Syllabus

Schedule

Detailed Course Schedule

Week 1

Theme: Overview of Project Management

Readings: Chapters 1, 2

Optional Reading: Project Management Tools

Learning Outcomes:

• Discuss the attributes of a good project

Overview:

Welcome to the project management class. This course is an overview of project management principles and concepts. If this is a topic that interests you, you might want to explore becoming a certified project manager (PMP designation).

More than likely you have been practicing project management without even realizing it. Have you planned Thanksgiving dinner? a wedding? a home renovation or addition? a family vacation or a move? These are all examples of projects, albeit not healthcare informatics projects. This week you will learn what defines a project and the role of the project manager.

Throughout the course you will be creating a project management plan based on a real or hypothetical healthcare project that you select. Each week you will work on and submit a piece of the project plan for your chosen project. In week 7 you will resubmit updated versions of these components as a full project plan. As you read the chapters for this week, think about a project that you can use as a basis for your assignments in this course. You will begin writing your project plan next week.

Week 1 Discussion:

Introduce yourself and tell us what idea(s) you have for a real (or hypothetical) project for which you can create a project management plan during this course. If you have several ideas at this point, that is fine. The feedback you get from your peers and your instructor will help you decide which one to use as you begin your plan next week. In your responses to your classmates, provide substantive feedback about their project ideas. Are there things they haven’t considered? Should they modify their ideas in some way?

Week 2

Theme: Project Preparation

Readings:

Chapter 3

Learning Outcomes:

• Discuss prior experience with project management
• Begin Project Management Plan
• Write a Project Charter

Overview:

This week is all about project preparation. Now that you know what a project is and what a project manager does, it is time to start digging into the details. Who is the project sponsor (project champion)? What are the goals/objectives for this project? Who are the project stakeholders?

A big piece of project preparation is the creation of the project plan. Your assignment for this week is to write the first part of your project plan: the project charter. The work breakdown structure and network diagram will be due next week; you should keep these deliverables in mind as you do this week’s work.

Week 2 Discussion:

Describe your experience with project management. Have you worked with project management either in healthcare or in health informatics? If not, have you been exposed to project management in another industry, such as construction or software development? If you haven’t done any project management in your work, how have you used project management in your non-work life?

Assignments:

By now you should have decided upon the project you will focus on during the rest of the course. This week you will write part 1 of your project management plan: the Project Charter.

Project Plan, part 1: Project Charter — Use the information from pages 63 to 74 of the e-textbook (or 36 to 46 of the physical textbook) to help you write the project charter. You can use the template in figure 3.1 to create your project charter. Remember that your project charter might look somewhat different. Your project charter should include the sections outlined in the pages of the text (63 to 74), those sections are briefly described below. However, please read the textbook for a clear indication of what is in each section.

• Project description (see template on page 37 for a description of what to include in this section)
• Project’s authority
• High-level milestones
• Project organization
• Key project contacts

Week 3

Theme: The Triple Constraint of Project Management

Readings:

Chapters 4, 5, 6

Work Breakdown Structure

Videos:

Five-Level Work Breakdown Structure – Don’t worry if you don’t understand the specific project in the video. The important thing is to see how he breaks that project down into the different levels.

How to Create a Simple Project Network Diagram

Learning Outcomes:

• Discuss the importance of project management in healthcare
• Create a Work Breakdown Structure
• Create a Network Diagram

Overview:

Every project has three constraints which must be managed: time, quality, and cost. For example, imagine that one piece of a project is custom-built and that it costs more and requires more time because an outside source is making it, but the quality of the product is much better than what could be created in-house.

These week you will create part 2 of your project plan. Part 2 will include: the work breakdown structure (WBS) and the network diagram. Keep the trio of constraints in mind as you develop this week’s deliverables.

Week 3 Discussion

Why is project management important to healthcare? Time, quality, and cost act as a triple constraint in project management; how is that triple constraint related to the Triple Aim in healthcare (population health, experience of care, per capita cost of care)? Can you provide an example of how you see project management and the Triple Aim influencing one another?

