It depends on the field of study. For example,

three phases of clinical research is completely different from a flow in an open channel consist of water, air and suspended sediment is considered as an three phases objective. This means that clinical trials involving new drugs are commonly classified into four phases. Individual trials may encompass more than one phase. A common example of this is combined phase I/II or phase II/III trials. Therefore, it may be easier to think of early phase studies and late phase studies. The drug-development process will normally proceed through all four phases over many years. If the drug successfully passes through Phases I, II, and III, it will usually be approved by the national regulatory authority for use in the general population. Phase IV are 'post-approval' studies.

https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9781441915863

Would you provide more details? What are all of the phases? What is "face validity"? What are the goals of the project?

Thank you for the clarification.

We can prove that no simplistic ordering is optimal by finding differently ordered optimal examples. The basic problem here is that the division into such phases is a flawed model. In most situations, each phase relates to all the others in complex ways. As a practical matter, this difficulty is sometimes addressed by putting time and resources into each phase simultaniously, and then dynamically adjusting that time and effort based on the experience with the other phases.

Some addition observations:

1. I have found that not enough time is usually spent on phase1.

2. Feedback mechanisms need to be engineered into all phases of the project.

3. It is rare to see a “good” questionaire. Most people are not aware of how difficult they are to produce.

Thanks for all your feedback. It helps a lot. Yes I agree it depends on the complex processes for each study which makes each research authentic. Also depends on particular field of research. I've also read that it is best to have not more than 5 research objectives for a study. To clarify further, the aim of my study is to develop a new leadership model for public sector officers. I have revised my research objectives as the study progressed to final phase. My research objectives are as stated below:

1. To identify key leadership attributes for senior leaders in supporting their employees to deal with public sector challenges.

2. To develop and validate survey questionnaires to measure public sector leadership.

3. To examine whether there is a relationship between TLB, CC, PL with IPL.

4. To develop measurement model.

5. To develop structural model.