Introduction
The Formulation (or elaboration) of Projects, as a teaching-learning activity, is a modern way of training engineering students in a specific professional activity. In this introductory seminar we will present some of the useful methodologies to start and structure project formulation.
It is opportune here to recover the words of a modern and outstanding thinker, Umberto Eco:
"You can take advantage of the occasion of a thesis or project (although the rest of the university period has been disappointing or frustrating) to recover the positive and progressive meaning of the study not understood as a harvest of notions, but as a critical elaboration of an experience, as an acquisition of a capacity (good for the future life) to locate problems, to face them with method, to expose them following certain communication techniques ».
From the most general point of view, the discipline of «Introduction to Project Formulation» is an intellectual activity framed in what are known as «cognitive sciences» or «knowledge science». This discipline is getting more and more widespread due (or rather, thanks) to the exhaustion of the "recipes" method, especially in the field of methodology, so this seminar will not present "the recipes for making a good project" Rather, it will try to induce students to reflect on the mental and cognitive, rational and logical, evolutionary and contextual process involved in carrying out a project mid-career in Engineering.
Given that during the development we will use various specific terms, some of which are not in daily use, to this note we attach a glossary that we hope will be useful to the seminar participants.
This seminar does not have the objective of developing skills or abilities to formulate projects in the students, but rather hopes to create some mental or intellectual conditions to generate a strategy that, integrating skills with concepts, allows undertaking the elaboration of a project. In other words: nothing is further from our purpose than teaching project form filling procedures.
The attempt to expose how to approach the preparation of a "project" apparently leads to questions of pure "methodology", that is, to explain how the logic of the process of formulating a project is (in terms of its guidelines, steps, stages, etc.). But this basic approach collides with the problem of how to organize and spatially and temporarily distribute the various tasks and then regroup them to give consistency to the completed project.
Consequently, any exposition about a methodology to elaborate projects must solve, at least, two problems: a) define criteria to characterize and separate the various stages or components of the project, and b) provide guidelines to establish a logical sequence and / or chronological between its various stages.
At this point we are faced with a terminological problem that we must clarify before proceeding further, according to Prof. J. Samaja, we must differentiate between three concepts:
1º) The process of elaboration of a project
2º) The design of the project
3º) The formulation of the project
The notion of the project development process encompasses all the actions carried out by the person doing the project (student, professional, scientist, etc.) and by those who support it (teachers, collaborators, other scientists). The concept "project development process" encompasses, as we will see immediately, the other two, design and formulation.
With the term project design we will refer to the adoption of methodological strategies to solve the problem or face the question chosen for the project.
Finally, with the notion of project formulation we will refer to the completion of the form or format of the document intended to be delivered to the control authority or body, given that the formulation contains, in addition to the central information of the project itself, a detail of the time and space goals, objectives, budget (if financial resources are planned), etc. In other words, the specific formulation of the project contains all the information necessary to carry out what is known as "project management control".
Glossary of terms
Activities
1) Actions that the project must carry out to obtain results.
2) Actions taken or work carried out within a project in order to transform inputs (funds, materials) into products (organizations, buildings)
Technical assistance
Help for planning projects or activities.
Help
Assistance given by an applicant organization. Aid can be in money, technical assistance, volunteers, equipment and transportation.
Beneficiaries
They are the target group or target population (direct beneficiaries) plus those indirectly favored by the project.
Project cycle
The six successive phases of an intervention or project:
1. Programming (idea)
2. Identification (pre-feasibility)
3. Instruction (feasibility)
4. Financing
5. Execution
6. Evaluation (can be intermediate, end of project and later).
This description of the cycle is the one used by the European Community.
Complexity
There are two meanings: the vulgar one, which refers to a "set made up of various elements" and the scientific one, "system made up of a large number of parts that interact in a non-simple way". In this version, the metaphor "the whole is more than the sum of the parts", alludes with certainty to the fact that from the properties and the laws of the cross-action of the parts, it is not easy to infer the properties or the set behavior.
