How do I organise the project work?

You need a Pert Diagram and a Gantt Chart:

1) To organise your planning

2) To explain your work plan to others.

Make it simple and easy to understand. In a proposal it is wise to organise your work in Work Packages. In the WPs you have tasks.

Typical Perts an Gantts of WPs can be:

The important point with the Pert is the timeline; what must be done first, what can be done in parallel, will there be some integration of results at some point. You should organise the responsibilities of the partner so that they have their main responsibilities in distinct WPs. If all partners are in all WPs you will have an unorganised project that is hard to manage.

Use the Pert and Gantt to organise and reflect on your work plans. Most evaluators love to read Gantts because it gives a fast overview and easily shows faults in your planning.

You should use the Pert and Gantt actively to review your work. (The main point is that you think and used these tools actively in setting up the proposal):

Pert

Do we need a WP1 to set the stage for the project (but be careful because you should know literature before you started and you cannot start planning again in WP1). However you can consolidate the scientific work, clarify methods and refine work plans etc
Do we have work that can be done in parallel
Do we need to integrate this in a WP afterwards
What work must be done serially
Based on the Pert alternative you chose; consider:
- What happens to integration if one of the parallel WPs fails? Write about it, get it into the risk plans, suggest alternative strategies
- In a serial Pert what happens if one WP fails? Will the project stop? If so you are in great trouble. Write about it as above
- Is it wise to work for a long time in parallel?

Gantt

If you have a start-up/consolidation WP at the beginning it should last no longer than 6 months.
What about the duration of the WP and task? (too long, too short?)
What about effort and duration? (If resources put in to a task is 3 PM, it should not last 12 months and if duration is 3 months do I have 12 PM in such a short period)
Can you start earlier or must you wait until the previous task is completely finished?
Where are the critical finish – start links?
Too much or too little activity in periods?
If a previous task is delayed can you start next on schedule?
When will you start dissemination activities? (Maybe earlier than you think.)
Have you started tests/trials early enough to integrate them with parallel work? And to write the reports?
What about holidays? Any major work to be finished mid-summer or at Christmas??
Have all partners agreed and committed themselves to the plan?

This may sound simple. However inconsistencies, lack of logic, bad timing, too optimistic planning or waste of time appear frequently in Gantts. Be sure that you avoid this in your project. You should explain the plan and how you have been thinking. Use the risk plan to show risks in the planning and to explain how to control/overcome the risks.

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