Project Management — research grant work plan

// Two-year work plan for a funded research study as a Gantt chart: work packages with declared dependencies, the approvals that gate them, and the milestones a funder reports against.
//
// Every string below is EXAMPLE text from a fictional study: replace it.
//
// Dependencies are declared, never inferred: depends: [x] draws the arrow
// and states that the task cannot start before x ends. That is what makes
// the critical path visible — protocol, approvals, site set-up,
// recruitment, the last six-month follow-up visit, database lock, analysis,
// report — and what makes a slip legible as a slip rather than as a task
// that merely starts late. Follow-up is timed from each participant's
// randomisation, not from the end of recruitment, so it runs alongside
// recruitment and carries no finish-to-start arrow from it.
//
// The plan carries the usual contingencies of a funded study: recruitment
// (240 participants at 4 sites over 9 months) is planned at 80% of the
// rate seen in the feasibility survey; site set-up allows 8 weeks for
// local capacity checks; and the last four months hold no data
// collection, so a late recruitment window does not move the end date.

project walk_on_study {
  title: "WALK-ON: community walking programme after stroke"
  start: "2026-01-05"
  end: "2027-12-17"
  owner: "Chief investigator: Dr R. Mensah"
}

milestone ethics_favourable {
  date: "2026-03-27"
  title: "M1 Ethics"
  status: "planned"
}
milestone first_participant {
  date: "2026-05-25"
  title: "M2 First patient"
  status: "planned"
}
milestone recruitment_complete {
  date: "2027-02-19"
  title: "M3 Recruited"
  status: "planned"
}
milestone database_lock {
  date: "2027-09-17"
  title: "M4 Database lock"
  status: "planned"
}
milestone final_report {
  date: "2027-12-17"
  title: "M5 Report"
  status: "planned"
}

task protocol {
  title: "WP1 Protocol, SAP, registration"
  start: "2026-01-05"
  end: "2026-02-13"
  assignee: "Trial manager, statistician"
}
task ethics {
  title: "WP1 Ethics and approvals"
  start: "2026-02-16"
  end: "2026-03-27"
  depends: [protocol]
  assignee: "Trial manager"
}
task site_setup {
  title: "WP2 Site set-up and training"
  start: "2026-03-30"
  end: "2026-05-22"
  depends: [ethics]
  assignee: "Research nurses"
}
task recruitment {
  title: "WP2 Recruitment, 4 sites"
  start: "2026-05-25"
  end: "2027-02-19"
  depends: [site_setup]
  assignee: "Research nurses"
}
task intervention {
  title: "WP3 Programme delivery"
  start: "2026-06-01"
  end: "2027-05-14"
  depends: [site_setup]
  assignee: "Physiotherapists, 12 weeks each"
}
task follow_up {
  title: "WP3 Six-month follow-up"
  start: "2026-11-23"
  end: "2027-08-20"
  assignee: "Blinded assessors, per participant"
}
task data_cleaning {
  title: "WP4 Data cleaning"
  start: "2027-08-23"
  end: "2027-09-17"
  depends: [follow_up]
  assignee: "Data manager"
}
task analysis {
  title: "WP4 Analysis"
  start: "2027-09-20"
  end: "2027-11-12"
  depends: [data_cleaning]
  assignee: "Statistician, health economist"
}
task dissemination {
  title: "WP5 Report and papers"
  start: "2027-11-15"
  end: "2027-12-17"
  depends: [analysis]
  assignee: "All investigators, patient panel"
}

view workplan: gantt(walk_on_study)