I am surrounded by people with good ideas. I need more people that implement them well.

—Will Weider, CIO, Ministry Health Care

The successful execution of a project requires continual control and monitoring to ensure that the project stays on schedule, on budget, and on specification. The ongoing collection, analysis, and reporting of project data is an essential project management tool for monitoring a project’s status throughout its execution; the information generated by this process can be used by the project team to determine appropriate actions to control the project by bringing its time, cost, and performance back in line with the project plan. NURS 6441: Project Management: Healthcare Information Technology | Week 8.

This week, you consider how to monitor and control a project throughout its execution.

 

Learning Objectives

Students will:

• Apply principles of execution and control to a health information technology project
• Generate an MS Project plan

Learning Resources

Note: To access this week’s required library resources, please click on the link to the Course Readings List, found in the Course Materials section of your Syllabus.

Required Readings

Coplan, S., & Masuda, D. (2011). Project management for healthcare information technology. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

• Chapter 3, “Project Management”
  • • “Scope Control” (pp. 58)
    • “Control Schedule” (pp. 64–67)
    • “Control Costs” (pp. 71–75)

  These three areas of Chapter 3 focus on controlling scope, time, and cost, also referred to as the triple constraints.

Project Management Institute. (2017). A guide to the project management body of knowledge (PMBOK® guide) (6th ed.). Newtown Square, PA: Author.

• Part 2. The Standard for Project Management
• • • Chapter 4, “Executing Process Group”

  These sections of Chapter 3 explore how to coordinate people and resources in accordance with the project management plan. These sections also cover the processes used to track, review, and regulate a project’s performance.

• Chapter 5, Section 5.6, “Control Scope”
• This section of Chapter 5 explains the process of monitoring a project’s status and scope. The text also describes how to manage changes to the scope baseline.
• Chapter 6, “Project Time Management”
  • • 6.6, “Control Schedule”

  In these pages of Chapter 6, the authors explain the process of monitoring a project’s status to update project progress and manage changes in a schedule baseline.

• Chapter 7, “Project Cost Management”
  • • 7.4, “Control Costs”

  This section of Chapter 7 reviews the processes used to update a project budget and manage changes to the cost baseline.

Cortelyou-Ward, K., & Yniguez, R. (2011). Using monitoring and controlling in an electronic health record module upgrade: A case study. The Health Care Manager, 30(3), 236–241.

This article examines the application of monitoring and controlling to an electronic health record module upgrade. The article makes recommendations related to flexibility, tracking changes, teams, milestones, and testing.

Noblin, A. M., Cortelyou-Ward, K., & Ton, S. (2011). Electronic health record implementations: Applying the principles of monitoring and controlling to achieve success. The Health Care Manager, 30(1), 45–50.

This article explores the principles of monitoring and controlling in the context of an electronic health record implementation. The article also examines issues such as project costs, project progress, schedule controls, quality management, and controlling risks.

Yin G.-L. (2010). Project time and budget monitor and control. Management Science and Engineering, 4(1), 56–61.

The author of this article describes how time and budget can be successfully controlled during a project’s implementation. The author presents techniques for accomplishing this, as well as describing potential pitfalls.

Document: Project Management Tools Available for Apple/Mac Computers (PDF)

This document contains a list of project management tools that are compatible with Apple/Mac computers.

Document: Team Project Overview (PDF)

This document provides an overview of the Team Project you will work on throughout this course.

Required Media

Laureate Education (Producer). (2013b). Executing, monitoring, and controlling [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu

Note: The approximate length of this media piece is 8 minutes.

In this presentation, roundtable participants Dr. Mimi Hassett, Dr. Judy Murphy, and Dr. Susan Newbold discuss the science of executing a project and the art that is involved in the continued monitoring and controlling of it. They talk about the triple constraint of cost, scope, and time and suggest some automated tools and skills that can help in tracking shifting components of a project.

Discussion: Project Control

The actual implementation of a project occurs within the execution phase. During this phase, it is not uncommon for project managers to determine that projects have deviated from the original scope, time, or cost (the “triple constraint”), often due to unforeseen issues. When one element of this “triple constraint” changes, project managers must adjust the remaining two elements in order to satisfy project requirements. Maintaining this balance is one of the greatest challenges a project manager faces.

In this Discussion, you examine scenarios featuring issues that arise during the execution phase of a project. You analyze how you would modify the project in terms of scope, time, and cost in order to resolve the issues and fulfill project requirements. You also explain how you would communicate these modifications to key stakeholders.

Consider the following scenarios.

