1. COMPGZ07 Project Management Presentations Graham Collins, UCL graham.collins@ucl.ac.uk

2. Writing Abstracts  This is in effect similar to what is required in your slides, however the slides and background materials should consist of details of the technical and project management approach.  The abstract must clearly outline the purpose of the research, and typically covers the background, previous research and interpretations, the approach and the method for evaluation, and implications. It often includes further research opportunities and key words.  The style will vary according to the author and context, however it is important that you examine the structure of abstracts in relevant research and in particular examples of abstracts that your supervisor has published. You will notice that emphasis is often placed on metrics, and the evaluation of effectiveness of algorithms.

3. Presentations - key points that should be included 1. Who is involved, what are their roles, who is the project manager, and who is responsible for communications outside the team. 2. A communication plan is almost as vital as a schedule. Both should be shown. Are communications amongst the team easy to follow, do you have a simple approach or Wiki page? 3. Risks are easily ignored once assigned. Are risks assigned, agreed and the team continually aware of their status? 4. What will happen if you do not get the results anticipated?

4. What is the purpose?  What are you doing and why?  What is the motivation behind the work?  Background research (also include separately an abstract and references) This must show that you have researched this area well, examined related research in detail and kept up to date with current developments.

5. Process is key 1. What process have you adopted? 2. Often the technical process selected determines the project management approach. If you have selected an agile approach is this reflected in your schedule. It is often the process for research, or development that determines the model for project management e.g. the need for workshops or the use of an agile software development methodology such as Scrum. 3. If you have an agile process how are the requirements prioritised?

6. Life-cycle considerations 1. Often research projects follow patterns of phases. It may be your initial work will involve establishing the effectiveness of another researchers approach, followed by improvements, and then detailed evaluation and further improvements 2. Both the technical approach and the project management approach have to be considered. This project has two dimensions 3. Have all the aspects of the life-cycle been addressed? A later phase may be dependent on the evaluation of a range of algorithms and may necessitate the development of a new approach/algorithm.

7. Metrics and Evaluation  What metrics (measures) have you selected both technical and for project management purposes  How have you evaluated your technical work such as algorithms?  Outline the processes based on testing e.g. TDD (Test Driven Development). Outline the tests used for different purposes, i.e. acceptance tests and unit tests  Outline the (agile) methods or combination used for development e.g. XP, and especially Scrum, UP which you may have used and will typically determined the number and duration of iterations  State how you measured progress e.g. acceptance tests. How have defects been recorded? Have these assisted with estimating progress?  If appropriate how were user stories (or more detailed uses cases) related to business value. Did you develop a simple system to correlate these, and record progress based on these figures?

8. Quality  Can your project be improved? What would you do differently if you were to start again?  Are there any practices that you have followed from previous researchers or project management best practice?  Would it be possible for an academic or a fellow MSc student to follow your project so far and repeat with the level of documentation you have provided?  Do you have background technical material to submit before your presentation? Does it have relevant project management documentation, including schedule, risk register and example print-outs from your teams communications such as web-pages?

9. Assess your project management  How would you assess your project management and processes for example on the CMMI scale?  Does it include project planning (Maturity Level 2 requirement)?  What is the evidence you have provided examples of this such as the scope, clear (life-cycle) phases and the planning of involvement of identified stakeholders?  Do you have a (project) plan and associated meeting records for instance? What evidence do you have that others in your group and identified stakeholders have agreed to your plan?  What progress and selected milestone reviews have you carried out or intend to carry out? Have you incorporated risk management (Maturity Level 3 requirement)? Do you have documents to show that you evaluate, categorize and prioritize risks? Do you monitor the status of each risk periodically?

10. Process improvement  Do you quantitatively manage the project’s defined processes (CMMI Maturity Level 4 requirement)? Do you have evidence of monitoring the project objectives for quality (and process performance) and identify corrective action as appropriate?  Does do your processes include processes to support the improvement of your research and development?  Do you incorporate casual analysis and resolution of problems arising (Maturity level 5 requirement) where the root causes of defects and other problems are identified and actions taken to prevent them occurring in the future?

11. Checklist – Project Planning  Project plan, including phases, schedule and milestones  Define project objectives  Plan for team (human resources) communications, roles and responsibilities  Identify standard processes  Tailor process to meet project requirements  Identify approach (methods, tools, templates)  Risk identification and management  Estimate effort  Define project milestones  Define project tracking procedures  Define training/research plan  Ensure all plans are integrated where appropriate

12. Checklist – Project Execution  Track project status (research progress, risk status, monitor new risks, etc)  Review status with team and supervisor  Evaluation of approach, processes and project metrics  Manage requirement changes  Conduct milestone reviews  Develop appropriate metrics, tests and evaluation methods for research  (Although you are unlikely to reach Project Closure before the presentation, it is worth thinking about the learning points and how you would use the knowledge to improve similar research projects.)

13. Presentation – Important Points  Everyone contributes, i.e. is involved in the verbal delivery and attends all presentations  Questions on your research projects will be asked. These will cover technical and project management aspects, typically areas that are unclear  There will be an opportunity for your peers (fellow students) to ask questions.  Presentations will be scheduled between 11 and 6pm.