Discussing Project Management best practice within RHS Science

I am a great fan of the TV show ‘Come Dine with me’. For those of you who actually have stuff to do on a Sunday afternoon, the basic premise involves a group of strangers rating one another on three course dinners cooked and hosted by each member of the group over a five-day period. The person with the highest overall score at the end of the week wins a £1000 cash prize.  I’d quite like to be on the show but am put off by the fact that:

1) being filmed involves being on the wrong side of the camera all the time

2) my cooking isn’t that great, and

3) I tend not to like strangers wandering around my home, snooping in my cupboards and trying on my clothes

All this aside, if I was to appear on the show, I’d definitely do some early planning to minimise the social ridicule that would ensue if I came last. I’d decide what to cook and write a shopping list (including substitute items in case what I wanted wasn’t in stock). I’d practise the meals well in advance to iron out any problems early on. I’d write a timeline of jobs that needed to be done and would refer to this on the day to make sure I wasn’t late getting food onto plates. In effect, I’d be managing my ‘Come Dine with me’ experience as a project.

Last week, members of RHS Estates, RHS Science and RHS/ University of Reading KTP teams met to discuss how Science could standardise its approach to all its project-relevant activities. This was one of a series of KTP workshops that have helped discuss, implement and embed best practice from academic institutions so that we continue to raise the profile of RHS Science and be seen more clearly as an important scientific research partner. The workshop discussion will help direct some of the content of the KTP toolkit: a document highlighting best practice in all aspects of research project management that will help ensure the KTP delivers long-term benefits.

The workshop involved us defining ‘projects’, and contrasting this with day-to-day ‘business as usual’ activities (projects being time-limited, one –off events with specific aims, objectives, milestones and outputs). RHS Estates provided us with a fascinating insight into how they manage multi-million pound projects using a variety of tools (many being equally applicable to science projects) to ensure budgets and deadlines are met. Coffee and cake kept the ideas flowing and us from going hungry and after two hours of discussion, we’d summarised some of the key practices and tools that we could adopt for all our project-relevant activities. These included the use of Gantt charts and clearly defined aims, objectives, milestones and outputs.  We agreed regular communication and continual monitoring of the project against the original plan were key activities vital to ensure our projects remain on track and deliver to time and budget.

Project management is relevant in any setting. Many of us, often without realising it, follow a structured project management approach when faced with overseeing big events like cooking the family Christmas dinner or organising the annual holiday. At its simplest, project management involves a common-sense approach to managing activities to help make sure the final product is fit for purpose.

We should just be grateful our projects don’t rely on a TV show’s director to decide which ones make the final cut!

1.  The gym is no more appealing in 2013 than it was in 2012
2. The vast majority of scientists can be separated into two types: ‘outdoor’ and ‘indoor’ ones

Outdoor scientists bring the outdoors into their labs. I am, and have always been an outdoor scientist. Scientists who fall under this category don’t usually wear lab coats and don’t really understand when one is really needed (if they do own a lab coat it is likely either to be the one they haven’t used since Chemistry GCSE classes or a grimy, brown monstrosity that is used to protect their clothes from getting dirty).  Outdoor scientists have ‘dirty’ labs where the lab fridge can harbour all manner of things from pots of sleepy spiders (to cool them down and make identification easier) to soya milk (for tea, obviously).  The tiny freezer section of a dirty lab’s fridge only ever becomes filled in summer, when it’s crammed with icecream.  A group of outdoor scientists in a lab will complain about the choice of radio station.

Indoor scientists try and keep the outdoors out of their labs. They know when to wear lab coats and when to use blue gloves instead of plain latex ones.  There’s no food fit for human consumption to be held in an indoor scientist’s fridge. Instead, Petri dishes wrapped in sterile tape are stacked neatly on top one another. The freezers are full of candy-coloured boxes of samples.  Needless to say, you won’t find any candy (or Ben&Jerry’s) here. A group of clean scientists in a lab will complain about their pipetting repetitive strain pain.

