Project Evaluation, Lessons Learned, and Synthesis of Insights Gained

Running head: SCOPE, BUDGET, RISK MANAGEMENT, AND TEAM BUILDING

SCOPE, BUDGET, RISK MANAGEMENT, AND TEAM BUILDING 7

Scope, Budget, Risk Management, and Team Building: Interview

Name

University

Project Management: Healthcare Information Technology

October 13, 2016

Scope, Budget, Risk Management, and Team Building: Interview

Healthcare projects are usually difficult to complete successfully, and as a result requires intensive planning and application of the various project management processes. The purpose of this paper involves describing the interview’s context, the role of the interviewee in the organization structure as well as for the project management. More so, its purposes to synthesize various insights regarding project scope, budget analysis, risk management as well as team building of the interviewee’s organization. Comparison of the synthesized ideas in the interview and that of the project management literature. Finally, the paper will explain how the insights regarding the aspects of the project management shall impact the ability of successfully managing HIT (Healthcare Information Technology) projects.

Description of the Interview Context

The interview involved Scott Radner in the premises of the MEDITECH, in Maryland. The interview was face-to-face and was much interactive. Concerning the requirement of the project, Scott Radner became the best suitable candidate to help in getting vast information regarding the scope, risk management, budget, and team building. The reason for selecting this particular individual is because he is known to have managed several projects based on the health technology. He works in MEDITECH, as the Vice President relating to Advanced Technology. MEDITECH is the healthcare technology industry that redefined the functionality of the EHR (Electronic Health Record with a fully web-based system for mobile EHR. Scott Radner as the Vice President managed the start, completion and implementation of the project.

The unique mission of the project was enabling nurses and doctors to offer high-quality care with improved efficiency and at low cost. Scott Radner as the overseer of MEDITECH’s adoption of the new technology relating to the products supporting the organization’s sprouting technical infrastructure has the expertise in project management. He has strong, and able, innovative ideas, analytical skills, and technology expertise hence the reasons for selecting him for the interview. As an experienced project manager, Scott knows the risks associated with projects and dealing with budget constraints while ensuring project’s completion. Since he joined MEDITECH back in 1993, Scott’s tech-savvy experience flagged the way for several accomplishments like the formation of advanced technology group for MEDITECH. For these reasons, the individual meets the requirements.

Description of the Interviewee Roles and Functions in Project Management and Organizational Structure

Scott Radner has several roles as well as functions regarding project management, and organizational structure. Within the MEDITECH organization, Scott has functions like analyzing the technological trends, leading the innovation team upgrading the healthcare systems and enhancing interactive system technology among others. Regarding project management, the individual becomes responsible for the development of the project’s definition. He ensures timely delivery of the project, within the budget, and according to the specified quality standards. Scott also makes sure the project becomes adequately resourced while managing relationships with a broad group's range including all the project contributors. He also leads the consultant's work like allocation and utilization of resources in a manner that is efficient.

More so, he maintains a motivated, cooperative, and successful team within the organization. Relating to functions, the individual manages while leading the team of the project, recruits project staff as well as consultants. He oversees coordination regarding the working groups and partners engaged in the project tasks. He is responsible for developing a detailed plan and controlling of the project, monitoring the progress and performance of the project, and provision of status reports to the executive. Within the organization, Scott also configures the EHR system to suit any future needs that serve to improve the quality of services. He identifies any user training requirements while devising and managing the programs for user training. Hence, he works to ensure user acceptance where the customers feel satisfied with the system on implementation (Coplan & Masuda, 2011).

Synthesizing Insights on How Project Scope, Budget, Risk Management, and Team Building are Addressed in The Interviewee’s Organization.

The project scope involves the determination and documentation of a list containing particular objectives, deliverables, functions, features, untimely costs, and deadlines. From the interview, the organization ensures that the project manager limits the project scope. It is done by defining both general objectives followed by specific goals, determining functional, and non-functional requirements, and realistic time intervals of particular deliverables. There is a specific target to be met at every phase of the project to ensure success. Undue pressure is never given a chance in project development since it may end up with unmet requirements. Therefore, only the specified requirements are given priority during the development phases (Project Management Institute, 2013).