1. You are the lead project manager tasked with implementing a hospital’s new patient identification and tracking system. The currently planned system is designed to function using only barcodes, but many key stakeholders have called for the system to also include the use of radio-frequency identification (RFID) features. In order to meet the demands of the stakeholders, your project scope expands to include RFID technology. How will you modify your budget and schedule to accommodate this increased scope?
2. You are managing the development of a computerized physician order entry (CPOE) system in a hospital that caters to the suburban population of a major city. A much larger hospital that accommodates most of the city’s downtown residents has recently been severely damaged in a storm. As a result, the inner-city hospital is operating at a low level of capacity and diverts much of its patient flow to other hospitals. In order to help alleviate the strain caused by this new influx of patients, your hospital’s executives are requiring you to implement the CPOE system 2 weeks early. Your project team is currently composed of just enough individuals to complete the project on time using the originaltimeline. The planned CPOE system has many non-essential features that usually take two phases to implement. However, these features are currently planned to be incorporated during your single-phase CPOE implementation. How do you adjust the project’s scope and cost to meet the new schedule demands?
3. You are managing the implementation of an electronic medical record system in a small physician’s office. Due to much lower-than-expected profits in the fourth quarter, you have had a substantial cut in the amount of funding available for your project. The scope of the medical record system is more extensive than the bare minimum required for a practice of this size. In addition, the implementation schedule is as condensed as possible to reduce downtime in the office. This condensed schedule requires the use of expensive, high-quality resources. How can you adjust your plan to compensate for the project’s reduced budget?

 

To prepare: NURS 6441: Project Management: Healthcare Information Technology | Week 8.

• By Day 1 of this week, your Instructor will assign you to a specific scenario. Review this week’s Learning Resources on controlling the elements of the “triple constraint,” and consider how they apply to the scenario to which you were assigned.
• Determine how you could modify the project in your assigned scenario in terms of scope, time, or cost in order to fulfill the project requirements.
• Consider how you would communicate the modifications you identified to key stakeholders.

By Day 3

Post the number of your assigned scenario and a description of where and how you would adjust the plan in terms of budget, scope, and timeline. Explain how you would communicate modifications to key stakeholders. Provide rationale for your response.

By Day 6

Respond to at least two of your colleagues on two different days, using one or more of the following approaches:

• Critique your colleagues’ modifications.
• Suggest an alternative strategy for communicating the modifications to key stakeholders.
• Validate your colleagues’ chosen modifications or communication strategies with your own experience or additional research. NURS 6441: Project Management: Healthcare Information Technology | Week 8.

 

 

ADDITIONAL INFO 

Applying principles of execution and control to a health information technology project

Introduction

The role of a project manager is to manage the entire lifecycle of a project. This means that you have to take into consideration all aspects of execution, control, and delivery.

Project management frameworks

Project management frameworks are tools used to help organizations plan, manage and control projects. They provide a structure for the planning process, which can be helpful when it comes to tracking progress or communicating with stakeholders. There are many different frameworks available; however, they all share some commonalities such as:

• Decision-making authority (who makes decisions about what needs to be done)

• Time frames for completion of tasks/milestones (when will this happen?)

• Budgeting requirements (how much money do you need?)

Project management methods

Project management methods are the tools that help you to manage a project. They consist of five main methods:

• Defining the project – This method involves defining what needs to be done, who will do it and when they will do it.

• Planning – This method involves creating detailed plans with milestones and objectives, which are then reviewed by senior managers or sponsors before being approved by them or their delegates who have final say on whether they approve these plans or not (such as your boss).

• Executing – Execution includes actually doing things like purchasing equipment; installing software; training people who need training in order for those things mentioned above (e-learning) etcetera…

Project phases and lifecycles

Project phases and lifecycles are the basic building blocks of a project. These phases can be used to define the progress of a project, as well as to manage activities during each phase. There are several different types of frameworks that organizations use when managing projects, including Agile Development, Waterfall Methodology and more recently Kanban Methodology.

The following sections will provide an overview of these frameworks and their application in health information technology projects:

Project management tools

Project management software is a key tool for project managers. It can help with the following aspects:

• Tracking time and cost. The software will show you exactly how much time, money, and resources are being spent on each project. You’ll be able to see if these numbers are moving in the right direction or not. This will help keep you from wasting time and resources on unsuccessful projects, as well as give you an idea of what’s possible for future work if there are delays in your schedule or budgeting needs change unexpectedly (for example, due to new regulations).

• Managing priorities. With project management software like Trello or Asana (which both integrate with Microsoft Office), it’s easy to organize tasks by priority level—the highest priority gets done first! This allows teams members who aren’t part of the project team yet still want access its tools but don’t have any experience using them yet spend less effort learning how they work before getting started than those who do know how things operate already

Conclusion

The key takeaway here is that you can learn a lot by looking at the project management frameworks that are available and the methods behind them. You will also find many tools out there for managing different types of projects, from software applications to websites.