Essentials of Project Management

SECTION#1

Introduction

Project management is defined as the practice of initiating and planning the entire work of the team on the specific projects along with executing, controlling and closing the entire working after achieving the settled goals and to meet a certain success criterion within initially stipulated time (PMI 2014). However, the primary objective of project management is to achieve the goals of the project within the given constraints. Therefore, this section provides a brief overviewof the project along with providing detailed information regarding project planning about specific things such as weekly meetings, budget allocation, Risk analysis, SMART objectives, project selection, and many more.

Project plan

A project is comprised of a series of tasks which are required to be completed within a specific time to achieve the desired goals which, in turn, also depend on certain inputs through which the specific output can be acquired. Depending upon the issue, different projects are initiated which differ in their characteristics (Galin, 2018). Currently, the project plan is to present the detailed PID (project initiation document) based on the presentation. The project plan covers a project to plan the production of the new website and the intranet. This website and intranet production will be supported by external promotional activities coupled with the internal event launch. Therefore, the complete planning of the project will be about short term tasks to achieve the project objectives and goals.

SECTION # 2: PROJECT OBJECTIVES

Project objectives are the goals and the key deliverables that the project manager or the respective organization wants to achieve. These are also termed as the organizational objectives that an organization wants to achieve through its project ((Lock, 2013). Therefore, it is of prime importance that the project objectives need should be clearly defined at the beginning of the project because the uncertain and unclear project objectives ultimately disturb the entire project cycle (Lock, 2017). This section provides a brief overview of the project objectives. To develop clear and measurable project objectives, SMART method is opted so that the key performance indicators such as time, quality, budget, cost will be effectively used to ensure the project's success.

Key deliverables

The key deliverables of this project include the below-listed deliverables:

Recruiting the trained and the experienced persons to accomplish the task

Effective development of the website and the intranet

Writing SEO and search engine friendly web content and social media posts

Provision of information regarding the project to the connected higher authorities such as company directors, managers, etc.

Visiting NGOs, health care centers to contact the doctors who are willing to collaborate with us to be a part of this project and collecting their information

Testing of website and intranet

Conducting internal promotional activities to promote the event of launching website and intranet

Continuous monitoring of the smooth working of the website and intranet along with other activities related to project

Role of Project Manager

A project manager is an individual who owns the complete responsibility for not only the successful initiation but, also for the planning of the project along with proper designing, monitoring, execution, controlling and project closure (Haanaes, 2019). As a project manager for this project and thereby responsible for the proper and effective execution of the entire project. Working as a project manager, the ultimate goals would not only the successful completion of the entire project but to promote team working with effectively collaborating with the team members and using all the available sources to the utmost level (Kerzner, 2017) .

Project selections

Project selection is a process whose idea and selection depends on the highest priority level. An ideal selection of the project depends upon two factors: benefits and feasibility (Nicholas, J.M. and Steyn,2017). Therefore, the selection was based on the triggered need for doctor shortage in the United Kingdom that can be overcome by the development of website and intranet coupled with the promotional activities and successful launch of an event. Through this project, the major beneficiaries are both the health care providers and health care seekers, and as far as the feasibility is concerned, feasibility ensures the success of the project owing to the availability of the budget, time and enough sources (Moghaddasi et al. 2017) . The chosen project for the sake of proper implementation and execution is named a Health online program. This is merely because of the shortage of healthcare practitioners and doctors' shortage in the UK (Wilson and Khansa, 2018). The tax policy of the United Kingdom has forced specialized physicians and surgeons to retire so early. Consequently, it resulted in the deprivation of needy and poor people of health facilities. NHS is currently in the state of perpetual crises that are characterized as rationing, doctors' shortage and waiting for an appointment from the doctor for a long time. In 2018, the foundation of the economic foundation has published a report mentioning that the UK has lost 441 practitioners and currently has 11,576 vacancies that need to be fulfilled (FEE, 2019). Such situations aggravate the the problems for the patients and also considerably lengthen the duration of waiting for them including the appointment availment duration as well as the period of time which gets elapsed due to be in the que for availing slated treatment at the hospitals.That is why the current project is initiated to overcome the present condition. Through this project, doctors and patients both are gathered at one platform where one can take an appointment from the doctor directly without waiting so long for their turn and at the same time doctors can also effectively earn more. In addition to this, the project under consideration possess the following characteristics:

The projects provided detailed information about the expertise, experience, and field specialization.

The projects not only solve the issue of doctors’ shortage but also provides wide access to the people to take appointment as per the availability of the doctor especially the specialists such as dentist, urologist, neurologist, gynecologist, psychologist, ENT specialist, and Neurosurgeon for whom appointments even people wait for more than a month.

