Project Management Baic A Guide to undertanding the baic component of effective project management and the key to ucce 1
Content 1.0 Who hould read thi Guide... 3 1.1 Overview... 3 1.2 Project Management Baic... 4 1.3 Leon Learned... 10 1.4 The Work Plan... 11 Source for thi guide include ehealth Ontario' Guide to Project Management v 1.1, and the OPS People and Organizational Change Framework v 2 For quetion or comment, pleae contact: AOHC EMR Project Aociation of Ontario Health Centre emr@aohc.org 2
1.0 Who hould read thi Guide For thoe who may be formally managing a project for the firt time, thi guide aim to help you undertand the baic component that are important to your project ucce. For thoe who have been involved in project management before, you might find thi guide ueful a a reminder of the baic principle or a a tool that you can provide to other project team member to enure everyone ha the ame undertanding of the project, project management in general, and the key to ucce. 1.1 Overview Whether you are buying a new car, renovating a room in your houe, or finally getting around to taking that once in a lifetime vacation, there are certain activitie you will undertake to enure your venture i a ucceful a poible. You will know what you re tarting with, and you ll have a pretty good idea of where you want to go or what you want the end reult to be. You ll create plan, and you ll anticipate potential pitfall or problem. You will decide who you need to help you, and how much you want to pend. In hort, you will be managing a project. Each new et of activitie, olution or program that you integrate into your organization can alo be conidered a project. A project may involve only one peron (e.g. a olo-practice phyician), or thouand (e.g. all hopital employee). It may lat everal day, or many year. It may be undertaken by a ingle organization (e.g. a family health team), or by an alliance of everal takeholder (e.g. AOHC, Community Health Centre, ehealth Ontario). Regardle of the ize or complexity of the project, the expert agree on the following: A Project i defined a any work that happen only once, ha a clear beginning and end, and i intended to create a unique product or knowledge. All ucceful project hare five ditinct characteritic: 1. Clear objective and controlled project cope 2. Sound project planning 3. Managed rik and iue 4. Effective communication and takeholder upport 5. Continuou tracking and monitoring Thee characteritic are fully decribed in thi guide, along with information on how to achieve them, and how they contribute to the project ucce. Alo included are link to tool, template and additional material. 3
1.2 Project Management Baic 1. Clear Objective and a Controlled Scope Every project need clearly defined objective and cope. Numerou idea and concern will come up throughout the project, and not all of them will contribute to the overall objective. It i important to tay focued on the prioritie, and not wate time or attention on quetion or concern that are outide of your defined cope. Start by enuring that all project team member a well a anyone ele affected by the outcome of the project undertand what i being done and why. Ak yourelf the following quetion and document your anwer: What do we want to accomplih? Why do we want to do thi? How will it benefit the clinical taff in our practice? Adminitrative taff? How will it benefit our client? What clinical outcome are we trying to improve? Are there other takeholder to be conidered? Who will be involved in thi project? What will be their role and reponibilitie? (See Guide to Role and Reponibilitie) Who will lead thi project? Who will manage the project? Doe the project have Executive Sponorhip? What reource do we have? How much time doe it take? When can we tart? Thi will form the bai for your Project Outline a clearly written tatement of the purpoe, goal, takeholder, cope and expected outcome. You hould hare thi project outline with your team member o they have a clear undertanding of what the project i about, what it i going to achieve, who i doing what, how to achieve them and any limitation. Thi will alo give your team member a chance to provide their feedback or concern to you. You can then incorporate their view to form a project plan later. Common goal and undertanding among team member will reduce conflict and uncertainty during the project implementation and contribute to the overall project ucce. Project Outline Template 4
A controlled cope come from a good project plan. Your project plan will help you tay focued and control the cope or deal with any change that might occur (and they will occur!). Many iue will come to light when you begin examining your procee and planning to integrate new procee and technology, and it eay to get idetracked by trying to olve everything at once. Make a note of any new, unrelated item you may have uncovered, and reviit them later. Stay focued on your prioritie and refer back to the documented objective a often a neceary to enure time and energy are not wated on item that will not contribute to the overall ucce of thi particular project. 