Week 3 Assignment:

This week you will create Part 2 of you project plan which is broken down as follows:

Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) — You read about the WBS last week; refer back to pages 74 to 76 in the e-textbook (47 to 49 in the physical book). As you develop your WBS, keep in mind that tasks should be broken down to their smallest component — usually what can be accomplished in 8 hours. The size of your WBS will depend upon the complexity of your project and the number of tasks. In addition to the textbook, you may find this video, Five-Level Work Breakdown Structure, helpful as you construct your WBS. Don’t worry if you don’t understand the specific project in the video; the important thing is to see how he breaks that project down into different levels.

Network Diagram — The Network Diagram serves as the schedule or timeline for the project milestones and deliverables. In a complicated project, a Network Diagram is essential for estimating how long the project will take. To see how to create a Network Diagram, watch this video: How to Create a Simple Project Network Diagram. On page 53 of our textbook, David Shirley says “Developing a schedule requires the definition of four things: (1) what needs to be done, (2) who will accomplish those tasks, (3) how much time each of those defined tasks will need, and (4) the sequence of those tasks, including which need to be done first (dependencies) and which can be done in parallel.” Those four elements are the information you will need in order to construct your network diagram. Make sure each task from your WBS appears in your network diagram — those tasks are “what needs to be done.”

Week 4

Theme: Communication

Readings:

Chapters 7, 14

Video:

How to Calculate Communication Channels (scroll down to see video)

Learning Outcomes:

• Discuss how conflict can affect a project
• Produce a communication plan

Overview:

The focus this week is on communication, negotiation, and conflict management. Communication is an important aspect of projects and teamwork. Because health informatics projects often involve people from a variety of different backgrounds, it is especially important to consider how they will communicate with one another. To appreciate the complexities of communication among a large number of people, watch the How to Calculate Communication Channels video (you will need to scroll down a bit on the page to see the video).

Week 4 Discussion:

On page 180 of our textbook, David Shirley says “Conflicts in meetings can be very productive, if managed, or very disruptive if not managed.” One of the key components to managing conflict is communication. Describe a project or meeting that you have been involved in where there was conflict among the participants. How did the quality of communication impact the conflict? Was the conflict managed well? Was the end result of the meeting/project adversely affected by the conflict?

Week 4 Assignment:

Part 3 of project plan: Communication Plan – The communication plan outlines who will get various pieces of information and how they will receive them. Shirley says: “The basic concept of a communications plan is to get the right information to the right people at the right time in a useful format.” (p. 102) Keep that in mind as you develop your communication plan. The communication plan should be 1-2 pages, double spaced. You may find this resource particularly helpful: Develop Communication Plan

Week 5

Themes: Teams and Leaders

Readings:

Chapters 11, 12

Learning Outcomes:

• Discuss how to motivate team members when problems arise
• Create team member profiles

Overview:

This week you will read about teams and leadership. Chapter 11 addresses theories of motivation and principles of team development. Project managers select the project team and motivate them to complete the tasks in the Work Breakdown Structure. Good communication and team development influence project team performance and project success. Chapter 12 addresses leadership theory and power structures. What makes a project manager a good leader? How does the organizational structure influence the project manager’s power?

Week 5 Discussion:

One of the roles of the project manager is to deal with changes in project scope that may arise due to demands from project sponsors, limited project resources, changes in technology and/or regulations, shrinking budgets, etc. The project manager has to be able to motivate the project team despite any of these changes that may occur.

Imagine that you are managing a healthcare project and have just been told that your budget has been drastically reduced because revenues are down. To make matters worse, your boss has told you that she has to take one of your team members off the project because that person is needed elsewhere. However, your boss makes it clear that it is imperative that this project continue and that it have a successful conclusion. How are you going to communicate this information to your team members? What techniques are you going to use to motivate them to continue with the project despite the budget cuts?

Week 5 Assignment:

Project Team Members: Who are the members of your project team and what role will each play? Please provide a short bio for each member. Include information on what skills they have that are important to the project and also what their responsibilities will be as part of the project team. Each bio should be a paragraph in length and justify the inclusion of the team member.

