DiTaMa™

The Handbook

DiTaMa™

The red line through the education

Conclusion:

The Handbook describes goals and forms for project oriented teaching accord-ing to the model DiTaMa™. The Handbook describes why we introduce project in the education, how to do it in practice, treats quality oriented thinking, group dynamics, meeting tech-niques and formalities, how to write technical reports, project economy, super-vising and examination. In the appendixes you will find templates for summons, protocol for mile stone meeting and control meeting, covers, title sheet, time plan, examples of product specifications and so on. The chapter which handles the problem based learning PBI is build basically on a compendium put together by Piotr Kolodziejski, KTH-Haninge. The quality aspects have been worked out by Roland Langhé, KTH-Södertälje.

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1 Why project in education?

1.1 Project in working life and school – an introduction

KTH’s Engineering College - started autumn term 1996 a new engineering edu-cation which includes 120 college credit points. In connection with this it was also introduced a project work as a new teaching and examining form. This Handbook aims to give a short introduction to the KTH - Campus Haninge model for project work in the education and will be from now on called Di-TaMa™. The book is firstly aimed for students and is independent of variations that may occur in different education plans4.

An engineer’s work is characterized by problem solving of nature that sel-dom is delimited to just one of the schools traditional disciplines. Problem solv-ing demands that one apply both “school knowledge” and the working experi-ence accumulated at a specific working place. Early experiences prove that group work is a motivation factor due to a higher grade of participation which working in a project group involves.

It is much easier to see the connection between a concrete problem and the need of theoretical knowledge from all the different involved areas. The project group is forced to accumulate new knowledge in order to be able to move on with the project work. The project participants have often a valuable coopera-tion to each other. Participation control requires a high grade of internal disci-pline, the ability to plan and coordinate all the participant efforts.

Project work is just one of the methods to accumulate knowledge and ex-periences needed when solving problems in a profession.

It is a method in study and work professionaly, which by no means is a new invention or some new pedagogical experiment. The project as a problem solv-ing method has been used in many different circumstances. As a form of educa-tion it is more related to real life the student will face after graduating then for example the traditional class -teaching form.

The learn how to work in project is a process which takes time. The process has two sides. The one side has to do with knowledge and skills – there are a se-ries of assignments to do during the project time. The other side is related to the personal side – one has to learn to work together with other people with the ad-vantages and disadvantages included.

Project work done in real life is different from the project work in a peda-gogical context, especially if the work is to be evaluated with grades. One of the basic ideas with project work in a real life situation is to use the collaborators

4 For more information see The Instructors Manual.

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special knowledge. On the other hand in a schools situation the basic idea is for everybody to learn the same thing. Let’s say for example that a project work on a company result in a report. If there is somebody in the group who is use to typing it is natural to appoint this person as responsible for just typing.

On the other hand, in a schools situation, the teachers may consider valuable for everybody to get practise in typing. Therefore they can demand that every group member be involved in the typing process, or even demand an individual typed report from each and one of the members.

Even more complicated is of course if the report is included for in individual grading of the student.

In a real life project, the most rational think to do is to let the most experi-enced machine writer to type the report, but in a school situation this could be interpreted as cheating.

A situation that is common to school work but quite unusual in real life is that several parallel groups are working on a similar assignment. This can have certain consequences especially at the oral presentation of the project. In real life the presentation is made for an audience which is expecting to hear some-thing new (the results and conclusion of the project), but in a school situation the presentation is made for colleagues which had done a similar and sometimes identical task and for teachers and instructors which posed deeper knowledge then the project group. The general aspects of suche situation are described in chapter 2 while chapter 3 is focused on the pedagogical aspects.

A most important aspect of a ”true” project work is of course the financial aspects. In a school project, of natural causes, they must have a more symbolic character. Never then less, it is important to learn how to handle the economical side of the project. An overview of the projects financial side is presented in chapter 2.9, but a more accurate approach is to handle this part differently, de-pending on the project.

In chapter 1.2. there is described a learning method called PBI. PBI is a pedagogical method and can shortly be described as a method that focuses on the students learning process rather then the teachers teaching process. PBI is done in groups and the start point is when a group gets a task to do. The main purpose for the students them self is to discover what are the learning needs, both individually and in group.

It is very simple to confuse PBI with project work, especially if one has never come in contact with this terms and it’s important to remember that PBI is a learning method while the project work is a working method in order to achieve a concrete result, for example a problem to be solved or a product to be created. On the other side, PBI can very well be used in the different phases of a project and this is described more detailed in chapter 1.2.2

1.2 Problem based learning

Working in project is a working method for quickly and effectively solving a problem, making a study or investigation, a prototype or something similar and concrete. It is inherited from the industry and used now of many educational in-stitution, such as KTH’s Engineering College education.

Problem based learning; PBI on the other hand is a learning method which is exclusively used in a pedagogical context. But there are some similarities be-tween the two methods which sometimes mean that they easy can get mixed up when applied in a school context. This is mainly because they’re applied in the same process.

1.2.1 PBI – a learning method.

PBI means: More time for the student’s self-learning and less time for the teach-ers out-teaching.

Figure 1 Teachers out-learning.

Picture1: I have taught the dog to whistle.Picture 2: I can’t hear him whistle. Picture3: I said I taught him to whistle but this doesn’t necessary mean that he has learned how to whistle. Shortly one can say that PBI is characterized by:

“real life” situations that are the starting point for problem processing and the base for learning

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self-controlled learning, which means that the student takes responsibility for learning . work in group.

After the PBI is introduced for example during a lecture the learning will be done in groups. The project group has regular meetings together with the in-

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structor/teacher. During the meetings the group goes trough different problem definitions and makes an analysis of what is to be learned. Also the need for support lectures is investigated.

One has to define what is to be learned for the next meeting. Then the study-ing is made either individually or in group. At the next meeting the knowledge accumulation is to be evaluated and new goals for learning are to be set up. An inventory of further possible resources lectures is investigated.

PBI is a learning method and not a working method. The primary goal for PBI is to get knowledge about the problem and not to

solve it. There are people who say that PBI is the same as project based teaching. It is

not. The primary difference is the goal. In a project course the students are go-ing to create a product. In a PBI on the other hand the primary target is the knowledge [8].

The seven steps in PBI must not be mixed up with the different phases in a project, but they are very similar with the five steps in KPL which are men-tioned in A4.

Figure 2. The seven steps in a PBI-meeting.(Picture from Bengt Molin’s work [0])

1.2.2 Project in teaching

Project is a working method used to quickly and effectively get concrete results, for example solving a problem or making a study or a prototype. In a project the work is done in group. The working assignment among the group members is controlled by the purpose of the project which is to fulfil the demands in the product specification, in the best way possible.

The group division should be made with consideration for the project size

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and character. In a project, the group members have different assignments, often based on their skills.

A project has normally different phases. Each phase is completed with a mile stone meeting where it is decided if the phase is actually completed, and in that case what it is needed to continue with the project.

The model DiTaMa™, which was chosen for all the projects in the project series, has only 4 phases. So the assignment was divided in several projects in-stead. Below is presented an illustration of a phase’s sequence which was cho-sen for the DiTaMa™ model.

Figure 3 Project process

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The 4 phases are:

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Analysis phase – where goal and problem definition is decided and the prod-uct specification is negotiated. Collecting facts, phase – where choosing the method for solving the problem takes place (choosing components, signal scheme, components layout) and final demands in the product specification is decided. Realisation phase – where product prototype is assembled. Presentation phase – where measurements and tests are done, the technical report is put together and a presentation is prepared.

The structure is borrowed from the industry, most useful was Ericsson’s internal product design and manufacturing model. The process of calling to, and holding a mile stone meeting and different other moments in the project process are de-scribed more detailed in the Student Manual DiTaMa™ 0.

In order to satisfy the learning needs a project group has, it is recommended to form the working meetings according to the PBI model (Problem Based In-learning) or PBL (Problem Based Learning).

1.2.3 PBI in a DiTaMa™ project

Analysis- and fact collecting phase in each project is well suited to be imple-mented with help of the PLB-method in a school environment. The relation be-tween PBI and PROJECT in the three parts of the DiTaMa™-project can be il-lustrated with the picture below.

Figure 4 Relations between PBI and Project in DiTaMa

It is quite seldom that one carries out a pure project in a school environment. Often it is done trough a PBI-course and this is called “project”. At the same

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time one will also achieve ones goal that all group members learn the same things during the “project” and this is against the basic principle with a project, which is that everyone does what they are best on.

In the DiTaMa™ model we are trying to apply the PBI as often as possible, but we work firstly on project methodises. Some parts of the project in a school situation can with advantage be formed with help of PBI as mentioned in the beginning. This means that the group works together to solve the project as-signment as well as possible and divide the assignments among themself ac-cordingly to interest and skills. This must be done already in the analysis phase.