I have spent the last two weeks in the pathology lab at Wisley. For obvious phytosanitary reasons, it is (and needs to remain) a clean lab.  I was there to prepare my nectar samples before sending them off to be analysed at Newcastle University.

In earlier posts (here and here), I mentioned how, in a collaborative project between the RHS and Newcastle University, I had been sampling everything that flowered on our Plants for Bugs plots on five occasions between April and September.

My first attempt at sampling nectar from the garden in April 2012

The nectar was collected in tiny glass tubes (microcapillaries) and then frozen.

Having completed sampling for 2012, I now needed to prepare each sample for HPLC analysis by diluting with very pure water.  This involved expelling nectar from each of the 2000+ microcapillary tubes into 1.5ml plastic, lidded tubes called eppendorfs. (Q. what’s worse than getting nectar into a microcapillary tube? A. Getting nectar out of a microcapillary tube.)

Left: Using a squeegee to expel nectar from a microcapillary tube into an eppendorf. Right: the tiny quantities of nectar from the microcapillary visible as a spray on the inner side of the eppendorf.

The last step involved diluting the nectar to ensure there was sufficient volume for each sample to be analysed by the HPLC machine.

Four hundred and fifty samples later, we are now ready to send off our prepped samples. So, as part of my KTP with the University of Reading, it seems I have also learnt a great deal more about the very cool gadgets that you can find in an indoor scientist’s lab. Whilst I’m still unsure on the rule regarding when to wear a lab coat (I will continue to don mine as soon as I cross the threshold until I hear otherwise), I’m pleased to say I now know the difference between blue and white gloves (blue ones much more expensive) and can hold my own in a discussion about pipetting wrist ache.

Given that our RHS/ Reading KTP is all about boosting the profile of scientific research, I was involved in organising the event and this year, we were lucky enough to be able to welcome students (and their supervisors) from other horticultural research institutions including East Malling Research and Reading, Sheffield and Warwick universities.

So, on a chilly November morning, 60 keen scientists, researchers, horticultural advisors and KTP supervisors congregated in the Wisley Lab Lecture room for coffee and biscuits. In all, four RHS (full or part- funded) and five external students spoke on topics ranging from the taxonomy of hoop-petticoat daffodils to the role of biochar in the composting process.

Two of our PhD speakers at the symposium: Kálmán Könyves (RHS & University of Reading PhD) and Helen Thomas (East Malling Research & University of Greenwich). Both photographs courtesy of Alastair Culham, University of Reading.

Our post-lunch plenary lecture on the importance of communicating science to the public was given by Dr. Ken Thompson- plant ecologist, Honorary Senior Lecturer at the University of Sheffield and author of over 100 peer-reviewed scientific papers. With particular interests in the ecology of gardens and the promotion of science to the general public, Ken’s lecture couldn’t have had a more relevant audience!  Littered with personal experiences and full of laughs, his talk was a brilliant close to the day’s presentations.

As the day was really all about communicating science, it also proved the perfect opportunity to launch our hot-off- the- press Science prospectus.

A selection of pages from our first RHS Science prospectus

Having been involved in the design, development and production of the prospectus, I really do hope that this jargon-free summary of our research activities and interests will help raise awareness of what we do to a wider audience and continue to develop the growing, external profile of RHS Science.

I’d probably use it to store stationary, or those odds and ends I refuse to throw away just in case I find a use for them tomorrow. Things like those infuriatingly-nondescript pieces of a jigsaw puzzle that seem to proliferate under the sofa cushions, random coins of unknown origin and/or value, crunchy old rubber bands and paperclip necklaces.

My toolbox would be relatively tool-empty because I’ve realised there are very few tools that can’t somehow be fashioned from common household items. Bread knives become saws (and cutlery knives, screwdrivers); hardback books double up as hammers and eyebrow tweezers replace the need for pliers. Less safe? Definitely. Money-saving gone mad? Perhaps. But in my danger-hungry, money-saving mind- as tools, they are suitably fit-for-purpose and almost as good as the real thing.

