Project Management Initiative

The Project Management Initiative offers support to principal investigators during the lifecycle of sponsored projects, including Initiating, Planning, Executing, Controlling and Closing. Contact us for an initial consultation when you are developing your proposal or managing your existing award. We will meet with you and identify your programmatic project-management needs and associated level of support.

Services include:

• Developing project management approach and processes
• Project and team charters
• Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis
• Project requirement’s document
• Staffing and hiring plans
• Work Breakdown Structures (WBS)
• Project schedules, including Gantt charts and activity plans
• Communication plans
• Coordinate timely completion and delivery of programmatic reports
• Manage and control project scope, including monitoring progress and mitigating delays
• Application of project management software

Levels of Support and Associated Costs

We provide varying levels of support based on the requirements and/or scale of your project. Contact us for a free consultation. We will help you identify the level of support that your project requires, for example:

• Perhaps all you need is to meet once. If so, we offer one free, one-hour consultation. If after this initial meeting, you require on-going assistance we offer additional levels of service.
• Monthly support of four hours per month, which would equal approximately $141 in salary, $54 in fringe benefits for a total of $195 per month (before Facilities and Administrative costs).
• For a more complex project, weekly support of four hours per week would equal approximately $562 in salary and $215 in fringe benefits for a total of $777 per month (before Facilities and Administrative costs).

Depending on circumstances and sponsor, you may be able to include a project manager as a direct cost in your proposal budget. We strongly encourage this as it allows the research team to focus on the programmatic work. Additionally, making a project management request demonstrates to the funding organization that you are aware of the resources required to execute your project successfully.

Join the Project Management Group

The Project Management Initiative coordinates and facilitates the Project Management Group. We are a community-of-practice; friendly people from across campus with an interest in project management stemming from our work on behalf of the campus community.

The group meets once a semester (including over the summer) to learn from our collective experiences providing programmatic project-management support to research teams and their projects. A guest speaker presents on aspects of project management followed by a group discussion. If you would like to learn more, contact Research Project Manager Dennis Feeney at dennisfeeney@boisestate.edu.

Links to Resources and Services across Campus

Many units across campus provide support to Principal Investigators and their teams. We can help you coordinate with the following offices and departments in the administration of your sponsored project.

Policies, Procedures, Processes:

• Division of Research and Economic Development, supporting research from inception to conclusion
• OIT Project Management Office, project management support for IT-related projects
• Graduate College, graduate assistantship process
• Human Resources, working and thriving at Boise State
• Procurement and Vendor Services, guiding campus through the P2P process
• Research Development, providing strategic focus to your research
• Sponsored Programs, proposal preparation, award acceptance, management and closeout
• Technology Transfer, assessment, protection, development and marketing of new inventions
• Research Compliance, compliance with federal, state and local laws/regulations
• Research Computing, advancing research by supporting a robust cyberinfrastructure

Data Management:

• Program Evaluation and Research Lab (PEARL), for those seeking research and evaluation assistance
• Albertsons Library, data management services

Educational Resources:

• • College of Business and Economics, Maheshwar Boodraj, Ph.D., PMP, project management courses
  • Professional and Continuing Education, project management courses
  • College of Innovation and Design, Google Project Management Certificate
  • Free e-learning courses on project management (Free from PMI)
  • Professional certificate in project management (From Google)
  • Association for Project Management: What is Project Management
  • Learn about Project Management Institute (PMI)
  • Wikihow: Manage a Project
  • Tech Republic: 10 best practices for successful project management
  • The Writing Center, writing assistance for faculty, staff, and students