In the next phase which is the facts collecting phase, all the project group members must study their area of expertise individually but must pass on the knowledge to the rest of the group members so they can go by the individual examination. In this way the project principle of each group member specializ-ing in an area is merged with the principle of all group members learning the same thing according to PBI.

2 Project in practice – How to do it?

Project is a working form which is frequently used in different contexts. A pro-ject assignment in school is different from an ordinary school assignment in the following ways: !

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A project has an open problem definition which means that there is no prede-fined solution. A project is limited in time A project has limited resources (working hours and other resources) A project has a formal organisation which simplifies the achievement of pre-defined goals.

2.1 Introduction

As established in paragraph 1.2 a project work according to the DiTaMa™ model has four different phases.

In every transition between the phases a formal mile stone meeting is hold. During the project, besides the mile stone meetings, even more informal

working meetings are hold. If the project team needs any external help one or several external meetings can be hold. At the mile stone meetings the timetable and budget is followed up. For the formal mile stone meetings a special type of documentation can be produced. See appendix A9 (“Schematic description of project process”).

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2.2 Quality in project work

The word “quality” comes from the Latin Qua Litas which means “wherefrom”. This leads to the original meaning of the word in Swedish which is simply “property, characteristic”. This meaning still lives in the old-fashioned expres-sion “which qualities the project has”. In English the word “quality” still means partly feature.

In later language usage the word has come to describe a god property com-pared to the bad property which means bad quality. The word it self says noth-ing about what is the god quality in a project or for that matter in a product. One has to define first what good quality is in a project, especially in a school envi-ronment.

In later literature about the quality (meaning a measurement of good properties) the word describes the degree of fulfilment of properties of a product or service delivered to a customer, according to a prior mutual agreement.

It means for example that if a time of delivery is settled and it’s not exceeded it results in good quality. If one has been able to answer all the questions re-garding a project in a good way it is also a good quality. If one can show at the project start in what way the project goal is going to be achieved it also means that one is on the right path towards quality. If then, when the project has ended one can make conclusions from the project material and show how the goal was achieved and if one can also learn both him/herself and others something about the project, it is also a sign of good quality. This means also that the project group members must know in good advance which quality standards are defined for the actual project. An example is shown in the appendix A10.

Good quality to the customer is good organisation of work and other tools which make it possible to fulfil the demands agreed with the customer. The primer tool for this customer/product oriented approach is ISO 9000. The cus-tomer in a school project is the examiner. Other tools are the quality tools found in the Memory Trimmer II which is the standard tool for all project activity on KTH’s collage engineer educations.

Instructions in this chapter are practical examples on tools to be used in or-der to be shore of achieving a result based on a mutual agreement with the cus-tomer. Here are presented tools for control of documentation and work material. Also different types of check lists used to ashore that all necessary but reason-able steps have been taken to achieve the customers’ goals in a satisfactory way. You will find even tips on how to plan a project work to win some time but still achieve the goal.

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2.2.1 Project work formalities – a way of guarding your self against unpleasantness

All formalities take time and are often experienced as unneeded. In that way the formalities are a load. If it is necessary to have formalities in order to create quality then result is a expensive quality. Don’t you agree?

Yes. Formalities take time. But an absence of formalities can also take pre-cious time. The absence of formalities can lead to a deteriorate quality level which often means that you have to redo things and could take more time then if you had formalities from the beginning. A few examples:

A call for a project meeting has not been done in the right way which leads to the fact that important persons have not attended the meeting. Those who attended can’t do their job and leads to a lot of wasted working hours. A few important aspects are not on the daily order in the call which means that several members in the group have not been able to prepare for the meeting. All presents must wait for them to get their part of material. Some important demands from the customer or examiner have not been documented right and those assigned for the job are completely unaware of it. The customer (examiner) is not satisfied and the work must be redone which leads to a lot of extra time wasted. An important document has not been registered and stored in the right way and has therefore disappeared. This leads to a difficult process of restoring data or even worse being forces to go to the customer or examiner and ask for the information again.

The list can be made much longer and the experience has shown that the time spared by using formalities and doing things right from the beginning is much larger compared with the time it takes to redo things afterwards. Especially evi-dent is where one has observed that something has gone wrong in the project and has to go back and to investigate the conditions. If one is not well organised when it comes to what it has been done then there is a risk of doing the mistake again and it can be quite difficult to recreate the conditions all over again.

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Typical time sharing in a project work

Table 1 From “Decision traps” – Roland Langhé - march 1999

Real time share

Desirable time share

Delimitations and problem definition 20 % 5 %

Collecting facts 35 % 45 %

Discussion and preparation incl. report 25 % 40 %

Learn from experience 20 % 10 %

A study from 1989 shows the above numbers as desirable percentage. Those studied have decided what they considered being a desirable time division in percentage. Measurements made show the real time division.

2.2.2 Other methods that gives good quality

Not only formalities have importance when it comes to how the proprieties of a project result are going to outcome. Generally one is always in a hurry with some parts of the project and this creates more work then what is reasonable. The most common mistake is that one is very anxious to begin with the project work it self which is collecting facts. The problems that appear is that one doesn’t know for which facts to look before the project is well defined and well delimited. This means that one will have to spend unnecessary time on collec-tion facts and be forced in to long discussions in the investigating or preparatory phase to sort out the unneeded facts. One will also miss on the opportunity to learn from result and facts.

2.2.3 Tools for quality work

Each work must in some way be delimited and made possible to do. The prob-lem must therefore be defined in a way so that delimitation can be made. See Memory Trimmer I page 105 ff.

Tools for quality development and control in a project are concluded in the Memory Trimmer II where the seven quality tools, decision and priority matri-ces, the seven management tools are presented in a shorten variant. The purpose

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for the Memory Trimmer II is to be a standard tool for all the study works in the DiTaMa™-project. Besides the Memory Trimmer II, a documenting system shall be used in order to have order in the project administration and create conditions for a good re-sult.

2.3 A project team

2.3.1 Assembly

In working life a project team can be put together in different ways. The team can include professionals with the same background but different specialities, or representatives from different profession groups in a company. All this depends of course on the project character. What is common for all projects is the impor-tance of team cooperation. It is as important to be a good colleague as a good individualist.

2.3.2 Project leader role

The instructor together with the group should at project start focus on how to put together an organization for projects administration. The group should im-mediately assign a member for the project leader post, someone who will bear the overall responsibility of leading the project.

In the DiTaMa™ 0-project the post of the project leader goes around among all group members. The typical working assignments for a project leader are:

Calling to meetings. The project leader must be well acquainted with writing call for a meeting and even writing meeting record. Have the responsibility for the projects economy and time schedule. Have the responsibility for archiving the project documentation. Represent the project team

2.3.3 Group’s tasks

The team as a unit has responsibility for the project to be executed in time, with all the resources administrated for it. All team members must attend to all the meetings and each and one of the members is responsibly for the final result.

2.3.4 Cooperation

One of the greatest advantages with project work is that students work in group. Learning and solving problems is done better in a group then individually. Dur-

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ing the project work the group can split it in smaller units in order to solve parts of the problem. One should have often working meetings in order to discuss and exchange ideas with each other.

2.3.5 Conflicts

Within the project team there are going to appear conflicts. It can be that some members of the team will not get involved enough or from some other reason someone is not able to live up to the groups settled goals. Whatever the reason may be and whatever the problem is, the group must first by own hand try to solve the problems. If that doesn’t lead to a result then the group must call for a control meeting with the instructor.

2.4 Problem definition

When the project team has got its assignment, the group must come to a com-mon understanding of what the problem is. After reading the assignment de-scription or had the situation explained, all the group members will have their own idea about what the problem really is and more or less have a vague idea about the solution of it.

As an example it can be mentioned the team who got as an assignment to evaluate the security on a working place when an automatic card based bypass system was introduced. Someone came immediately to think about technical se-curity, industrial espionage and the use of the card as a key. Some one else thought about the employee integrity. If an accident would happen the company management would have complete control on where each employee is located and could conduct a rescue operation based on that information. There were of course loud discussion when the group started to solve the problem. They were actually all right. There was no obvious answer about what to be solved and the members got to define and interpret the assignment.

As noticed, it is very important that all the team members are agreed about what the problem is, before discussions about solving methods are started. NOTE!!! In the problem description above there is a fundamental error. It is not the group’s task to define the assignment- It is the customer who needs to both define and interpret the assignment. If the assignment is not well defined and specified, the group must go back to the customer (examiner) and ask for a clarification. If the cus-tomer doesn’t know what to be done, the group can’t be sure of when the project is done or how plan it. Defining the problem together with the customer is a task de-manded in the ISO 9001 and is called “contract review”. If the customer alone is not able to define the problem then the project team must work together with him/her un-til both the group and the customer has come to a common idea about what the prob-lem is.

