Project Management in Health and Community Services: Getting Good Ideas to Work

265 Pages·2019·11.049 MB·English

by  Judith Dwyer, Zhanming Liang, Valerie Thiessen

CMYK
(GLOSS LAM) SPINE 16.34mm
3rd
Edition
3rd Edition
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H P P R O J E C T
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Project management is recognised as a core competency across health and T
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community services environments, yet it can be challenging for new project E M A N A G E M E N T
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staff and practitioners to balance the needs of stakeholders and ensure the N
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best outcome for everyone involved. D

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This wholly revised edition of Project Management in Health and Community O
A I N H E A L T H A N D
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Services presents the tools and techniques for effective practice, offering
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practical problem-solving strategies for managing projects based on real U A
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life scenarios. The expert authors use case studies and examples from the G C O M M U N I T Y S E R V I C E S
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field to illustrate topics such as the project life cycle, project planning, Y E
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execution and evaluation, risk management, handling change and building S
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effective teams. This edition also features a new chapter on the importance R N Getting good ideas to work
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of incorporating evaluation into project design and implementation, and I T
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how evaluation can impact on future project design and development. E
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Written by highly experienced authors and underpinned by the latest
research, this is an essential resource for anyone studying or working
in health and community services. Jud Judith Dwyer, Zhanming Liang and Valerie Thiessen
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PROFESSOR JUDITH DWYER AM conducts research at the Flinders University College d D
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of Medicine and Public Health, and is a former CEO of Southern Health Care Network a y
in Melbourne, and of Flinders Medical Centre in Adelaide. DR ZHANMING LIANG is ler er,
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Senior Lecturer and Course Coordinator at the Department of Public Health, La Trobe h
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University, and President of the Society for Health Administration Programs in Education. h n
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VALERIE THIESSEN holds qualifications in Health Information and Health Services ss in
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Management and is a senior consultant at MKM Health in Melbourne. n L
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Cover design: Romina Panetta Edwards
Cover images: iStock
H E A LT H CA R E
M A NAGE M E N T
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P R O J E C T
P R O J E C T
M A N A G E M E N T
M A N A G E M E N T
I N H E A L T H A N D
I N H E A L T H A N D
C O M M U N I T Y S E R V I C E S
C O M M U N I T Y S E R V I C E S
Getting good ideas to work
Getting good ideas to work
3rd Edition
Judith Dwyer, Zhanming Liang
Judith Dwyer, Zhanming Liang
and Valerie Thiessen
and Valerie Thiessen
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First published in 2004
Second edition published in 2013
Third edition published in 2019
Copyright © Judith Dwyer, Zhanming Liang and Valerie Thiessen 2019
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in
any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior
permission in writing from the publisher. The Australian Copyright Act 1968
(the Act) allows a maximum of one chapter or 10 per cent of this book, whichever
is the greater, to be photocopied by any educational institution for its educational
purposes provided that the educational institution (or body that administers it) has
given a remuneration notice to the Copyright Agency (Australia) under the Act.
Allen & Unwin
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Australia
Phone: [phone]
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.allenandunwin.com
A catalogue record for this
book is available from the
National Library of Australia

