SLOT 1

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SLOT 1
K-CHART
A Tool for Research Planning and Monitoring
MOHD KHAZANI ABDULLAH, AHMAD SAMSURI MOKHTAR,
NUR RIZA MOHD SURADI, NORDIN JAMALUDDIN, A. RAHIM
ABU TALIB and AHMAD TAUFIK
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CONTENTS

• Background Dilemma in Research Planning and
  Monitoring
• Existing tools
• The K Chart
• Conclusion

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SCENARIO 1 GRADUATE STUDIES

• You just started your graduate study. You are
  looking for a title. Your supervisor/mentor is
  always busy.
• You pick up and photocopy every single article
  you come across, only to sleep on it than to read
  it through.
• Even when you do finish an article, its like
  reading Peruvian. You dont know what to get from
  the paper.
• You keep asking yourself What exactly am I
  working on? How much should I read? What should
  be my methodology? How many results should I
  have? How do I get a novelty?

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SCENARIO 2 EMBARKING ON A RESEARCH PROJECT

• You are about to embark on a research project.
  You face a hard time identifying the scope of
  research and specific problems to solve.
• You are planning to have co-researchers/
  students, but organizing and coordinating them
  are not a piece of cake. You want them to work
  together, not to scream at each other.
• You ask yourself who will do what, and how much?
  How many sub-projects can be created? How to
  maximize the outputs? How to produce more papers?

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Questions Students/Researchers Wish to Answer
Earlier on

• What is the specific title of study
• How to identify the problems to study?
• How wide/deep is the study?
• How much is the literature review?
• What do I look for in reading reference papers ?
• How do I choose between two (or more) design
  options?
• How do I organize my study?
• Should I focus on theory or simulation or what?
• How many results should I get?
• How do I know whether my results are correct and
  sufficient?
• What if I can not get the target results?
• How to arrange the results?
• How to cluster for sub-projects?
• Who to do what?

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DILEMMA

• Many new researchers and graduate students are
  suffering from lack of guides for research
  planning/monitoring.
• Good researches should have macro and micro level
  planning/monitoring
• Macro level Activities and Timelines in general
• Micro level Scope of Issues Under Study,
  Methodology, and Results
• Existing tools tend to be too specific in
  function
• K-Chart attempts to provide the Micro-level
  research planning/monitoring.

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EXISTING RnD PLANNING TOOLS

• Pareto Chart (80-20 rule)
• Ishikawa/ Cause and Effect/Fish bone
• Flow Chart
• Gantt Chart
• Existing tools tend to be too specific in
  function, or too broad

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WEAKNESSES OF GANTT CHART

• 1. Does not clearly show the structure/scope
  depth and width of the project
• 2. Does not provide the designation of issues
  under study general issues, complementary issues
  and focused issues
• 3. Does not clearly provide the methodologies
  used
• 4. Does not clearly show the detail results
• 5. Does not provide the number of results

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WHAT IS A K-CHART?

• A tool for systematically organizing
• research
• Scope of issues under study,
• Methodology, and
• Results
• Timelines
• in the form of a Tree Diagram

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THE K-CHART LAYERS

• K-Chart organizes the items in 5 layers

GENERAL TITLE
SCOPE OF ISSUES LAYERS
METHODOLOGY LAYERS
RESULTS LAYERS
TIMELINES
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STRUCTURE OF A K-CHART
Scope
Methodology
Result
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Factors Influencing the Performance of Motor
Vehicles
GENERAL TITLE
SYSTEM
Vehicles
Sub Issues 1 App. based
Land
Sea
Air
Sub Issues 2 Types based
Motorcycles
Cars
Trucks
Vans
Mini
Sedan
Wagon
Sub Issues 3 Types based
Engine
Body
Tire
SUBSYSTEM/ ELEMENTS
Simulation
Experiment
Theory
Survey
METHODOLOGIES
Lab. Tests
Field Tests
Lab. prototype
Eng. prototype
Commercial prototype
Meas. Techn.1
Meas. Techn.2
Meas. Techn.3
RESULTS Performance Parameters
Speed
Acceleration
Fuel consumption
Design Parameters
Pressure
Tire Width
Tire Height
Tire Pressure
Tire Width
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THE IMPORTANCE OF TITLE

• A title should indicate
• The systems you are working on
• The problems you are solving
• Your achievements
• Your methodology
• General Title General
• Final Project (Thesis) Title More specific
• Papers Title Very specific

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THE IMPORTANCE OF ISSUES LAYER

• The more detail the layers, the less the
  assumption, the better
• Every time there is a jump between the layers, an
  assumption is made (thus, a justification is
  required)
• One can choose any way he/she likes to arrange
  the sequence of layers
• However, Issues of the same theme should be in
  the same layer
• The Issues Layers indicate
• - The scope of critical reviews (what to get
  from the papers)
• - The focused issues (designation of issues)
• - The rationale in choosing issues to study (to
  move from one level to the next)
• - The Problem Statement

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THE IMPORTANCE OF METHODOLOGY LAYER

• To define the specific methods adopted
• To designate which methods are of higher
  priorities
• To avoid ambiguities in the approach taken
• To reduce assumptions

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THE IMPORTANCE OF METHODOLOGY LAYER

• The Results Layers help in
• Identifying the expected results, and how many of
  them
• Setting the priorities and designation of results
• Identifying the possible analyses e.g.
  comparative studies
• Organizing reports/thesis/papers
• Designating sub-projects

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With A K-Chart, lets try to answer these
questions again .

• What is the specific title of study
• How wide/deep is the study?
• How much is the literature review?
• What do I look for in reading reference papers ?
• How do I choose between two (or more) options
• How do I decide to move to the next level of
  study?
• How do I develop the objectives of study
• What is the methodology (Theory, Simulation,
  Experiment, Observation, Survey) ?
• How many results ( curves, graphs, charts) can
  be obtained
• Which results to be focused on?
• How to arrange the results
• How many comparisons can be made?
• How to cluster for sub-projects
• Who to do what?

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and more

• How to plan for publication ?
• How to construct articles titles ?
• How to organize the report structure ?
• How to plan for a graduate thesis writing?
• How to integrate with new ideas ?
• How to re-align the area of research when the
  original plan does not work ?

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CONCLUSION

• The requirement for a research planning tool is
  obvious
• Existing tools are either too specific or too
  broad
• K Chart provides a more comprehensive micro-level
  planning

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WASSALAMThank You