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• The Workstream
• Project management
• Project design

A Guide to Project Design in Project Management

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Project managers often face challenges when managing various project components and resources. However, a well-crafted project design can simplify project management and help teams collaborate. It lays the groundwork for your ideas, resources, and deliverables, setting a clear path before the project’s wheels are even in motion. An effective project design not only streamlines your preparatory work but also paves the way for more efficient project management. By establishing a coherent project design, teams can synchronize their understanding of the project’s vision, expected outcomes, and methodologies. This guide delves into the seven pivotal steps of project design, providing insights on crafting a design with precision using tools like Jira Work Management and Confluence .

What is project design?

Project design is the process of planning a project’s objectives, structure, tasks, and deliverables and deciding on the definition of done. Project managers execute the design process before implementation to align teams on project objectives.  Developing alternative designs is helpful for stakeholders to decide on the best execution plan. A well-managed project design can ensure stakeholder buy-in. It’s important to get stakeholder buy-in sooner than later so you avoid getting their feedback late in the process, which can cause a roadblock.

How project design works

Project design happens early on in the five project management phases as a broad blueprint before any further detailed project planning. A project design uses Gantt charts and flowcharts to provide a project overview. It explains the project’s plan, timeline, and roadmap, establishing a baseline for the team and stakeholders. A project plan template outlines the project design.

Why is project design important?

Project design ensures the viability and success of a project and helps communicate project value to stakeholders. For example, you can demonstrate to stakeholders what your plans are and set expectations for the entire project.  Some other benefits of project design include: 

• Ensuring project success: Without taking stock of a project’s potential scope and resources beforehand, you’ll build a project plan in the dark. 
• Minimizing risks: A project design will take into account potential roadblocks. That way, you can figure out ways to circumvent them ahead of time. 
• Maximizing use of resources: With a project design in place, you’ll know what resources are available and how to utilize them better. 

The design phase of a project determines the resources required and ensures efficient resource utilization.

Steps in the project design process

The seven steps in the project design process are important for Agile teams to simplify the Agile project management process and plan how the project will unfold. For effective project design, teams must follow these seven steps:

Define goals

Project goals should be clear and achievable, never exceeding team members’ abilities.  Goals should align with the project purpose and business objectives. As a project manager, you should consider whether your project’s goals add value to your company’s products and customers. The SMART system —specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound—is a proven method for establishing goals. You can use the template in Confluence to help you. Using the template will allow your team to set specific and measurable goals.

Establish outcomes

Outline the required project outcomes and align them with your project goals. Outcomes should resolve product problems for your users, such as functionality and usability. In short, they should further improve your product. For example, an outcome can be to improve the sales flow of the product.  It’s important to note that outcomes are not deliverables or work output. Instead, outcomes determine how customers will use deliverables and their value to customers and the company.  Outlining project outcomes provides a measure of success and a definition of done. From those outcomes, you can better assess their impact.

Identify risks

Risk management is essential to project design. Your job as a project manager is to anticipate problems. You’ll need to look for potential roadblocks, such as development’s current capacity, and determine its impact on the project. Risks include stretched resources, high costs, or scope creep. For example, once you have identified scope creep as a potential risk, you can mitigate this risk by creating clear project parameters and identifying and adhering to deliverables.

Create a project strategy

The strategy is the foundation of the project plan and ensures the team reaches its goals while adhering to project constraints. You should create the strategy at the same time as the project overview to ensure precision in your execution.  To create an excellent project strategy, study similar projects and learn from them. This can help unearth common pitfalls, allowing you to plan for them. Once you have identified several potential strategies, consider the pros and cons of each and apply your research to identify the best strategy. This process is part of continuous improvement .

Set a budget

The next step is to create a budget with the information gathered in the previous steps. The project budget will depend on the required project resources. The free budget template in Jira Software is extremely useful for building a project budget.  Creating a budget helps to reduce the likelihood of cost increases and misallocated resources. Stakeholders appreciate project managers who stick to a budget.

Prepare a contingency plan

It’s important to create a contingency plan for all identified risks. For example, you may need to communicate a change to your customers, especially if the change fundamentally affects the product’s primary function. That kind of change could be a risk where you lose users if you don’t communicate the change to them properly. So, your contingency plan could include onboarding and customer success training, so you’re communicating any changes to customers.

Track deliverables

A well-rounded project design includes details on project deliverables. It’s important to monitor and track the progress of deliverables during the project to ensure the team stays on target, remains within budget, and meets deadlines.  Jira Software helps project managers track deliverables using Gantt charts or Kanban boards to track project progress.

How to build the best project design

To build an effective product design for your business, there are a few important things to know, such as:

• Communicate effectively. Communication and transparency are critical to project success. Jira Work Management includes advanced roadmaps to facilitate communication. These enable teams to collaborate and visualize boards, projects, and filters for insight into project design. You can use Confluence to create the documentation for your project and organize the team. 
• Involve stakeholders. Getting stakeholder buy-in as soon as possible ensures a project will meet their expectations. 
• Adapt to change. Deal with changes promptly by reviewing the contingency plan and quickly resolving issues as they arise. Jira Software allows you to execute your plan by highlighting any possible roadblocks ahead of time. Jira Software integrates with Confluence for a seamless project management experience.

Excel in project design with Jira Work Management

Now that you understand the concept behind project design, you can use the process for your next venture. Effective project design is the foundation of a successful project, ensuring projects are delivered on time and within budget. Jira Work Management helps you build an effective project design and assists your team with understanding and sharing project goals with other team members. Use Confluence and Jira Software to track your project and create your documentation.

Project design: Frequently asked questions

How do you define project scope.

The project scope lays out all aspects of a project, including deadlines and deliverables. It describes the project boundaries and helps communicate the exact nature of the project to key stakeholders. The project scope becomes a document that helps team members understand the project outcomes.

What is the difference between project scope and project objectives?

Project scope is the overall outcome of the project. For example, you’ll outline all the tasks and deliverables for this particular project. Project objectives define the project outputs and what the team wants to achieve. For example, an objective might be a deliverable that increases product performance.

How does project design contribute to overall project success?

A well-designed project plan enhances efficiency, minimizes risk, and guides the project toward success. Project design brings project details together for clarity, giving the team confidence to execute the project effectively.

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Project Design in Project Management: A Quick Guide

The project design phase is the first step when planning a project. It sets the stage for the project initiation and project planning phase and important documents like the project charter and project plan.

What Is Project Design?

Project design is a brainstorming process where the project management team starts thinking about the project from a high-level perspective, outlining goals, methodologies, resources and success criteria to establish a project approach that’ll be presented to stakeholders to then begin with the project initiation and project planning phases. In this project stage, the decisions about how to manage and govern are made.

After the project design phase, a project proposal, project charter and a project plan can be created. These project documents will then be used to manage the execution phase of the project life cycle.

The thinking that goes on during the project design, however, doesn’t focus on details as much as it works on a higher level in terms of managing the project. Project planning software can help organize both the high-level strategy and the specific details of a project design.

ProjectManager , for instance, has Gantt charts for making detailed schedules, but also kanban boards for easy collaboration for the strategic aspect of project design. Manage your strategy, plan, schedule, execution and reporting in one easy-to-use project management software. Try it for free today.

What Is the Purpose of the Project Design Process?

The project design defines the overall project methodology that’ll be used and an overview of the project. It describes the major deliverables , products or features that will be completed. The project design also roughly estimates the budget and outlines how to monitor and evaluate progress. There can be more than one design presented to stakeholders, who can then choose which they think best suits their needs.

Why Is the Project Design Phase Important?

Project design is a major first step toward a successful project. A project design is a strategic organization of ideas, materials and processes for the purpose of achieving a goal. Project managers rely on a good design to avoid pitfalls and provide parameters to maintain crucial aspects of the project, like the schedule and the budget.

Project Design Process: How to Design a Project Step-By-Step

There are steps to take for defining project designs and developing an implementation strategy, and they’re the most important steps in a project. Therefore, you want to involve your team and stakeholders in the process to ensure you’re covering all the bases. Take the time to complete this stage thoroughly.

1. Define Your Project Vision

What’s your vision for the project? This isn’t some far-fetched hope, but a vision statement, which envisions a problem that needs resolution. That means clarifying the reason for the project. The vision statement is a formal document that states the project’s potential. It’s presented to stakeholders to show the viability of the project and its benefits.

It isn’t a long, detailed document. You can have a short, idealistic vision in terms of the outcome of the project; after all, this is how you sell the project. So, paint a picture of the project’s success, and place it in a larger context.

2. State the Problem Your Project Will Solve

To support that vision document, you need to identify a problem that needs solving. A needs assessment is often required, so you can see the obstacles the business is encountering. This aligns the problem you’re addressing with the organization and its strategy. It’ll also provide you with the necessary data to design an optimal solution for the problem.

To begin, what information are you gathering? What sources are there for that information, and how will you then gather the information? Next, analyze and determine the problems that your project is being created to resolve. Collect those results in a document.

3. Estimate the Project Resources That’ll Be Needed

Next, you need to recognize the necessary resources to get the project done. Resources are anything from people to equipment to the facilities necessary to complete the project successfully.

A good way to determine the resources is the same way journalists approach a news story, with the five W’s: who, what, where, when and why. Who do you need to execute the project, what resource management tools are required, where will the work be done, when will the project start and end and why are these resources needed?

4. Outline Your Project Goals

You can’t achieve your goals if you haven’t identified them first. A goal is something at the end of the project that’s both observable and measurable and it coincides with the resolution of a problem.

Create a goal statement that explains how the goals are addressed in the project. To do this well, apply the SMART method , which stands for specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-relevant. Each goal should be defined by these terms.

5. Structure Your Project Strategy

To achieve the project goals, there must be a strategy in place. A strategy is a process to reach the goals of the project within the project constraints , such as its resources, schedule, budget, etc. How can a strategy be created to achieve the project goals?

Consider precedent and look back on similar projects from the past and what they might have shown in terms of the pros and cons of their applied strategies. Best practices for project management are always a good foundation and building a strategy incrementally, creating a pathway to success.

6. Prepare a Contingency Plan

Any project manager knows that very few things proceed as planned. There needs to be a backup plan to respond quickly and rightly to issues as they arise in a project. Therefore, this must be included in your project design.

Look for the negative risks inherent in the project. They’re embedded in various places, such as teams, which might lack skills, have unavoidable absences, turnover, etc. Schedules can be plagued with delays. The scope might have been poorly defined. Costs are underestimated or funds dry up. Have a plan to address these risks.

7. Establish an Evaluation Plan

A project must always be under evaluation. An evaluation plan will help you monitor the project, and maybe even alert you when it starts to veer off track. Use this plan to analyze the components of the project, the outcomes and the impacts.

Outcomes are measurable changes, while impacts are how well the project goals are being achieved. Therefore, the evaluation plan is a detailed document that defines criteria to determine the project’s effectiveness and efficiency by tracking progress on all aspects of the project.

8. Estimate Costs and Create a Project Budget

The budget outlines the financial resources that drive the project. A budget will assign a cost to each of the project’s requirements. Creating a project budget means formalizing financial resources that’ll be allocated to the project. This begins with choosing a way to estimate costs, identify impacts and report on the evaluation.

9. Create a Project Proposal

All of this leads to a project proposal to explain why the project should be executed and what its benefits are. The previous steps are summarized, writing out the vision of the project and a brief description of the problem that it speaks to. Then state the goals of the project and outline the strategy that will be used to achieve those goals.

Project Design Example

Project managers use project management tools such as Gantt charts to structure their project designs. Here’s a simple project design example that shows how the project design ideas are added to this project planning tool.

For this project design example, let’s take a look at a construction project . As you can see in the image below, during the project design phase, project managers can use Gantt charts to add the major tasks and deliverables as well as build the work breakdown structure of a project to outline the phases of the project execution.

ProjectManager’s Gantt charts have two major parts. On the left side, there’s a spreadsheet that allows project managers to enter information that’ll be used to automatically generate a project timeline on the right side. This timeline won’t only show the project tasks but also milestones, task dependencies and due dates for project deliverables.

What ProjectManager Can Do to Help Your Project Design

Designing a project takes a lot of work, but using project management tools facilitates the process of creating an outline that details these various parts of the project. Besides using Gantt charts to organize your project design ideas into a project timeline, you can also use kanban boards to manage workflow using ProjectManager .

Plan Workflows With Kanban Boards

ProjectManager has a kanban feature that was created to visualize workflows. The project design phase involves collaboration among members of the project management team who will need to share files and communicate in real-time, which can be achieved with ProjectManager’s kanban boards that let project teams better communicate and structure the project design.

Track Projects With Real-Time Dashboards

ProjectManager’s real-time dashboards help project managers keep track of project costs, timelines and progress once the project design becomes a reality. These powerful dashboards can be used to track multiple projects in a portfolio. There are six key metrics that automatically update as changes are made across the software, making it easy to stay on track throughout your project or portfolio.

Only robust project management software can handle all the data needed for a good project design. ProjectManager is an online tool that has features, such as the online Gantt chart, to help schedule, as well as others, to assist with budget and resource allocation. See how it can help you by taking this free 30-day trial.

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Project Design Explained and 8 Steps to Make One

Learn about the missing project phase and how it can help your projects to achieve success. Discover how to make one and more.

Many project management approaches overlook a critical phase that can impact project success. Project design is the missing link (project phase) that sets the stage for other project phases.

Teams can struggle to align ideas and objectives without a well-defined project design. Stakeholders may lose themselves in the complexities of project execution because of a lack of clarity. And scope creep can set in and infect every deliverable and stage of your work.

But what exactly is the design phase? And how do you create a successful design document?

Together, we’ll answer these questions and guide you toward project design success. We’ll also show you a few tips and tools to help control these and even other phases.

What is project design?

Project design  is sometimes called the “lost” phase of the customary  five project management stages . It is a primary phase in a project’s life cycle, usually preceding the design of a  project plan  or charter. This is because it concentrates more on the general view of the project rather than its minute details.

‎Once the project design phase is done, it's followed by the creation of a project proposal,  project charter , and  project plan . These project documents typically draw details from ‌the overview that the project design gives. They'll then be used to manage the rest of the  phases of the project life cycle .

For simple and small projects, the project design can replace the proposal and project plan. In these cases, it greatly simplifies the whole  project lifecycle  management process.

Project design is an opportunity to harmonize concepts, processes, and outcomes. Visuals like flowcharts,  Gantt charts , and  timelines  are frequently used to give stakeholders a clear view. The stakeholders are also sometimes given multiple choices, so they can pick the one they believe best meets their requirements.

What is included in project design?

This document phase requires a few key project elements, such as:

• A project overview of the objectives, scope, and intended outcomes.
• The chosen  methodology  for project execution such as  Agile  or  Waterfall .
• This phase identifies the key deliverables, products, or features that the project aims to achieve. Therefore, it’s best to include them during this step.
• A preliminary budget estimate. It doesn’t have to be a detailed financial breakdown; a rough estimate is all you need.
• An outline of precise mechanisms for monitoring and evaluating project progress. This includes milestones, checkpoints, and performance metrics (KPIs).
• The design document should have a rough estimate of the time needed to complete the project.
• The project design defines the roles and responsibilities of the managerial stakeholders.

How to create a project design in 8 steps

Now that we know what a project design is and what it entails, let’s go over eight steps you can use to create one.

1. Identify the project purpose and objectives

To begin, you should first clearly define the purpose and objectives of the project. Look beyond the immediate goals and focus on the bigger picture.

Think about the following when identifying the project's purpose and objectives:

• Reflect on your company's mission and vision as you want the project to align with its broader goals.
• Articulate the core problem your project intends to solve or the value it aims to create.
• Clearly outline the measurable objectives that will determine the project’s success.

2. Conduct a needs assessment

Once you know the aim and goals of the project, the next step is to evaluate stakeholder requirements. This assessment aims to understand their challenges, expectations, and requirements.

To do this:

• List all parties involved in the project — team members, users, clients, and anyone impacted. Then, rank them in terms of importance and influence on the project.
• Ask (highly influential) stakeholders about their pain points, desires, and expectations. Hold interviews, surveys, and workshops to gather information.
• Rank the gathered information in order of importance.
• Compare current project goals and stakeholder needs. Try to identify where discrepancies exist — these are your gaps to fill.
• Capture concise project requirements based on stakeholder input.
• Use these in the next step to define the project scope.

3. Define the project scope

In Step 3, we’ll define the  project scope  — a pivotal task where you create distinct boundaries. This entails outlining what your project will cover and, equally, what it won’t.

• ‎To start, you define the outer limits of your project’s reach. Think about your resources,  timeline , capacity, and quality of the major deliverables.
• Then, specify what exactly falls within and without your project’s scope.

With a well-defined scope, you have a solid benchmark to evaluate changes. This prevents uncontrolled expansion ( scope creep ) that could derail your project’s progress. Another benefit of a well-defined scope is that you can use it to set (and manage)  stakeholder  expectations.

4. Develop a project work plan

In this step, we will create a work plan outlining important project tasks and activities.

• List all tasks necessary to complete your project.
• Break down large goals into smaller, manageable tasks.
• Then, organize the tasks logically (keep in mind any  dependencies ).

A helpful approach is to envision the outcome and work backward.

Another strategy is to use a work breakdown structure ( WBS ). This tool breaks down all work in a hierarchy that makes visualizing work easy. It also checks if all work has been considered or outlined in the plan later.

5. Estimate resources required

We must identify and estimate the resources required to execute the project successfully. Resources are things like personnel, equipment, materials, or a budget.

To estimate resources, you can:

A) Identify the resources you need for each task in your project work plan. Then, estimate the quantity required for each resource. And take into account any dependencies between tasks.

B) If you’ve used a WBS, you must determine the resources for each task. (The lowest level of the WBS gives you the tasks.)

6. Assign managerial roles

It’s common practice not to mention specific roles of lower-level staff, as this document will likely go through many iterations. However, identifying the managerial roles and their responsibilities is essential, as they’ll nurture the project from this phase into existence.

Here, you’ll capture the roles and responsibilities of senior-level stakeholders and managers. You’ll also have to ensure that the assigned duties align with the leaders' expertise.

7. Risk assessment and mitigation

We need to find any risks and plan to lower the impact or avoid them.

Here’s a quick way to do this for the design:

• List out any potential risks that could impact your project. These could be anything from unexpected resource shortages to technical difficulties.
• Determine how likely it is for each one to occur.
• Develop strategies to lessen the impact of identified risks. Think of proactive steps to prevent them and  contingency plans  to handle them if they arise.

