About the Project Cycle

Planning: What is our project aim? We need to make sure that we can broadly state the goals of the project before we continue to te next phase. Our objectives should be S.M.A.R.T wich

means:

"Simple" "Measurable" "Achievable" "Realistic" "Timed" So we ask ourself what kind of target group we are trying to reach. Is it the participants? the stakeholders? everyone?

In what way are we going to reach them? We can reach our target in various ways: direct contact, social media, e-mails, posters, flyers, stickers and the list goes on. The question to ask to ourself is "in what way will I reach my target group" and "what I'm preparating to offer them", is it job opportunities, is it education, ...

Preparation: The first question is what do we need to prepare? Is the message we are preparing to deliver is clearcut? If not yet, what do we do to fulfill this crucial step?

No need to do magic, let's start with making a list of what exactly is needed to be prepared and grouped into a work breakdown structure, and for this, we need a full paritcipation of a motivated group who are ready to do what it takes to make a perfect list of anything vital for the good of the project. It's important to let evryone of the preparation team be envolved in the process. The team will make a chart precising as best as possible the timetable including important dates such as the start and finish date, group deadlines etc. We must not have to forget that the duration of the tasks

need to be estimated through a weighted average of optimistic, normal, and pessimistic cases.

Although it’s sometimes hard to imagine it, the preparation phase is also the time to consider our plan for the Dissemination and Exploitation of Results. So we discuss and plan how we want to share our project impact and who it might be best to deliver this information to once our project has ended.

Implementation

The simplest stage in theory, and perhaps the most complicated in practice, the execution stage involves the integration of all inputs identified in the planning and design stage to construct the actual end product or service.

At this point the project should be clearly mapped out and structured in the preparation phase. To successfully implement a project there are a few key areas you need to keep an eye on: 1. Participation 2. Monitoring finance 3. Public relations It is always good to include evaluation stop points throughout the programme for potentially needed adjustments If we are talking about a youth project we should try to involve everyone in it as best as we can. A project done by only a few people form the group with good results is not considered a good youth project. Oftentimes the results are less important than the involvement of everyone.

DISSEMINATION AND EXPLOITATION OF PROJECT RESULTS

Dissemination and exploitation of results is one of the crucial areas of the Erasmus+ project life cycle. It gives participating organizations the opportunity to communicate and share outcomes and deliverable achieved by their project, thus extending the impact of such projects, improving their sustainability and justifying the European added value of Erasmus+. In order to successfully disseminate and exploit project results, organizations involved in Erasmus+ projects are asked to give the necessary thought to dissemination and exploitation activities when designing and implementing their project. The level and intensity of such activities should be proportional to the objectives, the scope and the targets of the different Actions of Erasmus+. Results achieved in a particular project may be highly relevant and interesting also in fields not covered by the project and it is up to the individual projects to develop strategies and methods ensuring that others can easily access what has been developed and produced.

Specific guidelines to this respect can be found in Annex II to this Programme Guide. higher education) will be supported through funds from the external cooperation instruments. Therefore these Actions will be launched at a later stage, as soon as the negotiation of these instruments will be finalised and the necessary steps for the allocation of the funds to the different Actions of the Erasmus+ Programme will be completed.

EVALUATION As life projects move in circles, and communication of the organization, projects, particular activities, missions and goals are going trough their own cycles. Explaining communication process trough this phases took four workshop participants to research the matter and express their own points of view on the matter.

Being systematic and determination of a subject's merit, worth and significance evaluation happens to be quite an obstacle in relationship between organization and donators; on of the often reason is that using criteria governed by a set of standards overcomes organization’s capacities and knowledge.

Which terminology you will most often see as a part/start on an evaluation: Only on, Rated, Created by, Exclusively on, Only from, Only at, Get it at, Designed for, Written by, Directed by, Produced by, Here on, Headquartered in, Located in, Do not, Available for, Available at and Has been…

When it comes to the communication channels there is a lot to chose and use. Video, audio, photo and written content all have their best and worst media to be placed on.

One of the core advices that came up during the course on this topic was “Not to forget recording the process all the time”. So pretty much by this phase of the program/project all material is here and needs to be sorted in the best way It is very hard to avoid manipulation of the data because they always are used to some higher purpose.