Fundamentals of European Projects
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Basic Clarifications • • • • • •
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Q1: What is common between my wedding, this PPPM course and Parthenon? Answer: All three of them are products of projects! Q2:What is a Project? Answer: A project is a work effort made over a finite period of time with a start and a finish to create a unique product, service or result. (PMI’s definition) Q3: What is Project Management? Answer: This term is used freely in today’s work but often it is used to define the entire field of work that is focused on the delivery of project results. Project Management is accomplished through the use of processes such as 1) Initiating and Planning, 2) Executing, 3) Monitoring and Controlling and 4) Closing. Q4: What is Project Management of a european funded project? Answer: All above apply but in addition a european funded project Is funded by funds from the European Union (mainly through tax-payers in Europe) Involves cooperation from organisations from different European countries (Transeuropean Partnership) Requires as many as possible Europeans to benefit from the project outcomes (European Impact) Requires transfer or development of innovation across different European Countries
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Terminology/Jargon of European Projects • Project:
A set of activities within specific timeline by specific people/partners in order to create a unique product, service, result or a series of them.
• Work packages or Subprojects:
A smaller part or a subset of the project, managed within a larger, the parent project. A collection of work actions necessary to create a specific project result or achieve a project objective
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Project & WPs structure
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Terminology/Jargon of European Projects
• Deliverable:
– A product, service, or result created by a project or work package. Projects and Work packages can have multiple deliverables.
• Milestones: – A milestone is the end of a stage that marks the completion of a subset of work, e.g. a work package or project phase, or the production of a deliverable completion – Landmark events during the project that may entail deliverables, completion of work, dissemination actions , e.g. – Milestone: Completion of evaluation – Deliverable: Evaluation results analysis – Deliverable: Project video – Dissemination workshop – A milestone is associated with a specific date 5
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Terminology/Jargon of European Projects •  Gantt Charts:
Horizontal bar charts that show the start and end dates of subprojects, work packages or tasks and the activity duration against a calendar. It is easy to identify the timelines of different work packages.
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Terminology/Jargon of European Projects •  Workflow: A diagram that visualizes the flow of the project activities/work packages, tasks and their relationships to other project activities.
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Terminology/Jargon of European Projects • Person month: The average number of pure working days within a calendar month. Normally it is 18-20 working days within one calendar month • Stakeholder: Individuals or institutions that may, directly or indirectly, positively or negatively, affect or be affected by a project and/or a programme
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Project Description • Referred to as: – Application form – Technical Annex – Description of work
• Detailed description of the project based on the project proposal outline – – – –
Project justification Financial Information Project Management Consortium profile
• Need to have a good and informative summary (What & How) 10
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Project Description Content • Project justification – Reasoning about the proposed project extended from proposal outline – Background, rationale or problem statement – Aims and objectives – Work programme priorities and objectives satisfied – Approach, state of the art – Impact, European added value – Sustainability after completion – Other similar projects (synergies?)
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Project Description • Consortium profile – Partners and their expertise – Key personnel – Partner’s activities, initiatives or projects relevant to the proposal
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Project Description Content • Financial information – Budget and effort of partners and the consortium – Requested funding, own contribution
• Project Management information – Collaboration/governance procedures and Quality assurance • Project management and scientific or technical committees • How are decisions taken? • How is quality of outcomes assessed and ensured?
– Workplan & Risk management 13
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Project Description Content • Workplan – Work breakdown, time plan and resources required (human or otherwise) – Work package list and descriptions • a collection of work actions necessary to create a specific result
– Deliverables list (including documents, products, prototypes, websites and project outcome – Milestones list 14
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Work package list
• Work package types: • Management • Quality Assurance • Research or needs analysis • Development, implementation • Evaluation • Dissemination • Exploitation 15
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Deliverables list
• Nature • Report • Prototype • Event
• Dissemination level • Public • Restricted / Consortium
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Work package description • Each work package – Number and title – Description (broken down in tasks) – Start & end date – Partners participating and leading partner – Effort per partner and total for the WP – Deliverables or outcomes of the WP with due month – Could also include (rarely at the WP level): risks envisaged and innovation of the WP 17
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Main Activities and indicative budget • Subproject 1: Project Management (10%): – It is the set of activities for defining and achieving targets while optimizing the use of resources (time, money, people, materials, energy, space, etc) over the course of the proposed project. Under this Work package or in a separate one you need to foresee an activity for the review and the assessment of all project results.
• Subproject 2: Dissemination and Exploitation (15%). – Dissemination is the process by which project outcomes, events and achievements are distributed among the stakeholders (i.e. the beneficiaries of the project results). – Exploitation is the process of exploiting project outcomes to meet stakeholder needs, with the ultimate aim of integrating and using them in practices at local, regional, national and European level. – Some times, especially in training systems, the term used for Dissemination and Exploitation together is valorisation. This workpackage is responsible for creating the necessary impact of the project at a European level. 18
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Main Activities and indicative budget • Subproject 3: Analysis of User (Stakeholder) requirements and State of the Art Analysis (12%). – At this work package, you identify and analyse what are the user requirements from the content point of view but also from the functionality point of view. i.e. at this WP the following questions should be at least addressed: – What kind of information is necessary for your target group in order to exploit your proposed service or product (device, training system, certification etc)? – How the system should work/operate in order your target group to be able to use it? – What is the current status? Are there similar services/products? – Where there similar initiatives implemented outside the project? What were their achievements? – How can you exploit and incorporate useful results identified from different initiatives in the implementation of your project
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Main Activities & Indicative Budget • Subproject 4: Implementation (38%). – This work package involves the design and development of your proposed service or product. It usually requires most of the consumption of the project resources.
• Subproject 5: Pilot operation/Demonstration/ Evaluation (25%). – This work package deals with the validation and assessment of the implemented services or products by end-users under real case (preferred) or mock-up scenarios. – At this phase any inconsistencies or weaknesses on the implemented service or product should be identified and addressed accordingly.
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Indicative Resources per Activity
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