8. Finalize the project design document or presentation

Once you’ve gathered all the essential information from the previous steps, it’s time to create a comprehensive project design document. After that, you should present it to the relevant stakeholders and get their approval.

Visual tools for the project design phase

Using visual aids can greatly help to convey the message and create a better group understanding.

Here are several powerful visual tools that are helpful during this phase:

• Flowcharts  are graphical representations that depict processes, sequences, and decision points. They help identify bottlenecks, decision pathways, and potential inefficiencies.
• WBS  breaks down the project into manageable components. As mentioned, this helps identify all necessary tasks and lets you see what resources you need.
• Gantt charts  display tasks along a timeline. You can visualize the project schedule, dependencies, and task durations with them.
• Kanban boards  are often associated with task management but can also help with the project design phase. You can create a Kanban board to outline the different steps and activities of the project visually. Each column can represent a crucial phase in the design process, such as gathering requirements and conceptualizing. Within each column, you can place cards representing specific tasks or activities related to that phase.
• Mind maps  visually capture ideas, concepts, and their relationships. They’re particularly helpful for brainstorming sessions and organizing thoughts around project components.
• PERT  is an acronym for (program evaluation and review technique). PERT charts facilitate understanding project timelines and potential bottlenecks.

Plan your project design with Motion

Months (or years) of planning and testing came before Lance Armstrong took his first famous step on the moon, and before that came the project design. The project design was the guiding light of the project during execution and planning to help them reach success.

To help you reach newer heights with your project phases, try out Motion, a leading  project management tool . It features an automated task manager that you can use to help you plan out work to be done (like a mini-WBS).

With Motion’s built-in Kanban board, you can take ‌project design to the next level. Here, you can organize tasks,  workflows , and project stages to get a good overview of the work that has to be done. You can then save the project (and tasks you’ve defined), and when it goes into the planning phase, you can use the one you saved to allocate resources.

Try Motion today, and  grab your 7-day free trial .

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What is Project Design in Project Management?

• Written by Contributing Writer
• Updated on October 6, 2023

Projects often involve numerous steps, complex tasks, multiple collaborators, and possibilities of risks arising at any stage. A project design is the glue that holds a project’s moving parts together.

Is it another term for a project plan? Well, no. Even before the detailed project plan comes to life, a project design sets the stage by focusing on the big picture: The outcome. It serves as a driving force that brings the stakeholders on the same page regarding ideas, objectives, and timelines.

If you’re an aspiring project manager, using project design methods and visual aids like flowcharts, Gantt charts, and graphs is an important skill.

In this article, we cover everything you want to know about project design – the essential steps in a project design, expert tips to create effective ones, and examples. We will also touch upon getting a project management certification if you’re serious about building a career in this field.

Understanding Project Design: What is It?

Project design represents the initial stage of a project. This is where essential elements are outlined. This includes key features, structural framework, success benchmarks, and major deliverables.

Project managers often formulate multiple project design options to realize the project’s objectives. Then, the stakeholders select the most suitable design for executing the project.

Diverse outputs may emerge throughout the project design process, including sketches, flowcharts, site maps, HTML screen designs, prototypes, visual representations, etc.

In short, a project design is the bedrock on which a successful project is executed, meeting the stakeholder’s expectations and project goals.

Also Read: Best Project Management Apps You Should Consider

How Project Design Works

Project design is one of the early stages of the project lifecycle. It focuses on conceiving ideas, shaping processes, allocating resources, and defining deliverables.

However, it comes before the detailed project plan, serving as a high-level overview.

A project design is made up of many steps, which include everything from goal definition to the use of visual aids, etc. Tools like the Gantt charts and Kanban boards are used to make the ideas clearer to the stakeholders. It breaks down complex ideas into simpler ones for better communication.

Ultimately, it enhances understanding of the project’s overall viability and direction. This visual clarity helps bring together different participants in the team and enables informed decision-making.

Why is the Project Design Phase Important?

The project design phase is crucial to project management for many reasons. First, it helps lay out the finer details of the project and its success. It lays a framework for identifying, delineating, and accomplishing project objectives.

Carrying out a project in today’s business world is no easy feat. With the help of design thinking, the organization has better collaboration, innovation, and acceleration, leading to effective work and better chances of success.

The project design phase lays the groundwork for the project by covering crucial elements like:

• Budget estimates
• Project description, articulating the project’s essence and scope
• Responsibility assignment, which identifies the individuals or entities responsible for project completion
• Determining the milestones and their timelines
• Benchmarks that specify the major deliverables, success standards, and evaluation guidelines
• Outcomes or tangible results of the project

What is Project Design in Project Management? An Example

Before we go into the intricacies of project design, let us understand what a project design is through an example.

Project design often relies on essential project management tools like Gantt charts to provide a structured framework. Here’s a project design example that illustrates how concepts are incorporated into the project planning tool, specifically Gantt charts.

What is a Gantt Chart?

Henry Gantt invented a Gantt chart in the early 20th century, and it has since become a widely used tool in project management.

Technically, a Gantt chart is a type of bar chart that visually shows a project’s tasks and timeline. It helps project managers and teams to plan, monitor, and control the project activities and progress.

A Gantt chart has two main parts: a list of tasks on the left and a horizontal bar chart on the right. The bars represent each task’s duration, start, and end dates. The bars can also show the tasks’ dependencies, milestones, and status.

A Gantt chart can communicate the project scope, schedule, and deliverables to the stakeholders and team members. It can also help to identify potential risks, issues, or delays in the project execution.

Ultimately, Gantt charts are a project design tool and a versatile template that enhances project outcomes.

Also Read: What Is Statistical Process Control and What’s a SPC Chart?

What is the purpose of the project design process?

The project design process serves as a crucial element in project management. Here are some reasons it has become very popular with project managers and businesses.

1. Comprehensive Overview

It creates a comprehensive project overview, covering its goals, objectives, deliverables, resources, risks, and success criteria.

2. Alignment

Project design is crucial in aligning project teams and stakeholders, ensuring everyone shares a common understanding.

3. Preceding Detailed Planning

Since it comes before the detailed project planning and execution phases, it is a foundational step. It shapes what comes after, providing a strategic framework for project implementation.

4. Identification of Challenges and Opportunities

The project design process is instrumental in identifying potential challenges and opportunities in the project. It helps refine the project methodology and strategy.

5. Effective Communication

Project design harnesses visual aids like Gantt charts, Kanban boards, or flowcharts to enhance communication. These help break down complex info into simple terms, bringing everyone on board.

Steps of the Project Design Process

As an integral part of project management, it is essential to go with project design in a detailed and structured manner. Let’s explore each of the nine vital steps within this process, which collectively pave the way for project success.

1. Define your project vision

Begin with a clear project vision. A concise vision statement should cover it. This statement portrays your project’s aspirations and underscores the problem it intends to address.

2. State the problem your project will solve

Identify the problem in need of resolution. Conduct a needs assessment to gain insight into the obstacles faced by the organization.

3. Estimate the required resources

Recognize the requisite resources, from personnel to equipment and facilities, essential for successful project completion. Employ the “Five W’s” (who, what, where, when, and why) to guide your resource assessment.

4. Outline your project goals

Define observable and measurable project goals that align with problem resolution. Utilize the SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-relevant) criteria to craft goal statements that provide clarity and direction.

5. Structure your project strategy

Develop a strategic approach to actualize project goals within resource, schedule, and budget constraints. Draw insights from past projects and industry best practices to construct a comprehensive strategy.

6. Prepare a contingency plan

It is essential to understand that projects rarely unfold precisely as planned. Thus, a contingency plan is crucial for addressing unexpected issues promptly and effectively. Identify potential risks, from skill gaps to schedule delays, and formulate a plan to manage them when needed.

7. Establish an evaluation plan

Implement continuous project evaluation to monitor progress and detect deviations from the plan. The evaluation plan should monitor the project components, outcomes, and impacts, ensuring effectiveness and efficiency.

8. Estimate costs and create a project budget

Formulate a project budget outlining the financial resources required. Begin by estimating costs, identifying impacts, and establishing mechanisms for ongoing financial reporting.

9. Create a project proposal

Finish the project design process with a comprehensive project proposal. Summarize the vision, problem, goals, and strategy, highlighting the project’s potential benefits.

Making a project design with these nine steps creates a solid foundation and a clear path forward.

Also Read: What are PDUs in PMI? An Explainer

Tips to Build the Best Project Design

While the nine steps detailed above cover the entirety of the project design process, here are some expert tips you can keep in mind when creating a project design.

• Align your deliverables with your goal: Start with the desired outcome and work backward to identify the deliverables that will help you achieve it.
• Communicate with all stakeholders: Invite your team members and stakeholders to participate in the project design process. This will help you get their input, feedback, and buy-in for the project’s purpose and scope.
• Update and revise as needed: Project design is not a static process. You may need to change and improve your design document as you learn new information and the project progresses.

Ensuring Business Success with Better Project Designs

The success of project management is tied closely to an efficient project design. You can steer your projects to success with a good understanding of project objectives and a goal-centric approach. With effective communication and flexibility to adapt to the project’s changing needs, you can bring the odds in your favor.

If you’re eager to delve deeper into project management and enhance your project design skills, consider enrolling in our project management course . This program will equip you with the knowledge and tools to excel in project management.

Delivered by Simplilearn, in collaboration with the University of Massachusets,, this program offers authorized training aligned with PMI-PMP® and IASSC-Lean Six Sigma. What sets this program apart is the opportunity to learn from world-class faculty through live classes. You also get to work on a capstone project, which will help you gain first-hand experience and valuable knowledge of this field.

If you want to carve a successful project management career, this is a great course to get the ball rolling. Enroll today to get started!

You might also like to read:

Is Project Management a Good Career? Here’s What You Need to Know

Unlock Your Project Management Potential with These 12 Must-Read Books

What is Scope in Project Management? Definition and Importance

What is Project Management? Tools, Process & Everything You Should Know

Mastering Project Manager Skills: A Comprehensive Guide

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What Is Project Design in Project Management?

• 1.  Project Management Basics
• 2.  Project Management Methodologies
• 3.  Project Management Life Cycle
• 4.  Best Project Management Software
• 5.  Team Collaboration Tips
• 6.  Agile Methodology Basics
• 7.  Agile Project Management Tools & Techniques
• 8.  Project Management Frameworks
• 9.  Resources
• 10.  Glossary
• Advanced Terminology
• Methodologies
• PM Software Features
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Project design is an early phase of a project where the project's key features, structure, criteria for success, and major deliverables are planned out. 

The aim is to develop one or more designs that can be used to achieve the desired project goals. Stakeholders can then choose the best design for the execution of the project. The project design steps might generate various outputs, such as sketches, flowcharts, site trees, HTML screen designs, prototypes, photo impressions, and more.

Project design example

Gantt charts are a handy visualization technique in project design. They make it easy to depict and visually explain project plans, schedules, roadmaps , timelines, baselines, critical paths, etc. Once you've developed your Gantt chart, you can share it with team members to loop them on the project activities and execute projects collaboratively. 

The Gantt chart below is a simple project design example breaking down project tasks and activities to be performed by team members. It shows the person in charge of a task at a given moment.

In this project design example, you can see the project timeline, task dependencies, and who is responsible for each task.

Gantt charts can serve as project design templates. They help structure and communicate project plans and timelines to foster consistency, efficiency, and collaboration.

Key steps of the project design process

Six key steps define the project design process.

1. Set the project goal

You must first engage with your team and stakeholders to establish your project's goals and desired outcomes. Start by organizing an ideation session where you record the overall project schedule and key deliverables. This helps you understand the project requirements and standards. By interacting with the team and getting their opinions on the project's practicality and feasibility, you reduce time spent on planning, executing, and reviewing and increase the chances of success.

2. Establish outcomes and commitments

Establish the core project objectives, then divide each into manageable chunks and tasks. These should cover all the tasks and activities you will carry out during the project. Alternatively, you can hold off on completing the activity breakdown until a later stage. Some project managers and teams prefer to leave it until the project scheduling part of project planning. 

3. Understand the risks and constraints

Look for anything that could get in the way of completing the project. Risks and restrictions on time, money, and resources should be addressed to determine variables that could impact success. Follow up with the appropriate teams and stakeholders to mitigate these issues before the project starts. As the project progresses, document assumptions or hypotheses to assist your Statement of Work (SOW) in the future. 

4. Use a visual aid

Make use of visual aids to depict the known variables and goals. Visualization helps team members and other key players easily understand the project's deliverables, timelines, risks, objectives, and applications. These can be Gantt charts, hierarchy charts, work charts, screen designs, prototypes, mind maps, diagrams, trees, flow charts, etc. 

Consider your team's needs when selecting a visual aid to communicate and collaborate. For example, a flowchart is more effective for smaller teams working on simple projects, while a breakdown structure suits big teams and complex projects.

5. Estimate your budget

Budget transparency is crucial from the outset. Create a budget with as much information as possible, even if you don't have all the details yet. This reduces the possibility of cost overruns and inadequate budgets during project execution. You may assess the project's viability by estimating your budget during the project design process. A project isn't feasible if the cost exceeds what your client or sponsors can afford.

6. Select the processes for monitoring and approval

Determine the criteria for the success of your project, and create a list of standards to assess whether the results, deliverables, and finished outcomes are met. Determine who is in charge of approvals and procedures to follow for successful approvals.

Top tips to build the best project design

Understanding the project's objective is a crucial prerequisite for creating effective project designs. Other tips for developing project designs include: 

• Focus on the goal: Map your goals to project deliverables to guarantee they are accomplished as the project is executed. Start with the end result and work your way backward. You can use project timeline software like Wrike to integrate project goals with the tasks required to achieve them.
• Hold a meeting with every stakeholder: Communication is essential for every project to be successful. Invite team members and stakeholders to be consulted during the project design process. This helps align everyone involved and ensure they're aware and committed to the project's goals.
• Review and modify: Project designing is not a one-and-done process. Your design documentation may need to be adjusted and updated with time. It is a common practice to make changes to project designs as you receive new information and the project advances.

How to use Wrike to structure your project design

To structure your project design templates properly, use a project management platform like Wrike. Wrike's prebuilt templates and Gantt charts assist in creating effective project designs and helps you simplify the process from start to finish. Ready to create your design? Begin today with a two-week free trial of Wrike .

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Advanced Project Management

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• Network Diagram
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• PMI Project Management
• What To Do With Certification
• Certification
• Become Certified
• PMP Certification
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Software Features

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Project Management Methodology: Definition, Types, Examples

What is a project management methodology ? How can it be defined? In simple terms, it is a must-have to avoid failure and reduce risks because it is one of the critical success factors as well as the core competency of the management team. It is the straightforward way to guide the team through the development and execution of the phases, processes and tasks throughout the project management life-cycle.

What is a Methodology? The Definition in Project Management

The term “ project management methodology ” was first defined in the early 1960s when various business organizations began to look for effective ways that could simplify the realization of business benefits and organize the work into a structured and unique entity (which was called “ project ” later on). Communication and collaboration were the key criteria for establishing productive work relationships between the teams and departments within one and the same organization.

Since that time, the term has been changed and modified many times, new definitions have been created, new elements and functions have been added. Today we consider a project management methodology as a set of broad principles and rules to manage a specific project that has a definite beginning and end. Below is the current definition of methodology .

Project Management Methodology is a strictly defined combination of logically related practices, methods and processes that determine how best to plan, develop, control and deliver a project throughout the continuous implementation process until successful completion and termination. It is a scientifically-proven, systematic and disciplined approach to project design, execution and completion.

The purpose of project methodology is to allow for controlling the entire management process through effective decision making and problem solving, while ensuring the success of specific processes, approaches, techniques, methods and technologies.

Typically, a project management methodology provides a skeleton for describing every step in depth, so that the project manager or program manager will know what to do in order to deliver and implement the work according to the schedule, budget and client specification.

Referring to the above mentioned definition, an appropriately chosen project management methodology paves the way for gaining the following achievements:

• The needs of stakeholders are defined
• A common “language” is established and understood by the team, so they know what’s expected of them
• Cost estimates are complete, accurate and credible
• Every task is done using a common methodological approach
• Most conflicts are spotted and resolved early
• Expected deliverables are produced and handed over
• Lessons are learned and solutions are quickly implemented

Methodology in Project Management Framework

Project management (the acronym “PM”) provides the framework of planning, doing and delivering projects of any kind, size, nature and type. PM framework focuses on the realization of desired change in line with a chosen methodological approach. Actually, change is the core aspect that should be managed. PM framework identifies and defines how to best manage change. And methodology serves as the “way” to systematically realize change in terms of time, cost and quality.

Managing projects means describing and performing the activities required to meet the specific objectives of making change.

For example, writing a book is a kind of project in which the objective is to write a book. This objective can be fulfilled by a series of activities, including defining the topic, collecting material, creating a draft, typing, proofreading, others. So in terms of project management, the author needs to define and then complete all the necessary activities in order to write a book (which means make change).

Here’s a simplified example of how a project methodology can be presented in the management hierarchical structure:

PM Framework precedes Methodology which in turn precedes Lifecycle Stages and determines the project management Processes, Tasks and Activities

Project Management Methodology Types

In project management there are a variety of approaches and methods that can be employed in managing different kinds of project. All the types of project methodology can be conditionally divided into traditional and modern approaches.

Traditional Approach

A traditional approach involves a series of consecutive stages in the project management process. It is a step-by-step sequence to design, develop and deliver a product or service. It entails achieving the succession in the implementation process and provides the benefits of milestone-based planning and team building. In IT and software development, this methodology type is called “ Waterfall ” – one portion of work follows after another in linear sequence.

The following stages are included the traditional project management methodology:

• Initiation (requirements specification)
• Planning and design
• Execution (construction and coding)
• Control and integration
• Validation (testing and debugging)
• Closure (installation and maintenance)

Modern Approaches

Modern methodologies do not focus on linear processes but they provide an alternative look at project management. Some of the methods are best for IT and software development, while others can be implemented in production, process improvement, product engineering, and so on. Modern PM approaches use different models of the management process.

Project Management Methodology Examples

It is the matter of a project’s type, size and nature to select the right methodology. Here are the most popular PM methodologies:

PMBOK® Guide

Although A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge IS NOT a PM methodology in its “ pure state “, many people regard it as the methodological approach to planning, executing, controlling and terminating various projects. Meanwhile, the PMBOK® Guide is a broad inventory of best practices and ideas on planning and implementing projects. Please note that it is just a guide but not a project management methodology.