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To capture the customer’s needs and find out what it is that he/she really wants, there are several tools that can be used when having discussions with him/her. The Memory Trimmer on page 23 handles the Cause/Effect-diagram. On page 63 Force Filed Analyse, The Pareto diagram on page 95 and the relationship diagram on page 12 can be used when structuring the problem together with the customer.

When the contract review is finished the group will hopefully have a clear priority list describing the customer wishes and what to be achieved.

It is not for sure that the customer will put equal importance on all aspects when it comes to functionality. In the contract review, it must be specified what the group can accomplish when it comes to fulfilling the customer’s wishes. Unreal demands on the problem solving services are usual when it comes to real world. Therefore this is something the students need to be prepared for.

A well documented contract review = problem definition is one of the most important aspects when grading in school projects.

2.4.1 Goal

As soon as the group has come to an agreement about the content of the as-signment, the members must set measurable goal. By that we mean what results the group must achieve for the defined problem to be solved. The goals do not need to be presented to the customer. Their purpose is to help the group to achieve whatever the customer wishes. The wanted result is often a goal, a sug-gestion of handling, a technical documentation resulting from an investigation or a product to be designed and constructed. The goals definition must be of such character that their grade of achievability can be measured.

The problem definition must provide both the customer and the project par-ticipants with a common vision of the problem. The goal on the other hand must reflect the group’s understanding of the concrete proprieties of the solution. If the group has no goal to work for, it is impossible to say when the project is fin-ished or if the project work has been good or bad. It is therefore important that the goals are “measurable” in some way. If one has the assignment to construct a baby pram, it is not an easy to handle product specification. On the other hand, if more information is given for example the measurements: Max width = 40cm, Max weight =5 kg and Max height when closed = 15 cm, equipped with an extra carry handle on the front side, all this are measurable demands in a product specification.

The customer must of course participate by controlling that the pre-decided goals are fulfilled when the project is finished. In case of an external customer, the project group must together with him agree that the result is according to the contract review. Please observe that it is the description of the contract review which is the reference when evaluating results. The customer might have modi-

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fied his/her demands during the project, but this is something that the project group can not take in consideration without a revision of the contract review.

The most common is that the customer presents a list of demands (product specification). Example of such a list is annexed in appendix A8.

The product specification needs to be reed carefully in order to avoid misun-derstandings.

In our DiTaMa™-project, the customer/examiner must formally approve the product specification (group’s delimitation) at the first mile stone meeting. The record from the meeting is a document on which the grading of the project will be made.

The group can apply a number of problem solving methods in order to make the trip from problem to solution. The group must come to a set of problem solving tools, which is often needed to achieve the goal. Some of the tools might be useless for that particular case and the group must choose those meth-ods that are realistic and necessary. For example, one can not travel to Silicon Valley for laboratory. One has to settle for an ordinary laboratory room.

There can also be several similar ways to solve a problem and all are leading to the same result. The group can’t apply all the methods and must therefore de-cide for one. Delimitation must be made here. The group must choose and pre-sent which solving solutions are considered to be appropriate to apply for this project and also motivate that choice.

2.4.2 Project delimitation

Now, the project team together with the problem owner = customer (in our school project - the examiner) has agreed upon what the problem is, docu-mented the customers demand and decided how to reach the goal. Starting from an extensive problem definition, the group has now together with the customer worked out the project delimitations, taking in consideration the actual time frame and available resources. In school, it is often possible in a higher degrade to take in consideration the special interests that each student has when deciding on delimitation. This is one of the thoughts behind project work as a form of education.

A conclusion on the problem definition, what is the team’s target, what are the problem solving methods to be used, and the group’s internal- and final product’s specifications are some of the points to be described in the beginning of the report. This are factors on which the whole project work are later build on.

A very important part of the project is hereby finished. Because it is here where all the conditions for a successful project work are created, it is important that this phase takes all the necessary time it demands. A typical value can be

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that 25% of all available time is dedicated to this project stage. The eventually time loss is recovered later in the project by already heaving solved the question marks, then the rest of the work can be an easy way to go.

2.4.3 Time planning

In the beginning of this chapter it was made clear that the project is limited in time. In order to dispose the time more efficiently, it is important that a time plan for the project work is made. The time plan must contain all the project phases (see bellow), meetings, activities and so on. After the project delimita-tion has been done and the group members have a clear picture about what must be done, a final decision regarding the time table is made during the mile stone meeting 1. As the tool for making a time plan, one of the tools described in Memory Trimmer on page 3-11 can be used.

The form for the time plan can be studied in the appendix A5.

2.5 Phase subdivision

Of all the working assignments included in a project work it seams that some are more related to each other then others. The working assignments can also be subdivided in different phases. In our DiTaMa™-project we use the model with four phases which has been described in chapter 1.2. The phases are:

Problem analysis Facts collection Execution Reporting and evaluation

In each transition between phases a mile stone meeting must be carry on. The meeting is held to mark that a certain phase has been accomplished and to de-cide if the project is going in the right direction in order to achieve the goals that have been set. At the meeting the documentation that emphasises the final-ization of the prior phase must be accepted and stored.

Each phase is subdivided in different activities. A group member is respon-sible for each activity. Each activity is to be marked in the time plan. How many activities are included in each phase it depends on the type of project. Example of activity can be:

Establish a time table Delimit the project Make an economic calculation Collect statistical basis Evaluate a mathematical model

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The activities are to be divided in working assignments. If we take for example the activity “collecting statistical basis” from the list above, it includes several different working assignments. First it is to be decided what to be investigated, then the question to be asked, how the questionnaire must look like, how the an-swers will be given and so on. When it comes to colleting numbers and make conclusions from them, there are several tools that can be used. In the Memory Trimmer page 31, 66, and 145 there are some basic methods described.

The working methods are presented in a special time report. How the time report looks like can be studied in appendix A7.

2.6 Problem solving

During the project process, the project team will need to solve those problems that appear. It can be all from making a time plane to solving differential equa-tions. To work in project is a comprehensive problem solving method. There are also several other methods for the project’s problem solving that can be used. See appendix A4 “Creative problem solving KPL”.

2.7 Meetings

There are a number of meetings to be held during a project. Together they make a structure for the project which makes it easier to preserve the quality trough out the project work.

2.7.1 Mile stone meeting

The mile stone meetings must be held between each phase of the project. It is the demand of the ISO 9001 that a system for the execution of the project must exist. All group members (and instructors) must attend. At the first mile stone meeting attends even the order placer (problem owner, customer). If the team has contacts with companies outside, for example, a representative of that com-pany may attend the meeting too. During the mile stone meetings the formal de-cisions are excluded and items to be treated are:

Evaluation of work done so far, a check if the group is working on the right path to achieve the goal and also a check of prior phase finalization. Evaluation of the documentation from prior phase Follow-up of time plan and budget for the project. Plans for next phase.

Each mile stone meeting has a chairman and a secretary. These assignments must be rotated among all group members at least during the first project in the DiTaMa™-model. No later then three days prior to the meeting call for meeting

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must be sent to all meeting participants. No later then five days after the meet-ing a written record must be presented to all meeting participants.

The call for meeting must specify the time and placed for the meeting to-gether with the items to be discussed at that meeting. The project leader must be well familiar with the system of writing calls and records: The meeting agenda is subdivided in two parts, report items and decision and discussion items.

The report items have firm headings and numeration. This means that head-ings and numerations are present on all agendas. Please observer that the item “Other questions, announcements” is reserved when wanting to an-nounce “other questions “. The handling of those questions is returning as a separate item in the decision and discussion part. Decision and discussion items have unique heading and a numerations which means two different items in the same project can never have the same head-ing and numeration. When such an item is finished during a meeting it can be either declared suspended or completed. A suspended item can be recalled to discussion in a later coming meeting but then it must have the same num-bering. A completed item is finished and can not been recalled later during the project. The item status must be obvious in the meeting record.

An example of a call for a meeting can be seen in appendix A1.

2.7.2 Control meeting

If a member of the team (or the instructor) notices that the group is gliding from it’s path or if something else is not working in the group, then the present pro-ject leader, when asked by a group member or instructor must call to a formal control meeting. The control meeting must be as formal as a mile stone meeting. A formal call must be send three days prior to the meeting and a record must be written for the meeting. When the control meeting is related to renegotiation of the product specification then even the customer/examiner must be called.

2.7.3 Working meetings

When solving the problem, it is sometimes necessary to have working meetings. These meetings are not so formal but it is necessary to write memory notices about what was said and decided during that meeting. Memory notices must be kept in the project documentation.

2.7.4 Weekly meeting /planning meetings

Besides the formal, phase completing mile stone meetings and possible control meetings the group must meet each week for planning meetings. At these meet-

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ings the prior week’s work is evaluated individually for each member and next weeks work is planned based on the project’s time plan. These meetings can with advantage be proceed the same day each week, for example, Monday or Friday meeting.

