Managing the Work

Managing Research Software Projects

Greg Wilson

2026

Learning Objectives

  • Explain what “project management” looks like for a small research team.
  • Describe the progress/plans/problems format for status reports.
  • Explain how to manage a work backlog and when and how to cut items from it.

Knowing Who Is Doing What

  • Project management at this scale is knowing who does what and what blocks them.
  • The manager’s job is to remove obstacles, not assign tasks.
  • The Monday morning check-in reveals when someone is stuck.
  • The planning meeting matters less than the check-in.

The Three-Column Status Update

  • Progress: what they finished since last time.
  • Plans: what they will finish before next time.
  • Problems: what is blocking them, or might.
  • The meeting discusses Problems; Progress and Plans are read.
  • If the leader cannot resolve a problem, they must escalate it.

Making Issues Work

  • Each issue needs an owner, a milestone, and a time estimate.
  • Someday/maybe items get a backlog label, not a milestone slot.
  • Close issues when the work is done, not when the PR merges.
  • Research artifacts belong in the same tracker.
  • Triage newly filed issues at least once a week.

Cutting

  • Cutting scope feels like failure but deferring the cut costs more.
  • If a feature is 80% done and blocking a release, options are delay, ship incomplete, or cut.
  • Deciding to cut two weeks late is always more expensive.

Estimation

  • You can’t estimate accurately unless you collect data to tell you how accurate past estimates were.
    • Which most teams aren’t going to do.
  • The smaller the task, the smaller the relative error.
    • So break things down in order to make estimation more rewarding.
  • Distinguish a wrong estimate from a choice to solve a related problem.
    • The second kind of change should trigger a conversation.

What about AI?

  • LLM sprint tools can estimate complexity and flag hidden dependencies
  • LLM task tools optimize for issues closed, not correctness or maintainability
  • LLM prioritization nudges teams toward many small issues over deep problems
  • Cutting is harder because saying no is not automated

Write a Status Update (8 min)

Write one three-column status update for yourself, then swap with a partner. Read their Problems column and identify one thing you could do to help.

Set Up a Milestone (7 min)

Prompt the LLM with something like this:

Given these open issues in my project [paste 5-8 real issue titles], help me create a four-week milestone. Assign each to either the milestone or a backlog. For each milestone issue, estimate the effort in hours and identify dependencies.

Which assignments did the LLM get wrong?