This principle cannot, however, be applied to toolkits in KTP speak. A KTP project, by definition, must deliver some change to the business- whether this involves developing a new product for an existing market, or as in the case of my KTP- exposing an existing ‘product’ (RHS Science) to a wider market (the scientific community and non-members). The outlined changes will start to be delivered during the lifetime of the project; however, to help achieve long(er)-term benefits, a KTP toolkit is often created as the project nears the end of its lifetime.

The content of a KTP toolkit is likely to vary with the project but its purpose is to provide a single location where all the KTP project-relevant tools that may be needed by the company partner can be accessed. Our toolkit for example, will contain a series of support materials on topics that have been a key part of this KTP – things like best practice guides to research project management and full economic costing, finding funding and writing research proposals.

As we head towards the winter months and my Plants for Bugs workload becomes less hectic, I have a bit more time to develop the KTP toolkit. Unlike my physical toolbox, however, it won’t be cluttered with curios from the stationary cupboard and will contain only the best tools for the job!

I went to school that day because I was in fact a Backstreet Boys fan (although let’s be clear, if it had been Backstreet Boys that had broken up that day, I’d still have gone to school). Despite this, I can still mumble through the odd Take That chorus and it was whilst tunelessly humming along to ‘Everything changes’ on the radio this morning that the topic of this blog post popped into my head.

Since starting my KTP in June 2010, only two original members of the six-person project team remain (with three new team members since recruited). The four that left did so because they relocated and were no longer based at the company or the university full-time.  As the Associate, I could take this to mean one of two things. Either:

a) I’m the world’s worst KTP Associate and am not only rubbish at my job but so unbearable to work with that it drives people to actively search for other jobs or

b) Peoples’ lives change, their situations change, and KTP contract or not- sometimes this means the project team will also change.

The song does say ‘everything changes but you’; however, Associates can also move on before their contract ends. Like any other job, over the course of three years (the lifetime of this KTP) people may leave their jobs for all sorts of reasons; however, unlike most jobs, KTPs are exceptionally well-planned projects.

As a recently-qualified PRINCE2 project manager, I know that all good projects are well- planned long before proposed project start date.  The KTP grant proposal document filled in by the project team before the Associate is hired, illustrates just this level of planning. Among other things, it details the project aim(s), the business case, projected project costs and the proposed work plan for the Associate.  This means that, in the event that someone in the project team leaves unexpectedly, there is a robust plan in place which enables the project to continue and helps to minimise any disruption to the existing team and the other project stakeholders.

It’s why, despite some considerable change in members of the project team, our project is still well on track.

One of the biggest benefits of having a project team is to provide academic and industrial experience, knowledge and support. New team members, I’ve realised, provide this much needed support along with fresh insight, new experiences and new ideas that that can help re-energise the project.

So as Gary, Mark, Howard Jason and Robbie rightly say, whilst everything  (else) may well change, the crucial aims, outcomes and outputs of the original project definitely need not.

In a past post, I mentioned that one of our five invertebrate sampling methodologies involves the use of pitfall traps to collect invertebrates active on the ground.  To record those that remain largely on the foliage, we use a Vortis suction sampler.

RHS Senior Entomologist Andy uses a Vortis suction sampler to collect insects on the foliage

To understand how it works- imagine an upright bagless vacuum cleaner and you’re not far off.  Designed to extract insects from the foliage, this petrol-powered picker-upper sucks up invertebrates from the leaves (see below left, in action) and deposits them unharmed (if a little disorientated) in a collecting cup (below right).

Once collected, each sample is returned to the lab for an initial sort. This separates living insect material from plant detritus. A similar process of suction sampling is used again, only on a smaller, more delicate scale.  Gone is the 8 kilogram Vortis and in its place, the humble pooter.