Preconditions
These are existing external factors and decisions made before the start of the project.
Cost-benefit
It is the effectiveness of a project based on costs. Evaluation criterion that establishes the relationship between the assigned resources and the objectives achieved. The expressions cost - effectiveness and cost - effectiveness are also used.
Credibility
In its integrity as an organization, its professional capacity and its reputation.
Schedule
Neologism that indicates a program of activities ordered in time in which the duration of each activity, place of performance, responsible, etc. is usually specified. It can be written literally or in table form.
Description and explanation
Description is knowledge obtained through observations without intervention of a measurement process. The explanation - deeper knowledge than the description since it advances in the causality of the phenomenon or fact - is an argument that accounts for facts through deductive reasoning whose conclusion is a proposition and whose set of premises is made up of general laws and other referred statements to particular events.
Diagnosis
Purely practical (non-creative) task consisting of the analysis of the data obtained with the sole purpose of obtaining the necessary measurements before proceeding to the analysis of the hypotheses.
Experimental design
It is the study modality, when one or more independent variables (hypotheses - causes) are deliberately manipulated to analyze their consequences on one or more dependent variables (hypotheses - effects), within a situation controlled by the student or researcher.
Non-experimental design
Study mode that is carried out without deliberately manipulating variables. In other words, it is not the purpose of this type of study to build any situation, but merely to observe the existing state.
Direct effects
The immediate costs and benefits of both the contributions to a project and its results, regardless of their effect on the economy.
Indirect effects
The costs and benefits produced by the contributions to the project and its results.
Effectiveness
1) Degree to which a project achieved the expected or expected results and, therefore, achieved its purpose and contributed to its end-
2) It is a measure of the degree of success of a project or program in achieving its objectives.
Effectiveness
Term indicating to what extent an assistance program achieves its objectives. Likewise, it is the strict fulfillment of a given objective; for example in the predetermined period, without taking into account other aspects such as cost, route, duration, etc. An effective person is one who merely meets her goals, regardless of cost.
Efficiency
The extent to which project activities were executed, managed, and organized in an appropriate manner at the lowest possible cost to deliver the expected products and / or components.
Budget execution
Budget start-up process, which is made up of the annual cash program, commitments, spending agreements, nation payments, and entity payments. In addition, it is the satisfactory fulfillment of a given objective optimizing all the aspects at stake for its achievement (cost, route, effort, duration, waste, etc.). An efficient person is one who meets her objectives and also optimizes the consumption of resources (of all kinds) used.
Strategy
Term of military origin (strategos, in Greek, means «army chief) and adopted by the administration of organizations. How the person who undertakes a complex job adapts his resources and skills to the changing environment, taking advantage of his opportunities and evaluating the risks based on the objectives and goals.
Feasibility study
1) Carried out in accordance with the terms of reference drawn up during the identification or prefeasibility which, if the conclusions are positive, must allow the Formulation of the financing proposal without supplementary studies.
2) It follows the prefeasibility study and delves into those aspects that are considered relevant to make the decision to allocate resources towards a specific objective.
Study of pre-feasibility
Stage that follows the profile of the project, in which the different aspects are fixed with a greater degree of pressure and is determined by postponing, rejecting or moving on to the next feasibility stage.
Descriptive study
Study mode that only seeks to specify the important properties of entities under investigation. Descriptive studies measure concepts or variables, since describing consists of selecting a series of questions and measuring each of them, independently, to describe them. This type of study therefore requires significant prior knowledge of the research field.
Diachronic study
Study of phenomena that preferably bring into play elements and variables from different states of the same system over time
Explanatory study
It is aimed at responding to the causes of physical or social events, making known why a phenomenon, process or event occurs, under what conditions this occurs or why two or more variables are related. It is a more structured design than exploratory and descriptive ones and in fact implies the purposes of the investigation (exploration, description and correlation) in addition to providing a "sense of understanding" of the phenomenon studied
Exploratory study
Research or study design designed to generate or reexamine theoretical categories that do not yet exist, to subsequently undertake descriptive, analytical or hypothesis verification work.