2. Sound Project Planning A carefully thought-out plan erve two purpoe. Firt, it allow everyone involved to undertand and perform their part in the project. It how who i reponible for what and etimate how much money, people, equipment and time will be required to complete the project. Second, it erve a a monitoring tool, allowing you to take early action if thing go wrong. A Project Plan i nothing more than a tep-by-tep breakdown of the work that need to be done to accomplih your goal. It will identify who i reponible for completing each tak, when each tak need to be completed and how any dependencie between tak. A dependency exit when one particular tak cannot be performed or completed until a prior tak i complete. Mot project will have everal phae (e.g. the AOHC EMR project ha three main phae: Readine, Deployment, and Adoption & maintenance) and each of thee phae will require ome planning. EMR Implementation Work Plan A you plan your project, it i important to conider the following component a they all contribute to a good project plan and the project ucce: Building your Project Team Every project need an Executive Sponor. The Executive Sponor i accountable for the overall ucce of the project, ha the authority and enthuiam to lead the organization through the project and the aociated change, and enure that 5
ufficient human and financial reource are allocated to the project. The Executive Sponor i alo reponible for aigning the Project Manager. The implementation of a new EMR will bring change to your CHC. A good ponor undertand and upport the need to change, and diplay a trong peronal commitment to change. A neceary, the ponor will engage taff and patient to confirm the practice upport for change. Depending on reource availability and EMR implementation complexity, one peron may fulfill multiple role. The key conideration i the time and effort each role require to enure overall project ucce. The Project Manager i typically a enior manager experienced in leading multi-faceted implementation team. The project manager make EMR implementation deciion on behalf of the CHC, and i reponible for day-to-day management of the EMR implementation for the duration of the project. Characteritic of a good project manager include attention to detail, organized, an ability to lead and inpire other. Good project manager upport knowledge haring and coordinate change management activitie to enure taff are upported in uccefully uing and adopting the new olution in their daily work. Together, the executive ponor and project manager identify other member of the CHC project team, who will work on all apect of EMR implementation focuing on the following area: Budget/agreement management Buine change Information technology management Privacy and ecurity Communication Data migration Training Reporting. More detail on project pecific reource, role and reponibilitie are available in the Guide to Role and Reponibilitie. Deciion Making Proce If you do not already have a clearly defined deciion making proce in place, you might take thi opportunity to create one. If you do have one, it i a good idea to confirm how deciion will be made and iue be ecalated and reolved if neceary. Mot centre will have a governance model in place, but you may want to look at project pecific procee. 6
Will deciion be made by an individual or a group? Will there be different level of deciion making authority within a group? Will deciion be made according to exiting policy or the circumtance at the time? What level of deciion-making authority doe the project manager have? Who will make the deciion that the project manager cannot make? Don t underetimate the amount of time your project will take. All takeholder will have their own chedule to keep, and will continue to have regular tak and prioritie outide of thi project that they are committed to. A Calendar of Activitie Your plan hould include a calendar of activitie one of the mot important tool for a project manager. Dividing the project into the individual tak required to complete it will provide a detailed view of the project cope, and allow you to: A Budget Plan Aign reponibility for pecific tak to team member Monitor what ha been completed and what remain to be done Track labour, time and cot for each tak You may already have the computer equipment and internet connectivity required for the new EMR. You may want to upgrade exiting equipment or you may need to purchae all of the neceary equipment. Thee cot will need to be factored into your budget. Even if you do not need to purchae any new equipment or material, you need to pend time to aign people to the project and prepare for dedicated time for training, data cleaning and validation, and other buine readine activitie related to the project. A Budget Template will be provided, which will alo inform your AOHC EMR Project Funding Agreement. Budget Template 7