Regular meetings and an option for the advice and home checkup will also be available for the people.

Additionally, the project will also provide the facility to hire a full-time nurse at home to some serious patients that require some extra medicated care.

People will feel free from the cobweb of quacks and get the services from qualified and highly experienced specialists in their field.

This project will also serve as a golden opportunity for those experienced doctors who got retirement in the early years and especially to females to work in a safe and professional environment.

What competitors are doing as benchmarks prevailing trends

The competitors in this online business are using more advanced technology to approach more and more people for their online health services. As it is a prevailing trend in the UK now, so the benchmark of this online service greatly focuses on the quick and vast approach of this service to low HDI areas and more deserving population.

Stakeholders analysis

This analysis can be done with the help of a figure below. A customer is a great stakeholder of any business so the interest of the customer in services plays a crucial role in stakeholder analysis (Newton, 2009). Although, other stakeholders are also very important to be considered for the stakeholder analysis. Patients, employees, shareholders and local communities are included in the high power, low interest quarter, whereas, the high power, high interest quarter includes the government and trade unions’ stakeholders. The low power, low interest quarter of this stakeholder analysis is empty, while all the stakholders of above both quarters also come within the low power, high interest quarter. The methodology of stakeholder analysis for the concerned research project has been an iterative process and the involved methods have been effectively integrated with in the various stages of the project so as to reflect the chaning contexts of the project topic under consideration. Another aspect has beenm the emphasis on the representation of the individuals and their respective roles within the project management. The proper determination of the focus of the project has culminated in the proper identification of the primary and secondary stakeholders. The individuals involved in these two actegories could be termed as actors of significance who are required to be mapped and estimations are required to be formulated on the basis of their relative influences on the entire project development procedure. These stakeholder could be effectively identified as the Patients, Project manager, Owners,Employees, Doctors, Shareholders and local communites. Primary stakeholders have been significantly involved with the entire project issue development, these have been the actors who have been directly involved with the healthcare communication supply chain development, such as the Doctors, Shareholders, government institutions and Patients. The Secondary stakeholders have been indirectly associated with the controlling process of the entire project progression process such as the Trade Unionists, Government Officials and the local community representatives. The element of measuring the attributes of each of the actors/stakeholders in this context, has been critical to formulate the project development design. Such attribute analysis has been demonstrated in the following:

List of stakeholders power metrix

Patients

Project manager and owner

Doctors

Shareholders

local communites

Trade unions

Government

Issues, objective and Inquest particularity based stakeholder analysis

Patients will be the primary beneficiers of this project because with the successful completion of this project, patients will get an advantage of receiving better treatment from experienced doctors. Project manager and owner will be the internal stakeholders who will be responsible for the effective completion of the project by managing all the tasks through perfoming their respective duties. Doctors will be the second beneficiaries of this project, as due to the seccuessful completion of project, where patients could receive benefits and essay acess to treatment, doctors will also avail the employment opportunities. In addition to this, the other stakeholders such as local communities, trade unions and government are also the integral part of the entire opportunity. In stakeholder analysis, the power of the online services and interest of people are greatly linkedwith each other. In some areas, there is high power of online health services but people show less interest, whereas, in some areas both of these things could be found to be in high ratio. On the other hand, some areas have low services for online health and the rate of interest is also low. There are some other areas which have not many approaches in online health services but people are greatly interested and in need of such services.

Team management analysis

In the absence of any appropriate team management style, can deliver the project successfully by following some other things. Firstly, enhancing the leadership style to bring together the team and communiting with them to sustain them. Along with this the delegation method will be also used for successful delivery of the project. Delegations help in matching the people with the nature of task by following the rule of specialization of work. Utilizing the theory X and theory Y for the motivation of employees. Because the success of a project is mostly depend on the motivation and working of employees.

In this context, the team management process was formulated through the Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Action and Reinforcement (ADKAR) method.

Awareness phase of this process involved the following:

● The delineation of the exactitudes of the project performance. This involved the objectives and the rational of attempting to develop such a project.

● The demonstration of the Internet and Intranet development options to the project team members.

● Communication of the standards of work which has become necessary.

The Desire phase based team management particulars were as the following:

● Building of momentum of the entire project progression plan.

● Addressing of the particularities of the individual project plan stages.

The Knowledge phase involved the following:

● Encouragement provisioning to the team members to better develop their technical skills.

● Learning methods to think as a coherent team.

● Sharing of information .