2.7.5 External meetings

When meeting corporate representatives and other external persons one must be very formal. Here it is important to call for a meeting in good time. Usually it is needed more then three days, but this is something to be decided together with the person concerned.

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2.8 Report

2.8.1 Generally

With all the writing involved one has to be clear about how the target group of the report looks like. Who is the reader? A technical report can have different design depending if your target group contain the engineers or the politicians.

The target group for the project report, at least in the DiTaMa™-model, are primary students attending the same school and education with an equal level of knowledge, if not other mentioned in the specification. Before starting to write the technical report, one must have a clear picture of what information you want to provide the reader with. What is the message in the text?. One should also take in consideration that the technical report must be able to be read on three different levels:

Summary. The reader must be able to quickly decide if this report presents any interest for him/her. Introduction and conclusion of the content. After reading the summary, the reader must have a clear picture if the entire report is interesting for reading or not. Report as a whole.

One has to make sure that the report is fully readable, gives a good image of unity and is experienced as a whole and at the same time that it is describing the solving of the problem on all three levels.

First when the project has been going on for a while and the team starts to get an idea about what the report should content when one can start to make a disposition which includes the report’s different chapters and appendixes.

It is very easy to be mistaken about the importance of the language usage and typographical design in a technical report. Technical expressions and for-eign terms do sometimes make a technical report hard to read. A lot of work must be put in to simplicity when expressing something in a technical report.

Presentation can easy up the reading process of a report. By using simple figures, diagrams and present different subjects in a logical structure the report’s availability is increased. To each figure/diagram there must be an explaining text, preferably with a different style.

The final formulation, editing, type writing and proofreading are something that is each project member’s attribution and responsibility. The report must be direct and must not contain comments to the working process and group work or something similar.

In the next part you will find a description of what is to be included in each subpart.

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2.8.2 Cover page

Obligatory for the covering page is the working title. If the group chooses to use a picture on the covering page it must send some kind of a signal related to the reports content. Diagrams and tables should be avoided on the covering page. Shorter reports (in other consistency then the project) don’t require a covering page5.

2.8.3 Title and summary

Title contains necessary information for identification of the project6. The summary shall be a concentrate of the reports content. Motivate the

works origin, report the result, and specify what is unique regarding the solving method or result. All the report’s main chapters should be quickly recognized in the summary. The content of the summary must be as concise as possible. For-mulations as “The group has done different measurements” or “The group has used calculation software” should be avoided. Write precisely which measure-ments that has been done or which calculation program that it has been used. In this way a better documentation of the report’s content is achieved. Because the summary is an inventory of the entire chapter contained in the report it must be written last but placed at the beginning.

2.8.4 Foreword

Foreword should contain information and comments which usually is’nt in-cluded in the report.

It can be practical information such as “the report demands some knowledge of C-programming…”, “the report contains an appendix” or “thanking a project partner for cooperation”. Foreword can be dated and all group members can put their signature on it.

2.8.5 Table of Contents

A quick reading of the table of contents must provide a good picture of the re-port disposal. First notation must be chapter 1, Introduction. The headings in the table of report must be identical with the headings in the report.

5 See appendix A2 6 See appendix A3.

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! ! ! ! ! !

!

2.8.6 Introduction

The introduction shall handle following: Project background What is the Problem? What is unsatisfactory in today’s situation? What is the group’s goal. Possible solving methods. The solving methods the group has chosen. The possible limitations that the group has set in order to be able to solve the problem using the chosen methods. A draft to introduction shall be written when the analyse phase has been completed.

2.8.7 Main chapter

After introduction a number of main chapters are to follow. These explain the problem’s solution. The chapters should be few at number. The most important thing is that the chapters sequence presents a clear picture of the problems solu-tion.

The main chapter shall document the technical work that has been done; de-scribe the collected data, calculation models measurements, attempt methods, presentation and evaluation of result (error discussion), eventual expense pro-posals. Different constructional solutions shall be compared.

In some projects different types of measurements can occur. It must be clear from the report what the measured variables are and how the group evaluates those variables. Description of measurement instruments and measurement pro-cedures shall be exact and possible error sources must be discussed.

One should be careful when presenting too detailed measure and calculation results, large tables and codes in the main chapter. Measurements and calcula-tion results, large tables and codes should be placed in the appendix.

Picture of different kind, tables, figures and diagrams shall be numbered consecutively within these three categories. The categories’ numbering shall be independent.

2.8.8 Conclusion

The conclusion shall be tied to the introduction in such way that the reader will get an advantageous exchange of reading the introduction and conclusion in a context. The conclusion shall contain a short evaluation of the methods and so-lutions which have been presented during the project. It must compare the pro-ject result with the goals that have been set during the first phase of the project. If new problems which have not been mentioned in the goal formulation have

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! ! !

been obvious in the project, those should be mentioned again (preferably with suggestion regarding further work). It must be noticed that nothing that has been handled in the main chapter can be present here.

2.8.9 References

To all reports a list of references must be present. If data, methods or results are collected from other projects work then pointers to the list of references must be present in the text. Example: BERGMAN, B. & KLEFSJÖ, B. 1996. “Quality from need to usage”. Studentlitteratur, Lund. http://www.skolnet.kristianstad.se/~pajspt/fvt/skriv.html. “To write scientifically”.

1999 08 02.

To use results from other sources and present them in such way that the origin of them can be easily misunderstood is a serious error and leads to unapproved report.

2.8.10 Appendix

Material that may be unpractical to use where it actually belongs can be placed in the appendix. It can be tables, drawings, diagrams, detailed calculations, code, scheme or similar. Reference to the appendix is done in the text body. Appendixes are placed last in the report and must be inventoried in the table of contents. If the appendix is to large, related to the rest of the report, it can be put together in a booklet. Each appendix must have a small introduction.

2.9 Project economy

As we soon will see, it is important to make a time plan for the project (and stick to it). Time is money and time table is a tool to keep track on time re-sources. To the project there are attached even other types of resources. Alloca-tion and usage of resources are included in the term “project economy”. This chapter describes the project economy both in general and also in the way that we will look at project economy in our educational project.

2.9.1 Normal costs in a project

During a project work the project group have a great number of different costs. Examples of such costs are:

personnel costs locations costs, office locations and/or special equipped locations costs for special equipment

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! ! ! ! ! !

administrational costs consultant fee course- and educational costs costs for travels material- and equipment costs other costs

Below this type of costs are commented, with special comments on how they are handled in pure educational projects.

2.9.1.1 Personnel costs

With the project personnel costs, we mean salaries during project duration for all members involved. Please observe that salary costs for a company even in-clude social fees, which are about to ca. 45% calculated on brutto salary (before taxes)7. In connection with the presentation of the project assignment and pro-ject group assembly, the company can present the personnel cost with a wage of 25 tskr/man-month8. Hereby is then given a medium cost for wages costs for all involved parts. In the example it equals to a month cost of about 17 200 skr.

The cost can of course vary from company to company and from project to project depending on the project group assembly and on the members wage level. Personnel costs are often the most costly of all costs in a project. Gener-ally applies that the cost expressed in an amount per month is well known. The accuracy in a calculation of personnel costs is therefore direct connected to the accuracy of the time consumption evaluation. This emphasizes the time plan important role in all projects.

In our educational projects we start from ”simulated wages” for all members involved, but handle the other costs calculation as described above.

2.9.1.2 Locations costs, office locations and/or special equipped locations A company can rent locations for business activities. In the rent, the landlord has included costs for depreciation of the real estate, administration and normal maintenance costs. In the rent it can also be included costs for office furniture such as writing desk, chairs, bookshelves etc. It also can include furniture for common space such as personnel space. Rent costs are often presented on a year basis and per square meter. In the locations rent is included even areas for office locations/laboratories, general areas and communication areas such as corridors. The price can vary substantial depending on the construction year, location and

7 In Sweden up to 2003. 8 Tskr/man-month means thouthend swedish crowns per one worker and one month. The value is an example.

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how attractive it is on the real estate market. The usual level is between 1000 to 2000 skr per square meter and year9.

The alternative to renting is that the company owns its own locations used for business activity. The company must then itself handle the maintenance, costs for general use inventory and so on. This doesn’t make a great difference for the extra load put on business activity costs.

The locations costs are distributed on the activities that the company are con-ducting and can be expressed as a price per hour or cost per day.

Sometimes a company is conducting business where certain locations have special equipment which can be used by a certain personnel or certain projects and/or represents a considerable larger cost under the form of depreciations. In this case this can motivate a higher pricing on this special equipped locations and it can be done on a price per time unit basis. Such an example can be a standard equipped laboratory.

The costs calculations for an eventually advanced and costly special equip-ment can be seen in the chapter 2.9.1.3 below.

The costs for locations that are used in our educational project is shown in chapter 2.9.1.4 below.