PRojects IN Controlled Environments 2 ( PRINCE2 ) presents a suite of process-driven methods and documentation-oriented approaches that allow driving various projects in the private sector. It was developed the UK Government, and today this great example of project management methodology is used both in the UK and internationally.

Critical path method (CPM) explores the most important or critical tasks of a project by defining possible activity sequences and estimating the longest duration of each sequence. It helps figure out how long it will take to complete the work and what tasks will compose the scope.

Lean PM methodology intends to maximize customer value and minimize resource waste. Lean project management lets organizations create higher value for their customers with fewer resources. This approach achieves perfection in customer satisfaction and value generation through implementing an optimized process flow that eliminates waste in products, services, transportation, inventories, etc.

The method of Six Sigma was originally developed by Motorola to improve its production processes by eliminating defects (defined as “non-conformity of a product or service to its specifications”). Today Six Sigma is one of the most popular and worldwide trusted examples of project management methodology for ensuring the accuracy and speed of a process’s implementation through eliminating or minimizing waste.

Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM) is the way to plan, implement and review various kinds of work in single- and multi-project environments. This management methodology uses Theory of Constraints (TOC) and the concept of buffers to establish improved task durations and manage resource-dependent tasks and activities.

SCRUM is an example of Agile PM methodology that involves teams in producing a software product in 30-day “ sprints ” and monthly “ scrum sessions “. In a SCRUM-driven project, the deliverables are broken down into 30-day intervals. This methodology example is specific and applicable mainly to collaborative, 100%-dedicated teams, with no heavily constrained time and materials budget.

Project Management for Students

Project management for students is a vital part of the education and training process. Students can easily get a project management degree, but it does not mean that it comes as easy as taking the homework. Students need to take into account some important aspects if they want to manage a project properly.

For instance, choosing the best admission essay writing service is of great importance because if for some reason the student cannot deliver a high-quality essay in time, he will most likely fail the course or even worse he will be expelled from the college or university.

Students should prepare well for the project or the essay. They need to research on the topic beforehand, keep track of what is going on, write on time and work within the deadline.

This will allow them to catch up with their fellow students, focusing only on what they have to do and not worrying about what other people are doing.

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Project management methodologies: 12 popular frameworks

Project management is an ever-evolving field that requires a number of approaches to be successful. Learning the most popular project management methodologies can help you become an industry expert. 

In order to be the best possible project manager , learn about each of these 12 frameworks to find the one that best fits your team’s needs. 

12 project management frameworks

What it is: The Agile project management methodology is one of the most common project management processes. But the reality is that Agile isn’t technically a methodology. Instead, it’s best defined as a project management principle. 

The basis of an Agile approach is:

Collaborative

Fast and effective

Iterative and data-backed

Values individuals over processes

When it comes to putting the Agile manifesto in place, teams often choose specific methodologies to use alongside Agile. These could include Scrum, Kanban, extreme programming, crystal, or even Scrumban . That's because connecting Agile methodology with a more detailed approach produces a well-rounded project management philosophy and a tangible plan for delivering great work. 

Who should use it: The Agile framework can be used for just about any team. This is because the principle behind it is rather universal. The real trick is deciding which methodology to use with it.

2. Waterfall

What it is: The waterfall model is also a very popular framework. But unlike Agile, waterfall is an actual methodology that is rather straightforward. The waterfall methodology , also known as software development life cycle (SDLC), is a linear process in which work cascades down (similar to a waterfall) and is organized in sequential order. 

To achieve this approach, each work task is connected by a dependency. This means each task must be completed before the next task can be started. Not only does this ensure that work stays on track, but it also fosters clear communication throughout the process. 

While viewed as a traditional approach by some modern organizations, this method is good for creating a predictable and thoroughly planned-out project plan . 

Who should use it: Since the waterfall project management methodology is so detailed, it’s great for working on large projects with multiple different stakeholders. This is because there are clear steps throughout the project and dependencies that help track the work needed to reach goals. 

What it is: The Scrum methodology involves short “sprints” that are used to create a project cycle. These cycles span one to two weeks at a time and are organized with teams of 10 or less. This is different from the waterfall approach where individual tasks are broken down into dependencies.

Scum is unique for a variety of reasons, one being the use of a Scrum master. Or, in other words, a project manager that leads daily Scrum meetings, demos, sprints, and sprint retrospectives after each sprint is completed. These meetings aim to connect project stakeholders and ensure tasks are completed on time. 

While Scrum is technically a project management methodology in its own right, it’s most commonly associated with an Agile framework. This is because they share similar principles, such as collaboration and valuing individuals over processes. 

Who should use it: Teams that use an Agile approach should use, or at least try, the Scrum methodology as well. Since sprints are divided into small teams, this approach can work for both small and large teams. 

What it is: The Kanban methodology represents project backlogs using visual elements, specifically boards. This approach is used by Agile teams to better visualize workflows and project progress while decreasing the likelihood of bottlenecks. It’s also usually in the form of a software tool that allows you to change and drag boards seamlessly within projects, though it’s not a requirement. 

Since this method doesn’t have a defined process like others, many teams use it differently. The main concept to keep in mind is that Kanban aims to focus on the most important project tasks, keeping the overall framework simple.

Who should use it: Kanban boards are great for teams of all sizes and specifically remote-first teams. This is because the visual capabilities of Kanban boards help team members stay on track no matter where they are. 

5. Scrumban

What it is: As you may have guessed, Scrumban is a methodology that draws inspiration from both Scrum and Kanban frameworks. Some think of this as a hybrid approach that incorporates the best of each. 

Scrumban uses a similar sprint cycle as Scrum but allows individual tasks to be pulled into the plan like Kanban. This allows the most important work to be completed and keeps project plans simple. Scrumban also uses Scrum meetings to enhance collaboration and keep goals top of mind. 

Who should use it: If you like the idea of breaking down a project into smaller tasks, but likewise want to keep it visually simple, Scrumban might be for you. It’s the perfect intersection of simplicity and clarity.  

What it is: PRINCE2 , otherwise known as PR ojects IN C ontrolled E nvironments, uses the overarching waterfall methodology to define stages within a project. It was initially created by the UK government for IT projects and still primarily suits large IT initiatives over the traditional product or market-focused projects. 

There are seven main principles of PRINCE2, which include:

Starting a project

Directing a project

Initiating a project

Controlling a project

Managing product delivery

Managing a stage boundary

Closing a project

These seven principles create a thorough project process and make for an effective enterprise project methodology altogether. It aims to define roles and back management. Not only that, but PRINCE2 can be used to streamline a ton of individual project management tasks, like controlling a stage, managing product delivery, and initiating and closing a project. 

Who should use it: Due to the particular nature of the PRINCE2 project management methodology, it’s best suited for large enterprise projects with a number of project stakeholders . Using it for small projects may create a longer and more complicated process than necessary. 

7. Six Sigma

What it is: Unlike the other PM methodologies, Six Sigma is used for quality management and is frequently described as a philosophy rather than a traditional methodology. It is often paired with either a lean methodology or Agile framework, otherwise known as lean Six Sigma and Agile Six Sigma. 

The main purpose of Six Sigma is to continuously improve processes and eliminate defects. This is achieved through continuous improvements by field experts to sustain, define, and control processes. 

To take this method one step further, you can use a Six Sigma DMAIC process, which creates a phased approach. These phases include:

Define: Create a project scope , business case , and initial stand-up meeting.

Measure: Collect data that helps inform improvement needs.

Analyze: Identify the root causes of problems. 

Improve: Solve the root causes found.

Control: Work to sustain the solutions for future projects. 

Who should use it: Six Sigma is best for large organizations, usually those with a few hundred employees or more. This is when the need to eliminate project waste starts to have a larger impact on your organization. 

8. Critical path method (CPM)

What it is: The critical path method works to identify and schedule critical tasks within a project. This includes creating task dependencies, tracking project goals and progress, prioritizing deliverables , and managing due dates—all of which are similar to a work breakdown structure .

The objective of this methodology is to properly manage successful projects at scale so that milestones and deliverables are mapped correctly. 

Who should use it: The critical path method is best for small and mid-size projects and teams. This is because large projects require many deliverables with multiple stakeholders and the CPM isn’t built to manage complex projects. 

9. Critical chain project management (CCPM)

What it is: The critical chain project management framework is closely related to the critical path methodology but is even more detailed, making it one of the most comprehensive options. 

Along with implementing a work breakdown structure like CPM, CCPM includes specific time requirements for each task. This helps take task tracking one step further, making it clear when tasks are going over their allotted time. It also uses resource leveling which aims to resolve large workloads by distributing work across available resources. 

Not only do these help both productivity and efficiency, but they also help connect the work needed to be completed with project goals. Many project management tools even have visual elements to better visualize these goals, creating an organized road map for team members. 

Who should use it: CCPM is a great method for both small and large teams, but it mostly helps solve project efficiency problems . It can also be a great way to report work in progress to leadership. 

What it is: The lean project management methodology aims to cut waste and create a simple framework for project needs. This ultimately means doing more with less in order to maximize efficiency and teamwork. 

While reducing waste originally referred to a physical product (which dates back to the method used by Henry Ford and later by Toyota and Motorola), it now refers to wasteful practices. There are three Ms that represent this:

Muda (wastefulness): Practices that consume resources but don’t add value  

Mura (unevenness): Occurs through overproduction and leaves behind waste 

Muri (overburden): Occurs when there is too much strain on resources  

As a project manager, your job is to prevent the three Ms in order to better execute projects and streamline processes. This is similar to the approach of rational unified process (RUP), which also aims to reduce waste. The difference is that RUP aims to reduce development costs instead of wasteful practices. 

Who should use it: Since lean is all about reducing waste, it’s best suited for teams struggling with efficiency issues. While this will have a greater impact on large organizations, it can be helpful for project teams of all sizes. 

11. Project management institute’s PMBOK® Guide

What it is: While the PMI’s Project Management Body of Knowledge is associated as a project management methodology, it’s more closely related to a set of best practices that take into account various development processes. 

This framework focuses on implementing the five project management phases , all of which help easily manage a project from start to finish in a structured phase approach. The five phases include:

Project initiation

Project planning

Project executing

Project performance

Project closure

While this is a good foundation to keep in mind, the PMBOK® Guide isn’t necessarily as specific as other approaches. This means you’ll need to decide which tasks to complete in each phase. 

Who should use it: The PMBOK® Guide can be used on its own for small teams on standard projects, though it’s a good idea to pair it with a more detailed methodology (like CPM) for large teams handling complex projects. 

12. Extreme programming (XP)

What it is: As the name suggests, extreme programming is used for fast-paced projects with tight deadlines. The approach works by creating short development cycles with many releases. This makes for quick turnaround times and increased productivity . 

Extreme programming has a few core values, which include simplicity, communication, feedback, respect, and courage. It also includes a specific set of XP rules which includes all phases from planning to testing. 

Who should use it: Extreme programming can be used for individual projects with tight deadlines, most commonly with small to midsize teams. Since XP is a fast-paced method, it should be used lightly in order to prevent burnout . 

Choosing the right project management methodology for your team

There is no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to project management methodologies. Each one offers unique principles to take a development project from an initial plan to final execution. 

The main aspects to keep in mind are the size of your team and how your team prefers to work. Here are some additional tips to consider:

Your industry : Consider if you’re in an industry that changes frequently. For example, a technology company would be an industry that is ever-evolving. This will affect project consistency and should be paired with either a flexible or stagnant methodology. 

Your project focus : Consider the objectives of your projects . Do you value people over efficiency? This will help pair you with a methodology that matches a similar objective. 

The complexity of projects : Are your projects on the more complex side, or are they usually straightforward? Some methods aren’t as good as others at organizing complex tasks, such a CCPM.

The specialization of roles : Consider how niche the roles within your team are. Can multiple team members alternate the same type of work, or do you need a method that focuses on specialization?

Your organization’s size : The size of your organization and team should be weighed heavily when deciding on a methodology. Methods like Kanban are universal for team size, while options like CPM are better suited for small teams. 

Whether your team members prefer a visual process like Kanban or a more traditional project management approach like the waterfall method, there’s an option for every type of team. To take a project management methodology one step further, consider a work management tool to better track and execute development projects. 

Methods to manage your projects mindfully

With the right project management methodology in place, you’ll be able to take your projects to new levels of efficiency and implement processes that are right for your team, your organization, and yourself.

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Design Project Management: A Comprehensive Guide for Design Teams

Haillie Parker

September 13, 2023

If you want to describe a design project manager’s day-to-day in under 30 seconds, just watch that episode of Friends where Ross moves his new couch upstairs. You know the one: “ Pivot! Pivot! Pivooooooooot!”

That’s a bit dramatic. But effective design project management does demand a high level of flexibility—in addition to a detailed request process, clear timelines, and open collaboration from start to finish. That’s because a proper project plan is often the deciding factor in whether a design project succeeds or fails. 😯

But creating your own plan of attack is no walk in the park—design project management is one of the trickiest to nail down, requiring a near-constant stream of cross-functional collaboration between clients, other departments, team members, or all of the above.

Plus, your design requests will rarely be within the same project scope . One day you might be creating a logo and the next you’re redesigning an entire website! It dips its toes into almost every aspect of a business, and we’re here to help you make sense of it all. 🤓

Whether you’re streamlining your current project management process or starting from scratch—this guide is for you. We’ve broken down the essential elements of design project management and summed up the top 10 tips to help design team leads succeed.

What is Design Project Management?

Why is design project management important, design project management methodologies, design project management workflow phases, 1. keep iterating your design request forms, 2. get the whole team on board, 3. define clear project goals, 4. lean on your collaboration tools, 5. avoid over-communication, 6. custom fields are your friend, 7. be flexible, 8. respect your team’s boundaries, 9. prioritize creativity and structure.

Design project management is the process of managing design projects, creating and delegating tasks, overseeing resources, and following a project through to its completion.

Whether it’s another member of your organization or a client, design project management starts with a request—kind of like a mini creative commission from other departments or businesses. 

From there the request is often plugged into a design brief to guide the projects’ next steps, which is where creative project management comes into play.

The purpose isn’t just to solidify graphic design workflows or keep the team on track —the main goal of proper design project management is to bridge the communication gap between the design team and the requestor, whether that be a client or an internal stakeholder. 

Plus, many design requests require more than one deliverable per project, leading to multiple rounds of feedback and ongoing teamwork to deliver the assets as the requestor expected. A good example of this is an advertising or marketing campaign made up of multiple design assets from creative teams who’re each responsible for a different deliverable. 

This requires oversight by the design project manager of multiple timelines, workflows, and approvals to ensure the overall project is completed without unforeseen delays.

Kind of sounds like too many cooks in the kitchen, huh? That’s why the right design project management process is such an important tool!

To say the least, design project management can be tricky. Things can get spicy fast because each request is so unique. Many project management processes typically follow a similar structure day in and day out—barring a few minor adjustments.

But in the creative world, you’ll likely juggle a handful of smaller design projects per a single request or regularly pivot your approach to accommodate clients across industries.

In this case, it’s almost better to think of your design project management plan as the bumpers on a bowling lane—it keeps the entire team on the right course while leaving tons of room for exploration along the way. 🎳

Having a design process in place gives your design team a sense of direction, even when the request is a bit vague. But it’s not just for the team’s benefit! 

The proper project management process gives your client piece of mind by laying the foundation for an open and honest working relationship. It will them think critically about what they’re requesting, how to deliver constructive feedback, and communicating concepts they’ve already envisioned for the project.

This helps design leads get everything they need from the client early on so there are no surprises or disappointments along the way.

Project Management is the glue to the design project process

Your project lead is always walking a fine line to keep the design team and client happy. It’s all about making sure both sides are on the same page and feel that they can speak openly. You’re all working toward the same goal after all!

Bear in mind, outlining your ideal process is only half the battle. Without the right design project management software, you won’t reap the same benefits or have the ability to follow through as effectively. Project management tools are designed to streamline your processes and take them further with features to:

• Manage your team’s workload and ensure tasks are distributed evenly
• Track progress at a macro and micro level for team and stakeholder benefit
• Brainstorm and collaborate on design concepts
• Visualize and present work easily during meetings
• Automate routine tasks

Each design project management software has its own special niche—whether it specializes in specific project management methodologies, as a web design tool , supports different ideation techniques , offers a wide range of workflow templates , and so on—so you’ll definitely find one that serves your team best if you don’t already have one in your tech stack.

As you cruise through this guide, take a mental note of the key features mentioned here that would go a long way with your team’s specific needs and use case. 

No two projects are alike, so there’s no one-size fits all approach to design project management. Understanding the four main project management methodologies will help you lay a better foundation for your team or clients when starting from scratch.

Waterfall Methodology

The waterfall methodology follows a linear process with distinct phases. It works best for projects with defined requirements and expectations from the start where you’re working within a set timeline.

Agile Methodology

The agile methodology focuses on iterative cycles—breaking down project components into smaller tasks that get completed in manageable chunks of time, typically 4-6 weeks. This method promotes collaboration between all stakeholders and is best for when the scope of a project may change over time.

Kanban Methodology

Kanban methodology is based on visualizing your workflow—limiting the number of tasks you work on in each phase to ensure you’re not taking on more than you can handle. This style works well with teams that rely on tasks or design files passing through multiple hands before hitting completion.

Scrum Methodology

Scrum methodology is a combination of the waterfall and agile approaches, perfect for teams with complex projects that require shorter check-ins to identify priorities in between deadlines. It also provides more structure than traditional agile methods while keeping the team flexible enough to handle changes.

As unique as every design project may be, the best way to get after them is by breaking them down into the key phases of project management—from brainstorming through project execution . We’ll show you. 🤓

Phase 1: Brainstorming 

Your design project usually starts with a request—not to be confused with a roadmap! Your request just covers the basics of a project, so it’s less of a North Star and more of a springboard for your project management process. It’s what sets the groundwork for the design brief, and where the team’s creativity stems from. 

Creative briefs dig into the details of the request, outlining the initial project requirements, objectives, and potential obstacles. It should center around the who, what, where, why, why, and how of your project with a focus on the request and its overall goal.

With your design brief ready, the team can begin brainstorming concepts, drawing mock-ups, and collaborating on ways to fulfill the request. This is best done in a team brainstorming session using proven techniques to inspire creativity within the structure laid out in the brief. 