The Action phase involved the following:

● Development of an effective framework of governance.

● Adjusting of various research stage based implications on the team members.

The Reinforcement phase involved the following:

● Rectification of shortcomings and mistages.

● Identification of outstanding performers within the different work teams.

Methodology used

A project management methodology is defined as the set of guiding rules and principles along with the process of managing the entire project. Therefore, based on the nature of the project agile methodology is used. The agile method of project management served as an alternative approach for the proper management of the projects related to software development which mainly focuses on the continuous release and incorporation of customer feedback (Rasnacis, A. and Berzisa, 2017). The complete lifecycle of the incorporation of this particular methodology in this current project can be better understood from the below-given figure 1.4.

For this project, the agile methodology will be utilized because it’s an online-based project for which this methodology is very suitable. The agile methodology continuously promotes the practice of testing and iteration of development through the lifecycle of the project. These activities of development and testing are concurrent and do not follow the waterfall model (Rasnacis, A. and Berzisa, 2017). The agile methodology focuses on some core values which are working software for comprehensive documentation, contract negotiation for customer collaboration and flexibility in terms of change accomodation according to the plan.

The benefit of Agile model

It is beneficial in increasing the productivity and delivery of the business project and helps in minimizing the risks related to the project. This model is very effective and efficient in getting the work done. It mainly focuses on the key areas of the project that can play an important role in enhancing the productivity of the project. (Ahmed, 2016)

SECTION # 3: RISK ANALYSIS

Introduction

Every project includes certain risks that could affect project performance. Therefore, this section tends to explain the identified risks by the way of risk analysis (Aven, 2015). In addition to this, to mitigate the risk factor, this section also elaborates on a risk control program and contingency planning along with all the available sources.

Risk Analysis

Risk analysis is a process of analyzing the risks after making efficient identification of all the potential issues which could negatively influence the project performance along with the key initiatives of the project to help the organization or the project manager either to mitigate or avoid those risks (Modarres et al, 2016). Therefore, after careful analyzing, the current project also involves the specific risks that can be effectively analyzed. The risks involved in this project along with its sources are categorized as follows:

Strategic risks: the risks are associated with the failure of project planning not only the launch of the website and the intranet but also the marketing and promotional strategies. This can be mainly because of a reason for targeting

Operational risks: this can be categorized as the failure in the operation of the project either in day to day working or the failure of one complete phase such as the event marketing or the launch of a website etc (Weingarten et al, 2016).

Financial risks: these risks are mostly associated with the finances which are the project cost. However, the success of the project greatly depends upon the budget. The limited amount or the decreased value of budget not only affect the project planning but also cut down the project sources that ultimately affects the execution of the entire project.

Compliance risk:this risk is associated with not effectively complying with the rules and the regulations of the regulatory authorities (Kliem, R.L. and Ludin, 2019).

In terms of the internal marketing risk assessment factors, the included aspects are the development and evaluation of the Standard Operating Procedures concerning the Intranet formulation, the Quality Assurance and Management procedures through which the Intranet of the institution could be effectively managed and aligned with the purpose of achievement of the project objectives and Auditing of the performance outcomes. The risk assessment procedures further involve the inspections on a periodic basis of the Standard Operating Procedures and the Quality Assurance and Management methods so as to ensure the shortcomings. Monitoring of the application environment of the Intranet and sharing of information through appropriate communication channels for the purpose of risk valuation (in monetory terms), are significant in this context. Furthermore, at the level of the marketing of website development for the purpose of effective medical communication through data driven platforms, the external risk factor management are as the following:

1: The monitoring of the scalability of the web application: This would involve the regular updating and adjusting the software , including the hypertext markup languages utilised, for the purpose of achievement of scalability by becoming efficient in handling of increasing loads of input analysis. Building the web applications to scale is of vital significance regarding ensuring the compatibility of the work input measure and the process outputs, from a technical perspective. 2: Prevention of scope creep: This requires the monitoring and review of the project output measures in terms of the website and web content development so as to ensure that unnecessary additions, unexpected changes and uncontrolled expansion of the web profiles could be prevented. This could ensure the project timeline maintenance and future scalability of the developed applications. 3: Assessment of stability based risks for the entire web application under development. This involves incompatibility evaluation in synchronisation to the determined browser, the optimisation measure assessment of the search engines, the determination of the correct memory measures and online security establishment through application of quantum cryptographic methods.

