Posted: December 28th, 2016

Explain how your insights into these aspects of project management will impact your ability to successfully manage health care information technology projects.

Project Evaluation, Lessons Learned, and Synthesis of Insights Gained

Individual Project Part 3: Project Evaluation, Lessons Learned, and Synthesis of Insights Gained

Though project managers often gain a great deal of experiential knowledge through the project management process, project evaluation offers them a chance to formalize the lessons they have learned. Part 3 of the Individual Project focuses on issues related to evaluating the success of a project and the debriefing process for capturing lessons learned. If conducting an interview, your interviewee must be able to speak to these topics. Alternatively, you may examine a minimum of three organizations that have published descriptions about the evaluation and debriefing process of a health care information technology project.

Interview

To prepare:

Review the Individual Project Overview document linked in this week’s Learning Resources for additional information on this project. Pay particular attention to the questions you should ask in your interview.

Locate a professional who manages or works on special projects in health care and is willing to speak about his or her experience.

If such a person is not readily available to you, find someone in your community who has managed a project for an organization. The organization can be a volunteer service group, a faith-based group, a business, or another that meets your needs. The goal is to find an individual who has been in charge of a project important to the organization.

Review the topics and questions below that should be addressed in your interview.

Think about other related questions you might have for your interviewee and solidify your goals for speaking to and learning from this person.

Topics and Questions:

As in the other interviews, you will need to adapt your questions to the individual,

setting, and projects. You are not required to ask these specific questions, but you are

required to address the topics listed below (Note: If the interviewee cannot address a

topic, conduct a literature search to find scholarly information or research on that topic).

Evaluation

· What tools or strategies do you use to evaluate the success of a project?

· Can you give an example of a project that failed (or was not successful)?

Lessons Learned

· Describe the project outcomes

o What were some successful outcomes of the project? Were the project

goals met?

o How do you conduct a debriefing of the project with the project team?

o What happens to the information gained from the debriefing?

o How do the project team and the organization support project debriefing?

· Companies have historically looked at technical skills, but more and more

business managers are realizing that the absence of good “people” skills tends to

cripple projects. What are three critically important things a project manager (or

project team member) must do well to help a project succeed?

Please add questions of your own, including asking for advice for the future from your

interviewee.

To complete:

In a 4- to 6-page paper in APA format with a minimum of 4 references from the list below. Reflect on your experience and address the following level one headings as numbered below:

Describe the context of your interview—where and how the interview took place, why you
selected this individual, and how you believe this individual meets the requirements for this Assignment.
Describe the role and functions of the individual within the context of the individual’s organizational structure and for project management.
Synthesize insights on how evaluation and debriefing are addressed in the interviewee’s organization.
Compare the insights from your interview with information from project management literature about evaluation and debriefing. Be sure that the comparisons you make are clear to the reader.
Explain how your insights into these aspects of project management will impact your ability to successfully manage health care information technology projects. Include any tips the individual described for managing a successful project.
Synthesize insights and conclusions gained from your interviews about project management and how project management is conducted in the interviewee’s organization.
Summarize how evaluations and debriefings in the real-world setting of the interviewee and compare to the project management literature.
Address how the use or non-use of formal project management could impact the success of health care information technology projects. Use literature sources to support your perspectives on this topic.

Do not cut and paste all of the content from the first two parts of the Assignment. You have to synthesize the key concepts, insights, principles, etc. from each part of the Assignment into a cohesive, understandable whole.

Required Readings

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

Chapter 3, “Project Management”

“Time Management” (pp. 59–68)

This section of Chapter 3 focuses on how project managers may plan and control a project schedule to complete a project in a given timeframe. The chapter explains the various aspects of tasks, resources, and scheduling that are necessary for effective time management.

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

Chapter 6 “Project Time Management” (pp. 141–192)

This chapter provides an overview of processes that can be used to manage a project so that it is completed on time: defining activities, sequencing activities, estimating activity resources, estimating activity durations, developing a schedule, and controlling a schedule.

Biffi, M.-H. (2008). Linking the estimate, the schedule and the cost control through a standardized WBS. AACE International Transactions, 1–11.