Your creative project management tool will already come in handy here—especially visual tools like digital whiteboard software for creating wireframes, sketching out new concepts, and collaborating on a mood board alongside the team. 

PRO TIP Keep your ideas together and act on them faster when you brainstorm on a ClickUp digital whiteboard! Whiteboards in ClickUp are as collaborative as they are creative, with live cursors to sketch, edit, and present concepts to the team without overlap, they’re the ideal resource for capturing your ideas in an instant. Plus, access hundreds of whiteboard-specific templates for everything from vision boards to action plans to align the team on immediate goals, expectations, and more. 

Once you’ve collected your top ideas, it may be time to share them with the client. If you’re using a collaborative whiteboard tool, you can simply present your canvas during the initial meeting to convey your designs properly and most effectively. 

Your first meeting is crucial. It’s how project managers can set the expectation for ongoing communication when it comes to the tone, frequency, and channels between the team and client. 

It’s also your client’s first opportunity to provide feedback and the team’s first opportunity to apply it—two factors that will play a critical role in your working relationship going forward. The client may already have a vision in mind for the end product.

Now, it’s up to the design leads to use the tools in front of them (i.e. the request, brief, and initial ideas) to ask pinpoint that concept and bring it to life. 

Plus, it’s critical that the amount of work required to complete the request aligns with your client’s budget and expectations. This may require some reworking to make both parties happy.

However, setting clear professional boundaries early on will ensure members and clients remain on the same page about what can be completed with the resources at hand. And when your team and stakeholders are in agreement, it’s time to make a project plan! 

Phase 2: Project planning and prep

A thorough planning stage sets your team up for overall project success. This is where you can assess your design concept for potential bottlenecks or setbacks, and properly prepare before you proceed. 

This information is essential to construct your design project roadmap and eventual task list! And we’re talking about every task involved in the project, not just the ones centered around design alone. A detailed master list of your most important tasks will reveal additional information like task dependencies and will inform your future deadlines.

From there, you can begin scheduling any routine meetings, evaluating your resources, and setting a rough project timeline . At this point, your roadmap is already taking shape and soon you’ll be ready to take your project off the whiteboard! 

With your high-level project plan, you can hone in on the details to identify your project milestones, and major due dates, and start assigning tasks to build your workflows! Once your tasks are assigned, milestones are set, and deadlines are created, you’ll be ready to move to the next phase. 

PRO TIP If you’re using Whiteboards in ClickUp, you can simply convert shapes from your board into actionable tasks and start acting on your workflow in seconds. Features like multiple assignees , watchers, assigned comments , and custom task statuses will bring more visibility into your task progress from the start and keep members in the loop as the project progresses. 

Phase 3: Set your plan in motion

Time for the exciting part—you’re ready to execute! At this point, you’ll be itching to just get started. And proper planning makes that significantly easier. 

Your roadmap is essentially the blueprint for the project, but as the team acts on it, project views like Gantt charts , Kanban boards , and calendars will help managers oversee timelines in real-time and from any level. They can also help you anticipate significant project events like milestones and upcoming stakeholder meetings!

Make sure you’re consistently checking in with your clients and holding enough meetings with the team and external stakeholders to keep everyone informed on any major changes. Regular check-ins with the team shouldn’t take away important design time, but a weekly 10-minute block to touch base will give you peace of mind when reporting back to stakeholders. 

Phase 4: Staying on track

As your project progresses, you’ll have at least one major round of feedback from your client. Ideally, your check-ins along the way have ensured there’re no big surprises here, and the edits are minor! But it’s still crucial that you allow enough time for proper revisions as a precaution. 

While the idea of feedback and multiple iterations can feel like a bit of a gray area in your schedule, there are tons of ways to stay on track and ahead of the curve as your final deadline approaches like:

• Task automations to eliminate busy work from your team’s plate
• Keep a shared design folder handy to reference past work, hold current designs, and in general, keep your important work together
• Creating a standardized method for naming and exporting your work so you’ll never lose time searching for assets 

PRO TIP ClickUp Dashboards give managers a customizable bird’s eye view of their project health to ensure peak performance. You can track your progress toward completion by the number of Milestones reached, calculate time spent on tasks, review your team’s workload, and more! So you’ll never feel surprised by your project schedule.

Phase 5: Project closing and reflecting

The project may be coming to a close, but it’s far from over! Particularly when it comes to client relationships. 

In this stage, you are turning over the approved deliverables to your client or stakeholders for the last time and ensuring you met their expectations from top to bottom. As a project manager, this is also the time to double-check that every task is marked as complete and that the internal copies or your assets are properly named and categorized. 

The final stage of your project management process can be used to touch back with your client and reflect on the experience overall. Use this as an opportunity to learn from failures.

Was there any part of your design process that didn’t go as planned?

Take the time to consider what worked well and, simply put, what just didn’t. Make the process even easier for your project team with the ClickUp Project Retrospective Template . This will help you avoid repeating the same mistakes and ultimately help you become a better project manager.

Plus, your client will appreciate it—and likely return to your team for other design projects in the future!

10 Tips for Design Project Managers

So, we’ve outlined the elements driving each phase of project management—but the best-kept secrets of design project management lie in the details! 

Before your next kick-off meeting, take a look through these tried and true tricks of the trade to make your efforts even more impactful to the team.

As you take on more design projects, think of ways to probe the right information out of your clients right out of the gate. Cover the basics but also get specific, ask questions, and use previous client feedback in addition to your own experience to perfect your intake process.

Form view in ClickUp will make this simple, easy, and presentation-ready with a simple URL to share with clients. Once they’re finished, your Form will automatically turn into an actionable task in ClickUp so the team wastes no time reviewing, brainstorming, and creating your project strategy.

Before you consider bringing in the client, make sure your entire team is connected and in agreement with the final assets. Have the team review the final project internally to voice any last-minute concerns and iron out the little details that make all the difference for your client. 

No matter the type of project goals or expectations, in the very first meeting you have to avoid misunderstandings and awkward client conversations. The best way to do this is by coming prepared with meeting notes or detailed project goals to keep the conversation on track.

Silos are the death of any great design project. Encourage your team to work together and communicate often. But we get it—the problem usually comes back to things getting lost in email.

It doesn’t have to be that way. Tools like Chat view in ClickUp will centralize all of your project conversations and include every member of the team without the pressure of external stakeholders watching your every move.

There’s a fine line, and you want to toe it! Overly communicative managers give off the “micromanagement” vibe, really fast—even if they’re well-intentioned. Custom task statuses give managers visibility to individual task progress and eliminate the need for daily check-ins.

Bring more information into every glance to avoid digging through a pool of tasks to find the update you’re looking for. And if you’re using Custom Fields in ClickUp , you can even track billable time, notes, iterations, and updates without ever leaving your List.

You can even filter and group tasks based on your Custom Fields to comb through tasks in a matter of seconds and work more efficiently across the board. 

Try to give yourself more time than you think. This buffer time will ease the team’s mind and keep projects on time, even when unexpected challenges arise.

Don’t book meetings over your team’s focus time, and don’t give in to all of your client’s last-minute requests for an additional meeting. This will also help your team find a healthy work-life balance and lead to a more positive attitude toward the project.

Design project management is a constant balancing act! Giving your designers clear parameters to work within will ensure they’re channeling their creativity in the most productive way.

10. Get feedback from the team

Like a team retrospective, ask your designers what went well and what caused problems so you can improve their experience at work. Get to know their skillset, workstyles, preferred communication channels, and strengths.

Don’t be afraid to make another survey—it might sound a little cheesy but your team will really appreciate it. The Workload view in ClickUp will give you an idea of who is overworked, who has additional bandwidth, and where your team is in their workload overall!

Design Project Management Software

The best way to help design leads succeed in every project? Start with the right creative project management tools! 

ClickUp is the only project management tool powerful enough to bring all of your work together in one collaborative and dynamic platform. With thousands of customizable templates , hundreds of project management software features, and over 1,000 integrations , it’s ideal for any design team at any stage in their project management process.

Make the most of the pro tips noted throughout this article and streamline your project management process when you sign up for ClickUp’s Free Forever Plan —or upgrade your feature list for as little as $7! 

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1 Project management methodologies: overview and definitions

Learning Outcomes

• Assess what constitutes project management methodologies.
• Determine the importance of methodologies in project management.
• Contextualise the various types of methodologies.

What exactly are methodologies in project management?

Methodologies for project management are a series of distinct processes that have been developed to offer assistance to project managers and team members. There are various definitions of a project management methodology but they all have the same grounding: it is a set of procedures, concepts, and regulations for managing a project to a successful end.

We would like to define it as: a collection of guiding principles and procedures for managing a project .

Project management methodologies describe the way we operate and communicate while managing projects. Methodologies are collections of guiding ideas and procedures that can be used to plan, manage, and execute projects. These methods of managing work are focused entirely on determining the most effective way to begin, plan, and carry out tasks. However, as a project manager, remember that your choice of approach for managing projects will impact how work is prioritised and how it is carried out.

When it comes to project management, using these methodologies serves 2 purposes: first, it expedites the completion of the duties associated with the project, and second, it provides solutions for dealing with problems as they appear. In addressing these two main purposes, the methodologies also guide the team through the entire project and provide them with steps to take and goals to work towards, while aiming to achieve the successful completion of the project.

Why use a project management methodology?

One of the most important objectives of a methodology is to standardise, structure, and organise the many methods within which the work is performed. This helps us to integrate all initiatives in the same way while offering us the capacity to reproduce successful components of the project. Well-adopted methodologies will also help us to learn from our previous errors, and ultimately lead us into a process of continuous improvement. Therefore, using a methodology can be a very helpful tool for developing project efficiency.

• Using a methodology in project management offers the opportunity for project managers to:
• better organise project life cycles
• adopt specific tools that allow for a precise time and cost estimation
• oversee and mitigate risks associated with the project
• improve the cost-benefit analysis of the project resources in a pragmatic way
• develop the team capabilities and competencies

In terms of resources, a methodology may help to speed up the learning curve of the project team, as it provides a well-established framework and structure for executing the project. When it is used in complex projects, methodologies can be adjusted and updated to be more in line with the individual working style of the team members as well as the strategic direction of the organisation. If a project manager selects a methodology that is acceptable and standardised, it is quite possible to improve the work performance while simultaneously lowering the need for extra resources to accommodate any changes triggered by the complexities of the project.

There is no doubt that the project team benefits from having access to a set of standards – a methodology that assists them to initiate and manage specific projects to a successful closure. Consequently, an effective methodology should have clear and transparent definitions, guidelines, and sample processes for the numerous project management activities that must be accomplished to execute successful projects. A project management methodology establishes a common basis for all the organisation’s activities. But most importantly, it establishes the grounds for success.

Project management methodologies offer the perfect planning framework to support the project throughout its life cycle. However, before attempting to implement a certain methodology style, it is necessary to have a thorough understanding of its benefits. Different project types require different management approaches. As a project manager, if you do not have a complete understanding of the benefits, you will be unable to maximise these effectively. Every methodology can be thought of as a reference framework, some of which are better suited to specific circumstances than others. Having the right methodology is critical. The right methodology adoption and implementation will assist project managers to lower or mitigate potential risks, prevent unnecessary duplication of tasks and activities, and eventually boost the overall outcome of the project. A methodology is a form of control mechanism that will enable and potentially ensure that the project closure is reached in the most efficient and effective way. Organisations that use a methodology in a disciplined, well-managed, and consistent manner will gain a competitive advantage and achieve consistent project success.

Figure 1. Project management methodologies support areas, by Carmen Reaiche and Samantha Papavasiliou, licensed under CC BY (Attribution) 4.0

Some of the benefits of having a project management methodology are shown above in Figure 1. But there are five significant advantages to using a project management methodology that we would like to focus on.

Advantage 1: Communication flow

When the project team members adhere to the same method, the communication channels and inclusive language become standardised. Because organisations often have many projects going at once, communication might become quite challenging. Having clear communication channels enables interaction and integration between various projects managers, allows team members and stakeholders to integrate their views, and helps sponsors to make decisions that are consistently sound and based on accessible information. Organisations should prioritise communication as an important goal and having a good methodology can support this goal.

Advantage 2: Control management

When project managers implement and run the right methodology, they are better equipped to monitor how the project and their management initiatives are progressing. A methodology provides a control system that enables project managers to monitor what is working well and what isn’t and determine whether objectives are meeting their maximum potential.

Methodologies are control management systems. When applied correctly, these systems act as governance tools that can guarantee that everything that is going on in the project life cycle can be easily identified, and that governance decisions are transparent and on time. In fact, project governance and monitoring make up a considerable portion of the components that comprise a project management methodology. They pave the way for project activities to progress in a manner that is not only organised but also easy to comprehend and communicate.

Advantage 3: Global competence

Tendering can be a complex process and in the globalised arena in which we live today it can be especially challenging for businesses to win contractual projects. The tendering process asks an organisation to respond to a formal request for the supply of goods, services and/or projects. Adhering to a consistent process can help an organisation win external contracts. In project management, there are a lot of bids that demand the use of specific methodologies. For example, in the engineering field there are many bids that list PRINCE2 as a prerequisite. In the public sector, tendering will require the application of Agile tools. Even if your role as project manager doesn’t require you to be involved in tendering or to participate in the bidding process of a contractual project, adopting a methodology (of any kind) is an essential component of good project management. It serves as a safeguard against everything that could possibly go wrong with projects and helps us to get back on track.

Advantage 4: Providing support during uncertain times

Methodologies can also assist project managers with overcoming the unknowns and uncertainties that are an inherent part of project management. With the support of procedures such as end-of-phase and gate reviews, it is possible for projects to transition from one stage to the next in a controlled and effective way. Without the proper control tools and methodology, many project managers would find it difficult to manage a project and access the information they need.

According to the literature (see, for example, Betts and Landsley 1995; Charvat 2003; Bondarenko 2017), the methodology capability of assisting with organising and structuring information is one of the main reasons why methodologies are important, particularly to project managers new to the trade. They provide supportive mechanisms that ensure that a project manager sticks to all the set protocols, follows the relevant processes, and obtains the required authorisations when required. These mechanisms are particularly useful and relevant in the face of uncertain events, ensuring that project managers do all the required tasks at the appropriate times. If project managers don’t have access to a set structure or guide, or lack instructions that might assist them, then they may be forced to access more management support to avoid managing their projects to failure.

Advantage 5: Mapping processes to success

Project managers with any level of expertise may benefit from methodologies that display a degree of flexibility as they provide the required level of support to aid efficiency and facilitate the project manager’s work. Methodologies can be very regimented, which means that they do not provide a great deal of room for deviations. To some project managers, this could be a disadvantage as it can restrict creativity. However, a well-structured methodology is more likely to guarantee successful project completion. Distinctions between the steps of the process can enable users to divide tasks more quickly and minimise errors that would otherwise be impossible to manage. Because of a methodology’s rigidity, project managers are required to pay meticulous attention to each stage, which in turn results in an automatically improved, controlled approach to the final outcome of the project.

Disadvantages

From a practitioner’s perspective we could extend the list of advantages presented above; however, it is also important to highlight some of the disadvantages that are prevalent when a project management methodology is adopted. The advantages of having a methodology are very encouraging, but there is some research that suggests that methodologies provide no value to projects (see, for example, Bondarenko et al. 2018; Perrin 2018). The lack of value is seen in scenarios where project managers are experts in the field of the project, have extensive expertise in managing complex large projects, and have a clear understanding of the organisation’s strategy. Methodologies have been proven to be effective in situations where they replace and/or complement project managers who lack the necessary expertise and skills, and this has generated a misconception that it is the only value they bring to projects. However, we should acknowledge that, when it comes to mid-level, experienced project managers who have an average amount of experience and accountability, there is also a point in the middle of managing a project, where the benefits of using a methodology begin to diminish.

Another disadvantage that we have seen is the disconnection that sometimes exists between what project managers believe to be of value for the project and what the organisation believes to be beneficial on a strategic level. Therefore, it is critical to establish a good communication system between all stakeholders and have everyone on the same level of understanding when implementing a methodology.

Methods aren’t flawless, but they do offer a lot of benefits to the individual project manager as well as the organisation. There are many different routes that can be taken to successfully implement a methodology and complete a project. The best and most popular approaches, strategies, and frameworks are always evolving so we cannot suggest a single example for you to adopt. Behind any successfully completed project is a plethora of different strategies, methodologies, and procedures. In fact, you will most likely have the opportunity to make use of more than one of them during your project management career.

In this book, we will discuss some of the key methodologies, as well as specific components of these methodologies, that you may apply in practice in order to successfully deliver projects to completion. Table 1 lists some of these key project management methodologies and provides a brief explanation of the techniques that will be covered in the next modules.

Table 1. Project management methodologies groups, by Carmen Reaiche and Samantha Papavasiliou, licensed under CC BY (Attribution) 4.0

In sum, the various methodologies, strategies, and frameworks available to project managers are also useful to others. Figure 2 below shows a few guidelines for adopting a new methodology, but keep in mind that there is no one-size-fits-all framework. As discussed earlier, the whole team working on the project will benefit from these as they will need a tool to help them gain a solid grasp of the project objectives and maximise the project’s and organisation’s resources. The right methodology will help the team achieve these. Irrespective of the methodology option you select, the processes embedded under each methodology will ensure that the rest of the project requirements and procedures are carried out without a glitch. Keep in mind that there is no such thing as a standard organisation strategy, typical project or team members – each of these are unique to the environment in which they and the project operates and resides. Therefore, each methodology must be understood and applied accordingly. Keep in mind that it is also possible that you will not find success using a methodology or an approach that has been successful for someone else. Because of this, we highly recommend that you try multiple methodologies and forecast in which way you might use these effectively for each of your unique projects.

Figure 2. A project management methodology roadmap adoption, by Carmen Reaiche and Samantha Papavasiliou, licensed under CC BY (Attribution) 4.0

Test your knowledge

Key Takeaways

• As a project manager, aim to establish a productive culture for project management which will enable you and your team to employ a project management methodology in an efficient manner.
• Enhance the abilities of your project team members and provide them with a comprehensive understanding as well as a stable basis so that they may effectively manage their projects.
• A methodology should facilitate the clarification of goals and the scope of the project by integrating the organisation’s strategy and best practices of all project management group processes.

Betts M and Lansley P (1995) ‘ International Journal of Project Management : a review of the first ten years’, International Journal of Project Management , 13(4):207–217.