2.9.1.3 Costs for special equipment In those cases where a company trough a purchase or a leasing agreement dis-pose of a precious special equipment (only to be used in this project), then it is suitable to separately present this costs. The pricing is based on calculations done on depreciations or knowledge of costs for the leasing contract. Pricing is done based on evaluated usage level of that particularly equipment.

How that kind of costs is considered in our educational project is treated in chapter 2.9.1.4 below.

2.9.1.4 Administrational costs In the term “administrational costs” are included personnel costs, direct material costs and charges. As an example on personnel costs it can be mentioned costs for telephonist, secretary, system support, locations care and so on. The costs that the company has for this support processes shall be spread over all the company’s activities and can therefore load a project in proportion to its extent.

With material costs we mean costs for writing material, files and so on. Among fees it can be mentioned telephone, telefax, internet connection, post costs and so on.

This type of costs can be budgeted and accounted in detail, but often the

9 That’s in Sweden at 2000 year level aproximatly.

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company prepares a template on how this must be budgeted and works with a percentage addition on “other costs” in order to cover the administrational costs. This is often referred to as overhead costs.

In the educational project we do, if not other mentioned, fusion is down of the “locations costs, office space costs and/or special equipped locations”, “Costs for special equipment” and “Administration costs”. From this an hour price is calculated for locations of type group/project room and a hour price for laboratories.

2.9.1.5 Consultants fees When solving a project assignment one may need external help. Consultant’s contribution can lead to that a part or even the whole project is solved. Consult-ants can also be engaged so that they are part of the project group or act as ex-perts. In last example the company can use the consultants as educators –”WE HIRE CONSULTANTS FIRST TIME SO THAT WE CAN DO IT OUR SELVS IN COMMING PROJECTS”.

Consultant fee vary considerably depending on branch and working assign-ment. For larger working assignment a special contract can be signed with a consultant.

When billing by hour the normal fee is between 500 and 1200 skr/hour incl. social costs10.

In our educational project is hardly needed an external consulting help. One can easy organize the project work so that the instructors role is well defined and at the same time let several representatives of the subjects needed in the project work act as internal consultants. When calculating costs for their ser-vices one can compare them with the “Course and educational costs” described in chapter 2.9.1.6.

2.9.1.6 Course- and education costs Often one or several project group members may need a completing education in order to solve the project assignment. In technical context this can be educa-tion on how to use a new device and/or software. If several members of the group must be sent to a course then this type of cost will include the course fee and also travelling, lodging and travelling allowance costs. “Normal course fee for a day is 200skr/participant”

An alternative is that a course is ordered only for the company and also takes place there. It can be advantageous if all group members and even other parts involved may find it useful. One uses the resources very effectively. No re-sources, time or money, are spend on travel and extra salary. Costs for travelling

10 As before, it is a price level in Sweden about year 2000.

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and travelling allowance will be included in the course fee. It is therefore usual to adapt the course to that particularly company and its needs. The cost for revi-sion work is included in the quotation. Purchasing is done according to the quotation prices.

In our educational project the resource lectures are on an equal footing with the described course and educational activity. For resource courses planed in advance a fixed price is to be offered and the project group must budget this as “Course and educational costs”. The resource lectures that appear during the project are invoiced with 1000 skr/hour. A certain sum should be included in the budget for this purpose.

2.9.1.7 Travels In the project costs there can also appear travel expenses. This can be for exam-ple a cost for purchasing, evaluation, visiting other companies that have worked with similar projects or for study purpose and so on. In travelling expenses are included even costs for lodging and travelling allowance ..

In our educational project, the travel expenses should be limited to study vis-its and components purchases.

2.9.1.8 Material and equipment costs A large “real” project can be very expensive. An assignment such as designing and developing a new gearbox to a car model involves developing as well as the new construction as a new production construction. In that case the costs for material and equipment can be very large. It can come to hundreds of millions and these types of costs are the dominant ones in the project budget. In a less extreme example the project can be delimited to the construction process up to a phase where a working prototype is achieved. For that you need to purchase dif-ferent types of components. Some details might need to be specially produced for this particular project.

Depending on the project character this kind of costs can vary substantially. Often the equipment costs represent the next larger cost in a project. Therefore it is important to quickly form a substantiated understanding of this type of costs.

In the educational project, equipment costs shall be observed carefully. It is especially important because even in educational project this constitute real costs.

2.9.1.9 Other expenses When budgeting, one should aim to be as precise and far-sighted as possible. No matter how hard you try you will sometimes be forced to accept unpredict-able costs. In order to guard your self against this a special budget account can be created for that purpose:”Other expenses”. Normally this is expressed as a

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percentage on the “total sum of other expenses”. The size of this percentage can vary from company to company depending also on the accuracy required when financial plan of the project is made. Percentage up to 5% should be considered as normal. In the educational project there are budgeted up to 4% as “other ex-penses”

2.9.2 Project budget

When the company decides to start a project and assign personnel in project groups, there are also funds put at their disposal for the introductional analysing phase. It is then up to the project group that under the analysing phase create a time plan as well as a budget for the project.

At the mile stone meeting at the end of the analysing phase, the company will receive the project group’s estimation of which resources are needed to go through with the project. Based on this evaluation, a decision on how to con-tinue with the project or if needed terminate the project is taken, this in case that the project is considered as financially uninteresting. Costs prior to this decision are not taken in consideration. The analysing phase is a “preliminary investiga-tion phase” and money spent during this phase must be treated as risk capital.

2.9.3 Project economy in an educational project, follow up

Project economy is an important part of the educational project. During the ana-lysing phase an accurate project budget is put together according to those prin-ciples described above, which is build on completing price information pre-sented in connection with the project specification. As help, when creating the project budget, one can use a budget template11. For time reporting and budget mile stone there is a time report form12. Both this format templates are available in Excel-files. The costs situation must be fol-lowed up continuously during the whole project period and reported at least when having a check-up meeting. The format template presents a certain sup-port for a continuously budget follow-up. In the project report it is also presented the project’s financial outcome in com-pare with the calculated budget.

11 See Appendix A6: ”Form for budget” 12 Se Appendix A7: ”Form for time report”

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3 Project in education – supervision and examination

3.1 Goal description

DiTaMa™-model sets up following goals for project education: !

!

!

!

! !

!

! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

Students will learn project as a way of working by analysing and practicing problem analyse, goal formulation, facts colleting, project control and re-porting. Students must achieve certain skill regarding participation to group work, cooperation, act as chairman for a meeting and presentation of project re-sults. Students must learn to take responsibility for their own study results by in-dependently search for information from different knowledge sources. Project work shall give pedagogical advantages and training in the profes-sion role Project work shall fulfil certain given inlearning goals Project work shall conclude with a product and/or a conclusion. The conclu-sion’s fundamental importance for the education’s quality shall be secured by pursuing work in such forms that the technical problem presentation can be solved and the result documented.

Work shall be done in group and pursued in such forms that it can be made clear for professional working engineers. A suitable size for a project group is 5 persons.

Project work shall give the students knowledge of quality system, quality tools and quality development.

The first three targets involves that certain demands must be satisfied for the project to be approved: Students must know how to:

Carry out information seeking Plan project Make a quality plan and resource plan Handle a documentation system Write of attendance to meetings and meeting record Lead a formal meeting Manufacture the product Design a project report Present project result

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!

!

3.2 Instructors function The instructor has the overall responsibility that the project prior decided inlearning goals have been achieved. The Instructor must trough project courses be able to give references for relevant literature and advice, and also be able to support the group work in all it’s phases so that the project goals can be achieved. This means that the project group has the main responsibility for the project results, goal achievement and quality of technical content. The instructors’ responsibility in this matter is reduced to making possible for the project group to bear the main responsibility.

The instructor can after advising with the examiner, point out a co-instructor and by doing that delegate parts of its own responsibility as described above.

The supervisor role in a project work is the same as if he/she was the chief or work leader for the group in a company.

3.3 Examination

The first DiTaMa™0-project is examined by principle continuously. It is suit-able that this is done between phase transitions in a project, trough the docu-mentation that shall be available at those occasions. An examiner can also be present at a phase transitioning meeting. Besides that the group must present a project report and also be ready to orally present the project in front of the in-structor, examiner and the rest of the class. If external contacts have been used then they should be invited to the oral presentation.

The continuing DiTaMa™-projects are completed with a project exam which can take place in two steps. First step, presentation in front of the class and all other interested parts is not required in all of projects in DiTaMa™ serie, espe-cially if the product is common to all groups in the particulary project. In the second part, which is obligatory in all projects, the examiner performs an oral or written examination.

Observe that the examining demands and contents in the report can vary from project till project even if the product is the same from group to group or/and from year to year. This is in detail described separately under the head-ing “Examination”, in the course plan for each project.

