Chapter 9
Using Software Tools to Enhance Your Proposal
The purpose of Chapter 9 is to get you to re-think your goals, objectives, and tasks in terms of what activities have to be completed before others can begin, what activities can be done simultaneously, and what activities have to end at the same time. We introduce you to project management software in this chapter to show you how to make these determinations more easily and quickly. This chapter is not about learning how to use project management software; you will need to turn to the software manual for that. Instead we hope to show you the processes that grant seekers use to identify this information and raise your awareness that there is software that can help you save time in performing these processes. These processes include how to produce a time line and a resource sheet, and how to begin thinking about sequencing tasks. This chapter helps you gather the information necessary for planning the project and for preparing the budget in Chapter 12.
Learner Outcomes
After completing this chapter, you will be able to- Revise your goals, objectives, and tasks lists
- Identify who will complete the tasks, how long they will take, and what resources they will need
- Identify milestones and critical tasks
- Understand how project management software can organize your time lines, resources, and budgets
Key Terms
Cause mapping exercise—The cause mapping exercise is a visual process that helps you make the links between your goals for conducting a project and your objectives and tasks. This exercise consists of writing your goals in the center of a page, and adding reasons "why" you are doing the project above and "how" you will implement the project below.Expanded Project Task Summary Chart—The Expanded Project Task Summary Chart expands the chart identifying goals, objectives, and tasks by adding predecessors, personnel, and nonpersonnel resources task-by-task to the project.
Fringe Benefits—Fringe benefits are the benefits that an employer provides to an employee, such as health care, retirement, moving expenses, dependent care, and so on. Fringe benefit costs are expressed as a percentage of salary; that cost is calculated and added to total salary costs in the project budget.
Gantt chart—A Gantt chart uses horizontal lines on a calendar grid to show the time line for a project. The Gantt chart is a standard feature of project management software, but you can also produce one using the text or draw features of a word processor.
Goal—The goal is the major outcome of your project. The goal should answer the "So what?" question, and it should benefit the target audience for your project.
Nonpersonnel resources—Nonpersonnel resources include everything except salaries, wages, and fringe benefits. Nonpersonnel resources can include equipment, rent, supplies, travel costs, communication, and all the other costs necessary to conduct a project.
Objectives—Objectives connect goals to outcomes. Objectives are specific and measurable. If you accomplish your objectives, you will have achieved your goal(s).
Personnel resources—Personnel resources include people's salaries, fringe benefits, and any consultant or contractor fees.
Predecessors—A task is a predecessor for a second task when it must be finished before the second task can begin. To show this relationship, project management software allows you to identify predecessors for each task. The software will then automatically take this relationship information into account when calculating the time line and creating Gantt charts for your project.
Project management software—Project management software helps you to manage your project by keeping track of your progress on completing tasks, using resources, and meeting the overall project time line. It helps you develop your proposal by prompting you to be more comprehensive in planning your project and by enabling you to print out time lines efficiently.
Proposal logic—Proposal logic is the causal chain that connects your goals to objectives and your objectives to your tasks.
Resources—Resources include both personnel and nonpersonnel resources necessary to complete a project.
Tasks—Tasks or activities are step-by-step procedures describing what you will do to accomplish your objectives. You can break down the tasks into subtasks where appropriate.
An Additional Example of Cause Mapping
If you think you would benefit from another example before completing the exercise at the end of Chapter 9, you may want to work through the cause mapping exercise with the following example from the Grey Wolf Nature Center.Try to answer the following questions:
- What is the major problem with this example?
- Who will benefit from this project?
- Why would someone want to conduct the project?
- Who would want to fund such a project.
- What would be in it for the sponsor?
Additional Help with Project Management Software
Project Management Software PrimerSummary
In Chapter 9, you built on the work you did in Chapter 8 on identifying goals, objectives and tasks. You completed a cause mapping exercise to clarify your goals, objectives and tasks, and then you began to enter your revised objectives and tasks into the Expanded Project Task Summary Chart. Once you complete this chart, you will have organized your project data in a way that makes it easy to enter it into either project management software or spreadsheet software. You can use these tools not only to help you organize the details in your proposal, but later to help you manage the project. If you decide to use project management or spreadsheet software, you will need to attend training workshops or study the manual that comes with the software. The examples in this chapter are only intended to introduce you to the principles underlying the software and how they can help you with designing and writing your proposal. You learned that well-thought-out goals and objectives and a project management strategy will allow you to use project management software to produce comprehensive estimates for your project timeline, personnel resources, and nonpersonnel resources. You also were shown the convenience of having a timeline, resource lists, and cost summaries that are interconnected. The connections allow you to make changes in one area of the project and have those changes reflected in the other areas automatically.Writing Assignment
- Use the cause mapping exercise described in the beginning of the chapter to revise your goals, objectives, and tasks. Enter a copy of your cause mapping exercise in your print or electronic notebook.
- With your revised goals, objectives, and tasks from the cause mapping exercise, prepare an Expanded Project Task Summary Chart (using the template linked below) to help you identify information on predecessors and resources needed to complete each task. Enter your completed Expanded Project Task Summary Chart in your electronic or print notebook.
- If you have access to project management software, you may want to use the information you generated in the Expanded Project Task Summary Chart to enter this information into the project management software.
Expanded Project Task Summary Chart
An option you might consider is rather than transferring data from your Goals, Objectives, and Tasks Table from Chapter 8, consider simply adding columns and rows to the Table from Chapter 8 to create the Chapter 9 table. It will save you time. There will be more tables in Chapters 10-12, and you can continue to modify them rather than transferring data at the end of each chapter. To modify the table from Chapter 8, pull down the Table menu and click on Insert. Then proceed to add columns and rows as needed. Modify the table title to reflect Chapter 9. When you are finished, save the table and you can continue to modify it for the exercises from the following chapters.
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