Bondarenko S (2017) ‘Synergetic management as a management technology of enterprise innovative development’, Journal of Applied Management and Investments , 6(4): 223–230.

Bondarenko S, Lagodienko V, Sedikova I and Kalaman O (2018) ‘Application of project analysis software in project management in the pre-investment phase’, Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology , 9(13):676–684.

Charvat J (2003) Project management methodologies: selecting, implementing and supporting methodologies and processes for projects , John Wiley & Sons.

Perrin JM (2018) ‘The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry: the disadvantages of project management’,  Project Management in the Library Workplace  ( Advances in Library Administration and Organization, Vol. 38 ), Emerald Publishing Limited, Bingley, 71–88.

Management Methods for Complex Projects Copyright © 2022 by Carmen Reaiche and Samantha Papavasiliou is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Methodology Design 101

- “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there.”

When we introduced “PRIDE” as the first commercial methodology for system design in 1971 we never realized the impact it would ultimately have on the industry. It spawned several competitors, both commercially and academically, many of which were various interpretations of the classic “waterfall” approach as implemented by colleges and CPA firms. Today, many companies avoid the use of methodologies as they are considered bureaucratic paper mills. In some instances, this is true, but the fact remains, you cannot build anything of substance, be it a system or otherwise, without a methodology. The question then becomes, how to construct a methodology suitable for your company or a given project. To this end, I offer this tutorial on designing methodologies.

INTRODUCTION

If we lived in a perfect world, there would not be a need for managers. Everyone would know precisely what their assignments were and would successfully accomplish them on time and within budget. However, the reality is we live in an imperfect world. We as human beings make mistakes; we work on multiple assignments concurrently, and require guidance. It must be recognized from the outset that project management does not come free, nor does it come naturally to people.

Traditionally, the typical approach to project management has most often been to find a project manager, provide resources, and then give them an assignment with no direction as to how the project will be conducted or controlled. Under this approach, the success or failure of the project is dependent on the abilities and experience of the project manager and how well the manager can organize and train the project team, plan the project, estimate, etc. Consequently, there is significant trial and error in the process. This approach usually results in a unique method for the particular project because it reflects the thinking of the project manager. Different managers use different techniques and ideas. In other words, it is quite common for systems projects to lack uniformity and consistency, thereby workers have to learn the methodology with each new project assignment.

Another common approach used was the “brute-force approach.” Simply stated,  “I don’t care how you get the job done; just have it completed by (date).”  This approach shows a lack of sensitivity to the complexity of project management.

There is more to project management than maintaining costs and time schedules. It is the process of applying resources to a defined goal and attaining this goal within time and cost objectives. Fundamentally, it is a people oriented function as opposed to an administrative or clerical function. Project management, therefore, is not a tool or technique, but rather a philosophy of management.

Project management is to a methodology, what production control is to an assembly line. Without the assembly line, production control is a useless exercise. Conversely, without a methodology, project management is useless.

The ultimate test of a methodology is if it can operate independent of project management. The two are not synonymous. Although they work in concert, there are distinct differences. Whereas a methodology dictates what work is required, project management controls the application of work. Just as an assembly line can produce a product without production control, a methodology can produce a product without project management. Therefore, a methodology is independent of project management, but project management is totally dependent upon a methodology.

A project is an application of effort towards prescribed objectives through the execution of a defined sequence of events.  All projects have a life cycle; a beginning for planning, a middle for execution, and an end for review. Each project has a unique scope, set of objectives and defined sequence of events. The methodology thereby is the “road map” for a project. It provides organization and direction.

For any methodology, there should be a conceptual foundation explaining the rationale for its structure. In the case of “PRIDE,” we introduced the concept that  “a system is a product that can be engineered and manufactured like any other product.”  This was a revolutionary idea at the time, and still is to many system developers today. Nevertheless, this concept allowed us to use a hierarchical product structure to decompose a system top-down, and test/install bottom-up. This permits us to design and build the various parts of a system in parallel and concurrently, just as engineering and architectural projects are conducted.

“PRIDE” was a departure from the conventional wisdom that systems were developed using a linear approach, such as that found in the “waterfall” approach.

WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE (WBS)

In order to perform project planning, we must resolve the following questions:

1. What is the scope of the project? – The scope must state the project’s objectives and the parts of the organization involved, both directly and indirectly.

2. What are the steps required to meet the project’s objectives? Performing work in a logical sequence gives direction to the project. The inability to do so results in lost time and effort. Therefore, not only do the required steps in a project need to be defined, but the precedent relationships between work steps must also be defined.

3. What are the deliverables and benchmarks of the project? In order to verify a particular project task has been completed, it is necessary to substantiate that all aspects of the task has successfully been executed. An impartial and objective mechanism checking the completeness of tasks is necessary. It is important to demonstrate tangible results from our project efforts in the form of accomplishments and deliverables.  Any task that does not result in a reviewable or tangible result is an unnecessary step that should be eliminated.

4. What resources are required to perform the work? Assigning the correct resources to the appropriate work steps is a critical factor in every project. By properly defining the work steps and the benchmarks, it is possible to clearly identify the skills required to execute the steps. Resources with the appropriate skills and availability can then be assigned to the project tasks.

A WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE IS A HIERARCHY

All projects have a structure depending on the methodology used. The methodology defines what is going to be produced. It can be as simple as one step or as extensive as several phases involving multiple activities and tasks. The methodology represents the selected approach for implementing a project. It is structured into a hierarchy consisting of one or more phases of work. A phase represents a major “key event” or milestone in the project. Each phase consists of one or more activities representing “sub-events” required to meet the milestone. Each activity consists of one or more operational steps or tasks representing the individual actions to be taken in the project.

Each phase, activity and operation of a methodology should produce a reviewable result (work product) to substantiate completion of assignments. Otherwise, a methodology becomes a meaningless series of tasks.  In systems development, such deliverables include such things as reports (e.g., Feasibility studies, design documents, program source code (and executables), data base structures, test data, test results, project audit, etc.). If the deliverable hasn’t been produced, we can conclude the work step wasn’t performed. If the deliverable was produced, there should be criteria to evaluate it, thereby providing a mechanism to review and correct if necessary.

Bottom-line, for each work step, we should define:

* What is its purpose? * What will it produce (deliverable)? * What is the criteria for substantiating completion? * Who will perform the work (e.g., project functions assigned to the work step, such as analysts, programmers, managers, carpenters, architects, etc.).

The level of detail required to perform a project is ultimately left to the discretion of the Project Manager. If a simple project, perhaps the manager will only define a phase with a few activities. However, if a project is large and complex, the manager may wish to define and manage at the operation level.

PRECEDENT RELATIONSHIPS (DEPENDENCIES)

Up to this point we have only defined WHAT work is involved, not its sequencing. A methodology defines not only the various units of work, but also dependencies between the work steps. Such dependencies are referred to as “precedent relationships.”

Project worksteps may be conducted either sequentially or in parallel (alluding to “branching”). Precedent relationships define what worksteps precede and succeed a single work step.

Precedent relationships can be defined between work steps in the same level of the methodology structure. This means:

PROJECT-TO-PROJECT relationships.

PHASE-TO-PHASE relationships.

ACTIVITY-TO-ACTIVITY relationships.

OPERATION-TO-OPERATION relationships.

This brings up two points:

* Progression between project work steps at the same level cannot proceed until the subordinate levels are fulfilled. This means you cannot move from one project to another until all of the phases from the first project have been performed; nor can you move from one phase to another until all of the activities from the first phase have been performed; nor can you move from one activity to another until all of the operations from the first activity have been performed.

* You cannot define lower level work steps until you have first defined the higher levels. In other words, you must define phases before you define activities, before you define operations.

The one exception to this is a PHASE-TO-PROJECT relationship where a separate project can be activated pending completion of a phase. This can be demonstrated by separate “PRIDE”-ISEM (Systems Engineering) and “PRIDE”-DBEM (Data Base Engineering) projects:

NOTE: Although Project-to-Project and Phase-to-Project Relationships are permitted, they are uncommon. Most projects will only show inner dependencies (phase-to-phase, activity-to-activity, operation-to-operation).

Although “branching” (parallelism) can occur at any level in the methodology, the project manager will typically find less need for branching at the lower levels of the methodology structure. This means phases are more apt to branch than operations. Most operational steps within an activity are performed serially (sequentially).

To expedite the development of methodology structures, we have provided a “Methodology Definition Worksheet” which is used to define the Work Breakdown Structure and precedent relationships. To illustrate:

LEVEL-1: DECOMPOSING A METHODOLOGY INTO PHASES

METHODOLOGY CRITERIA

In order to effectively organize a project it is important to recognize the basic elements of a methodology:

Mandatory Requirements

1. A defined Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) – consisting of a series of work steps in various levels of abstraction (e.g., Phases, Activities, Operations).

2. Defines the project functions responsible for performing the various work steps.

3. Defines the project dependencies (the precedent relationships between work steps).

Without these mandatory requirements, a methodology is illegitimate and should be referred to as something else.

Optional Requirements

1. Have a single phase to initiate a project, and a single phase to conclude it. Multiple starts and multiple ends are not desirable from a management point of view.

2. The methodology structures should be based on reviewable work products to verify completeness. If the methodology is not defined accordingly, the “Dance of the Fairies” phenomenon occurs – this is where a series of meaningless work steps are defined with no verifiable end result.

3. The methodology structures should be reusable on multiple projects.

4. Provide for both sequential and parallel project execution.

5. The methodology structures should accommodate a product structure, thereby allowing parallel processing.

6. Although these latter requirements are not mandatory, they are highly desirable features and have been incorporated into the methodologies in “PRIDE”.

Project planning is made simpler by the existence of standard methodologies, such as “PRIDE,” which include defined phases, activities, deliverables, precedent relationships and the functions to perform the work. This saves time in project planning and brings consistency to projects of like kind.

Then again, system designers and programmers tend to resist the discipline of a methodology; as such, the old adage is true, “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there.” However, it is inconceivable to build anything of substance without a methodology; it is how bridges and skyscrapers are built, automobiles, aircraft, consumer electronics, highways, even medical care and food service. Come to think of it, just about everything requires a methodology. So what makes system designers and programmers special?

For more information on the “PRIDE” Methodologies for IRM, see: http://www.amazon.com/PRIDE-Methodologies-IRM-Tim-Bryce/dp/097861822X

Keep the Faith!

Note: All trademarks both marked and unmarked belong to their respective companies.

Author : Tim Bryce,    Managing Director of  M&JB Investment Company

For Tim’s columns, see:   timbryce.com

Copyright © 2015 by Tim Bryce. All rights reserved.

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The 5 Stages in the Design Thinking Process

Design thinking is a methodology which provides a solution-based approach to solving problems. It’s extremely useful when used to tackle complex problems that are ill-defined or unknown—because it serves to understand the human needs involved, reframe the problem in human-centric ways, create numerous ideas in brainstorming sessions and adopt a hands-on approach to prototyping and testing. When you know how to apply the five stages of design thinking you will be impowered because you can apply the methodology to solve complex problems that occur in our companies, our countries, and across the world.

Design thinking is a non-linear, iterative process that can have anywhere from three to seven phases, depending on whom you talk to. We focus on the five-stage design thinking model proposed by the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford (the d.school) because they are world-renowned for the way they teach and apply design thinking.

What are the 5 Stages of the Design Thinking Process

The five stages of design thinking, according to the d.school, are:

Empathize : research your users' needs .

Define : state your users' needs and problems.

Ideate : challenge assumptions and create ideas.

Prototype : start to create solutions.

Test : try your solutions out.

Let’s dive into each stage of the design thinking process.

Hasso-Platner Institute Panorama

Ludwig Wilhelm Wall, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

• Transcript loading…

Stage 1: Empathize—Research Your Users' Needs

Empathize: the first phase of design thinking, where you gain real insight into users and their needs.

© Teo Yu Siang and the Interaction Design Foundation, CC BY-NC-SA 3.0.

The first stage of the design thinking process focuses on user-centric research . You want to gain an empathic understanding of the problem you are trying to solve. Consult experts to find out more about the area of concern and conduct observations to engage and empathize with your users. You may also want to immerse yourself in your users’ physical environment to gain a deeper, personal understanding of the issues involved—as well as their experiences and motivations . Empathy is crucial to problem solving and a human-centered design process as it allows design thinkers to set aside their own assumptions about the world and gain real insight into users and their needs.

Depending on time constraints, you will gather a substantial amount of information to use during the next stage. The main aim of the Empathize stage is to develop the best possible understanding of your users, their needs and the problems that underlie the development of the product or service you want to create.

Stage 2: Define—State Your Users' Needs and Problems

Define: the second phase of design thinking, where you define the problem statement in a human-centered manner.

In the Define stage, you will organize the information you have gathered during the Empathize stage. You’ll analyze your observations to define the core problems you and your team have identified up to this point. Defining the problem and problem statement must be done in a human-centered manner .

For example, you should not define the problem as your own wish or need of the company: “We need to increase our food-product market share among young teenage girls by 5%.”

You should pitch the problem statement from your perception of the users’ needs: “Teenage girls need to eat nutritious food in order to thrive, be healthy and grow.”

The Define stage will help the design team collect great ideas to establish features, functions and other elements to solve the problem at hand—or, at the very least, allow real users to resolve issues themselves with minimal difficulty. In this stage, you will start to progress to the third stage, the ideation phase, where you ask questions to help you look for solutions: “How might we encourage teenage girls to perform an action that benefits them and also involves your company’s food-related product or service?” for instance.

Stage 3: Ideate—Challenge Assumptions and Create Ideas

Ideate: the third phase of design thinking, where you identify innovative solutions to the problem statement you’ve created.

During the third stage of the design thinking process, designers are ready to generate ideas. You’ve grown to understand your users and their needs in the Empathize stage, and you’ve analyzed your observations in the Define stage to create a user centric problem statement. With this solid background, you and your team members can start to look at the problem from different perspectives and ideate innovative solutions to your problem statement .

There are hundreds of ideation techniques you can use—such as Brainstorm, Brainwrite , Worst Possible Idea and SCAMPER . Brainstorm and Worst Possible Idea techniques are typically used at the start of the ideation stage to stimulate free thinking and expand the problem space. This allows you to generate as many ideas as possible at the start of ideation. You should pick other ideation techniques towards the end of this stage to help you investigate and test your ideas, and choose the best ones to move forward with—either because they seem to solve the problem or provide the elements required to circumvent it.

Stage 4: Prototype—Start to Create Solutions

Prototype: the fourth phase of design thinking, where you identify the best possible solution.

The design team will now produce a number of inexpensive, scaled down versions of the product (or specific features found within the product) to investigate the key solutions generated in the ideation phase. These prototypes can be shared and tested within the team itself, in other departments or on a small group of people outside the design team.

This is an experimental phase, and the aim is to identify the best possible solution for each of the problems identified during the first three stages . The solutions are implemented within the prototypes and, one by one, they are investigated and then accepted, improved or rejected based on the users’ experiences.

By the end of the Prototype stage, the design team will have a better idea of the product’s limitations and the problems it faces. They’ll also have a clearer view of how real users would behave, think and feel when they interact with the end product.

Stage 5: Test—Try Your Solutions Out

Test: the fifth and final phase of the design thinking process, where you test solutions to derive a deep understanding of the product and its users.

Designers or evaluators rigorously test the complete product using the best solutions identified in the Prototype stage. This is the final stage of the five-stage model; however, in an iterative process such as design thinking, the results generated are often used to redefine one or more further problems. This increased level of understanding may help you investigate the conditions of use and how people think, behave and feel towards the product, and even lead you to loop back to a previous stage in the design thinking process. You can then proceed with further iterations and make alterations and refinements to rule out alternative solutions. The ultimate goal is to get as deep an understanding of the product and its users as possible.

Did You Know Design Thinking is a Non-Linear Process?

We’ve outlined a direct and linear design thinking process here, in which one stage seemingly leads to the next with a logical conclusion at user testing . However, in practice, the process is carried out in a more flexible and non-linear fashion . For example, different groups within the design team may conduct more than one stage concurrently, or designers may collect information and prototype throughout each stage of the project to bring their ideas to life and visualize the problem solutions as they go. What’s more, results from the Test stage may reveal new insights about users which lead to another brainstorming session (Ideate) or the development of new prototypes (Prototype).

It is important to note the five stages of design thinking are not always sequential. They do not have to follow a specific order, and they can often occur in parallel or be repeated iteratively. The stages should be understood as different modes which contribute to the entire design project, rather than sequential steps.

The design thinking process should not be seen as a concrete and inflexible approach to design; the component stages identified should serve as a guide to the activities you carry out. The stages might be switched, conducted concurrently or repeated several times to gain the most informative insights about your users, expand the solution space and hone in on innovative solutions.

This is one of the main benefits of the five-stage model. Knowledge acquired in the latter stages of the process can inform repeats of earlier stages . Information is continually used to inform the understanding of the problem and solution spaces, and to redefine the problem itself. This creates a perpetual loop, in which the designers continue to gain new insights, develop new ways to view the product (or service) and its possible uses and develop a far more profound understanding of their real users and the problems they face.

The Take Away

Design thinking is an iterative, non-linear process which focuses on a collaboration between designers and users. It brings innovative solutions to life based on how real users think, feel and behave.

This human-centered design process consists of five core stages Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test.

It’s important to note that these stages are a guide. The iterative, non-linear nature of design thinking means you and your design team can carry these stages out simultaneously, repeat them and even circle back to previous stages at any point in the design thinking process.

References & Where to Learn More

Take our Design Thinking course which is the ultimate guide when you want to learn how to you can apply design thinking methods throughout a design thinking process. Herbert Simon, The Sciences of the Artificial (3rd Edition), 1996.

d.school, An Introduction to Design Thinking PROCESS GUIDE , 2010.

Gerd Waloszek, Introduction to Design Thinking , 2012.

Hero Image: © the Interaction Design Foundation, CC BY-NC-SA 3.0.

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Methodology

• What Is a Research Design | Types, Guide & Examples

What Is a Research Design | Types, Guide & Examples

Published on June 7, 2021 by Shona McCombes . Revised on November 20, 2023 by Pritha Bhandari.

A research design is a strategy for answering your   research question  using empirical data. Creating a research design means making decisions about:

• Your overall research objectives and approach
• Whether you’ll rely on primary research or secondary research
• Your sampling methods or criteria for selecting subjects
• Your data collection methods
• The procedures you’ll follow to collect data
• Your data analysis methods

A well-planned research design helps ensure that your methods match your research objectives and that you use the right kind of analysis for your data.

