Lecture:  IT Project Planning

 

Assigned Reading

Project Management software  List►

  • Please select a project management software that will work with your computer.  There are many free and web based software available.  The examples in this section come from Microsoft Project Management, Merlin (works with MAC) and Gantt Project.  You are not required to use any particular software and can choose what works best for you.  There are many free and web-based project management software that might work for you.  Take the time to review what is available and make an appropriate selction. 

Phases of project management  Read►

Narrated slides and videos require Flash.  Download►

What you know?

Advanced learners like you, often need different ways of understanding a topic. Reading is just one way of understanding. Another way is through writing about what you have read.  The enclosed assessment is designed to get you to think more about the concepts taught in this session. 

  1. Who was Gantt and what did he contribute to scheduling activities?
  2. Which organization developed the critical path method and why?
  3. What do the initials PMI stand for and what is the name of the book it created?
  4. What makes 21st century project management different from management of historic projects such as the Pyramids?
  5. What are the five phases of project management and what happens in the closing phase of project management?
  6. For the following project, create a Gantt chart and show the critical path:
    • Use the PERT method to estimate the duration of each activities. 
      Activity Description Precedence Pessimistic Realistic Optimistic
      A Select satisfaction survey tool   5 2 1
      B Print survey tool A 5 3 2
      C Obtaining list of patients   3 1 1
      D Sample from list C 3 1 1
      E Mail surveys to selected patients B,D 3 2 1
      F Collect responses E 5 4 3
      G Analyze data F 7 3 2

    • Use your project management software to create a schedule for these activities starting on June 1st this year, working 7 days a week and 30 days a month.  According to my analysis this should take 15 working days, assuming 56 hours of work per week and 30 days of work per month.

    • Display the Gantt chart and the critical path.  Your work may look like the following Figure:

      Project plan for patient surveys

    • Prepare a report which provides the schedule for each activity and shows the Gantt chart.  In the above Figure, Microsoft Project was used to show the Gantt chart.  The critical path is highlighted in red.  In Merlin, the critical path is usually highlighted in bold.

Do One Assignment: Plan an EHR Implementation

In this project you are asked to plan implementation of an electronic health record in an organizations using the the work break down tasks described below.  In the following tasks, training on a system can only be done if the system has been configured.  Your objective is to develop a schedule: 

  1. Patient Information Management
    1. Admission, Discharge, and Transfer (requires configuration in subtask B, configuration lasts 30 days, training lasts 5 days) 
    2. Patient Registration (requires configuration of subtask C, configuration lasts 3 days, training lasts 5 days)
    3. Enterprise Master Patient Index (configuration lasts 3 days)
    4. Patient Scheduling (requires configuration of subtask B, configuration lasts 10 days, training lasts 5 days)
  2. Clinical Information System (requires configuration of systems but not training in tasks 1, 3,4)
    1. Clinical Alerts and Reminders (requires configuration of subtask B, D, E, G, configuration lasts 30 days, training lasts 5 days)
    2. Clinical Rules Engine (configuration lasts 10 days)
    3. Consults Tracking (requires configuration of subtask G, configuration lasts 3 days)
    4. Order Management (requires configuration of  subtask H, configuration lasts 30 days, training lasts 5 days)
    5. Results Reporting (requires configuration of subtask D, configuration lasts 3 days, training lasts 5 days)
    6. Clinical Documentation (requires configuration of subtask E, configuration lasts 3 days, training lasts 5 days)
    7. Computerized Provider Order Entry (requires configuration of subtasks F, H, I, and J, configuration lasts 45 days, training lasts 15 days)
    8. Intake/Output (configuration lasts 3 days, training lasts 5 days)
    9. Patient Education (configuration lasts 3 days, training lasts 5 days)
    10. Vitals/Measurements (requires configuration of subtask H, configuration lasts 3 days, training lasts 1 day)
  3. Laboratory System (requires configuration of systems in task 1)
    1. Anatomic Pathology (requires configuration of subtasks B and C, configuration lasts 10 days, training lasts 5 days)
    2. Microbiology (requires configuration of subtask C, configuration lasts 10 days, training lasts 5 days)
    3. Chemistry (configuration lasts 10 days, training lasts 2 days)
  4. Pharmacy System (requires configuration of systems in task 3)
    1. Adverse Reaction Tracking (requires configuration of subtasks B, C, and D, configuration lasts 10 days, training lasts 5 days)
    2. Electronic Medication Administration Record (requires configuration of subtask D, configuration lasts 10 days, training lasts 5 days)
    3. Bar Code Medication Administration (requires configuration of subtask B, configuration lasts 30 days, training lasts 15 days)
    4. Inpatient/Outpatient Pharmacy (configuration lasts 3 days, training lasts 5 days)

Prepare a report of your project using word processing or slides, containing the following sections:

  1. Title page, your name and contact information
  2. Purpose:  State the purpose of the project and the total length of the schedule from start to finish.
  3. Schedule (high level tasks):  Show project Work Breakdown Structure showing high-level tasks, start time and finish time.  Please make sure that this information can be read clearly. 
  4. Schedule (Sub-tasks): List the start and end of each task. 
  5. Critical Path:  Make a list of activities on the critical path and show the GANTT chart
  6. Introspection (what did you learn from this exercise): Is Project Management software useful and why?

Here are some examples of work done by others.  Note that the assignment has been simplified since this students did their assignment: Jessica Chandler►   Nicole and Tonya►   Shirin and Olga►   Katherine and Robyn►   Tommy and Bridgette►   Bahareh and Ashley►   Elisabeth►   Alex and Merlyn►   Chris and Bank►  Chris and Bernadette►  Laura and Margaret►  Meghan and Neda► Jessica►

More

  • Technology projects demand process change (29 minutes).  Slides► Listen► SWF►
  • See an example of high level milestones for implementation of VistA   Microsoft Project file►
  • The ballad of going live  You Tube►
  • The British Medical Journal has two relatively brief papers that describe “failed” implementation projects, one EMR in South Africa that was ultimately abandoned and another at Kaiser Permanente that was replaced by a different system.   Read 1►  Read 2►
  • Abstracts of articles on implementation of Electronic Health records PubMed►
  • How do integrated delivery systems adopt and implement clinical information systems?  Search►
  • Kartick Patel translates the lecture into Chichewa (Malawi's national language) Listen►
  • Five rules of project management as proposed by Chapman You Tube►

This page is part of the course on Information Systems.   This page was edited by Farrokh Alemi, Ph.D.  ©Copyright protected.