might not be able to consult with end-users -- instead you have to trust that the client's requirements are right.
Often, understanding user requirements is a balancing act between what the client thinks an end-user wants (her requirements), and what an end-user actually wants.
19. If we plan to do market research or user testing questionnaires in our project, how much of a sample do we need to collect to be representative of the whole?
You do not need to collect any real sample data. Instead, include a sample (10 or more) of the questions you would ask. Likewise, if your project plans to conduct interviews, you do not need to interview anyone. Instead, include a sample of the interview questions you would ask them.
20. What are access, use and permissions in the Data Management Plan? Does it refer to internal staff access to data or user access, or external access to the API?
We will cover this topic in the seminar ‘Data management’. It refers to internal access by the project team and external access by users, during the project and after the project. How is data managed during the project? And how is data managed after the project?
For example, sensitive data might be restricted to certain team members (this would be common for a project working with health data). Also, data might be used in the product, so users can access the data within the product, but users are not allowed to access and use the same data outside the product (e.g. a movie streaming service). There are lots of different scenarios where different rules might apply!
21. If we plan to have deliverables for the data model and user requirements documents, should we show them in the corresponding work packages or in the appendix? Or do we not need to show them and just describe in the work package that we will have such deliverables?
Remember, you don't need to perform the actual project because this is a project plan. So it is okay to describe your deliverables in the section called 'Deliverables'. If you wish to include an example in the Appendix, that is fine also.
22. Do we need to write the technology-related content in a very professional and specific way (for example, when writing a work package about technical development)?
You need to write technical-related content in a way that demonstrates your understanding of any technology concepts that have been taught in the modules Introduction to Cultural Data and Cultural Data Products, or learnt through your own reading. The language and terminology does not need to be technically perfect (although the reviewer will be more impressed if it is!) – but it does need to describe the technology aspect in a way that makes it understandable to another reader.
23. What is the difference between the data to be included in the Data Management Plan and the Deliverables? (What is the focus of each?)
The Data Management Plan (which you will learn about in the final seminar) describes the management of data: storage, data formats, licensing etc. Deliverables are the things that are created by a project and individual WPs. So deliverables are often data, but the focus of these sections will be different. The ‘Deliverables’ section describes what these are (e.g. 120 interview recordings of members of the general public based on certain demographics) whereas the Data Management Plan describes the format and storage of the interview data (120 audio files in MP3 format, with accompanying full-text transcriptions, stored in XYZ). There will always be a degree of overlap – this overlap is nothing to worry about.
24. Should the data management plan mention specific data, and if so, should it be fictitious or refer to existing data?
The Data Management Plan will be explored in the final seminar.
The DMP should refer to specific data, but the data can be fictitious. For example, you can describe 120 interview recordings which the project plans to create in the future.
25. What is the level of expertise and detail required for technological development? Do we need to list the specific name of the technology, e.g. MySQL, or just the category of the technology, e.g. data storage, data mining, visualisation, etc.?
You do not need to name specific technology, just the category of technology. This is because most organisations will already have their preferred technology stack (if you don’t know what this term means, google it).
For example, you can say “database” or “database software” instead of MySQL. If you have a specific technology in mind, you can name this too. For example, you could say “a database such as MYSQL”.
26. Would the text in a risk assessment chart contribute to word count?
Yes.
27. Are there any overlaps between Ethical and legal considerations (in the Data Management Plan) and Risk Assessment?
Yes, there can be. Some projects might have legal and ethical considerations (described in their Data Management Plan) which they do not feel present a risk to the project. Other projects might feel that they do, so they describe them in both places: in the Data Management Plan and in the Risk Assessment.
The Data Management Plan is used to describe ethical and legal considerations of data. The Risk Assessment can be used to describe whether these considerations are a risk to the project and, if so, how they might be mitigated. It is fine if one section references another, or if there is a degree of overlap.
For example, the Data Management Plan might say that age is a consideration when providing access to some data. The Risk Assessment might consider if there are any consequences for the project if this data is accessed by minors during the project.
Always remember: this is a project plan. Your Risk Assessment is about risks associated with the execution of the project, rather than risks associated with end-users using your deliverables after the project has completed.
28. Are references needed?
References should only be used if they give the reader additional information that they need in order to understand the project. Most project plans will only use references when describing the concept. For example, they might refer to market research conducted by third parties, which helps to justify the idea behind the project. But generally, one would not expect to see references in a project plan.
The Individual Essay, on the other hand, should be written in an academic style, with references whenever you cite a published work or use another person’s idea.
29. Do we need to cite a specific project management framework?
No. But if you wish to do this, then that’s okay. You could describe it in a Work Package that deals with the project management aspects of the project.
If you adopt a specific project management framework, you also need to ensure that relevant aspects of your Project Plan reflect this. For example, a specific project management framework might have specific management tasks that need to be carried out at particular points in time, so these need to be visible in the Gantt Chart.
30. Is there a cover page for the Project Plan?
Yes. Please refer to the Module Handbook
31. If our project intends to use content that has copyright issues, should these issues be discussed in a Work Package or in the Risk Assessment?
If a project has content that poses copyright issues, you need to make a judgement as to whether this presents a risk to the project. For example, being unable to obtain permission to use one image is unlikely to impact on the success of your project. However, if your project is an image archive, or a movie platform, and all this content requires copyright permissions, your project will be in significant jeopardy if it is unable to secure these permissions – because your main deliverable relies on this content.
