Don't get hung up trying to understand everything at the outset.

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 418.

HOW TO MAKE A PROJECT SUCCESSFUL

1. Introduction

1.1. Read the text title and hypothesize what the text is about. Write down your hypothesis.

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1.2 What do you know concerning this issue? List your ideas in the table left column “I know”.

1.3If you know answers to these questions write them down in the space given after each question.

1.4 Circle in the list the words and expressions you know. Write down their translation in the table and calculate the percentage of your lexical competence.

The biggest challenge you face at the onset of any new project is that there is a huge (seemingly overwhelming) amount of stuff you need to know to tackle your problem properly. This phenomenon is true both for the beginning researcher, and for any research project. So learning how to cope with this challenge is an important skill to become a good researcher. First of all, blocking your action and progress while waiting for complete knowledge is the road to failure.

Coping mechanisms employed by winners include:

• prioritizing (what do I need to know most?)
• reading (everything made available to you, and seek out more; but don't put months of reading between you and getting started doing things.)
• multithreading (is there another item or path I can productively pursue?)
• pursuing multiple, possible solution techniques (maybe some have easier paths than others)
• wishful thinking (ok, let's assume this sub problem is solved, does that allow me to go on and solve other problems?)
• pester people who might have some of the information you need (start by getting them to give you pointers to things you can use to help yourself. Show respect for their time and always study the resources you've been given before asking for a personal explanation.)
• propose working models - maybe they are wrong or different from others, but they give you something to work with and something concrete to discuss and compare with others. You will refine your models continually, but it's good to have something concrete in mind to work with.

Losers will stop the first time they run into something they don't know, cannot solve a problem, or encounter trouble slightly out of what they consider ``their part'' of the problem and then offer excuses for why they cannot make any progress.

Winnersconsider the whole problem theirs and look for paths around every hang-up.

Losersmake sure there is someone or something to blame for their lack of progress.

Winnersfind ways to make progress despite complications.

Losers know all the reasons it cannot be done.

Winners find a way to do it.

Communicate and Synchronize Often.Of course, when you do have to build your own models, solve unexpected problems, make assumptions, etc. do make sure to communicate and synchronize with your fellow researchers. Do they have different models from yours? What can you learn from each others' models and assumptions? Let them know what you're thinking, where you're stuck, and how you're trying to get around your problems.

Decompose.The whole problem often seems overwhelming. Decompose it into manageable pieces. Tackle the pieces one at a time. Divide and conquer.

Be Organized.The biggest limitation to our ability to conquer problems is complexity. You need to work continually to structure the problem and your understanding of it to tackle the inherent complexity. Keep careful track of what you have done and what you need to do. Make lists; write it down; don't rely on your memory (or worse, yet, your supervisor's memory) to hold all the things you need to do and all the intermediate issues you need to address.

Prioritize.Make priorities in your efforts and check your priorities with your supervisor. A common occurrence is for your supervisor to ask you to do A, forget about it, and then ask you to do B before you could possibly have finished A. If you are uncertain on whether B should take priority over A, definitely ask. Sometimes it will, but often it won't, and your supervisor will be glad that you reminded him you were busy solving A. Keep track of B, and when you finish A, see if B still makes sense to pursue.

Realize that your supervisor is busy.Your professor or supervisor is busy. Do not expect him to solve all your problems. Find out what he has thought about and suggests for a starting point and work from there. But, realize there may become a time when you have put more quality thought into something than he has (and this will happen more and more often to you as you get into your work). So, when you think you see or know a better way to solve a problem, bring it up. In an ideal scenario this is exactly what should happen. Your supervisor gives you the seed and some directions, then goes off to think about other problems. You put in concentrated time on your problem and ultimately come back with more knowledge and insight into your problem than your supervisor.

Demonstrate progress. This allows your supervisor to offer early feedback and to help you prioritize your attention - this will often help you both make mid-course corrections. Change and redirection is normal, expected, and healthy (since it is usually a result of greater knowledge and understanding).

Don't turn problems (subtasks) into research problems unnecessarily.Often you'll run into a subtask with no single, obviously right solution. If solving this piece right is a key to the overall goals, maybe it will be necessary to devote time to studying and solving this sub problem better than it has ever been solved before. However, for most sub-problems, this is not the case. You want to keep focused on the overall goals of the project and come up with an ``adequate'' solution for this problem. In general, try to do the obvious or simple thing, which can be done expediently. Make notes on the possible weaknesses and the alternatives you could explore should these weakness prove limiting. Then, if this does become a bottleneck or weak link in the solution chain, you can revisit it and your alternatives and invest more effort exploring them.