Synchronous study
Study of phenomena that occur when all its elements and variables that come into play belong to a single and same moment of a single and same system
Evaluation
Independent and objective examination (carried out during the project or once it has been completed) of the context, objectives, results, activities and means used, carried out to formulate extrapolable conclusions.
Ex-ante evaluation
1) A determination or estimation of evaluation needs applied in the ex ante phase of the evaluation cycle, which includes feasibility studies, the identification of project objectives and all other functions performed before starting it.
2) Global evaluation of the relevance, feasibility and sustainability of a project before making the decision to execute the project.
Ex-post evaluation
1) Evaluation carried out after completing the project.
2) It is a systematic and independent examination of a Project, which is carried out in order to determine its efficiency, productivity, impact, sustainability and relevance of its objectives.
Impact assessment
Ex post evaluation generally carried out five years after the completion of a project, which focuses on the end and purpose of the project, as well as its sustainability and unforeseen effects.
Explanation:
Theoretical interpretation of scientific facts; According to Hempel it must satisfy two conditions; a) relevance and b) verifiability; In other words:. Every explanation implies: a) a (at least) deductive construction of laws (which do not yet constitute "causality"); b) the deduction must be only "logical" but must be applicable to a "real" or "model" substrate that represents their relationships, that is to say that "the articulations of the deduction must correspond to the antecedents and spatial and temporal consequences of the objects
Scientific expertise
Procedure consisting of making a certain effect appear, detectable and analyzable, in circumstances that have been prepared according to a precise plan and based on certain hypotheses regarding the possible effects. Idea associated with a controlled alteration in a system, voluntarily varying a variable), as a consequence, opposed to mere observation (in which there is no disturbance to the system. If the experience has been inspired by a hypothesis, the Data must be interpreted in terms that can be directly compared to this hypothesis (for example, in the form of an equivalent, compatible, or incompatible statement).
End
The long-term orientation of an organization. It is the broadest objective or development objective that contributes to a project
Project cycle management
Management method of the six phases of the Project cycle.
Objective group
They are the direct beneficiaries. It is the specific group or population that the project or program will benefit. Closely related term to impact and relevance.
Hypothesis
Important conditions for the successful completion of a project, but which do not depend on the project itself; they are defined for the activities, the results and the specific objective. Synonymous with assumptions. Also, it is the statement formulated in a certain historical context and place that, in its formulation, is in a "state of trouble", although whoever formulates it supposes that it is true. For example, a student's statement that he will "pass" a given subject, statement made before the final exam, is a hypothesis. Synonyms: conjecture, prediction: act by which consciousness speaks in advance about the nature of a future event.
ID
First elaboration of a project idea, expressed globally in objectives, results and activities in order to determine whether or not to proceed to the feasibility study of the project.
Impact
They are the positive and negative changes produced directly and indirectly, as a result of a project or program.
Inference
Mental mechanism widely used in studies or research, consisting of the passage of a set of previous propositions, called premises to another final one called conclusion. There are four types of inferences: induction, deduction, analogy, and abduction.
Instruction
Determination of all the detailed aspects of a project. Equivalent to preparing the project study or feasibility study.
Input
They are the funds, personnel, materials, etc. of a project, which are necessary to produce the expected results.
Project matrix (mp)
Summary of the project design that identifies it. They are the key elements, assumptions or external factors and the expected consequences after the successful completion of the project.
Model
When an interpretation has the property of satisfying (making true) all theorems and axioms, that is, it satisfies the system, it is said to be a "model" of the system. Consequently, an axiomatic system can have several models. Finally, a system is said to be "satisfactory" if it has at least one model (Schuster). An abstract construction that is considered a provider of a schematic approximation of the field under study and with enough structural simplicity to be described with the available concepts. "Abstract construction that is provisionally supposed to provide a schematic and idealized approach to the concrete field under study, as an acceptable representation of it and whose structure is simple enough to be described by existing conceptual resources.""The model paradigm is the system
Monitoring
(See follow-up)
objective
It is convenient to distinguish between "objective", "purpose" and "impact". The meaning that we will use is that of goal or purpose pursued with the faced, observable project. measurable and comparable. The notion of purpose refers to the indirect consequences, although also desirable, that could be derived from the objective, but not as measurable or appreciable as this one. For example, research that aims to develop a wooden solar dryer will aim to build a prototype of an efficient and economical dryer; as a purpose, an improvement in the profitability of the wood industry could be expected with this technological development, something that is very difficult to measure.