So, if copyright permissions are a significant issue, you need to identify this as a risk, and think about how you will address the risk, and what happens if you cannot obtain permission (e.g. the project might be unsuccessful, so it is a risk with a very high impact).
Perhaps one way to address this type of high impact risk is to have a work package dedicated to securing copyright permissions i.e. people devote time in trying to negotiate these permissions. Your Risk Analysis could then refer to this work package as one of the ways in which you hope to minimise the risk i.e. we recognise that this is an important, risky part to the project, so we are going to devote time and resources to solving it.
32. If an investor is one of our stakeholders, what do we know about them?
An investor might be a venture capitalist, the boss of your company, the government, or a funder. It doesn't matter who they are, because as stakeholders their relationship to you is the same: they have a stake in your project because they have given you money, so they are interested in the project being executed properly, and successfully creating its deliverables. All investors usually require progress reports to reassure them that the project is proceeding as planned.
33. In what order should deliverables appear in the section ‘Deliverables’?
There is no rule for this. However, it is usually good practice to divide your deliverables into two types: the primary deliverable (e.g. your website, platform, app) and secondary deliverables (e.g. interview recordings, design plans). Also, it is helpful to the reader if the secondary deliverables are listed in logical order – the order in which they will be created – so that the reader can map them to the work packages.
34. Do we need to include a Marketing Plan (sometimes called a Dissemination Plan)?
No, this is not required. Your Project Plan needs to cover the period of activities that are involved in creating your product or service. In the real world, you would then need to develop a marketing plan, and on some projects the marketing plan begins before the product has been developed (such as teaser movie trailers). But you do not need to worry about this for your Project Plan.
35. How long is a work package?
How long is a piece of string? It depends. There is no standard answer for this. You need to break down your work package into tasks, and then decide how long each task might take to complete.
For example, if you plan to do user requirements, and you include 100 interviews, how long does it take to record one interview? how long to transcribe it into text? Various factors will influence this: are you interviewing in a physical location, or online (online usually enables you to schedule more interviews because you are not having to move from one location to another).
If you don’t know how long something will take to complete – for example, software development – you might want to give this work package a longer amount of time in your Gantt Chart, to be on the safe side (create contingency).
If you are able to calculate how long something will take to complete – for example, 100 interviews – you might want to give this work package a specific amount of time, based on your calculations, so that you have more time available in the project to devote to work packages that you are less certain about.
36. I am writing the Data Management Plan but I am not sure how many data files there will be. Can I use an estimate?
Yes, you can use an estimate. However, you need to explain your reasoning for the estimate (how you calculated the estimate).
For example, if you plan to conduct 40-50 interviews, then it is logical to say that you will have 40-50 interview recordings. These might be audio files in WAV or MP3 format, accompanied by 40-50 transcription files in TXT format. TXT files take hardly any storage space at all, whereas MP3 files might take up a lot of space; so if you wish you could go further and estimate the maximum amount of physical storage space required for the MP3 files (60 minutes per file x 50 files x n megabytes per minute = total size of the data) Here, the value of n is the average number of megabytes that one minute of audio consumes (you would need to Google to get this number).
Whereas if you plan to digitise objects in a number of museums, then you might say that there will be approximately 100 files (high resolution images, 3D data files etc) because you plan to visit 10 museums and you estimate that there will be approximately 10 objects of interest in each museum. If you have master files and ‘working copies’, then the number of files doubles.
37. A section exceeds the word count. How can I solve this?
The word counts for each section, which are given in the Module Handbook, are approximate. They are not rigid word counts.
So if you are describing deliverables in the section Deliverables but you are struggling to do so in under 500 words, you could make this section longer by (for example) 100 words, and reduce the length of other sections.
Similarly, if you are describing deliverables in the section Deliverables and the length of this section comes to 300 words, it means that you have 200 words to use in other sections.
The important number is the total word count of the written parts of the Project Plan, which must be between 4500 and 5500 words. How you choose to split this total word count across each of the sections is entirely up to you – the handbook gives approximate word counts for guidance only.
38. Should we include team members in the Justification of Resources?
Yes.
You don’t need to include salary costs for team members (if you were working for an organisation, your salary would already be determined and paid by your employer). However, you can still justify the involvement of each team member on the project: what role will they play, and why?
39. In the Data Management Plan, how accurate do we need to be when describing the quantity and size of data?
Please also refer to answer 36 above.
When describing the quantity and size of your data, you need to give ‘best guess’ estimates (in the UK we have a word for this: a ‘guestimate’!) This is because, in reality, you will never be 100% accurate.
So, the following examples are acceptable:
40. I am using Smartsheet.com for my gantt chart but the chart is too wide.
If your Gantt chart is too wide to display properly on the page, it might be because your chart is displaying every day of the year for the 12-month duration of the project. You can reduce the width of the chart by changing the timeline display settings:
This should now significantly reduce the width of the chart from 365 columns to 52 columns!
41. Can I reference published works that are written in another language?
Yes, but foreign-language works must be no more than 20% of the total number of references in your Project Plan. The citation must be translated, given the page number, and the referenced work must also be available online so that the tutor can verify the citation.
These guidelines apply to the Individual Essay as well.