Managing Projects to Achieve Desired Results PDF

8 Managing Projects to Achieve Desired Results Patricia R. Audet CONTENTS Project Management Definition............................................................................. 119 Project Charter...............................................

8 Managing Projects to Achieve Desired Results Patricia R. Audet CONTENTS Project Management Definition............................................................................. 119 Project Charter....................................................................................................... 120 Project Management Roles............................................................................... 120 Project Membership and Responsibilities......................................................... 122 Initiating the Project Team................................................................................ 122 Developing the Project Plan.............................................................................. 122 Project Plan Execution and Monitoring............................................................ 124 Project Conclusion............................................................................................ 125 Summary................................................................................................................ 126 Bibliography.......................................................................................................... 126 Learning Objectives: After reading this chapter and working through the case, the reader will be able to: 1. Explain the term “project management” and its importance 2. Outline the process of developing a project, its scope, and its plan 3. Outline the primary responsibilities of the project manager 4. Explain the proper way for project managers to assign responsibility and hold people accountable for getting work done and keeping the project on time and in budget 5. Explain the importance of project updates and a well-written final report PROJECT MANAGEMENT DEFINITION Project management is a process for planning and implementing a complex, tempo- rary, and unique task. Projects are often the mechanism for implementing organi- zational changes, improving processes, and developing new products. Projects have the potential for significant impact across the organization and often require cross- functional collaboration.1 It is crucial to define the scope of the project and the neces- sary outcomes or deliverables. Project managers with their teams develop a plan that includes start and end dates, resources including personnel and funds available, and the proposed actions needed to complete the project. Project management is an essential skill for pharmacists. It is a required element in postgraduate year 1 (PGY1) pharmacy residency programs.2 Having this skill 119 120 Leadership and Management in Pharmacy Practice can be critical in developing interdisciplinary, patient-centered therapy management programs, implementing automation for distribution technologies, and preparing accreditation reports for institutional reviews. It is also helpful in other management responsibilities, such as construction projects and process improvement roles within pharmacy practice organizations, including hospital or community pharmacies. These skills enable the pharmacist to progress from direct patient care, to system manage- ment for health-care organizations, and ultimately to deliver improvements for overall public health.2 PROJECT CHARTER When project managers accept responsibility for a project, they should meet with the key project sponsors or champions to agree to a charter. Figure 8.1 illustrates a sample project charter. The champions should discuss the business needs, goals, and necessary outcomes for the project and confidentiality requirements, if any. The project should be “SMART” (i.e., Specific, Measurable, Agreed upon, and Realistic within a Time frame). An example of a SMART project is provided in Table 8.1. The sponsors should provide budget guidance with defined project boundaries. They should assist the project manager to obtain the necessary people, equipment, space, and/or supplies. Although it may be a challenge to complete the project on time and within budget, the project manager must be committed and convinced that it is an achievable goal. It is critical that the project outcomes are measurable. PROJECT MANAGEMENT ROLES Project leaders are responsible for overseeing the deliverables, project resources, timelines, communication, and conclusion. They are not responsible for PROJECT CHARTER Project Name: Project Sponsor (s): Project Leader: Business Needs: Project Deliverables: Project Scope (what is included and excluded): Resources: People: team members and internal resources Budget Space Equipment Timelines Constraints FIGURE 8.1 Sample project charter. Managing Projects to Achieve Desired Results 121 TABLE 8.1 SMART Specific What is needed? Develop a stable, attractive, good tasting, reasonably priced liquid product line extension for a specific antibiotic X made by your company or pediatric use Measurable How do you know if your Assay to measure antibiotic concentration project is successful? Demonstrate bioequivalence to existing solid dosage form State range of volume needed for likely doses Determine product stability under varied conditions over time, measure degradants, contaminants, etc. Conduct taste testing for acceptable colors, flavors, and palatability Agreed upon Who will be judging the Stakeholders: success of your project? Pharmaceutical development executives Manufacturing organization Marketing department Pediatricians Insurance companies Patients and parents Realistic It must be achievable with the Doses in range of 0.5–5 mL resources provided Cost of goods not more than 50% higher than solid dosage form Does not infringe on existing patents Timeline Indicate the timing from start Complete formulation development within one year after project to finish and other dependent initiation for product to begin Phase I testing variables or checkpoints Formulation needs to be developed for clinical testing (e.g., seven years before composition of matter patent expiration, or within one year of product launch of solid dosage formulation, or two years before planned Phase 2 pediatric trials for otitis media) completing the project by themselves. Project leaders should get the project work done through their team. Leaders motivate their team to drive for changes. They inspire them to use their knowledge, skills, and dedication for the good of the organization. Successful project leaders are resilient problem solvers who are results oriented with good communication skills. They must be detail oriented but remain focused on the positive, overall vision of the alignment of the project with the organizational goals. Other terms for the person who leads the team can be project director, project executive, or project manager. For some very lengthy, large, and complex projects (e.g., developing a new drug for a pharmaceutical company), there may be both a project leader and a project manager. The project leader will usually focus on the strategic direction of the team while the manager will be the person implementing the project management tools to track timelines, budgets, and resources. 