3. Rik Management Your project plan will help you control and meaure your progre. Early identification of problem and a mitigation of rik aociated with the problem will give you more opportunity to manage them before they affect the entire project. Your project team will alo appreciate being able to ee the progre made. What i Rik? In project management term, rik refer to an uncertain event or condition that ha a caue and, that if it occur, ha an effect (poitive or negative) on a project objective, and a conequence on project cot, chedule or quality. Example: Rik claroom with networked computer i required but internet connection may be delayed or claroom may not be available for the anticipated tart date. Effect cannot meet objective of providing EMR training to taff. Conequence you mut locate another claroom or delay project activitie. Rik i preent in all project, but you can minimize the probability and the potential conequence by anticipating potential rik and developing a repone or mitigation plan in advance. What i Rik Mitigation? The firt tep i to identify potential rik. Try a braintorming eion involving the project manager, key taff and takeholder. Refer to the project outline, calendar of activitie and budget to identify potential rik. Member of the project team can often identify rik baed on experience. Ak What if? quetion. Common ource of rik in project include: Technical Rik uch a unproven technology. Project Management Rik uch a poor allocation of time or reource. Organizational Rik uch a reource conflict with other activitie. External Rik uch a changing prioritie in partner organization. You cannot anticipate or prepare for all poible rik, but thoe with high probability and high impact are likely to require immediate action. Effective planning and rik mitigation 8
trategie will reduce the overall rik to your project objective. Not all rik will be evident at the outet, o periodic rik review eion hould be cheduled throughout the project. Rik that do occur hould be documented, along with your repone. Your leon learned may be ueful for other or on future project. Iue Management A rik that i realized become an iue. In addition, ome problem arie which were not anticipated. Your project manager may not be in a poition to make all of the deciion neceary when iue arie, but you hould make ure that the path to the deciion maker() i clearly documented. To ave time and unneceary tre during the project, you hould outline your deciion making proce during the planning tage. See Section on Deciion Making above. It i important that iue are recorded and addreed in a timely fahion. Include any mitigating factor and activitie contributing to the reolution for future reference. We have included a imple template in thi guide to help you with Rik and Iue Management. Rik & Iue Management Template 4. Effective Communication and Stakeholder Support Eaily one of the mot important apect of project management and at the ame time one of the mot often overlooked, communication i critical to keeping everyone informed and on the right track. Strive for clear and frequent communication throughout the life of the project. Project typically involve everal takeholder, who invet time and reource in the project. It i important to identify all of your takeholder and maintain takeholder upport throughout the project, o the project team can meet it objective. Communication mut flow in all direction and between all takeholder. Your takeholder can make or break your project o be ure to identify them before you tart your project, and involve them early and often. You need to undertand what the project mean to them and how it affect them. 9
We have built communication tak into the project plan template, and have alo created the Communication and Stakeholder Engagement Guide. Communication and Stakeholder Engagement Guide 5. Continuou Tracking and Monitoring Tracking and monitoring the tatu of individual tak, timeframe, labour and cot provide a view to the project progre and tatu at any point in time. Vigilance here can provide early warning ignal of potential rik or iue. Early warning of incomplete tak, epecially if there are dependencie involved mean earlier intervention and mitigation and le rik of not meeting the chedule. Set aide time every week, at a minimum, to review the plan, the chedule and the aociated tak, peak with or ait other project team member, update takeholder and addre any quetion, concern, rik or iue. Keep your documentation current and your project plan up to date. Colour coding the line item or tak on your plan can be helpful in quickly identifying the tatu of each one. Green for on-track or complete, yellow to warn of potential problem that need to be cloely monitored, and red for thoe item that are pat due or have ecalated into iue and need immediate attention. 1.3 Leon Learned Thi i exactly what you would expect it to be the thing you learn through the coure of one project can be ued to help you apply and improve upon the thing that worked, and avoid repeating the ame problem and pitfall on future project. It i important to informally document your leon learned a they occur to avoid loing track of ueful information. Shortly after go-live, you hould hold a formal Leon Learned eion for all of the project team member. Thi i an opportunity to identify what went well, what did not go well, and any emerging iue. Thi eion hould be incluive and non-threatening o you can gather the maximum amount of information from the team. All of your finding hould be documented, along with an action plan for addreing immediate concern or requirement. 10
1.4 The Work Plan Ue thi template a the bae for your project planning. Make it your own by adding tak, aigning reponibilitie and determining tak completion date that uite your goal and objective and reflect your particular circumtance. Detailed intruction and link to upplementary information are included. EMR Implementation Work Plan 11