Eight days between the presentations, the project report is handled to the in-structor. No later then three days after that, the group receives back the report with instructions on what to be corrected. The group has then three days to cor-rect the errors. Two working days prior to the presentation the report is given to the instructor for coping. This time points can vary depending on department and course. See course description.

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! ! ! ! ! ! !

!

!

!

3.3.1 Examiners function

At examination point the examiner has following basic data for approving the project, judging and grading:

Project problem formulation (demands specification) Project delimitation and goal formulation, (contract) Project time plan Written records from phase transitions Written records from contract negotiations Product and/or final report Oral presentation of the result

Besides the above following applies: Examiner is responsible that the project examination is done according to ex-isting routines Examiner is responsible that the grading is done and decided grades are reg-istered Examiner (as assignee owner or customer) has the overall responsibility that the project assignment is relevant with consideration to general goal formu-lations as well as that the project is carried trough according to the model applied at University’s engineering education, namely the DiTaMa™-model. The examiner and instructor role should be assigned to two different per-sons. The examiner can delegate parts of concrete working assignments which has to be executed within the responsibility area. This can be for ex-ample participation at mile stone meetings and judgement assignments. The delegation is placed under the examiner’s overall functional responsibility. The distribution of working assignments between the examiner and instruc-tor shall be done after an agreement is achieved between both partners, based on a well defined delimitation. The project group shall be informed of the meaning of this work distribution with consideration taken for details that are affecting the group’s responsibility both in practical work and project execution13.

3.3.2 Grades

The students in the project group shall generally be graded individually. As a helping tools for the grading a student’s project work an evaluation form14 has

13 The authors were obliged to implement the last fragment by University’s authority but in DiTaMa model we do not recommend to perform the judgment and help by same person. . 14 See appendix A11

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been created. The form includes four main criteria that are the evaluation ob-jects in the project. These criteria that are decided to be applied on all projects within the DiTaMa™-model are weighted differently depending on project course.

The first project course within the education is aimed to teach how to work in project and putting less accent on subject knowledge.

For every course in the secvence of project courses more accent is put on the criteria regarding the working methodises and less accent on subject knowledge. For the projects coming after the firs one it is predicted that one knows how to work in project. Greater accent is put on subject knowledge.

The evaluator of the particulary project can split the main criteria in to sev-eral sub-criteria. Fundamental is that the sum of all those sub-criteria impor-tances shall equivalent with the total importance of the main criteria. This should be decided centrally for all University’s educational units and applies for each project.

Project work is graded individually with the grades: approved/not approved or according to the scale 3/4/5, where 3 is the lowest grade and 5 is the high-est15.

3.4 Work description and evaluation.

After project examination, the project is finalized with a short process descrip-tion or working description which is to be handled to the examiner. The group must call the examiner and instructor to the evaluation meeting16. The process description is done after the project examination. The students evaluate their own execution of the project and the instructor’s role in the process. The proc-ess description is an essential moment in the project work17.

The process description corresponds to a traditional course evaluation. It is formed in such way that it is more the view of the group rather then the individ-ual’s view that is presented. In the process description the whole project execu-tion is described. This means that the group presents experiences that can’t be presented in the project report. The goal for this activity is that the group to-gether with the instructor get a better understanding on what worked well, what worked less well and how the project work can be improved. Last but not least of great importance is also what can be learned from this project and applied in the next one.

15 Grades can vary depend on local rules. 16 Evaulation meeting is kind of mile stone meeting but after project is finished but not the course. Se even Instructor Manual. 17 See even appendix A9 and Memory Trimmer page 56.

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The evaluation can be divided in two stages according to the following. Variation can exist between courses and units. Stage 1. Questionnaire. The group gets together for a working meeting and answers questionnaire ques-tions. With consideration for later coming evaluation it is important that the group answers the questions in the questionnaire. But this doesn’t necessarily mean that questionnaire reflects the group’s common view on a matter. In addi-tion to the answer the group must feel free to formulate its own views on the project process. Phase 2. Evaluation meeting. The instructor and the group must meet in a final meeting within the time frame of the project course. The meeting takes place after a more formal agenda and is lead of a prior assigned group member. During this meeting the groups process description (questionnaire and so on.) is discussed. The instructor concludes his/her own points of view on the project execution and can on that occasion even refer to what have been said at project start.

4 References

ERGON, R. m.fl. 1995. Project work - a guidance for students at TMIH. Compendium, Telemark Engineering School, Porsgrunn, Norge. 1994/95.

HØISET, S. 1996 Project work in technical subjects. Liber education, Stockholm. BERGMAN, B. & KLEFSJÖ, B. 1996 Quality from need to usage. Student literature,

Lund. MICHAEL BRASSARD & DIANE RITTER, 1994 The memory jogger™ II

GOAL/QPC, 13 Branch Street, Methuen, MA 01844-1953, USA, ISBN 91-47-00074-0

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Literature list

EKLUND, S. 1996. Project in education. Thilda Publishing, ISBN 91-972544-2-8 HØISET, S., LINDSTRÖM, B. and LINDSTRÖM, G. 1996. Project work in technical

subjects. Liber Education, ISBN 91-634-1732-4 KOLMOS, A. 1996. "Reflections on Project Work and Problem-based Learning" Euro-

pean Journal of Engineering Education, Vol. 21, No. 2, 1996. LUTTORP, E. (red) 1995. Manual for project work. Liber-Hermods AB, ISBN 23-

01705-8. MOLIN, B. 1994. Analogue electronics design – Experiences of a course planning in-

spired by problem based inlearning. Compendium 940613, Bengt Molin, Engineer-ing school KTH, Electrum 213, 164 40 Kista.

MOLIN, B. Electronics project, according to PBI-model. Course plan for Electronics course 6b2103, Kista.

OLSSON, R and STENSON, P. 1978. Project work - a tutorial. Compendium in peda-gogical development 1978:IPU, University of Luleå.

VALTONEN, K and INGEMARSSON, I. Four years with PBI - experiences from tele-communication education at Linköpings Technical Collage. Report LiTH-ISY-R-1629.

Some interesting WebPages:

http://www.skolnet.kristianstad.se/~pajspt/fvt/skriv.html.“To write scientifically”. 1999 08 02.

www.projektakademien.com/ 1999 08 02. www.tnc.se Technical nomenclature 1999 08 02. www.gullstrand.landskrona.se/projekt/infovagen/citera.htm “To quote Internet sources”

1999 08 02.

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A1. Format for Call and meeting record

(used for mile stone and control meeting)

Call for mile stone meeting 1, in project group 32, Friday 16/3 -99

Time: 13.15 – 14.15 Place: Near by candy machine on level 3

Invited: Mr. Mats Matssson Instructor Albert Albertsson Anders Andersson Carina Carinsdotter Project leader Sylvia Sylviasdotter

Summary points §1. Vote for chairman §2. Vote for secretary. §3. Approval of notice §4. Approval of agenda. §5. Messages. §6. Evaluation of prior project period. Follow-up of time plan – Carina, Albert Time reports review – all. §7. Announcement of ”other questions”.

Decision- and discussion points

§1/99G32. Analyse of phase 1. §2/99G32 Specification (delimitation). Review and approval of specification – Mohammed §3/99G32 Problem definitions. Review and approval of problem definition. – Sylvia §4/99G32 Goal forming. Review and approval of goal forms. – Anders §5/99G32 Areas of responsibility. Responsibility distribution – Carina, Albert

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§6/99G32. Time table. Review and approval of time table. – Carina, Albert §7/99G12 Other questions. §8/99G12 Next meeting. Date, place, and time. §9/99G12 Meeting ends. KTH Haninge Tuesday the 16:th march 1999 Anders Andersson

Call for mile stone meeting 2, in project group 32, Thursday 3/4 -99 Time: 15.15 – 16.15 Place: Candy machine level 3

Invited: Mr. Mats Matsson Instructor Mohammed Benmuhammed Albert Albertsson Anders Andersson Carina Carinsdotter Project leader Sylvia Sylviasdotter

Summary points §1. Vote for chairman §2. Vote for secretary. §3. Approval of notice

§4. Approval of agenda. §5. Approval of record from prior meeting. §6. Messages. §7. Evaluation of prior project period. Time plan follow-up– Mohammed Review of time reports - all §8. Announcement of other questions.

Decision- and discussion points §4/99G32 Goal forms. Review and approval of goal forms – Anders

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§10/99G32 Rapport divisions. Review and approval of report divisions – Carina §11/99G32. Consult meeting. Shall be book in a consult meeting with Lasse? §12/99G12 Other questions. §13/99G12 Next meeting. Date place, and time. §14/99G12 Meeting ends.

KTH Haninge 25 March 1999 Albert Albertsson

Record for mile stone meeting 1, in project group 32, Friday 19/3 -99 Time: 13.15 – 14.15 Place: Candy machine on level 3

Invited:

Mr. Mats Matssson Instructor Mohammed Benmuhammed Albert Albertsson Anders Andersson Was not able to attend due to illness Carina Carinsdotter Project leader Sylvia Sylviasdotter

Summary points

§1. Vote for chairman. Carina was voted for the chairman position. §2. Vote for secretary. Albert was voted for secretary. §3. Approval of notice Call approved. §4. Approval of agenda. Agenda approved. §5. Messages. Anders is sick.