Risk control program and Contingency planning

The possibility of the risk can be mitigated or minimized by using an effective risk control program (Marier-Bienvenue et al, 2017). According toWiengarten et al (2016), a risk control program is comprised of different methods and steps by which the firms not only evaluate the potential risk involved and the possible losses incurred through it but also take preventive steps to eliminate such risks. Therefore, depending upon the project and its nature, the risk control plan includes various methods (Kliem, R.L. and Ludin, 2019). Firstly, to mitigate the risk factor, a properly trained workforce will be selected or additional training would have to be provided so that possible risk of failure of the project could be avoided. In addition to this, the risk factor can also be reduced by employing a good leadership style with effective planning, demanding extra resources from the higher management, keeping data and software ownership along with their backup. Moreover, with proper audit, financial management and external verification those risk factors can be mitigated. According to Larson and Gray (2011), "integrating the project narrows the plan to reality" ensuring that the project is executed as plan and correction are made to enable the reality of the project. All the necessary precautions will be taken and it is also ensured that the project should be completed within the stipulated time by using the sources to the utmost level. Backups of the online applications will also be ensured to avoid any unfortunate accidental occurrence. The aforementioned whole process will be followed by following the Larson and Gray model

Constraint analysis

There are many restrictions on online business of health services also. The applications and soft wares sometimes malfunction, due to which people get too much difficulty and embarrassment in using these services.

Project Cost

In project cost, cash flow analysis can be used to analyze the financial outcomes. Cash flow analysis basically evaluates the financial services of a health organization (Williams, E.E. and Dobelman, 2017). It is an estimated budgeting plan which can help in managing cash flow easily. As the overall budget is £ 25,000 per month, so all these things can be managed according to this budget.

Budget Scope

Cost:

1:It is of prime significance to utilise historic data of similar projects so as to arrive the comparative cost efficiency analysis to determine the actual and nature of the project cost scope. 2: The resource cost measures have to be consistently evaluated and reviewed in terms of the market value of the technical tools, material and human resources as well as the risk management process related costs so as to determine whether any condition of resource cost overhead could be imminent. 3: The parametric costs could be measured through assessment of the relationship between the historical comparative data and the incurred unit costs.

Quality: 1: Handling of the expectations of stakeholders is vital in terms of cost based quality management.

2: Prioritisation of the tasks based upon the functionality development perspectives is also of greater significance.

3: The most significant aspect of project cost quality management would be the estimation of various activities of highest quality, such as promotion planning and event organisation as well as the development of the web content and intranet information dissemination methods.

Time: 1: Cost estimation based planning of schedule management

2: Formualtion of procedures, policies and documentation for the execution of scheduled plans.

3: Sequencing of the activities through proper logical order maintenance.

4: Estimation of activity resource potentials in terms of equipment, personnel and supplies which could be considered to be essential for the project life cycle to be completed.

Financial and non-financial benefits

Financial and non-financial benefits can be obtained at the successful completion of the entire project (Islam et al,2015). Therefore, to obtain the maximum outcome from the ongoing project, the benefits are divided into two distinct categories: financial and non-financial benefits. Below listed are some of the financial and non-financial benefits:

On the successful completion of the entire project, the organization will be more productive in terms of generating revenue and recovering the cost of the entire project.

Improved website and intranet that will encourage both the healthcare practitioners and healthcare seekers to unite on a single platform.

By complying with the regulations, the organization can better improve its reputation along with providing the facility

Improved customer satisfaction level by mitigating their problem of long appointments and waiting for so long for their turn owing to the non-availability of the doctors

Increased brand awareness, promoting organizational product and services, building brand loyalty through the successful launch of an event and promotional activities

Additionally, for gaining the aforementioned both financial and non-financial benefits, the project manager will adopt the triple bottom line approach (Wysocki, 2014). The triple bottom line (TBL) approach is a theoretical framework that recommends the project manager to focus on environmental and social concerns also rather than only gaining profits and increasing their revenue (Alhaddi, 2015). Therefore, the TBL approach for this project is given as follows:

SECTION # 4: PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION

Introduction

In the project implementation/execution phase the set visions and plans are turned into reality. After the release of the budget, the development of the website "health-online program" and intranet, the phase of implementation begins in such a testing phase comes first. In the testing phase, the final mockups are tested firstly along with the website is being live with the help of the intranet (Alexander, 2018). The testing phase is mainly tested to check whether the device supported these applications, easy for use, and user-friendly or not. In case any error occurs during the process then necessary steps will be taken according to the nature of the error (Carstens et al, 2016). Moreover, for the promotion of website two-way promotional activities will be held at different social media platforms Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, etc. Secondly, other media such as print and electronic will be also utilized for this promotion. The objective of this promotion will be promoting the health online program covering public and doctors, to register themselves at the health online program for both categories offering service and taking service.

