Introduction: reverse planning

This chapter was written in response to my frustration when talking to people who had worked hard collecting data but who had missed opportunities and largely wasted their time as a consequence of poor planning. Planning relates to any research programme, not just those involving carrying out a census.

In thinking about my own research, collaborating with colleagues and advising students I have devised a means of planning research projects, called reverse planning (see Table 1.1). In designing a research programme it is best to think backwards, starting with the question and then considering how to answer it. This method seems clumsy, but many projects either do not have a sensible question or have a sensible question but the planned research will not answer it. Many projects are clearly unrealistic: it is better to identify impossible projects before starting them.

I recommend this process of reverse planning, and especially the key stage of producing graphs, to many students and others each year. Many find this difficult, but this is only because designing projects is difficult. It is better to struggle with the planning than to struggle with poor results.

An advantage of this explicit planning process is that consulting others becomes easier. Most people go into the field with only a hazy impression of what they will do, how they will analyse it and why they are doing it. A pile of potential graphs provides an excellent basis for discussing projects.