Table of contents

Step 1: consider your aims and approach, step 2: choose a type of research design, step 3: identify your population and sampling method, step 4: choose your data collection methods, step 5: plan your data collection procedures, step 6: decide on your data analysis strategies, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about research design.

• Introduction

Before you can start designing your research, you should already have a clear idea of the research question you want to investigate.

There are many different ways you could go about answering this question. Your research design choices should be driven by your aims and priorities—start by thinking carefully about what you want to achieve.

The first choice you need to make is whether you’ll take a qualitative or quantitative approach.

Qualitative research designs tend to be more flexible and inductive , allowing you to adjust your approach based on what you find throughout the research process.

Quantitative research designs tend to be more fixed and deductive , with variables and hypotheses clearly defined in advance of data collection.

It’s also possible to use a mixed-methods design that integrates aspects of both approaches. By combining qualitative and quantitative insights, you can gain a more complete picture of the problem you’re studying and strengthen the credibility of your conclusions.

Practical and ethical considerations when designing research

As well as scientific considerations, you need to think practically when designing your research. If your research involves people or animals, you also need to consider research ethics .

• How much time do you have to collect data and write up the research?
• Will you be able to gain access to the data you need (e.g., by travelling to a specific location or contacting specific people)?
• Do you have the necessary research skills (e.g., statistical analysis or interview techniques)?
• Will you need ethical approval ?

At each stage of the research design process, make sure that your choices are practically feasible.

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Within both qualitative and quantitative approaches, there are several types of research design to choose from. Each type provides a framework for the overall shape of your research.

Types of quantitative research designs

Quantitative designs can be split into four main types.

• Experimental and   quasi-experimental designs allow you to test cause-and-effect relationships
• Descriptive and correlational designs allow you to measure variables and describe relationships between them.

With descriptive and correlational designs, you can get a clear picture of characteristics, trends and relationships as they exist in the real world. However, you can’t draw conclusions about cause and effect (because correlation doesn’t imply causation ).

Experiments are the strongest way to test cause-and-effect relationships without the risk of other variables influencing the results. However, their controlled conditions may not always reflect how things work in the real world. They’re often also more difficult and expensive to implement.

Types of qualitative research designs

Qualitative designs are less strictly defined. This approach is about gaining a rich, detailed understanding of a specific context or phenomenon, and you can often be more creative and flexible in designing your research.

The table below shows some common types of qualitative design. They often have similar approaches in terms of data collection, but focus on different aspects when analyzing the data.

Your research design should clearly define who or what your research will focus on, and how you’ll go about choosing your participants or subjects.

In research, a population is the entire group that you want to draw conclusions about, while a sample is the smaller group of individuals you’ll actually collect data from.

Defining the population

A population can be made up of anything you want to study—plants, animals, organizations, texts, countries, etc. In the social sciences, it most often refers to a group of people.

For example, will you focus on people from a specific demographic, region or background? Are you interested in people with a certain job or medical condition, or users of a particular product?

The more precisely you define your population, the easier it will be to gather a representative sample.

• Sampling methods

Even with a narrowly defined population, it’s rarely possible to collect data from every individual. Instead, you’ll collect data from a sample.

To select a sample, there are two main approaches: probability sampling and non-probability sampling . The sampling method you use affects how confidently you can generalize your results to the population as a whole.

Probability sampling is the most statistically valid option, but it’s often difficult to achieve unless you’re dealing with a very small and accessible population.

For practical reasons, many studies use non-probability sampling, but it’s important to be aware of the limitations and carefully consider potential biases. You should always make an effort to gather a sample that’s as representative as possible of the population.

Case selection in qualitative research

In some types of qualitative designs, sampling may not be relevant.

For example, in an ethnography or a case study , your aim is to deeply understand a specific context, not to generalize to a population. Instead of sampling, you may simply aim to collect as much data as possible about the context you are studying.

In these types of design, you still have to carefully consider your choice of case or community. You should have a clear rationale for why this particular case is suitable for answering your research question .

For example, you might choose a case study that reveals an unusual or neglected aspect of your research problem, or you might choose several very similar or very different cases in order to compare them.

Data collection methods are ways of directly measuring variables and gathering information. They allow you to gain first-hand knowledge and original insights into your research problem.

You can choose just one data collection method, or use several methods in the same study.

Survey methods

Surveys allow you to collect data about opinions, behaviors, experiences, and characteristics by asking people directly. There are two main survey methods to choose from: questionnaires and interviews .

Observation methods

Observational studies allow you to collect data unobtrusively, observing characteristics, behaviors or social interactions without relying on self-reporting.

Observations may be conducted in real time, taking notes as you observe, or you might make audiovisual recordings for later analysis. They can be qualitative or quantitative.

Other methods of data collection

There are many other ways you might collect data depending on your field and topic.

If you’re not sure which methods will work best for your research design, try reading some papers in your field to see what kinds of data collection methods they used.

Secondary data

If you don’t have the time or resources to collect data from the population you’re interested in, you can also choose to use secondary data that other researchers already collected—for example, datasets from government surveys or previous studies on your topic.

With this raw data, you can do your own analysis to answer new research questions that weren’t addressed by the original study.

Using secondary data can expand the scope of your research, as you may be able to access much larger and more varied samples than you could collect yourself.

However, it also means you don’t have any control over which variables to measure or how to measure them, so the conclusions you can draw may be limited.

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As well as deciding on your methods, you need to plan exactly how you’ll use these methods to collect data that’s consistent, accurate, and unbiased.

Planning systematic procedures is especially important in quantitative research, where you need to precisely define your variables and ensure your measurements are high in reliability and validity.

Operationalization

Some variables, like height or age, are easily measured. But often you’ll be dealing with more abstract concepts, like satisfaction, anxiety, or competence. Operationalization means turning these fuzzy ideas into measurable indicators.

If you’re using observations , which events or actions will you count?

If you’re using surveys , which questions will you ask and what range of responses will be offered?

You may also choose to use or adapt existing materials designed to measure the concept you’re interested in—for example, questionnaires or inventories whose reliability and validity has already been established.

Reliability and validity

Reliability means your results can be consistently reproduced, while validity means that you’re actually measuring the concept you’re interested in.

For valid and reliable results, your measurement materials should be thoroughly researched and carefully designed. Plan your procedures to make sure you carry out the same steps in the same way for each participant.

If you’re developing a new questionnaire or other instrument to measure a specific concept, running a pilot study allows you to check its validity and reliability in advance.

Sampling procedures

As well as choosing an appropriate sampling method , you need a concrete plan for how you’ll actually contact and recruit your selected sample.

That means making decisions about things like:

• How many participants do you need for an adequate sample size?
• What inclusion and exclusion criteria will you use to identify eligible participants?
• How will you contact your sample—by mail, online, by phone, or in person?

If you’re using a probability sampling method , it’s important that everyone who is randomly selected actually participates in the study. How will you ensure a high response rate?

If you’re using a non-probability method , how will you avoid research bias and ensure a representative sample?

Data management

It’s also important to create a data management plan for organizing and storing your data.

Will you need to transcribe interviews or perform data entry for observations? You should anonymize and safeguard any sensitive data, and make sure it’s backed up regularly.

Keeping your data well-organized will save time when it comes to analyzing it. It can also help other researchers validate and add to your findings (high replicability ).

On its own, raw data can’t answer your research question. The last step of designing your research is planning how you’ll analyze the data.

Quantitative data analysis

In quantitative research, you’ll most likely use some form of statistical analysis . With statistics, you can summarize your sample data, make estimates, and test hypotheses.

Using descriptive statistics , you can summarize your sample data in terms of:

• The distribution of the data (e.g., the frequency of each score on a test)
• The central tendency of the data (e.g., the mean to describe the average score)
• The variability of the data (e.g., the standard deviation to describe how spread out the scores are)

The specific calculations you can do depend on the level of measurement of your variables.

Using inferential statistics , you can:

• Make estimates about the population based on your sample data.
• Test hypotheses about a relationship between variables.

Regression and correlation tests look for associations between two or more variables, while comparison tests (such as t tests and ANOVAs ) look for differences in the outcomes of different groups.

Your choice of statistical test depends on various aspects of your research design, including the types of variables you’re dealing with and the distribution of your data.

Qualitative data analysis

In qualitative research, your data will usually be very dense with information and ideas. Instead of summing it up in numbers, you’ll need to comb through the data in detail, interpret its meanings, identify patterns, and extract the parts that are most relevant to your research question.

Two of the most common approaches to doing this are thematic analysis and discourse analysis .

There are many other ways of analyzing qualitative data depending on the aims of your research. To get a sense of potential approaches, try reading some qualitative research papers in your field.

If you want to know more about the research process , methodology , research bias , or statistics , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

• Simple random sampling
• Stratified sampling
• Cluster sampling
• Likert scales
• Reproducibility

 Statistics

• Null hypothesis
• Statistical power
• Probability distribution
• Effect size
• Poisson distribution

Research bias

• Optimism bias
• Cognitive bias
• Implicit bias
• Hawthorne effect
• Anchoring bias
• Explicit bias

A research design is a strategy for answering your   research question . It defines your overall approach and determines how you will collect and analyze data.

A well-planned research design helps ensure that your methods match your research aims, that you collect high-quality data, and that you use the right kind of analysis to answer your questions, utilizing credible sources . This allows you to draw valid , trustworthy conclusions.

Quantitative research designs can be divided into two main categories:

• Correlational and descriptive designs are used to investigate characteristics, averages, trends, and associations between variables.
• Experimental and quasi-experimental designs are used to test causal relationships .

Qualitative research designs tend to be more flexible. Common types of qualitative design include case study , ethnography , and grounded theory designs.

The priorities of a research design can vary depending on the field, but you usually have to specify:

• Your research questions and/or hypotheses
• Your overall approach (e.g., qualitative or quantitative )
• The type of design you’re using (e.g., a survey , experiment , or case study )
• Your data collection methods (e.g., questionnaires , observations)
• Your data collection procedures (e.g., operationalization , timing and data management)
• Your data analysis methods (e.g., statistical tests  or thematic analysis )

A sample is a subset of individuals from a larger population . Sampling means selecting the group that you will actually collect data from in your research. For example, if you are researching the opinions of students in your university, you could survey a sample of 100 students.

In statistics, sampling allows you to test a hypothesis about the characteristics of a population.

Operationalization means turning abstract conceptual ideas into measurable observations.

For example, the concept of social anxiety isn’t directly observable, but it can be operationally defined in terms of self-rating scores, behavioral avoidance of crowded places, or physical anxiety symptoms in social situations.

Before collecting data , it’s important to consider how you will operationalize the variables that you want to measure.

A research project is an academic, scientific, or professional undertaking to answer a research question . Research projects can take many forms, such as qualitative or quantitative , descriptive , longitudinal , experimental , or correlational . What kind of research approach you choose will depend on your topic.

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Evans D, Coad J, Cottrell K, et al. Public involvement in research: assessing impact through a realist evaluation. Southampton (UK): NIHR Journals Library; 2014 Oct. (Health Services and Delivery Research, No. 2.36.)

Public involvement in research: assessing impact through a realist evaluation.

Chapter 2 project design and methodology.

• Introduction

This project was initially designed by a group of academic researchers and research partners drawn from the Service User and Carer Involvement in Research (SUCIR) group at the University of the West of England (UWE). An outline application was submitted in May 2010 to a joint funding call for proposals from the NIHR Health Services and Delivery Research programme (HS&DR) and INVOLVE on public involvement in research (see Research brief ). The team were invited to submit a full proposal, which was submitted in October 2010 and approved in February 2011. The HS&DR Board asked the team to consider three points relating to the economic evaluation, the involvement of children and young people and the total number of interviews to be conducted, and changes were made in response in redrafting the project protocol in July 2011 prior to submission for ethical review. A second version of the protocol was drafted once the research fellow was in post in November 2011 and recruitment of case studies had been completed. The overall design and methodology remained similar, but some minor changes were made. In particular, the research fellow appointed was an anthropologist who argued the need for more informal visits at the beginning of the study and observation of case study processes. Because of the time between application, approval and commencing the project other factors became apparent that required additional minor modifications of the planned design. In particular the timescales for public involvement in the agreed case studies were not always optimal for our planned data collection processes and timescales and, as discussed below, research governance processes led to some delays in our starting data collection in some case studies.

Research brief

The NIHR HS&DR Programme and INVOLVE jointly invited proposals in 2010 to address the gap in evidence around the impact of public involvement in research. 15 A background paper summarised the evidence then available, particularly drawing on the reviews by Staley 11 and Brett et al. 12 The invitation expressed three key aims for the research: to collect evidence on the impact of public involvement in research, to identify methods of evaluating this involvement, and to identify effective ways of involving the public in research (implementation). The call was open to a range of methodological approaches.

• Methodology

Realist evaluation framework

Our research design was based on the application of realist theory of evaluation, particularly drawing on the work of Ray Pawson, 13 , 16 , 17 which argues that social programmes (in this case public involvement in research) are driven by an underlying vision of change – a ‘programme theory’ of how the programme is supposed to work. The role of the evaluator is to compare the theory and the practice: ‘It is the realist evaluator’s task, and the added value of social science, to identify and explain the precise circumstances under which each theory holds.’ 17 Moreover, the outcomes of social programmes can be understood by identifying regularities of CMO. Thus the key question for the evaluator is ‘What works for whom in what circumstances . . . and why?’ 17 The realist approach is increasingly used in the evaluation of complex health programmes, and producing useful analyses. 18 , 19 After our study began, Staley et al. published a paper calling for the application of realist evaluation to the study of the impact of public involvement in research. 20 The development of our realist theory of public involvement in research over the course of our study is described in more detail in Chapter 3 .

Our realist theory of public involvement in research was based on the two recently published literature reviews, 11 , 12 which allowed us to identify a number of contextual factors and mechanisms that we believe were intended by policy-makers and other stakeholders in research policy to enable desired outcomes to be achieved. There has not previously been a robust testing of the underlying ‘programme theory’ of public involvement in research; our study was designed to allow an independent prospective testing of this underlying programme theory for the first time. We included an economic evaluation, designed to complement a realist evaluation design, estimating the resources used for public involvement across eight case studies.

Case study sampling

The setting for this project was within organisations hosting health and social care-related research studies (i.e. universities, NHS trusts and third-sector organisations) in the west of England. Our aim was to recruit a methodologically diverse sample of eight case studies which would have significant elements of public involvement during the period January to December 2012. There was no existing database or other source of routinely available data that enabled such upcoming studies to be identified. To meet our aims the studies needed only to be diverse, not representative, so we took the pragmatic decision to sample through our existing knowledge of studies with public involvement in the west of England and to ‘snowball’ through our existing networks, including the People and Research West of England consortium.

We developed a pro forma to identify from network stakeholders upcoming studies they were involved in or aware of with what they identified as ‘significant’ elements of public involvement. Our key inclusion criterion was evidence of some ongoing public involvement in key stages of the research process (design, recruitment, data collection, analysis, dissemination). A key exclusion criterion was that no study would be included unless both the principal investigator (PI) and at least one research partner agreed to take part. In order to identify generalisable regularities of CMO for public involvement in research, we wanted to identify a maximum variety sample of studies in terms of study type, stages of the research process and public involved. In a relatively small-scale study such as this, however, we knew we would not be able to achieve full diversity in all three dimensions. We therefore prioritised diversity of study type, as different study types can drive very different priorities for public involvement (e.g. emphasis on participant information and recruitment in clinical trials). We also prioritised including some studies involving young people and families with children because they make up a substantial minority of health service users but are underrepresented in the literature on public involvement in research. Our case studies are described in Chapter 4 .

In deciding the number of case studies to undertake we recognise that there is always a trade-off between the depth of exploration (which suggests a small number of case studies) and identification of regularities (which benefits from a larger number). There are many ways to categorise research studies (e.g. basic science vs. applied, qualitative vs. quantitative, pilot studies vs. full trials, clinical vs. epidemiological, primary vs. secondary data, action research, translational research) and we could not hope to cover the full diversity in our case studies. From previous experience of case study research, 21 we believed that eight case studies would enable us both to examine the CMO regularities in depth and to look for generalisable regularities across the case studies. This number of case studies did not enable us to examine all potential types of research study, but did enable us to include the most common, for example qualitative, mixed methods, feasibility and clinical trials. We received agreement from four PIs with appropriate funded studies taking place in the west of England at the application stage of our study, and the final four between approval and the early months of our study.

Case study data collection

The first stage of data collection involved initial mapping of the eight case studies through informal visits, encompassing observation of research settings and team meetings (where possible) and unstructured interviews.

Intelligence from the informal visits, together with previous findings from the two literature reviews and the CMO configuration, was then used to design an interview guide for semistructured interviews with case study project stakeholders. For each case study we aimed to carry out semistructured interviews with approximately five stakeholders (PIs, other researchers, research managers and two research partners) on three occasions over the course of the year of data collection, January–December 2012 (three interviews × five participants × eight case studies = 120 interviews in total during the year). Potential interviewees were identified in discussion with PIs and invitations forwarded via the PI or an administrative member of the PI’s team.

Interviews were broadly structured around our CMO hypothesis. Data collected include measurable elements (e.g. resources allocated for supporting public involvement and actual spend) and stakeholder perceptions (e.g. respective views of researchers and research partners on whether research partner contributions influenced project decisions). In addition, some of the stakeholders were given a resource log to record over 2 weeks, chosen at random, the amount of time spent contributing to a range of activities linked to public involvement in each case study. These were then costed using prices taken from published or recognised sources (see Chapter 7 ). Interviews were intended to take place at three broadly evenly spaced times over the 12-month data collection period.

In practice the number and timing of interviews varied widely across the case studies for a variety of reasons including delays in research governance approvals, illness among case study participants and research team members, delays in one research project commencing, and general logistical issues. In two case studies it was possible to carry out only two rounds of interviews rather than three, and the total number of interviews completed was 88 with 42 participants rather than the 120 with 40 participants initially envisaged. Table 1 summarises the total number of interviews (and research partner interviews) undertaken in each round across the case studies.