Week 6

Themes: Change and Risk

Readings:

Chapters 8, 9, 13, Appendix C

Risk Management Planning

Sample Change Management Plan

Video:

Project Risk Management

Learning Outcomes:

• Describe appropriate change management
• Develop a risk and change plan

Overview:

This week covers change management and risk management. The reality is that projects can and do change due to internal and external factors. As a project manager it is your job to mitigate the impact of change through good communication to staff and stakeholders. Change may be difficult for some, and you may be called upon to help those people come to terms with change. Project plans should include processes to justify, monitor, and control change, as well as clear escalation processes.

Risk management is also an important part of project management. Risk is defined in the PMBOK as an uncertain event or condition that if it occurs, can have a positive or negative effect on the project’s objectives. For example, is it better to use in-house talent or use a consulting company? How does that decision affect the triple constraint? Risk analysis may be a qualitative approach that comes from interviews or consultation with experts. Risk analysis can also use a more mathematical approach by assigning a numerical value to the risk. The project manager has to evaluate and control risk for each project.

Week 6 Discussion:

Describe a situation where change was poorly managed. How might it have been handled differently? Describe an experience in which there was a sudden change in the project you were working on. How was the change introduced? Was there regular communication from project leaders? Using the knowledge you now have on appropriate communication, how would you have handled the situation?

Week 6 Assignment:

Risk and Change Plan: Identify three or four areas of risk in your project and quantify each risk. Then develop a change plan to address those risks. You may find the Project Risk Management video particularly helpful.

Week 7

Themes: Project Closure

Readings:

Chapters 10, 15

Learning Outcomes:

• Describe how to hand off a project
• Combine elements to create a project plan

Overview:

Your project plan is due this week so it is fitting that we talk about project closure. This is an important part of the process but is often given short shrift because there is usually another project ready to begin—if it hasn’t begun already. Formally closing a project is beneficial internally, externally, and to the staff. Internally, closure provides an opportunity to review the project to analyze what went right, what went wrong, and what could have been done differently. This information is “pre-populated” into future projects in hopes of not making the same mistakes. Externally, closure serves to alert stakeholders that the project has been delivered to specification and the contract has been fulfilled. Finally, the closure process provides an opportunity to acknowledge the staff’s efforts to deliver on time and on budget. It is also an opportunity to consider which of the staff might be useful for future projects. Under a matrix organization, the project manager will often write letters of review for staff supervisors.

In this class we concentrated on just one project. It is likely that at your current workplace or at a future workplace there is an office of program management. The office serves to coordinate and integrate multiple projects that may be similar in nature, or sub-projects for one very large project, such as a new hospital. The program management office includes a program engineer, an expert in the work and environment, and a program scheduler who tracks the timelines of the various projects underway simultaneously.

Week 7 Discussion:

Think about the project you have been working with for this course. If you had to leave this project before completion, what advice would you give to someone taking over your role as project manager?

Week 7 Assignment:

Final Project: The final project is a resubmission of all your previous assignments. Make any corrections and/or adjustments to those assignments using your instructor’s feedback. You may also need to adjust earlier assignments in light of what you did in later assignments (or vice versa). The final project should be a seamless integration of all the assignments to date for this course.

Week 8

Themes: Examples in the Real World

Readings:

Chapters 16, 17

Learning Outcomes:

• Consider real world implications for project management

Overview:

This is the final week of class. This week’s readings cover two diverse topics: the pharma and medical device industry, and opportunities to be greener in your workplace. In the first chapter, notice how project management concepts are used in pharma and medical device industries. There is a slight twist from the hospital work we read about earlier in this class. This chapter may give you ideas about how to implement some of the pieces from this course in your life. The second chapter for the week is about becoming greener. Hospitals waste a lot of equipment and supplies due to regulation. Learning how to decrease waste in your organization could be a project or program unto itself.

Week 8 Discussion:

Your final discussion is an opportunity for you to reflect on how this course might impact your work. How can you use what you’ve learned in this class in your current position and/or in future roles you may have?

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