Research Scientist’s Solution – To Do List For Research Scientists

Research scientists or researchers within any kind of science are primarily involved in creating, conducting and analyzing experiments, either with a definite end use (to develop a new product, processes or commercial computer application) or to extend scientific understanding in general. A research scientist studies the behaviour of the physical world, and then finds practical ways to apply new knowledge obtained from his researches in many areas of business and technology, so research scientist should organize his various tasks effectively. The research scientist’s daily task list may contain the following tasks:

• Propose a new theory at the Scientific Conference on Monday, 12th, January
• Look through material of the gained research data
• Prepare R&D report on the last research programme by 1st of March
• Create a computer simulation to explore the consequences of the theory
• Speak to the University audience on Tuesday, 13th, January

Managing research projects
As any project, the research project can be broken down into five major phases like planning, execution, control, reporting, and closure. The phase may vary depending on the project peculiarities. However, the point is to create a project structure which is convenient and best for achieving project expectations. The research scientist can use task management software to build the project structure. Task management software allows to organize research tasks into treelike view and build project structure by using categories and subcategories.

Using templates for periodic projects
For similar and frequently repeated projects and researches it is convenient to use project templates. In task management software the research scientist can create a new folder “Research Project Templates” and add some templates for the most periodic projects. For example it could be a project for research and development of a new product. Then, in the category “New product R&D” there could be the following tasks:

• Developing new product concept
• Conduct preliminary researches and evaluations of the market demand
• Asses profitability and return on investment from new product concept
• Generate product concept
• Check concept for technical feasibility
• Prototyping
• Create specification for product prototype
• Create prototype
• Test prototype
• Launching product
• Conduct consumer testing
• Receive and analyze costumer feedback
• Make amendment to project specification
• Map out marketing
• Launch product
• Provide product support

When the research scientist launches a new project for product R&D, he can duplicate the project template and paste the tasks into convenient category.

Attaching research documentation directly to tasks

Any research and development project includes documentation needed to maintain the project and keep on track its progress. For the research scientist it is important to have quick and easy access to the project documents to log research data, keep event schedule, retrieve materials and more. In task management software the research scientist can attach project documents directly to the tasks and save them as file or links. All attached documents can be displayed in the task list view what makes it convenient to retrieve materials and watch location path.

Choosing the right software for the research scientist
If you are a researcher, you can choose one of the following task management products depending on your specific needs:

• VIP Organizer is the best solution for the researchers who work alone and need to manage only their own tasks.
• VIP Team To Do List If R&D department needs that tasks and jobs should be assigned to a group of researchers and other R&D staff, VIP Team To Do List allows assigning tasks to the employees and send them their tasks by email or give them a printable to do list.
• VIP Task Manager The best solution for R&D and engineering companies will be VIP Task Manager which features a centralized database each employee can enter and update his tasks in real time, and a supervisor will be immediately notified of any change with automatic notification system.

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