122 Leadership and Management in Pharmacy Practice PROJECT MEMBERSHIP AND RESPONSIBILITIES Membership in the project team should be defined. Ideally, project managers should have input into who will be participating as team members. For a multiple-task pro- cess, it is important to include a team of people with the necessary knowledge and training to enable successful completion of the project. Project managers should assess the capabilities and potential weaknesses of their team members. Sometimes team members are accountable for the project in addition to their normal work responsibilities. Stimulating the team members to do their best when the project may be a temporary diversion from their full-time jobs can be difficult. INITIATING THE PROJECT TEAM There are five core processes for a project. These include project initiation, develop- ing a project plan, executing the plan, monitoring progress, and closing the project.3 When beginning a project, it is important to have a kickoff meeting with an agenda. This meeting should include a presentation about the project charter, introduction of team members, ground rules for the team operation, and performance responsi- bilities. This meeting should include discussion of background materials, meeting frequency, and time commitments for project participation. Project managers should be open and honest with their team. It is imperative that the team believes that the manager appropriately represents the best interest of the project and team members. The team should have a strong sense of purpose in an open, cooperative, noncom- petitive environment. At the initial kickoff meeting for the team, the sponsors should attend part of the meeting to describe the vision for this project and what it means to the organization. Functional managers of the team members must understand the time commitment for their staff to participate in this project and not obstruct the project deliverables. These managers are critical for ensuring that the project manager has participants who can provide the expertise needed for the team’s success. Although confidential- ity may be important, it should not be used unnecessarily. Transparency across the organization for these complex projects can enhance alignment with the team mem- bers, their functional managers, the project manager, and sponsors. Support by senior leaders in the organization is a vital factor for a successful project. Great project man- agers are influential negotiators. They handle the organizational politics, both formal and informal, using shared points of view to gain support for their team’s tasks. DEVELOPING THE PROJECT PLAN When the team convenes, they should work to develop a detailed plan. Project managers are often generalists who must rely on their team members for techni- cal knowledge for components of the project. A well-functioning project team does not remain in silos of their areas of expertise. During a brainstorming session team members meet to discuss tasks, make constructive suggestions, and understand the dependencies for the activities to develop an optimal plan. The team should identify fixed milestones and duration needed to complete each task. The duration should be Managing Projects to Achieve Desired Results 123 calculated based upon realistic, not overly optimistic or severely pessimistic, esti- mates for completing a task. A project timeline that has been determined using all optimistic deadlines is unlikely to succeed; a plan with all pessimistic timelines may cause unnecessary delays for an important project for an organization. It is helpful for a team to determine the critical path activities. These are the rate-limiting events for project completion. The team should focus on these tasks and closely interrogate these figures to determine what can be done to improve this timeline. The team should use its own expertise, reference previously relevant projects, consider indus- try benchmark data, and/or seek the advice of consultants or other technical experts. The project plan should include assigning team members accountable for specific actions, timelines, resources for these tasks, and specific deliverables for each task. An often overlooked component for plans is consulting outside experts to comple- ment internal knowledge. They can bridge technical gaps and knowledge for the company. External consultants can provide unbiased recommendations. They may also have had experience with a similar project for other organizations. Some com- panies employ consultants to assist with major projects. External forces should not lead the projects without internal commitment, participation, and insight. Projects need to be assessed regularly to determine progress for the team’s activi- ties and resource utilization. It is helpful to have a graphic representation of the tasks and subtasks for overall completion of the project. A variety of information tech- nology tools is available to assist in developing and monitoring the project. These include Microsoft® Project, QuickGantt (Aicos), Microsoft® OneNote, TurboProject, Oracle® Primavera, and Microsoft Excel. When selecting the tools the project man- ager should focus on the need for sharing data or the confidentiality of information, the cost and compatibility of the tool, and experience or training needed to use the project tool. Project management tools and templates are readily available on the Internet. Many of these resources are free. There should be an organized, accessible location for project-related materials such as Google Docs, shared areas, or data- bases. A Gantt graph is the most commonly used tool for describing project tasks, durations, and overall timelines. Examples for many projects can be illustrated by searching on the intranet using the key term “Gantt chart images.” Figure 8.2 shows a sample Gantt graph. FIGURE 8.2 Sample GANTT chart. (From www.Photobucket.com. With permission.) 