Comprising a rubber bung, two plastic tubes and a collecting jar, pooters are often used by entomologists in the field to remove insects from foliage.

The diagram on the left illustrates how the process works. Air is drawn in by sucking on rubber tubing attached to the straight plastic tube. This draws the invertebrates in through the other (bent) tube.

The discerning amongst you will notice that only a small piece of mesh prevents the entomologist from swallowing the sample. You’ve got to be pretty unlucky (and/ or stupid) to use the wrong tube but when you’ve got a handful of angry harvestmen in your collecting jar, the mistake suddenly seems an easier one to make – that’s my excuse anyway!

If I need to swallow a bird to catch the spider, I’m going to need a bigger pooter..

Unlike universities, where the summer term generally provides academics with more time, more parking spaces, and a more favourable balance between queuing for and eating lunch, the opposite is true in the garden.

Here at Wisley, summer is our busiest period, not just because footfall through the gates increases but also because during these long, warm(ish) months, gardening as a hobby sees a seasonal resurgence.  So, with many of us being unashamed fair-weather fans of our trowels and our hedge shears, it’s not surprising that summer also heralds an increase in the number of enquires to the RHS’ Members Advisory and Diagnostic Services.  Calls, emails and letters querying anything from best practice when trimming wisteria to help identifying the good, the bad and the sometimes exceedingly ugly amongst our garden fauna are answered by our horticultural advisors and scientists.

Regular entries in the ‘Top Ten’ pest enquiries received through the Members’ Advisory and Diagnostic Services (from left to right): slugs and snails (various species), viburnum beetle (Pyrrhalta viburni) and vine weevil (Otiorhynchus sulcatus).

We’ve also recently been lucky enough to welcome our third overseas placement student, Sarah Lambrecht, within Science.  Sarah is the second student we have secured through the IAESTE programme in as many years.

The programme organises paid, course-relevant work placements for students from all sorts of countries and involving all sorts of subject areas. It’s a great way for the students to develop useful work (and life) experience and for companies and universities to gain hand-picked, high-calibre students to support their research projects.  With a keen interest in plant biochemistry, Sarah will be working with our RHS International Registrar, getting a 10-week peek into the world of horticultural taxonomy and learning about the processes involved in cultivar registration – an important means of ensuring plant cultivars are given unique names.

The KTP has been directly involved in helping get students involved in research projects at Wisley because as well as providing students with relevant industry experience, it also addresses a key aim of the KTP- to help increase the profile of RHS Science!

Until last week, that is.

Next week, I’m attending a 5-day PRINCE2 training course which will help develop my skills as a project manager (all KTP Associates are effectively PM for their project) and will no doubt prove a useful qualification to have, whatever I end up doing post-KTP. The course itself is intensive. Five full days of learning about the PRINCE2 methodology topped off with two exams and with a pre-requisite that all those planning to attend do a good 15 hours of pre-course homework.

So just like that – I’m transported back to school. The exams even have those multiple choice answer sheets where you’ve got to scribble in the ovals that relate to the chosen responses. And just like at school, I immediately spent the first hour of my ‘homework’ buying 10 gel ink pens (just in case 9 of them don’t work), highlighters (the fruity-smelling ones), and page markers (which I’ve never really used but continue to buy because I don’t want to look unprepared).

Homework it seems, isn’t as fun as I remember. Not least because after a day’s work, there’s dinner to make, pets to feed and the last season of Breaking Bad to watch.  What has helped has been that I have identified that many PRINCE2 concepts are followed in KTP projects- strip away all the names you need to learn and it really is just a guide to best practice when managing projects. I also think, with two years of my KTP project now completed, I’m in a perfect position to do the course.  Too early and it’s all just meaningless terminology to learn (and therefore harder to remember); too late and you have less time to implement any newly-gleaned knowledge into the existing project.

I had considered including a picture here of my PRINCE2 notes (and growing stationary kit) but thought better of it.  Instead, here are just some of the Wisley cakes that have helped make my revision easier through my lunch breaks!