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§6. Evaluation of prior period of project. Time plan follow-up– Carina and Albert reported. We are on time with the project. Ok. Approval of time reports. Review of time reports. We approved all time re-ports, supervisor has informed all that even investigation that hasn’t lead to anything must be reported. §7. Announcement of other questions. Borrow a prototype of a speech machine.

Decision and discussion points

§1/99G32. Analyse of phase 1. Everybody is satisfied with the first phase. A bit confusing in the beginning but everything fall in to its place eventually. Completed §2/99G32 Demands specification (delimitation). Demands specification approved. Completed §3/99G32 Problem definitions. The problem definition was approved with following changes. Everybody must attend a resource lecture about Orcad. Completed §4/99G32 Goal frame. Goal frame shall be taken in consideration. Resting §5/99G32 Areas of responsibility. Division of responsibility areas was approved. Completed §6/99G32. Time scheme Time scheme was approved. The instructor underlined the importance of documenting all what has been done immediately so that the report writing doesn’t take to long time. Completed §7/99G12 Other questions. Borrow of prototype: Mats said that a prototype can be borrowed from Piotr. Completed §8/99G12 Next meeting Thursday 4:th April 1999 , 15.15 – 16.15 , Candy machine level 3. §9/99G12 Meeting ends. KTH Haninge 20:th March 1999 Albert Albertsson

A2. Template for covering page

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A3. Template for title page

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A4. Creative problem solving – CPS

See Memory Trimmer page 19 When solving problems it is normal to use traditional and known methods

for new problem types. If a hammer is the only tool you are familiar with so all your constructions will have nails. It is not sure that a method that it has proved to be working for a prior known problem will be suitable for a new unknown type of problem.

Quantity gives quality. In order to get a good idea may be up to 100 ideas must be produced.

Creativity is therefore useful when solving a problem. We have all a poten-tial for creative thinking, but it is not for sure that we know how to use this. In the following part we will like to give some tips on how one can facilitate crea-tivity when applied in project oriented problem solving.

A good creative environment in a group is distinguished by: participants equal value and respect for each other. None of the group mem-bers have at starting point the ”right solution”. All proposals at starting point are equal to each other. It is therefore important not to criticize the one who comes with a proposal.

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security and cooperation. Group members must have the chance to fail in the “creativity phase”. One have to listen to what others have to say with a posi-tive angle of view. a combination of playfulness and seriousness. To cherish god humour pro-duces a creative atmosphere in the group. Creativity is fun!

Creative problem solving is about divergence and convergence thinking. This shall be seen as two parts separated in time (with a maturization period them be-tween), se figure 1 below

Figure 5 Divergent and convergent part in the brain storming phase

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The creative part creates new angles, new thoughts patterns and new ideas. The convergent part is characterized by analyse, sorting comparing, evaluating and choosing new ideas.

One of the oldest techniques for divergent thinking in group is brain-storming. The technique is associated with the first step in creative problem solving, namely idea production. In the model described below the brain storm-ing is used in all stages of problem solving. Brain storming demands that the participants follow certain rules. It becomes more understandable when observ-ing the following scenario from a group meeting:

A kills B’s idea with negative critic B redraws A comes – hopefully – with ”better idea” Revenge. B kills A’s idea and so on.

This must be avoiding. Therefore following rules must be applied when brain storming:

Put all critics and values aside when someone else comes with an idea. Criti-cal comments, face expressions etc are forbidden! Comments that starts with ”Yes, but ...” are not positive and must not be used in this phase. Let the taughts flow freely, let new angles come forward. Wild ideas are al-lowed. Remember that quantity creates quality Spontaneity shall be encouraged ”chain reactions” are good. Play with other ideas, use “Yes, and ...” Make notice of all ideas (rather on a piece of paper for latter grouping and analyse)

In order to make all this ideas working, a person in the group must take respon-sibility of being the process leader. The process leader must:

Reduce tendencies to critics. Maintain a positive and cheerful atmosphere in the group Keep inventory of all ideas

The diagram on the next side presents a model of CPS. The initial situation is that the project group has been given a predefined problem. It should be clear by now that the project works organization is a technique for solving large problems, project oriented problem solving. The model which is shown later in this part is one of thinkable variants which can be applied for solving the pro-ject’s many part problems. The problem solving is done in this model, after the problem definition, in five steps. Each and one of the steps consist of a divergent and a convergent part. In the divergent part one can use brain storming as earlier described. It is important that the group members and the process leader follow the rules. In the conver-

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gent part, in which the group members shall come to an agreement regarding a solution, is the difficult part and can be harder to overcome. The work can be facilitated if one comes to an agreement regarding some play rules:

If there is a clear owner of the problem, the group can transfer the responsibility of making the most important choices. The danger with this is that the problem owner may not be so open for new ways of attacking a problem and may therefore go with well knowideas and proposals are grouped first. The object within a group has some kind of relation. Thereafter the relation between groups is identified. In that group that has many relations to other groups can the “root” to the problem’s solution be find again. evaluate with help of facts and demand/criteria/desires time matures the problem - ”take time to consider the problem”

In conclusion, usage of CPS is build on the fact, that one makes difference be-tween divergent and convergent parts. During the divergent part the most im-portant thing is to produce as many ideas as possible. During the convergent part the group most agree on one idea.

Situation

Search Origin

Search Problem

Search ideas

Plan

Action

Search

Search solution

Take a closer look at the solution Where can further problems appear? Improve the solution

If consensus (agreement) can not be achieved go back to for ex. idea evaluation -

Search as many criterions as possible for evaluating ideas Chose three to five of the most important criterions.

Evaluate possible solutions and chose one

Chose three to five ideas to work further on

Search the most possible different formulations ordefinitions of the problem

Chose a problem formulation to work further on

What,who,when,where,how,whyConvergent:

Chose crucial questions and search for an answer

Divergent:

consensus

A situation where one wishes to do something about a problem, a possibility.

Figure 6 CPS in five steps

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A5. Template for time plan

Example from Excel ANALYSEGoal, delimitation, time frame 1 JONTidplan 2 JONFollow-up meeting 1 3 JONFACTS COLLECTIONTMIH:s Manual for StudiesPM (IS) NEÅFollow-up meeting 2EXECUTIONSynopsis for Project Manual JONEconomy control (basis) (NEÅ) NEÅProject Manual JONProject Economy NEÅDecisionFollow up meeting 3EVALUATION, REPORTINGReport writting 9 JONDelivery 10 JON

Decision date: 960327 Planned activity Phase Group: G1Latest change 960416 Completed activity Planned decisionSignature: JON Present activity Completed decision

Figure 7 Time plan example - Excel

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Example from MS-project

Figure 8 Time plan example –Project

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A6. Template for budget

PROJECT BUDGET

Costs type, cost for Number price / pc. unit Sum Used

Personell kr/h

Premises, group/project room kr/h

Premises, laboratories/special rooms kr/h

Course- and education, fixed price kr

Course- and education, current kr/h

Course- and education (consult), fixed price kr

Course- and education (consult), current kr/h

Travels Acc. to. spec. kr

Material and equipment Acc. to spec kr

Part sum

A7. Template for time report

TIME REPORT PLANED USED

Activity nr W orking asignments Start Stop Hours Resp. Des. Tid

Decision date:Register date:Signature:

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A8. Demands specification: example

Demands specification18

1. INTRODUCTION:

The assignment is to construct and manufacture an analog part of a digital speech machine. The machine should consist of a microphone, a microphone amplifier, a speaker with a speaker amplifier and also a power supply unit. The construction used in DiTaMa™0 -course is patented. This means that it is not allowed to present an own construction that resembles the original one and at the same time uses same type of components.

This implies that it is allowed to use the same principle solution when it comes to functions but with a different realisation or same type of components but with a different function solution.

2. FUNCTION SPECIFICATION:

Functioning electronic device that makes it possible to ”record” and ”play” sound on a digital storage media. The digital part of DiTaMa™ demands that the incoming signal is between 0 and 3[V] and that the A/D-converter can load the amplifier with 2 [mA] signal current. The digital part will deliver to the speaker amplifier a signal which is between 0 and 1[V], and it can be loaded with max. 2 [mA] current. The power supply unit shall be able to supply both the digital and analog part with voltages and effects according to pkt. 6, (see ta-ble). The sound quality shall be of “telephone standard” which means a band-width between 300 and 300 [Hz] in both parts.

The recording sensitivity must be enough so that normal speech can be re-corded when the device is lying on the table. Further a person sitting at the table must be able to record a message without needing to bend over the microphone. The signal volume when playing shall be enough so that the one can here the message without needing to bend over the speaker and in presence of surround-ing background noise.

