Project Management

A project is a one-time set of activities that culminate in the desired outcome. Therefore, activities that occur repeatedly, for example by making an appointment for patients in a clinic, are not projects. For effective execution of a project, the Project management Institute (PMI), recommends that three elements must be present.

 A project charter begins the project and addresses stakeholders needs.

 A project scope statement identifies project outcomes, timelines, and budget in detail.

 A project plan must be developed; the plan includes scope management, work

breakdowns, schedule management, cost management, quality control, staffing management, communications, risk management, procurement, and close-out process.

Effective project management provides an opportunity for progressive healthcare organizations to quickly develop new clinical services, fix major operating problems, reduce expenses, and provide new consumer-directed products to their patients. PMI members have developed the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), which details best practices for successful project management. The PMBOK provides science-based, field-tested guidelines for successful project management.

Project Selection
Most healthcare organizations have many projects vying for attention, funding, and senior executive support. The annual budget and strategic planning process serve as a useful vehicle for prioritizing projects in many organizations. Niven (2005) provides a useful tool to prioritize projects, to use this tool, each potential project should be scored by a senior planning group based on how well it fits into the organization’s strategy, financial benefit and cost, need for key personnel, a time required, and positive effect on other projects. A scale of one (low) to ten (high) is usually used.

Project Charter
Once a project is identified for implementation, it needs to be chartered. The project charter authorizes the project and serves as an executive summary. Four factors interact to constrain the execution of a project charter:

 Time

 Cost

 Scope

 performance

although it is difficult to specifically and exactly determine the relationship between all four factors, the successful project manager understands this general relationship well and communicates it to projects sponsors.
Also, there are steps to develop a project charter such as:

 stakeholder identification and dialogue

 feasibility study

 project charter document