Abstract
Science could benefit from adopting management approaches, techniques, and expertise created in other fields of professional teamwork. The closest field to science is possibly software engineering and development. In its structure and spirit, a small software company very much resembles a scientific lab: It is a small motivated group of highly-educated professionals creating nonmaterial products with teamwork centered around collaboration between individuals. Science could benefit from using frameworks for project management, process control, issue tracking, and time management, which have been undergoing development in IT for decades, such as modern approaches of agile software development describing collaboration of self-organizing cross-functional teams. For a young PI at the beginning of his or
Highlights
With all the complexity of this goal, and the size and turnover of a lab being comparable to that of a small company, it is surprising that scientific principal investigator (PI) do not normally have formal management training, and, instead, are typically self-made managers
The lack of proper training provided is surprising, especially considering the time and expense necessary to succeed in a science career. This becomes even more astonishing knowing that, in other areas, professional teamwork and management is typically studied for decades and competent management education is offered
Science could benefit from adopting management approaches, techniques, and expertise created in other fields of professional teamwork
Summary
With all the complexity of this goal, and the size and turnover of a lab being comparable to that of a small company, it is surprising that scientific PIs do not normally have formal management training, and, instead, are typically self-made managers. They learn all the necessary management skills by inheriting them from their mentors during their graduate and postdoc career training and/or by their own trial and error. The lack of proper training provided is surprising, especially considering the time and expense necessary to succeed in a science career.
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