Observation
The object of observation is a "fact" or "phenomenon" and the product of the act of observing is a fact, that is, a singular or existential proposition that expresses some features of the result of the action of observing
Development goal
It is the main overall objective to which the project will contribute in the long term and which is the reason why it is executed.
Immediate objective
It is the immediate reason why a project is executed. It is the effect that the project hopes to achieve if it is successfully completed and on time.
(Sociological acceptance): set of values, beliefs, techniques, etc. shared by members of a given scientific community. (methodological meaning): way of approaching solutions to problems that, taken as models or examples, can replace explicit rules as a basis for solving other problems under study.
Relevance
Quality of an entity or a fact to satisfy some purpose or fit a given situation. For example, it is pertinent that a student who is going to take an exam take the necessary supplies for that exam and not other things that could correspond (be pertinent) to a soccer game or a dance.
Planning
Overall plan, scientifically organized, to achieve a certain predetermined objective (s)
Productivity
It is a measure of the efficiency of the project implementation process. Productivity is the quotient of the products obtained and the inputs used.
Product
These are the results that can be guaranteed by the project as a consequence of its activities.
Program
It is a group of related projects or services, directed towards the achievement of similar objectives.
Purpose
(See immediate objective)
Draft
Set of activities designed to achieve certain specific objectives at a given cost and within a certain period of time.
Refutation or falsification
Reliable and incontrovertible proof of the falsity or fallibility of a scientific theory or law, even by means of determining experiments.
Relevance
It is the degree to which the justification and objectives of a project are pertinent, significant and valuable, in relation to the identified and priority needs.
Results
They are the result of the activities carried out which, taken as a whole, will suppose the achievement of the specific objective.
Tracing
Continuous or periodic supervision of the implementation of a project to ensure that the inputs, activities, products, and assumptions are being developed in accordance with what is stated.
System
Set of elements, with interrelationships between them, in such a way that the Aristotelian maxim that "the whole is more than the sum of its parts" and in relation to the surrounding environment is fulfilled.
Sustainability
It is the degree to which the local institutions linked to the project beneficiaries will continue to obtain the objectives and impacts.
Internal rate of return (tir)
Discount rate equivalent to the present value of the net cash flow in relation to the initial cost of a project.
Theory
Systems of hypotheses structured not in the form of a body of knowledge but as a system of conjectures that must allow, by their formulation and by their articulation with "reality", a possibility of falsifying it
Analysis unit:
central entity of the project development process, from which we will look for the various variables that describe it and the values of these variables that qualify and characterize it. For example, in a study of "bibliography on insects that damage Eucalyptus", the unit of analysis is the book (each book surveyed and selected for the study) the variables will be: title, author, year of publication, language, publisher, etc. and the values of each variable will be: (from title) «Insects harmful to Eucalyptus», (from author) Ing. Ftal Juan García, (from year) 1983, (from language) Spanish, (from editorial) EUDEBA, etc.
Validation or corroboration
Find, provide and organize the evidence that grants logical or legal character before the corresponding authority, to the answers that are believed to be true.
Value
Variety (not necessarily numerical) of possible states presented by the variables.
Net present value (van)
Estimated current value of the net cash flows of a project, discounting the firm's capital cost, less the initial cost of the project.
Variable
Attribute, relationship or context selected as relevant to describe the units of analysis in a study or project
Viability
A project or program is viable when it can provide an acceptable level of benefits to the target group for a sufficiently long period after the financial and technical assistance of the funder has ended.
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