ISBN 978 1 76063 281 6
Internal design by Romina Panetta
Index by Puddingburn
Set in 11.5/14 pt Bembo by Midland Typesetters, Australia
Printed and bound in Australia by Griffin Press
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
The paper in this book is FSC® certified.
FSC® promotes environmentally responsible,
socially beneficial and economically viable
C009448
management of the world’s forests.
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Contents
Glossary of terms ix
List of figures, tables and cases xvi
About the authors xviii
Acknowledgements xix
Introduction xx
How to use this book xxi
Chapter 1 W hy project management? 1
What is a project? 2
The project life cycle 5
Projects in health and community services 6
Research for this book 8
Project management challenges 9
Project success 12
Model for success 14
Summary 16
Readings and resources 16
Chapter 2 T he industry, the organisation and
project success 18
The industry: complex, regulated—and still dynamic 19
Project capability in organisations 26
The Project Management Office 33
Projects in government departments 34
The project portfolio 35
Summary 40
Readings and resources 40
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iv Project Management in Health and Community Services
Chapter 3 Understanding project management 42
The terminology of project management 43
The project life cycle 43
Differentiating projects and programs 48
Project management methods 50
Project management tools 53
Project management resources 55
Project management skills and careers 57
Project management courses and professional development 60
Summary 61
Chapter 4 T he initiation phase: what do you want to do,
and why? 62
Where do good ideas come from? 63
Getting to project goals 64
Goals, purposes, problem statements and benefits 65
Project scope and strategies 69
Turning ideas into projects 70
Planning and analysis methods 74
In praise of opportunism 83
Responding to grants and tenders 84
Offering project tenders 85
Summary 87
Readings and resources 88
Chapter 5 The project planning phase: what will you do,
and how? 89
Why plan at all? 90
The project charter 95
The project plan 102
Planning for project assurance 103
Project structures 104
Planning for human resource needs 106
Risk management 108
Issue management 111
The quality plan 111
Communications planning 112
Managing project change 113
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Contents v
Organisational change management planning 114
Planning project logistics 116
The project information system 117
Planning for evaluation 117
Tips for conducting project planning 117
Summary 118
Readings and resources 119
Chapter 6 P lanning for evaluation: assessing project
performance 120
What is evaluation, and why do it? 121
Types of evaluation 122
Evaluation approaches and design 130
Evaluation in practice—challenges and learning 141
Summary 143
Readings and resources 144
Chapter 7 P lanning tools: scheduling, budgeting and
the business case 145
Work breakdown structure: tasks, sequencing and timing 146
Estimating time, and using scheduling tools 150
Budgeting 154
The project business case 167
Summary 172
Readings and resources 172
Chapter 8 T he implementation phase 1: making
it happen 173
Getting started 174
Leadership, motivation and teamwork 175
Achieving sustainable change 182
Summary 193
Readings and resources 194
Chapter 9 T he implementation phase 2: controlling,
completing, closing 195
Control and monitoring during implementation 196
When things go wrong: getting back in control 202
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vi Project Management in Health and Community Services
Project completion 204
Sustaining project outcomes 215
Conclusion 217
Summary 218
Readings and resources 219
Project templates 221
References 230
Index 239
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Glossary of terms
80-hour rule A rough guideline about the normal scale of activities
in a work breakdown structure: no single activity should require
more than 80 hours (or two weeks) of work.
Activities A collection of related tasks that contribute to a single
deliverable.
Agile CA system or software development method.
Benefits A net positive change in outcomes, including patient care
and health or wellbeing outcomes.
Benefits realisation A method of evaluating project success according
to whether the intended benefits (financial or other) are achieved,
often some time after the project itself is completed. Used most
frequently in information systems projects.
Best practice A method or technique that has consistently shown
results superior to those achieved with other means and that may
be used as a benchmark.
Budget A financial document that forecasts or plans the expected
dollar inflows (revenue) and dollar outflows (expenses) for a
project.
Business case A document that describes an intended service or
‘business’ in operational and financial terms, and seeks to establish
that the service as planned can be financially viable (or profit­
able)—a positive business case is one in which the revenue/benefits
outweigh the costs.
Buy- in The level of support among any group of stakeholders (often
staff and management) for the project and/or the proposed changes.
Cash flow The movement of money into and out of a business,
project or financial entity during a specified period of time.
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viii Project Management in Health and Community Services
Close/close-out The fourth phase of the project cycle, when the
process of handover, or transitioning from the project to the new
method or state, is completed.
Commissioning This term has two meanings:
1. The process of ensuring that a new facility, piece of equipment
or service is fully operational.
2. The process of engaging a team, company or consultant to
conduct a project, service or other activity on behalf of the
funding agency.
Contingency A potential problem or change in the project; an
amount of money or other resource held within the project to
cover elements of risk or uncertainty.
Control Ensuring that the project keeps to the agreed project scope,
budget, schedule and quality.
Cost-benefit analysis (CBA) Estimates (in monetary terms) the costs
and benefits (or measure of effect) of an intervention or program.
Cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) Compares relative cost and
outcomes (or effect) of two or more interventions with the effect
expressed in non­monetary terms using ‘natural units’ such as cure
rate or reduction in the incidence of a disease.
Cost-utility analysis (CUA) Expresses outcomes in the non­ monetary
unit of quality­adjusted life years (QALYs) so that comparisons of
benefit can be made between alternative treatments or interventions.
Critical success factors (CSF) The important aspects of projects
(and their contexts) that are known to affect the achievement of
outcomes.
Deliverable leg A graphical presentation in a WBS of the work
required to complete each deliverable.
Deliverables The concrete goods or services that will be produced
by the project and handed over on its completion.
Direct costs The costs incurred by and for the project that would not
otherwise be incurred by the organisation.
Economic evaluation Type of analysis that estimates the relative
value of alternative options.
Effectiveness The extent to which planned outcomes are achieved
by a service or product in normal conditions (rather than in the
laboratory or in trials). The answer to the question ‘does it work
in practice?’
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Glossary of terms ix
Efficacy The extent to which planned outcomes are achieved by a
service or product in ideal conditions. The answer to the question
‘can it work?’.
Electronic Health Record (EHR) or Electronic Medical Record
(EMR) The systematised collection of patient and population
health information, electronically stored in a digital format.
Escalate Taking problems or issue/s higher in the organisation in
order for them to be resolved, or implementing the next level of
action required to overcome an identified risk.
Evaluation indicators Markers of a project’s progress, change and
success.
Evidence-based practice Decisions in (clinical) practice based on
evidence from research studies and other sources of reliable infor­
mation (for example, internal data).
Exclusions What is out of the project scope (what the project won’t do).
Expenditure items Expenses incurred by a project.
Feasibility study A process that objectively and rationally examines
whether a proposed project, service or system can be successfully
implemented.
Gantt chart A commonly used method of presenting the timelines
and tasks of a project, and of charting actual progress. It plots
activities (in rows) against the timeline (in columns), thus showing
the relationships between them.
Gap analysis An assessment of information about gaps and potential
capacity in the available service system.
Gateway Review/Process A project assurance methodology to
improve the delivery of major projects. It involves short, sharp and
confidential reviews conducted by reviewers not associated with the
project at six key stages of the project life cycle, also known as ‘gates’.
Go/no go The time at which the organisation decides whether or not
to proceed with the next stage of a project, or to accept a chosen
system or model.
Go-live The time at which a product, deliverable or outcome is put
into practice.
Goal A statement of what the project aims to achieve.
Grey literature Research that is unpublished or not published in the
peer­reviewed research literature, such as government reports and
policy documents.
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