Wish me luck!

There is a picture of me that my mum keeps in her purse. I’m aged 6, dressed in an awful smock that is adorned with pink and blue snowmen. In the picture, I’m pulling the face my cat does when I’ve put his comedy cat jumper on.  Even now, I recall how tightly the collar pinched my neck and the puff-ball sleeves impeded any normal functioning of my arms. I only wore the dress once and no amount of bribery from my parents would ever make me put it on again.

Over the years, despite my memory becoming less elephantine and more goldfish-like, my stubbornness has remained. This is why, when I mentioned that I was having some difficulty collecting nectar from flowers sampled from Wisley, I was not deterred.

Flowers sampled from the Plants for Bugs plots including (clockwise from top): Genista lydia, Osteospermum jucundum, Leucanthemum vulgare, Geranium sanguineum, Viburnum opulus and Rosa rubiginosa.

On a warm, dry morning a couple of weeks ago, I collected a sample of flowers from each of the plants in flower on the Plants for Bugs plots. I made sure I was there early- before the bumblebees and hoverflies were active and this time my efforts were rewarded with microcapillary tubes full of nectar!

Microcapillary tubes containing nectar- note the meniscus which identifies the position of nectar along the length of the glass tube.

As I hadn’t changed the time I sampled flowers or the way I collected nectar, I can only assume that during previous sampling occasion in April: 1)the early burst of warm summer weather had encouraged flowers to open but provided little nectar reward and/ or 2) early-bird pollinators may have come along and sampled flowers before I collected them.

Whatever the reason, this success is good news as it means, with help from researchers at Newcastle University (who will be analysing the glucose, sucrose and fructose concentrations of the nectar), we can help provide advice on what’s best to plant to encourage pollinating insects back into our gardens.

I plan to sample at least six times during the flowering season.  Given that the Plants for Bugs plots contain native and non-native plant species, it will be interesting to see whether there is a significant difference in the time of flowering or the quantity and quality of nectar provided by plants from these different geographic origins.

The John MacLeod Field Research Facility, Wisley. Photograph courtesy of Rachael Tanner, RHS.

I know what you’re thinking, but remember what your mum always said- don’t judge a book by its cover. Or in this case -don’t judge the shiny new Field Research Facility (FRF) by its slightly unattractive exterior.  Granted, it isn’t the prettiest building I’ve ever seen (although the splashes of colour provided by the bearded irises do help) but it wasn’t built to be admired from the outside.

Behind its exterior – which has been coloured to almost the exact shade of avocado from my parent’s old bathroom suite, the facility is quite beautiful, and has been kitted out with all the latest in controlled environment technology. Built by market leaders in controlled environmental chambers and glasshouses, Unigro, our new FRF is operational 365 days a year providing us with new research space and new gadgets (environmentally-controlled chambers and pressurised areas to limit movement of airborne pests and pathogens) to help RHS scientists do more research and provide more advice on the pests and diseases of garden plants. The facility is also environmentally-friendly, featuring solar panels to generate electricity and a ‘coolth’ (no, it’s not a typo) tank which recycles energy – capturing heat emitted by the chambers during the day to warm them at night, whilst also providing a back-up source of energy in the event of a mechanical failure.

The new research glasshouse has been named after the late Professor John MacLeod- a leading advocate for horticultural science and previously Vice Chairman of the RHS Council, Chair of the RHS Science Committee and Garden Advisor for RHS Hyde Hall. It was formally opened by Professor David Bellamy who was given a tour of the facility and shown some of our research projects that would shortly be making use of the new space.  I was on hand to sneak a peak at Professor Bellamy and to talk to any of the invited guests about some of our on-going scientific research projects at Wisley.

Professor Bellamy opening our new research glasshouse (left), and (right) alongside our RHS/ Roehampton PhD student, Stephanie Bird. Photographs courtesy of Andy Paradise, RHS.