DiTaMa™ shall be portable and have a battery operation of at least 8 hours, where half of time is recording/playing time and half is stand-by time. It must weight less then 300 grams and its size must not exceed 30x100x150 mm, but environment, test- and reparation demands must get the main concern.

18 The most uppdatet demands specification may be find in Student Manual DiTaMa™ 1

3. COSTS DEMANDS:

Max components cost is 500 skr incl. taxes, it is to be financed by students. The tools and locations (room 204 is equipped and can be booked) for assembling the prototype are to be provided by the school.

Higher costs can be approved if special solutions are used. The exemption is given by the examiner and must be required by the group no later then the sec-ond mile stone meeting.

4. ENVIROMENTAL DEMANDS:

The construction shall contain a battery saving function. Choice for components should be motivated from an environmental point of view.

5. PRODUCTION DEMANDS:

Prototype shall be manufactured in the University’s locations. Components shall be mounted on an experiment circuit board (can be pur-

chased from Elfa). Mounting is made by soldering the components. Other tech-niques can be used when soldering is not possible.

Mounting of components and soldering on the circuit board is done manu-ally. The components density and the soldering points’s diameter must be adapted accordingly.

6. TEST AND REPARATION

The board shall be constructed so that it is possible to trouble-shoot the circuit board and make repair if needed. A function test must be able to be executed to-gether with the digital part. A digital prototype will be available for testing.

Interface towards the digital part for function tests shall be an IC-socket of DIL-14 type and is shown in the picture below:

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Foot prints: 14DIP300, Pads: 14, Size: 50.0 mm external layers, 35.0 mm inter-nal layers, Drill:25.0 mm, Space: 100.0 mm X 300.0 mm, centre to centre. It can be purchased from ELFA for the cost of aprox. 1 skr pc. (page 480). Pin no. Type Signal description

1 Output Power supply to memory: 5 [V], max. 50 [mA]

2 NC

3 Output GND Power supply

4 NC None

5 Output Power supply to the digital part: 5 [V], max 300 [mA]

6 Input Play (short circuit to earth when button pressed)

7 Output Amplified microphone signal to A/D-converter: 0 till 3 [V]

8 Input Rec (short circuit to earth when button pressed)

9 Output Signal earth

10 NC None

11 Input Analogue signal from D/A-converter to power supplier 0 till 1 [V]

12 NC None

13 Input Signal earth

14 NC None

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7. DOCUMENTATION DEMANDS:

This point specifies extra demands on contains and extents regarding the docu-mentation for the DiTaMa™ project, besides what specified in the DiTaMa™ Handbook for school engineering education, chapter 2.8.

Target group Documentation must be complete enough for someone to resume the design and developing work if needed. It must also be able to be used as basis for techni-cians for understanding a construction.

It must not describe the work that the group has done when developing the DiTaMa. Following appendixes must be present:

Complete and detailed scheme drawn in Design Centre and with identical reference number as in the text. Layout, particular components layout. Simulation results, including schemes done only for simulation purposes. Test results and measurements of the prototype. Complete components lists with prices.

Appendixes shall be commented in the text above. They must be referred to from within the text above and they must be provided with identification text.

More information about what to take in consideration when writing the dif-ferent chapters is presented in the DiTaMa™ Handbook.

8. EDUCATION RELATED DEMANDS:

The complete mounted and functional construction is presented during the booked time with the examiner, no later then 31:a May 1997 15:00. The result is posted on the institutions notice board.

A9. Schematic description of the project process Phase 1, Problem analyse

Part-goal: " Description of the projects problem positioning, de-

mands specification and final goal, choice of solving method

Problem

" Time plan; " Budget Working meeting Brain storm Documentation: Ph1

" Draft for the reports introduction Working/control/ external meeting " Time plan; " Budget and time report;

Mile stone meeting 1: Decision points:

Mile stone meeting 1 " Problem positioning, demands specification, goal for-mulation and solving method

" Time plan; " Budget Phase 2. Facts collection phases Working/control/

External (facts collects) Part-goal: Ph 2 " Collection of facts that are necessary for the project

work Working/control/ external (facts collects) Documentation:

" Facts and references description.; " Updated time plan " Updated budget and time report

Mile stone meeting 2 Mile stone meeting 2: Decision points: " Facts; " Time plan, " Budget Phase 3, Execution/synthesis Part-goal:

Work/control/ extern meeting " Preparation of project result (synthesis) Ph 3

Documentation: " Description of result (summary of report’s main chap-

ter) Work/control/ external meeting " Reports disposition; " Updated time plan

" Updated budget and time report Mile stone meeting 3 Mile stone meeting 3:

Decision points: " Approval of results and report’s disposition. " Time plan; " Budget Phase 4, Evaluation and reporting

Work/control/ External meeting Part-goal:

" Preparation of project conclusion; " Preparation of project report; " Establishing of time table outcome ; "

Ph 4

Work/control/ external meeting Documentation:

" Complete project report; " Updated time report; " Definitive time report; " Budget outcome Mile stone meeting 4

Examination Mile stone meeting 4: Approval of report and presentationA10.

Goal

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Check list for evaluation of project work

As support for evaluation in connection with project orientated education KTH’s collage engineering education’s pedagogical council has produced the above located check list. The criteria have been grouped in such way that it should facilitate the grading process with consideration taken for: ! ! !

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main criteria for grading continuous evaluation, grade settings in all the project phases. individual- and group evaluation

For the first project there is a special questionnaire for accounting and process of evaluation results.

Grades criteria:

A10.1 Work in project

Meeting techniques

Group

Have call been sent 3 days in advance prior to the meeting? Has a record been handled? Have call and meeting record been constructed according to the project manual? Have mandatory documentation according to the project manual been used at the meeting? Have documentation quality been acceptable? Has the group prepared in a sufficient extent for the meeting?

Individually

Was the student present at the meeting? If not, has the his/her absence been reported before the meeting? Was the leadership of the meeting acceptable (chairman)? Was the writing of the record executed satisfactory enough (secretary)? Was the student prepared enough? Was the student engaged enough?

Project’s phases In all project phases shall following be considered:

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Group

Has the time plan activities and work distribution in a satisfactory extent de-scribed the project work? Have occurred deviations from time plan been recorded? Is budget outcome satisfactory?

Individually

Has the project leadership functioned satisfactory? (in existing cases) Has personal time reporting functioned satisfactory? Has the involvement been satisfactory? Has the student shown initiative capacity? Has the student done his/her activities according to the time plan?

Phase 1 (ANALYSE)

Group

How well has the group done problem formulation? choice of solving methods goal formulation (inlearning- and results goals) description of projecte delimitations demands specifications (in existing cases) preparation of time plan (activities, responsibility distribution, activities placing in time perspective) preparation of budget (in existing cases)

Phase 2 (FACTS COLLECTION)

Group

Has the group identified the information sources in a satisfactory extent? presented reliable information (facts, actuality)? presented enough quantity of facts for the project’s execution? performed necessary measurements (in existing cases)? executed a acceptably fault analyse in the measurements

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Individually

Has enough initiative been taken for searching information?

Phase 3 (Execution)

Group

Has the group executed and followed-up planed activities?

Individually

Has planned activities been executed?

Phase 4 (EVALUATION AND REPORTING)

Group

To which degree has the group: achieved the project results and in-learing goals? formulated a satisfactory conclusion

A10.2 Search of knowledge/critical reviewed

Individually Has the student searched information and critically reviewed information based on own knowledge? (project’s all phases)

A10.3 Documentation

Report

Group

Is the report well structured? Is language usage satisfactory? Has the report delivery been done on time according to the project manual? Does the report exclude all irrelevant descriptions? Is the material formulated by the group and not copied? Are sources clearly indicated?

Oral presentation

Group

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Has all been active in the oral presentation? Was the time disposal done in such way that the most important aspects were presented?

Individually

Was the description easy to follow? Have the presentation tools been used in a efficient way?

A10.4 Subject knowledge

Individually

Where all questions during project examination answered in a satisfactory way? Have the in-learning goals that where formulated in the project’s analyse phase been achieved? Have part-problems been analysed in a satisfactory way? Have the solving methods been chosen in a satisfactory way? Have solutions been applied in a satisfactory way? Have relevant conclusions been taken?

A11. Evaluation form

StudentName:Group:

Examiner:

Evaluation momentMain criteria 1 2 3 4 5 GradeWork in project

Search knowledge, critical review

Documentation

Compiling form: Basis for project examination

Project: INFOMET

StudentName:Grupp:

Examiner:

Main moments and part-criteria Weight Supervisor Co-evaluator Group

Project work 0,25

Search knowledge/critical review 0,25

Documentation 0,35

Subject knowledge 0,15

Grade: 0,00

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