Total number of interviews (research partners) conducted per case study per round

Case study 4 was exceptional in that, unexpectedly, no public involvement activity took place during the year. Thus the PI, a research manager and one research partner were interviewed initially and only the research manager at the end of the year. The other case studies where numbers of interviews were relatively low were case study 6, which started much later in the year than expected and where only one research partner chose to participate, and case study 7, where the research team was relatively small, there was relatively little involvement activity, and illness prevented final interviews with the two research partners. The relatively low completion rates on the initially planned 120 interviews were not a problem in themselves, so much as a symptom of lack of involvement activity for long periods in some of the case studies.

Given the small numbers of research partners overall, and the fact that some case studies targeted particular socioeconomic or age groups, we do not believe it would be meaningful to present demographic data on these participants. Our perception was, however, that our experience echoed other reports that those members of the public who choose to get involved in research tend to have attained a higher educational level than the population as a whole.

We recognise that a few interviewees do not fall easily into the categories of researcher, research manager or research partner, but we have kept to a limited number of categories to ensure anonymity.

Each case study was intended to be conducted by pairing an academic researcher and a research partner, under the overall supervision of the PI and co-ordinated by the research fellow. In one case, for logistical reasons, the research fellow undertook the data collection on his own. In the other cases, interviews were conducted by both an academic and research partner, usually separately but on occasion interviewing together.

The first round of interviews focused particularly on understanding the context of the case study and the mechanisms for public involvement planned for the remainder of the year. The second round of interviews was ‘light touch’, intended to capture developments in public involvement since the first round and to identify members of the research team able to nominate at least one research partner per case study who could be approached to complete the resource logs for economic costing. The final round of interviews focused on capturing outcomes and learning from the year, to enable us to assess how the researchers’ initial intentions and aspirations for public involvement turned out in practice. In addition to the semistructured interviews, a flexible approach to capturing data included observation of meetings where possible and/or other group tasks directly related to public involvement, and collection of project documents related to involvement processes. Observations were carried out in case studies 1, 2, 5, 7 and 8 but were not possible in case studies 3, 4 or 6, either because of internal case study project considerations or because no public involvement activity took place during the study period.

Developing a methodology for the economic costing of public involvement

There has been minimal exploration and there is little evidence for the costs and benefits of public involvement in research. El Ansari and Andersson conclude that analysis of the costs and benefits of participatory activities should form part of an overall evaluation of public participation. 22 They state that, for participation to move forward as a field, a broader ‘set of analytical frameworks is required, which captures the richness and unique qualities of participation, [and] that recognises and values the different perspectives that led to its initial development.’ 22

Our work here is an attempt to develop an analytical framework of how to assess the economic costs of involvement in research. Planning the budget for public involvement in research at the outset is crucial. The budget needs to include all planned research involvement work to be completed by research partners (for example participating in patient advisory groups or undertaking data analysis) as well as time for academics to facilitate research partners. Two key aspects of budgeting for public involvement are the researcher and research partner relationship and contingency planning. For example, research partners may be asked to contribute their expertise to respond to problems arising during a research project, for example poor recruitment of participants to a study (there were several examples of this among our case studies). These contributions generally arose during the research process and were not foreseen.

Payment and reward issues have generally proved controversial. At our second consensus event our case study participants debated the nature of payment and reward for public involvement vigorously, revealing a wide range of strongly held views on this subject. INVOLVE has developed guidelines on payments for involvement research work to respond to these issues. A recent document outlines the issues to bear in mind in paying research partners, gives examples of payments and provides general tips about issues connected with payment and ‘payments in kind’ that need to be carefully considered by project managers. 23 A range of pay rates for different research activities connected with public involvement are mentioned in INVOLVE documents, including a flat rate payment of £19.40 per hour. 23

Our economic analysis aimed to collect data from each case study team, in order to:

• identify all activities relating to public involvement
• measure the amounts of activities using a resource log
• value or put a price on these activities using prices from published or established sources.

Identifying and measuring involvement activity

To gather data from our eight case studies for our economic analysis, we asked selected members of the case study teams (researchers, research managers and research partners) to log all the resources that were used in public involvement work/activities over a snapshot 2-week period. During the 2 weeks each person recorded/logged:

• all involvement-related activities
• length of time spent on each activity.

We asked them to include all activities (or inputs) that were undertaken as contributing to or enabling the central objective (or output) of public involvement in research. A sample log sheet for research partners on 1 day is in Appendix 1 . Our ethical approval letter stipulated that research staff within each case study were to nominate research partners to provide our data, so we were dependent on these nominations being made successfully from within our case studies, as we were not able to make direct contact with research partners.

We issued user-friendly guidance for completing our resource log, and supported respondents over a 2-week period by e-mail and providing a telephone helpline. Our guidance document for research partners to complete resource logs is in Appendix 2 . Our contact and ongoing dialogue with the academics and research partners who used our guidance and completed our resource logs enabled us to become familiar with how involvement activities were working within each case study from the point of view of both academics and their nominated research partners. These exchanges helped us gain a rounded understanding of the nature and diversity of involvement activity and the relationships and issues within each case study.

Economic valuation/costing of involvement activities

We translated the knowledge we had accrued of each case study into some working assumptions about each one. These assumptions are significant but complex, so we have detailed them in Appendices 3 – 5 .

We then used the completed 2-week resource logs to estimate involvement costs for a projected 12-month period. From there we scaled up the 12-month projected costs to the length of each case study. This enabled us to compare the actual budgeted costs from each grant with the projected costs on a like-for-like basis.

We followed a standard economic approach to treat resource use and prices separately to arrive at a cost.

For example:

Ideally the price applied should come from a published source or the next best alternative, a recognised or established source. There are illustrative examples within INVOLVE guidelines of a range of prices for different research activities connected with public involvement. In our own project we had previously paid research partners at a ‘meeting rate’ of £19.77 per hour, but early in this project it became obvious that most work was being done outside meetings, so a lower ‘research associate’ rate of £14.02 per hour was agreed. Research partners kept records of all their work for the project (including e-mails, collecting and analysing data, and writing) and submitted claim forms regularly. Our project did not have a means of costing researcher time for public involvement activities, as working alongside research partners was a continuous process during our project.

A new set of guidelines from INVOLVE to budget for involvement was incomplete at the time of our analysis, but we saw the draft document, which again gave the example of the flat rate payment of £19.40 per hour for public involvement participation, so we used this price when costing research partners’ activities for our case studies. 23

Reflective practice

Data were captured on our reflective learning on the impact of public involvement in our own study. This was done by facilitating and audio-recording short reflective sessions during team meetings on our own experiences as a project team of academic researchers and research partners working together.

Consensus events

Two consensus workshops were organised as part of our plans to develop and test a theory of public involvement in research. Initially we aimed to hold the first event prior to the first round of data collection to inform the interview schedules for this round. As the project developed, however, we realised that this would not be practical in terms of the length of time research governance approval was taking from some NHS trusts and, more importantly, that an event after the first round would be more fruitful in terms of theory development. Thus, the decision was taken to hold the first consensus event between the first and second rounds of data collection.

At the first workshop we presented an overview of our initial findings from our first round of interviews and visits in the eight case studies. The overview was in the form of 12 statements drawn from our initial mapping of the case studies. The statements identify key contextual factors and mechanisms for public involvement in research that we hypothesised were regularly linked to positive impacts on research design and delivery.

The aim of the workshop was to test these statements with case study participants and steering group members, drawing on their experiences and insights regarding public involvement in research, in order to refine or replace the statements, to inform the next phase of data collection and analysis. The workshop was limited to one afternoon in the hope that this relatively short time commitment would make it more feasible for case study participants to attend.

Nineteen participants took part in the first consensus workshop. Six of the eight case studies were represented. The intention had been that all case studies would be represented by both research staff and research partners in their projects, but it was not possible to achieve this because of participants’ other commitments and some last-minute illness.

Participants first voted electronically on the 12 statements with the choices ‘agree’, ‘disagree’ or ‘abstain’. Participants were then divided into three groups, with each group asked to look in depth at four of the statements, discuss and revise them as necessary and identify any omissions, connections or other comments. The groups then fed back to a plenary session and participated in a final discussion.

A second half-day consensus workshop was held at the end of the third round of data collection. On this occasion all eight case studies were represented with a total of 29 participants. Our emerging theory of public involvement was presented in graphic form in a set of four slides covering different aspects of CMO regularities (field of research, leadership and culture, relationships and structures of involvement). Participants were asked to discuss, amend and comment on A1 printed versions of the slides. The output of the workshop was amended slides with marginal commentary, which were further analysed by the project team and used to form the basis of the analysis of findings presented in Chapter 5 and the development of our theory of public involvement as described in Chapter 8 , Our revised theory of public involvement in research .

Case study data analysis

All interview data were transcribed and entered into an NVivo 10 database (QSR International, Warrington, Cheshire, UK). A key team discussion was how to most fully involve our research partners in the analysis of these data given that only one of them had experience of using any version of the NVivo software. The decision was made to offer NVivo 10 training to research partners but not to require this, as some did not feel confident of learning and using the programme effectively in the time available. A manual coding alternative was therefore made available. In order to make this practical, we limited the number of codes we identified to a minimum necessary to allow meaningful analysis. Those team members coding in NVivo 10 were supplied with this coding framework. Those coding manually were given a numerical code to use with transcripts and the coding was entered into the NVivo 10 database by the project research associate. For each case study, at least one transcript was coded independently by a researcher and research partner, and any divergence discussed and a joint approach agreed.

Data analysis focused on identifying CMO regularities across our case studies. From the initial CMO configuration identified in the proposal, with amendments from the first consensus workshop, a coding framework was devised with 38 codes (see Appendix 6 ) organised into six broad themes: relationships, leadership and culture, field of research, structures of involvement, resources and outcomes. We agreed as a team that the codes were the primary unit of analysis and the themes were provisional. Following coding of data, team discussion lead to the codes being reordered in terms of hypothesised CMO regularities presented in Chapter 5 . This coding framework was then validated by one academic team member not involved in the case studies, who independently undertook a framework analysis 24 of a sample of transcripts and compared her emerging framework with that drawn from the CMO configuration.

Verification of coding

Initial data were analysed by team members identifying codes within interviews. NVivo 10 software was used for data storage, retrieval, coding, analysis, memo writing and theme building across the CMO approach. This was useful in that data coding and development of findings was a collective team activity but an overall verification process was also established. One senior team member, who had not been party to the initial coding discussions, undertook a second verification to ensure consistency and rigor. The coding verification consisted of five transcripts randomly chosen across the case studies and involved two activities: naive reading and structured coding review analysis.

First, transcripts were repeatedly read, blindly from assigned codes, by the independent reviewer, with memo writing with regard to potential codes. Next, data were coded line by line, and each sentence or group of sentences was given a code using the direct meaning of the text. The second reviewer then read the transcripts with the allocated codes assigned by the initial coder. Similarities and differences were recorded. Comparing and contrasting meanings across and within transcripts through the use of memos was used. There was very high agreement found between the coder and second reviewer, which was a very positive result.

Narrative review

There were many issues of agreement in the broader level of understanding. For example, leadership emerged in all five transcripts, as did common terms such as culture (team and organisational), PI beliefs or senior lead issues. Feeling valued, trust and interpersonal relationships and other ‘emotional’-type codes were allocated by coders in all five transcripts. The second reviewer found similar patterns and this showed good overall broad agreement of coders. Power emerged in three transcripts more clearly and repeatedly but was in all five transcripts in some form.

There were minor issues of differences in coding where coders had consistently coded information in a similar way in terms of the value of public involvement. There was only one research partner who coded public involvement not just in terms of value but in terms of impact .

The thematic analysis of each code across the case studies was then used as the basis for the thematic analysis used to test our theory of public involvement in research as presented in Chapter 5 .

Research ethics and governance

The study team took the importance of ethical practice extremely seriously and considered whether it raised any substantive ethical issues. As the study was primarily qualitative and did not involve questions around particularly personal health status or behaviours, we came to the view that it was relatively low risk. However, we recognised that, in asking researchers and research partners from the same studies about what was working and not working in terms of public involvement, we could potentially be raising some sensitive interpersonal relationship issues. We therefore sought to address these issues in our study design, participant information sheets and processes for ensuring confidentiality and anonymity. Following the screening questions on the Integrated Research Application System form, our study was identified as eligible for proportionate review. Ethical approval for the study was therefore sought from the County Durham & Tees Valley Research Ethics Committee prior to the commencement of the study and approval was given with minor conditions in August 2011. An application for a substantive amendment was made in December 2011 to include observation of case study meetings, which had not been included in the original application. Approval was given in February 2012.

Research governance approval, which was sought from the three NHS trusts hosting the four NHS-based case studies, proved much more time-consuming and problematic to obtain than expected. This was particularly because of our desire to enable research partners to participate fully in data collection, which required taking them through the NHS research passport system, something that neither the university nor the NHS trust human resources departments appeared familiar with. Final research governance approval for all three NHS trusts was not obtained until late March 2012, thus delaying our planned date for data collection in some case studies by around 3 months.

Throughout the study we sought to adhere to our ethical and research governance approvals by ensuring informed consent for all participants and fully complying with all conditions of our approvals. All case study participants were sent copies of the report in draft form and invited to comment on how their data had been used and any inaccuracies or other comments on their case studies.

Public involvement in our team

Our aim throughout this project has been to model good practice in our own research while studying the impact of public involvement in our case studies. The project was developed by the SUCIR group at UWE, which had strong service user representation. One research partner co-applicant was the cochair of SUCIR. Three other research partner co-applicants had previously worked with the PI and other academic co-applicants on developing the SUCIR scheme and/or on other research projects.

The four research partner co-applicants were involved in all aspects of the project including design, data collection, analysis and dissemination. The case studies were designed to be undertaken by four subteams, each consisting of one academic researcher and one research partner working together on two case studies. The research partners also formed a separate research partner reference group meeting bimonthly.

The initial intention was for two academic co-applicants with extensive experience in working with young people to recruit and support a young persons’ advisory group to work on the two case studies where participants were young people. In the end it did not prove feasible to recruit such a group and a decision was made to develop an alternative model of involving young people in the project. Two young people, one of whom who had worked on a previous study, were recruited to join the project as research partners. Over time they came to play a similar role to the original four research partners, attending team meetings, research partner meetings and other events, and participating in data collection and analysis in their two case studies.

Research partners were involved in our team’s reflective process on what worked well and what did not work well in terms of our own processes around public involvement. A period of approximately 15 minutes was set aside at the beginning of each team meeting and research partner meeting to share reflections and learning about public involvement in our own project. Research partners have co-authored and presented our outputs at the INVOLVE conference and elsewhere, and have contributed to ensuring that this final report is as user-friendly as possible, and that our wider dissemination plans include outputs specifically designed to be accessible to a wide public. The plain English summary of this report was drafted by research partners. Chapter 6 of this report includes the synthesis, led by one research partner, of the shared reflections on public involvement in our project by both the academic researchers and the research partners.

Included under terms of UK Non-commercial Government License .

• Cite this Page Evans D, Coad J, Cottrell K, et al. Public involvement in research: assessing impact through a realist evaluation. Southampton (UK): NIHR Journals Library; 2014 Oct. (Health Services and Delivery Research, No. 2.36.) Chapter 2, Project design and methodology.
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Project management is confusing. Have you ever been in a situation like this, sitting at your project meeting, perhaps feeling out of your depth, and finding it hard to follow the conversation around you? It may be due to unstructured and unorganized execution of the project's principles. You also might need to apply a suitable project management methodology. 

What is project management methodology?

A project management methodology is a set of principles, techniques, and procedures Project Managers use to execute and manage projects. There are several methodologies and all require different workflows, deliverables, and project management software development. The project management methodologies facilitate team collaboration by directing team members to work for a common objective.

Are your projects complex or straightforward? Whatever the case may be, these Top 10 Project Management Cycle Templates will help you organize and track every bit of it!

When a project is carried out systematically, chances of success are better. Project managers are responsible for planning tasks, tracking progress, and delivering results. Here’s when a project methodology comes in. It includes certain procedures that help you structure your team’s workflow.

There are many project methodologies available for the systematic execution of a project. Choosing the best one among a landscape of methodologies can be overwhelming. Some of these work well in specific projects or industries. However, Product managers select the methodology that best suits the way their teams work. 

Here, in this blog, we'll talk about project methodologies and templates you can use in your projects. 

Let’s explore!

Template 1: Project Management Methodologies PowerPoint Presentation Slides

This PPT displays an elaborative project agenda, including the project brief essential to operate efficiently. The layout also consists of details about the company's products. Showcase the progress summary, and the milestones achieved and reflect on the potential goals. Download now!

Download now!

Template 2: Three Principles of Waterfall Project Methodology

This PPT is designed while keeping in mind the linear approach, meaning that the tasks are organized in a sequence. This template allows you to map the tasks from beginning to end and work accordingly. It includes three essential waterfall project methodology principles: low customer involvement, robust project documentation, and sequential stages that smoothen up the project management process. Download now!

Template 3: 5D Consulting Project Methodology with Implementation

This PPT Template portrays a five-dimensional visualization process for consulting projects. It includes major steps like discovering, designing, developing, designing, and determining while considering budgetary and cost requirements. It also comprises activities like process assessment, tools management, collaboration, etc., that aid in accurate project deployment and maintenance. Download now!

Template 4: Enterprise Resource Planning Consulting Project Methodology

This template displays an execution method for designing ERP software for both parties; the consulting firm and the buyer. It includes the implementation team, administrative project management, project management team, etc. Ace your resource planning game by organizing, identifying, and listing the resources required to complete a project. Get it now!

Template 5: Rotation Process Illustrating Agile Project Methodology

Agile is more of an approach than a methodology. It is collaborative, fast and effective, data-backed, and values individuals over processes. This template lets you analyze processes, provide suggestions, plan & design projects, project construction, and evaluate & monitor processes. Download now!

Template 6: Consulting Project Methodology for Supply Chain and Logistics

This template exhibits consulting project methodology for supply chain and logistics. It includes the five-step process of mapping, internal audit, gap assessment, solution design, and implementation. The topics discussed in this slide are gap analysis, solution design, implementation, internal audit, and mapping. Download this versatile template now!

Template 7: Project Management Methodology Including Planning

This methodology is the one most used by project managers. It portrays the tasks in a chronological manner involving designing, developing, testing, and deploying a project. If you're looking for a comprehensive guide to your next project, look no further than this. Download it now!

Template 8: Project Management and Implementation Methodology Overview

Project management and implementation methodology plays a significant role in ensuring successful delivery of projects. This template explains how these methods can be used to ensure the successful delivery of projects, along with some tips for implementing them. They also include a variety of practical examples to help you understand how the methodology can be applied in a real-world scenario. Get it now!