Regarding budget, costs are managed by allocating cost by priority basis where the important tasks are given higher share than the less priority. When resources are scarce in the development of the project, there are several mechanisms used in ensuring the project proceeds as desired. There can be delaying of tasks, resource substitution, and finding the resource with the available time done by filtering a given list of business resources by both skills and availability.

The organization of the interviewee is also involved in risk management plans during the development of the project. It uses five ways to manage risks including accepting, avoiding, transferring, mitigating, and exploiting the risk (Coplan & Masuda, 2011). Mitigating involves limiting the risk impact after identifying the potentiality of it. Potential hazards are identifiable from expertise (people) or paper (documents with similar projects). Team building is paramount in the project development within the organization (Kendrick, 2009).

According to the interviewee, team building involves the process of constructing while developing shared objectives, trust, interdependence, accountability, and commitment among team members. The team members are obtained from the employees of the organization, drawn from all the departments. The project manager outlines the project plan to the team including the scope and deliverables. To facilitate the success of the project, the interviewee actively participates at every phase of the project so as to reallocate resources in case of deficiency. As a project manager, any team problem is addressed by proper consultation with the team of expertise in delivering a decision that never compromises the project goal. A team member who never meets expectations is eliminated early enough to avoid incomplete deliverables and over budgeting. However, the motivation of team members is fundamental in the organization. For instance, bonuses are provided to those members who complete a particular phase with expected results and in time.

Comparing the Insights from Interview with Information from Project Management Literature

Project scope from the literature deals with detailing project goals, functions, deadlines, tasks, and costs while according to the insights the scope defines what the project is expected to do (Coplan & Masuda, 2011). Regarding budget, the literature for project management describes it as a detailed evaluation of all the necessary costs in completing the tasks of the project (Project Management Institute, 2013). From the interview, the budget covers both the allocation/reallocation of resources and cost per every task. Relating to risk management, the literature describes it as the control of the uncertain condition occurring within the project development and can have either positive or adverse impact on the objectives of the project. From the interview, risk management mostly deals with mitigating the potential unforeseen events by avoiding particular task from happening based on prior experience of the related project. Team building involves bringing people together to include in a collective goal while according to the interview it means it includes people committing to work together to realize the success of a project (Langley & Hoffman, 2012).

Explaining the Insights Impact in Successfully Managing HIT Projects

The insights obtained from the various aspects of the project management will positively impact the ability to manage the HIT (Healthcare Information Technology) projects successfully. There will be an accurately outlined plan that defines every stage and tasks involved hence avoiding any form of omission. It will boost the quality of results hence saving on time and cost that would be involved to make adjustments. Proper planning of the project will ensure timely completion while meeting the highest expectations of the project requirements. The idea of risk management will guarantee the success of the project by the fact that only the tasks that have the least or no signs of potential hazards are incorporated within the project timelines. It helps in eliminating risks at early stages hence improving the quality of end results. Insight regarding team building will assist in ensuring the team members who perfectly beat the deadline, and provide the best quality deliverables get the bonuses. It will motivate then hence very few, or no member becomes lazy during the development of the HIT projects (Dearstyne, 2012).

Summary

It is evident that any successful project calls for team building, defined project scope, appropriate budget, and well-planned risk management. The project should be time sensitive, and utilizing resources available to ensure no shortages realized all through the project. The project manager should overly monitor every stage of the project to analyze progress that counts to the final product of the project.

References

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

Dearstyne, B. W. (2012). Smoothing the turbulences: Project management strategies for the changing workplaces. Information Management Journal, 46(2), 28–33.

Https://ehr.meditech.com/about-meditech/about-meditech

Kendrick, T. (2009). Identifying & managing project risks: Essential tools for failure-proofing your project (2nd ed., Library version). New York, NY: AMACOM.

Langley, M., & Hoffman, E. (2012, June 6). How risk reduction is (and is not) rocket science [Blog post].

Retrieved fromhttp://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/06/when_risk_reduction_is_rocket.html.

Project Management Institute. (2013). A guide to the projects management body of knowledge (PMBOK Guides) (5th Ed.). Newtown Square, PA: Author.