124 Leadership and Management in Pharmacy Practice FIGURE 8.3 Sample color-coded dashboard. (From www.images.yahoo.com. With permission.) Gantt graphs show the timeline and dependencies for work to be done. In this example which could be for developing a smartphone application to link to your pharmacy services (e.g., refilling prescriptions, making prescription deliveries, or obtaining receipts for tax filing or health-care spending accounts). There are tasks under the basic heading of planning, gathering information from stakeholders, designing the web page and applications, testing a prototype, checking quality, train- ing pharmacy personnel and testing with sample patients, allowing downloading and installation of applications from the pharmacy website. A dashboard for milestones using green, yellow, and red lights can provide a simple visual representation to summarize the project’s progress. Figure 8.3 demon- strates a color-coded dashboard to a team’s progress. This example shows areas of concern to be able to meet expected timelines for a project. PROJECT PLAN EXECUTION AND MONITORING Following project plan approval, the implementation phase begins. At this point, the project leader should publish the agreed responsibilities, resources, and timelines with the team and the team’s sponsors. An often overlooked part of the plan is preparing a communication plan for the team and its sponsors. It should include communication methods, reporting intervals, level of detail, and what constitutes a significant event Managing Projects to Achieve Desired Results 125 for the team and the project champions. Communication should occur at planned intervals (e.g., weekly, monthly, or quarterly), not only when there are problems with the plan. A key responsibility is for the project manager to communicate regularly with his or her team members to identify project status, remind them of upcoming tasks, and congratulate them on the project accomplishments. It is helpful to regularly schedule meetings for each participant to update the actions each is accountable for delivering for this project. The agenda for these meetings should specify what infor- mation and the actions expected from each participant. Meeting minutes will sum- marize the team decisions, clarify further actions and responsibilities, assist absent team members, help new team members if turnover occurs, and provide information for retrospective project evaluation. Team leaders must encourage open communica- tion from their team. Team members should not rely only on scheduled meetings for communication. The project manager ought to be approachable so that the team will readily seek assistance from him or her and promptly identify potential issues, con- cerns, or deviations from the plan. The project manager should frequently reinforce the overall project goals and importance to the organization. Because these are complex projects, they often deviate from the initial proposal. Few projects are completed without encountering any difficulties or revisions. It is important to consider risks and contingency plans for your project and the need to avoid project creep. Adjustments may be necessary. Changes can be very trouble- some to the team. If the project scope changes, this may impact quality, timelines, people, or budget needed to complete the project. If new demands are imposed upon a team without additional resources, then this may result in missed dead- lines or compromises in the delivery of a quality product from the project team. Any change in the balance of specifications, resources, or timelines may require revisions in the project charter with the sponsor to ensure delivery of a product of similar quality. The team should discuss technical issues, analyze potential and actual problems, propose solutions, and recommend actions to mitigate vulnerabilities for the team or this project. The team must evaluate the impact to the previously described plan. Often additional requirements are added to a project after the initial charter has been agreed with the project champions. This may jeopardize the ability for the project completion on time and on budget. If necessary, the project charter may need to be adjusted (i.e., a change in deliverables, resources, or timelines). It is critical to keep sponsors informed about problems with the project and proposed changes to the project charter quality, and to obtain approval for the revisions. PROJECT CONCLUSION When a project is completed, the team should participate in a close-out meeting. This will include an assessment of the success of the project for meeting its deliv- erables, on time and on budget. Outstanding issues should be identified. A valuable component for the final report is to include lessons learned so that the organiza- tion can implement process improvement for subsequent projects. The output of this meeting should be summarized for the project sponsors. Recognition by the project 126 Leadership and Management in Pharmacy Practice champions and team leader for the team’s accomplishments and dedication is an important conclusion to a project. SUMMARY A well-executed project provides significant value and opportunity for improve- ment in the health-care system. Complex, interdisciplinary projects need good proj- ect management skills to deliver high-quality projects on time and on budget and achieve the desired results for the organization. It is important for pharmacists to develop these skills for their own professional development and as a key ability to deliver cost-effective, continuous improvements for patient care with superior phar- macy practice in an increasingly complex health-care environment. BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Ferraro J. Project Management for Non-Project Managers. AMACOM, American Management Association. New York, 2012. 2. Albanese NP, Rouse MJ. Council on Credentialing in Pharmacy. Scope of contemporary pharmacy practice: roles, responsibilities, and functions of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians. JAPhA 50:2 e35–69, 2010. 3. Project Management Institute. A guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® guide), 5th edition. Project Management Institute, Newtown Square, PA, 2013. Case Study An example of a project that would utilize project management process is as fol- lows: “A health care system antibiotic utilization program with a goal to reduce development of resistant organisms in your hospital.” Complete a project charter for this project team. Who would be the likely sponsor(s) for this project? What are the business needs for your hospital and your recommended project deliverables? Be sure they are specific and measurable. Why is this important? Are there additional deliverables you considered but did not select? Why not? What do you recommend for the project scope? What hospital personnel should be included as members of this team? Do you have other resource needs (budget, space, or equipment) for this project? What timeline would you propose to realistically complete this task? Should there be interim checkpoints? Are there any constraints or obstacles for the ability for this project team to succeed?