Project Design - An Overview

Every project design starts with an idea, a need, out of curiosity, out of an observation and more reasons.
This has to be translated into a project and finally into a product, a new drug or a publication, for example.
The project design has to take for several aspects, to name a few:

  • Feasibility - is it possible to do it?
  • Enthusiasm - do we like to do it?
  • Timeframe - can it be done in a realistic time?
  • What outcome do we expect?
  • Competition - has anyone already done it or is doing it?
  • Funding - is money available or is an external funding possible?
  • Manpower - are enough people available to do it?
  • Resources - do we have all the resources to do it?
  • Collaboration - is external support needed?
  • Contractors - can we outsource parts of the project?

Not all need to be answered with "YES" - but most of them.

For a project related to a clinical study some more questions come up:

  • Are the legal and ethics documents (IRB) available?
  • Who leads the study?
  • How to collaborate with clinicians?
  • What outcome do we expect?
  • Can we get enough sample for the study and for the statistics?
  • Can we get the right combination of samples?
  • Do we have skilled statisticians?
  • Can the groups communicate with each other easily?

We can help to answer these questions and to build up the required contacts.