Researchproject:schedulingactivities

Beginnings: Check organisational regulations. Choose topic and likely methods; establish initial thoughts and ideas. Undertake preliminary reading and literature review. Write proposal.

Early development: Make necessary contacts and seek permission for access, where appropriate, to subjects. Make initial contact and agree research ground rules in relationship-based research, including confidentiality rules. Acquire specialist information, e.g. company-written documents, etc. Confirm topic and methods. Begin note-taking from secondary literature sources.

First core activity: Work literature review up quickly, drawing out implications of review for key hypotheses and research methods. Make any necessary revisions to hypotheses and to choice and/or application of research methods. Continue note taking and developing contacts, including determining availability of respondents in respondent-based research.

Second core activity: Piloting of research, if necessary. Final adjustment (revision only if essential) of hypotheses and research methods based on pilot. Main data collection commences. Data subjected to preliminary review upon completion leading to further data collection if required. Data subjected to systematic analysis and preliminary conclusions drawn. Assess preliminary conclusions against data to see if they hold up. Consider whether further data collection is necessary. Assess relationship between methods used, preliminary conclusions drawn and issues arising from literature review in order to establish whether all are congruent.