Being the NPTS and knowing those kinds of students to be quite brilliant, I would be interested in how they are managing the organization of the project. Inventory, progress-tracking, issue management - these are the kinds of things I think this group would put a lot of thought into. I wonder if there are some best practices or document templates they would be able/willing to share.
With regards to building safety and method, we are following AC43.13 and diligently following the instructions provided by Van's. We also have two instructors acting as advisors who have completed builds of a Van's RV-8 and a Harmon Rocket.
As far as some of the programmatic practices, we've come up with our own solutions. I'm not sure if these are necessarily best practices, as this is a first-time build for most of us, but this is how we've handled business so far:
A thorough inventory was performed upon receipt of each subassembly kit. We created a labeling system for the shelves in our work area, and placed parts (by assembly) on said shelves. The provided parts lists were scanned into usable text via adobe acrobat pro, and the shelf locations were assigned to each part number in a tracking spreadsheet.
Hardware was handled similarly, but common part numbers were not segregated by assembly. e.g. all AN-960-10L were placed in one bin for all assemblies.
Progress is tracked in several ways. Firstly through an aircraft builder's log, and a builder's diary that we created for ourselves. All steps in the build instructions are marked as completed in the aircraft builder's log. Close-out inspections are also performed and documented in this log. The builder's diary has a more thorough discussion of the work performed on any one day as a reference for whichever of us are going to work during the next build session. This diary also serves as a location for lessons learned, of which there are many already
We've also mounted a camera in a fixed location, and we take periodic pictures of the build as a kind of "time-lapse" of construction.
As far as hourly tracking, we write down the build hours in the builder's log daily, and once every ~month we enter the hours into a tracking spreadsheet against projected hours for the build.
One of our GAs is a former crew-chief for the USAF, so he created a tool control system consisting of a foam shadowed tool box with a thorough inventory, as well as check-out and check-in procedures which are performed daily.
Thanks for your Interest!