Startup the consortium

Once the Project is selected for funding the main task of the project co-ordinator is to get the project started. The starting phase is a crucial stage, as the arrangements made here determine the course of the whole project.

Projects require their own organisational format which is distinct from the organisation of the institutions involved. It is this   specific project organisation which needs to be built into the first phase of the project.

Main tasks while initiating a consortium

Reviewing the project plan

One of the first things to do for a co-ordinator at the start of the project is to review the original project plan, which is now the basis of the Grant Agreement. In almost all projects the original plan needs to be reviewed, adapted and refined.

This review may include the following aspects.

Project aim

How operational were the project aims as originally formulated? Are they concrete enough to assess the level of achievement later on? Can they be measured or otherwise verified? Do the assumptions on which these aims were formulated (still) hold true?

Perhaps some of the project aims will have to be modified in the course of the project’s implementation. But co-ordinators of partnership Projects in the Erasmus PLUS Programme should be aware that modification of aims is possible only to a certain extent. The project was selected on the basis of the aims described in the project proposal. If adaptation is necessary, this may only mean clarification and refinement without altering the substance of the project

 Envisaged products

Another refinement in planning will normally concern the project products. In the project proposal the educational products to be developed may have been described only in general terms and need now to be more detailed. Project managers should be aware that partnership Projects are strongly product oriented. The range, nature, volume, or language versions of products must not be changed without prior consent of the funder.

To produce and discuss in detail at the kick-off meeting a revised list of deliverables can be useful in ensuring that all partners have a complete and clear picture of what has to be produced by the project, and when, how and by whom.

 Project budget

The budget of the overall project and the partners’ share of it were fixed in the project proposal but the budget approved by the funder might well have been reduced. If this is the case the project has to re-do the whole scoping process with the reduced budget – or leave it altogether. A budget cut needs to be reflected in the internal budget allocation both between partners and between cost items. It is crucial for the development of trust in the partnership that such financial modifications are fairly shared and communicated with full transparency.

 Allocation of tasks

Very often tasks allocated to partners in the project proposal have to be revisited. Perhaps because of a budget cut as described above, or because the staff involved have changed or simply because the partners consented to a provisional division of tasks without thinking much about it. It is useful to go again through each work package as described in the proposal, discuss, confirm and if necessary, re-allocate some tasks at the kick-off meeting. Project co-ordinators should show some flexibility here as task modifications can help partners to find their correct place in a project. This process therefore has an immense impact on motivation and the sense of ownership.

Planning the project organisation

The essential task with regard to planning the organisation of the project is to create a complete picture of what needs to be done to achieve the project aims and to develop the envisaged products. It is a pre-requisite to managing the project, i.e. to monitor and take action to ensure that all the main tasks have to be broken down, allocated and timed. There are some basic project management tools which can help to do this: Work breakdown structures, network diagrams, milestones and Gantt charts will be presented at the end of this chapter.

Planning the management system

To ensure smooth decision-making and to avoid conflicts in the partnership functions, the roles with regard to the management of projects must be planned at an early stage. This part of the management system should be put in place as one of the first steps in the startup phase.

Project Plan

Also called project manual, it is a formal document that outlines the approach and process for achieving the project’s objectives.

It typically includes the following key components:

Planning the budget and administration

Financial and administrative planning is conceived by many project co-ordinators as one of the most time-consuming tasks in a Project. It involves calculations and estimates, arrangements of contracts, documentation templates and reporting formats. This part of project management is, however, important not only for formal reasons, but also for efficiency and transparency.

A project budget is a detailed estimate of all the costs required to complete a project over a defined period. It includes various expenses such as labour, materials, travel costs, and operating costs. The project budget is crucial for planning, tracking, and managing the financial aspects of a project to ensure it stays within the allocated funds

It’s used to estimate what the costs of the project will be for every phase of the project. The project budget is a critical part of the project planning process, it is produced when the application is prepared and validated by the funder of the project. It determines what expenses are admissible. The GANTT chart or the project plan indicate when the experience can be sustained.

Planning human interaction

The success of a partnership project, as in any other project, depends to a very large extent on the people involved in the project, their development and functioning as a team, the effectiveness of communication and the quality of their collaborative work on the project products. Given the characteristics of a partnership Project – team members dispersed all over Europe, mainly virtual work, rare face-to-face meetings – this is not an easy task for any project manager. Even if most project managers will agree on this, few co-ordinators devote enough planning time on this essential aspect. Planning human interaction entails:

• Developing and implementing a team building strategy
• Creating a project culture of shared values, standards and rules
• Devising an internal communication plan

Planning the project impact

A partnership is funded by the European Commission to produce tangible and non-tangible outcomes which are of value to the educational community. A pilot project is only successful if the educational products it produces will eventually be transferred to the target groups, be used by them and thus improve the quality of education. Planning this envisaged impact is therefore a crucial planning task. It involves:

• Devising the promotion and dissemination strategy
• Planning stakeholder involvement
• Drafting a sustainability plan

Project scheduling

The project schedule precisely defines deadlines and duration of all tasks needed to achieve the objectives. It starts with defining a list of tasks, followed by considering the possibility of concurrent execution of individual tasks (thereby shortening the duration of the project) on which the network plan is based. When the start of project execution and the duration of all tasks are defined, the schedule is finished. The graphically displayed schedule is called a Gantt chart, and it is a basis (and a tool) for monitoring/controlling the progress of the project during the execution phase.