Gantt Chart

The Gantt chart explains all the activities along with its time of starting and ending that will be carry out in a systematic way for starting this business. In the Gantt chart firstly the approval section is explained with its sub categories, than arranging funds and employing teams. The above images shows the complete picture of the steps that will be carry out in a systematic wway one after one for the successful deliver of this project. The network path will be also performed along with this to share the activities and performance with the relavant stakeholders at same time.

Project Network Path

Milestones

After the approval of the project, different steps will be followed and the project will be completed in twenty-four weeks. The first three weeks will be spent on arranging funds and employing team members, further three months will be spent on buying the hosting domain for the website "health online program". After this development phase, testing & final development will be also completed within three weeks. Further, within the set period, the process of registering doctors, initiating promotional activities, social media marketing, event organization for promotion and awareness and finally delivering the project will be completed within 24 weeks. The details of each week are as the following:

In a communication plan, motivational theory can be highlighted as an effective element. Maslow's hierarchy of Needs theory shows the most basic needs of human life in which health is one. So by understanding this theory, people can be motivated to taking more and more health services, at any cost.

The rationale of the development of the communication plan could be considered to be the following:

1:The clarification of the objectives and goals of the healthcare institutions through digital and Internet based external and internal communication methods development. 2: To provide greater scope of operational flexibility to the health service providers in terms of data management and predictive patient management through which the lapse of unnecessary time could be prevented. 3: The identification and undertaking of a range of digital and online communication based activities through which the patients and their care administrators could be assisted to properly availa and deliver, respectively, the health care services which could be required. 4: The expediting of the process of communicating the existing and available fields of medical sepecialisations and services to the patients. 5: The improvement of the productivity of the limited number of doctors who could be available at any point of time so as to enable the patients to obtain appointments as per their requirements. 6: The curtailment of the necessary time duration which had been so far unavoidable due to the manual and cumbersome patient requirement registration processes within the institution under consideration. This problem could be solved through the application of both the intranet and the dedicated information website through which the status of availability of doctors and the ques of patients could be outlined at a real time basis.

Limitations

Like all other business projects, this project has also some limitations.

As it is related to online health services, so it may face difficulties in areas where the technological approach is less than advanced areas.

This project is also dependent on the understanding of the public in utilizing health facilities in a proper way. For this purpose, online services need to deliver the benefits of information technology in a simple way, which is easy to get, even for less educated people.

The generation and retention of interest of the public in online services of health is very important; otherwise, people would go for alternative solutions.

Conclusion:

To conclude all this, online services and businesses are increasing day by day. Health service is one of the basic necessities of life so online health services would be a great demand in the world, with the passage of time. For this purpose, improvements in technology and intranet project management are equally important in each part of the world.

SECTION # 5: PROJECT TERMINATION

Project termination is one of the crucial things that determines how successful the project was completed. At this step, the project manager will prepare the Post Implementation Review (PIR) report before making the final improvements (Keshavjee et al, 2006). Therefore, the project(developing website and intranet and conducting internal promotional activities along with the external launch of an event) will be terminated on the 1st of June when the PIR report will be generated to evaluate how successfully the objectives of the project could have been achieved. In addition to this, a handover meeting will also be scheduled on the 2nd of June depending upon the feasibility of the higher authorities.

CONCLUSION

To conclude, health online program is an initiative to cut the shortage of doctors in the UK. This will be followed by the development of a website and an intranet. On website and intranet development, there are five different stages covered by this document starting from planning to the final termination of the project. The project manager is of prime importance as he is responsible for the whole project. For this, a team will be recruited, responsible for development and promotion of the project. A budget of 25,000 per month has been fixed for this project and the project will continue for about 6 months. After the completion of the development phase the project will be tested and promotional activities will be initiated. Followed by this, an event will be organized to successfully complete the project. However, every step is of prime importance. The primary shortfall has been the apparent inappropriate cascading performance planning concerning dissemination of the risk management awareness through all of the levels of working professionals, especially involving the working team members, through the discourse of the project development. This involved the shortcomings concerning formulation of effective plans to make the personnel aware of the necessity of development active risk ownership concerning the web application tools development so as to expedite any consequence management. This also involves insufficient planning on risk measure evaluation allocation. Ensuring compliance mechanism also remained at a dormant stage since the online risk dashboards for the work team leaders have remained to be properly planned to be customized to involve a risk-consciousness cultural perception. The holistic evaluation of risk management processes also has been delayed to some extent due to the exigencies concerning the other phase based tasks.

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