Template 9: Waterfall vs Agile Development Methodology for Project

This two-stage process template for projects is explicit and effective. It combines clarity and concise expression to achieve holistic project development by enabling client/stakeholder collaboration. It encourages frequent interaction of team members, making them resolve any complexities and meet requirements before deadlines. Download this now!

Template 10: Methodology Five Steps Indicating Project Lifecycle

Strategically important complex projects that are long-term, resource-heavy, and extensive, require flexible project management methodology. This template includes five steps of a project lifecycle that helps bring more cohesion to your project. Keep every team member on the same page with this helpful and 100% customizable template. Download now!

Manage Your Projects Well

By choosing the right project management methodology at the right time and the right place, you’ll be able to make your projects more efficient. Finding the perfect project methodology also helps implement processes right for you, your team, and your organization.

We hope that the above set of templates serves as the ultimate tool in your belt!

FAQs on Project Methodology

What is a project methodology.

A project management methodology is a detailed manual to supervise project completion. A project team uses this set of defined processes to initiate, plan, and execute the project. The type of project methodology you choose establishes the way of work organization, prioritization, and completion. 

The project management methodology aims to standardize, structure, and organize work requirements and methods. This helps focus on what works best and enables the repetition of successful aspects and learning from mistakes, resulting in a continuous improvement process.

What are the five project methodologies?

Here are five common project methodologies used by Project Managers to manage workflow:

• Agile : This method is best suited for projects which require extreme flexibility and speed. It focuses less on documentation and more on customer satisfaction. Agile methodology is good for products with a faster release cycle. 
• Scrum : Scrum methodology has an iterative project management style. It follows the principles followed in Agile methodology. In this method, the work is done in sessions known as ‘Sprints’. Here, the Scrum Master facilitates the process instead of a Project Manager. 
• Waterfall : It is based on traditional methods and mainly focuses on following the processes. Here, much emphasis is given to project documentation. 
• Critical Path Method : This methodology is a step-by-step method and works best for projects with independent tasks. Its key role is to measure and prioritize tasks.
• Program Evaluation and Review Technique : This method is commonly used along with CPM (Critical Path Method). It is mostly used by businesses that are looking for expansion. It measures progress to create timelines and budgets.
• Critical Chain Method : A separate classification, this methodology is more advanced than the CPM methodology. Here, goals are created based on constraints while focusing on cost-saving benefits.

What are the three major types of project methodologies?

Here are three major types of methodologies commonly used:

• Scrum method : Scrum is the most widely used agile methodology for project management. It allows you to do more by scheduling tasks in short cycles named sprints. It enables you to work as a dedicated team to analyze processes, meet requirements, and meet deadlines. It also helps you receive continuous feedback rather than using final evaluations. The scrum methodology is mostly used to develop new projects, compile budgets, and organize annual reports. 
• Waterfall method : This method is linear and phase-based. It arranges and organizes tasks chronologically, which helps identify major areas of errors. Documentation is a huge part of waterfall methodology. It entails precise details about what you’re doing and how you’re doing it. This methodology doesn’t provide any room for flexibility.
• Lean and Six Sigma method : Lean and Six Sigma method is famous for its ability to manage the resource and time wastage that occurs in other methodologies. It is an approach to continuous improvement that is divided into two types of initiatives- Ongoing improvement initiatives and project-based initiatives. Each of these is associated with a set of methods and tools for you to employ. Ultimately, this methodology is based on the Kaizen principle that aims at making small changes on a daily basis for continuous improvement in small, easy steps.

How do you prepare a project methodology?

A good project method will represent the convergence of many factors, such as your scope, professional experience, and the research done. Here’s how you can prepare a project methodology in five steps:

• Communicate deliverables : A solid plan requires proper research and pre-planning. So, the first step is to set clear objectives, cost & budget, project requirements, and deliverables to work upon. 
• Define the process : Choose the project methodology that best suits your team’s workflow and organizational structure. Sit with your team and draft a process that matches your work style and project requirements. 
• Communicate risks and deadlines : Analyzing the ability to manage risks while meeting project deadlines is the next step in preparing a methodology. You need to observe the level of risk you can handle based on the size of the project.
• Determine task dependencies : Next, it is important to understand if you can perform tasks while keeping room for flexibility to alter the processes.

Define client/ stakeholder collaboration : Finally, you need to oversee the level of involvement you need from your stakeholders and clients in a project. It also defines team roles and assignments to help break down bigger projects into small and easy tasks.

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Apptension Blog

5 popular types of design methodologies you should know!

Hanna dawidko-chudziak, march 2, 2023.

We'll see improvements in our productivity and the motivation of our team members, as well as in the quality of our products and the dependability of our software.

Of course, the devil is in the details, and it is vital to know all of those design methods' complexities, pros and disadvantages, highlights, and downsizes before deciding to select one for your project.

But again, this is because the specifics are where the devil is hiding. In addition, it is possible that knowing the use cases of various methodologies is essential to appraise things accurately.

Therefore, this article will talk about the top 5 popular types of design methodologies. Let's get started!

Design Methodologies – what are the top trends?

The development of digital products and the generation of ideas based on design methodologies work hand in hand very well together. In the highly competitive market for information technology, nothing should be left to chance. Choosing the appropriate strategy, philosophy, or model can tip the scales and make a specific application, tool, or solution stand out positively.

Therefore, it is something that should be considered. In addition, they have the power to ensure the success or failure of a company, particularly a new one. On top of everything else, you need to have quick reflexes, be flexible, be willing to pick up new skills, and adjust to shifting conditions.

You may also like: Mobile app design process – taking the guesswork out of ‘great’

So, solutions that are adaptable, agile, and founded on feedback and time-boxed iterations are still relevant and up-to-date in the product design method.

The combination of these factors can make the design of digital products more effective, quicker, and in tune with the dynamic nature of our current era. In addition, it's helpful to be able to alter your plan of action in light of any unforeseen developments, whether they arise from within or outside of your project.

It is why, once you've settled on a set of goods or solutions to create, you might employ methodologies such as agile methodologies, waterfall methodology, design sprint methodology, and lean startup methodology.

Top 5 design methodologies you should know!

Among the numerous accessible project management tools and solutions, a few deserve special attention. So what do those design techniques look like in detail? Let's see:

1. Waterfall Methodology

For a considerable amount of time, digital projects have been planned and developed using the waterfall methodology. In this method, the next stage of the procedure will not begin until the one that came before it has been completed. The in-depth and structured analysis is the first step of the waterfall process. After that comes the designing, developing, and quality assurance testing.

Finally, after all that, you go live, repair defects after the release, and the job is over. It sounds reasonable, and this might be the most accurate manner of project execution for some projects. However, it might be different for others, mainly when dealing with a complex product.

Generally, the waterfall technique is connected with a step-by-step activity in the project, a more formal style of managing the workflow, and a lot of bureaucracy. The fixed scope, which is presented in the form of paperwork and is accepted by decision-makers, is one of the defining characteristics of this strategy.

This strategy may be successful in relatively consistent markets. Still, there is always the possibility that the surrounding environment will shift at an increasing rate the longer a product is produced.

The difficulty comes when you revise your project and decide to make some alterations. It is necessary to take a step back and make modifications to the project documentation as well as the code, which is not an option that is beneficial to the budget.

Moreover, the time of development is significantly prolonged. Therefore, the work is already doomed to fail if you end up with a digital product that is cohesive with documentation but needs to be updated and needs further adjustment.

2. Agile Methodologies

The significant drawbacks of the waterfall methodology served as the primary push for conducting a more in-depth investigation of the various techniques for the delivery of digital products.

Agile approaches are a more flexible way to create and efficiently launch new applications, and their name comes from the word "agile." The strategy taken here emphasizes the formation of self-organized and cross-functional teams.

As a result, the amount of "paperwork" is much reduced, and the time it takes to make decisions has been significantly shortened. Because the final product is not assembled all at once, the development process follows an evolutionary path regarding its execution. Iterations are minor components that make up the application's overall process.

Might be interesting: ​​ What is Agile software development? Detailed overview

Following each iteration which is referred to as a sprint, the team and the customer can observe not only the progression of the work but also the results of their efforts.

A check-up of this kind helps plan the activities for the subsequent iteration. It is essential to note that if any part of the solution or feature needs to be modified, the sprint planning will consider that.

In addition, a customer can respond to what is occurring in the market and make any necessary adjustments with fewer severe repercussions for his financial plan . These are how agile techniques "tame the change" and make it less expensive than it would be under a waterfall fixed scope.

3. Lean Startup Methodology

The lean startup technique is another well-liked system for organizing and controlling work processes. MVP (Minimal Viable Product) is a crucial part of it.

The basic concept is to prioritize features you wish to incorporate into your product. Then consider whether all of these are truly essential to the business's success and its customers' satisfaction.

Of course, some components must remain in the final product for reasons of profitability or functionality. The term "Most Valuable Features" (MVP) describes these essential capabilities. Your initial focus should be on developing the most basic version of your product.

4. Design Sprint Methodology

It is a framework that employs the creative thinking technique to assist in validating ideas, solving product difficulties, and aligning the team vision of a product while simultaneously creating clear goals and objectives.

The design challenge (the purpose, the problem to be solved) is explored, potential solutions are brainstormed, and a prototype is built and tested with end users within a week.

The ultimate solution, built on the foundation of the findings, will be tested once more, this time in the actual world. Meeting this week-long deadline requires a well-defined objective and extensive familiarity with the features you plan to include in the minimum viable product.

Since the Design Sprint is more of a guideline than a hard and fast rule, it may (and should) be modified to fit a given project's needs. The number of days, the methods utilized, and the types of people involved in the product design workshops are all flexible, but the process must adhere to the same structure: find, sketch, decide, prototype, and test. It is not a Design Sprint if there is no testing phase.

5. Concierge Testing

This practical approach involves interacting with potential customers in everyday settings (such as stores or cafes) to elicit feedback on made-up products.

Responses to both open-ended questions and those prompted by specific prompts, such as participants' level of happiness or sadness, are compiled.

It's easy to confuse Concierge Testing with WOZ, but the two are pretty different; the former is meant to spark creativity, while the latter is intended to put theories to the test.

For more design methodologies also check out:  White space web design best practices

How to choose the proper design methodology for your project?

Since 75% of new businesses fail within the first year, founders must proceed cautiously. However, using the appropriate design methodologies could help avert calamity and shape a better future.

Before releasing a new product or service, and perhaps again in the company's future when new features or functions are being explored, they may be appropriate.

In a market saturated with companies offering essentially the same apps and services, the tides could be tipped in your favor if you opt for the proper design techniques.

Read also: How to build a successful software development team in 7 steps?

The success or failure of developing the vast majority of technological goods hinges on selecting the appropriate design process and in some cases - right web design software . Therefore, the product designer should consider the methods' goals, conditions, and use cases before making final decisions. But first, it's essential to learn several design techniques', advantages, and disadvantages.

Design methodologies – to the next step

At Apptension, we thrive on creating successful digital products that demand a balance of adaptability and stability. The latter can be achieved by implementing a reliable product design methodology.

Also, picking the best one can mean the difference between a successful and a failed endeavor. So get in touch with our experts, who will brief you on every step of the design methodology and select the best approach for your business demands.

Design methodologies are a term that may sound a little hazy to some people, but if we summon up topics like Lean Startup or Design Sprint approaches, everything becomes much more apparent. There are, without a doubt, a great deal more things to be found on the list of product development methodologies. Using them will be extremely helpful for developers and save the day, or at the very least, a significant amount of time, money, and effort.

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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

This article is part of the research topic.

Global Lesson Study Policy, Practice, and Research for Advancing Teacher and Student Learning in STEM

Evolving Engineering Education: Online vs. In-Person Capstone Projects Compared (EEE-OIPC) Provisionally Accepted

• 1 Engineering and Physics Department, Texas A&M University Texarkana, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

This study compares online and face-to-face (F2F) instructional methods in Capstone Senior Design (CSD) projects across the disciplines of Electrical Engineering (EE) and Mechanical Engineering (ME). Through a comprehensive assessment involving project evaluations, advisor feedback, and self-peer reviews, it aims to gauge the efficacy of each approach in enhancing student success and learning outcomes. A key observation is the parity between online and F2F modalities in several metrics, yet F2F instruction distinctly advances teamwork and collaboration. Conversely, online environments show robust advisor evaluations, signifying effective mentoring despite hurdles in consistent team collaboration and project execution. Highlighting the imperative to blend online and traditional pedagogies, suggesting improved online strategies and a holistic curriculum to boost CSD students' learning experiences. These insights bear significance for ongoing and future STEM education research, stressing adaptable teaching techniques to better student experiences across varied settings. The outcomes yield important guidance for evolving STEM education research and practices, stressing the need for flexible teaching techniques to enrich learning in different educational environments. These findings are crucial for educators and institutions working to adapt their strategies to the changing landscape of online and F2F instruction in STEM areas.

Keywords: Capstone Senior Project, Online Learning, F2F, Teamwork, Engineering Education, project-based learning, group projects, Communication

Received: 19 Mar 2024; Accepted: 10 Apr 2024.

Copyright: © 2024 Znidi, Uddin and Morsy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Dr. Faycal Znidi, Texas A&M University Texarkana, Engineering and Physics Department, Texarkana, 75503, Texas, United States

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How to make a solar eclipse viewer with a cereal box and some foil

If you don't have solar glasses yet to watch the total eclipse happening April 8 , not to worry. The good folks at NASA have an easy way you can view the eclipse by making a box pinhole projector with common items found around your home — no degree in rocket science required.

A  rare total solar eclipse  Monday is set to chart a 115-mile-wide path over portions of Mexico, the United States and Canada. Millions of people are expected to flock toward the path of totality where they can catch a glimpse of this once-in-a-lifetime spectacle.

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Follow these instructions for creating your box pinhole projector.

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• Next, cut two square holes on the opposite end of the box — one on the right side and the other on the left. If you're using a cereal box, tape up the middle so your box doesn't fall apart.
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Office of the Vice President for Research

Four clas faculty researchers secure prestigious early career awards.

Continuing  an upward trend of University of Iowa faculty securing prestigious early-career grants, four investigators from the Departments of Physics and Astronomy and Computer Science have been awarded notable grant awards to advance their careers.

DeRoo, Hoadley advance space instrumentation with Nancy Grace Roman Technology Fellowships in Astrophysics for Early Career Researchers

Casey DeRoo and Keri Hoadley , both assistant professors in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, each received a Nancy Grace Roman Technology Fellowship in Astrophysics for Early Career Researchers. The NASA fellowship provides each researcher with $500,000 over two years to support their research in space-based instrumentation. 

Hoadley’s research is two-pronged. She will design and ultimately prototype a mirror-based vacuum ultraviolet polarizer, which will allow researchers to access polarized light from space below 120-nanometer wavelength. Polarizing light at such a low wavelength is crucial to building optics for NASA’s future Habitable World Observatory (HWO), the agency’s next flagship astrophysics mission after the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. 

“Our vacuum ultraviolet polarizer project is meant to help set up our lab to propose to NASA for one or more follow-up technology programs, including adapting this polarizer for use in vacuum systems, duplicating it and measuring its efficiency to measure additional flavors of polarized UV light, quantifying the polarization effects introduced by UV optical components that may be used on HWO, and building an astronomical instrument to measure the polarization of UV from around massive stars and throughout star-forming regions,” said Hoadley.

In addition, Hoadley and her team will build a facility to align, calibrate, and integrate small space telescopes before flight, using a vacuum chamber and wavelengths of light typically only accessible in space, which could help the university win future small satellite and suborbital missions from NASA. 

DeRoo will work to advance diffraction gratings made with electron beams that pattern structures on a nanometer scale.   Like a prism, diffraction gratings spread out and direct light coming from stars and galaxies, allowing researchers to deduce things like the temperature, density, or composition of an astronomical object.

The fellowship will allow DeRoo to upgrade the university’s Raith

 Voyager tool, a specialized fabrication tool hosted by OVPR’s Materials Analysis, Testing and Fabrication (MATFab) facility.

“These upgrades will let us perform algorithmic patterning, which uses computer code to quickly generate the patterns to be manufactured,” DeRoo said. “This is a major innovation that should enable us to make more complex grating shapes as well as make gratings more quickly.” DeRoo added that the enhancements mean his team may be able to make diffraction gratings that allow space instrument designs that are distinctly different from those launched to date.

“For faculty who develop space-based instruments, the Nancy Grace Roman Technology Fellowship is on par with the prestige of an NSF CAREER or Department of Energy Early Career award,” said Mary Hall Reno, professor and department chair. “Our track record with the program elevates our status as a destination university for astrophysics and space physics missions.”

Uppu pursues building blocks quantum computing with NSF CAREER Award

Ravitej Uppu, assistant professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, received a 5-year NSF CAREER award of $550,000 to conduct research aimed at amplifying the power of quantum computing and making its application more practical. 

Uppu and his team will explore the properties of light-matter interactions at the level of a single photon interacting with a single molecule, enabling them to generate efficient and high-quality multiphoton entangled states of light. Multiphoton entangled states, in which photons become inextricably linked, are necessary for photons to serve as practical quantum interconnects, transmitting information between quantum computing units, akin to classical cluster computers. 

“ In our pursuit of secure communication, exploiting quantum properties of light is the final frontier,” said Uppu. “However, unavoidable losses that occur in optical fiber links between users can easily nullify the secure link. Our research on multiphoton entangled states is a key building block for implementing ‘quantum repeaters’ that can overcome this challenge.”

Jiang tackles real-world data issues with NSF CAREER Award

Peng Jiang, assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science, received an NSF CAREER Award that will provide $548,944 over five years to develop tools to support the use of sampling-based algorithms. 

Sampling-based algorithms reduce computing costs by processing only a random selection of a dataset, which has made them increasingly popular, but the method still faces limited efficiency. Jiang will develop a suite of tools that simplify the implementation of sampling-based algorithms and improve their efficacy across wide range of computing and big data applications.

“ A simple example of a real-world application is subgraph matching,” Jiang said. “For example, one might be interested in finding a group of people with certain connections in a social network. The use of sampling-based algorithms can significantly accelerate this process.”

In addition to providing undergraduate students the opportunity to engage with this research, Jiang also plans for the project to enhance projects in computer science courses.