If you’re like most CMIOs, managers, and leaders in your organization, you’re likely responsible for a number of initiatives you have going on. However, if you’re also like many managers and leaders you probably deal with issues and problems in an ad-hoc manner and spend your time putting out fires more often than you’d like to admit.
How can you rise above the chaos and regain control over the firefight? Basic project management skills, of course.
What makes up the basics of project management?
- Scope – Are we doing what we said we were going to do?
- Cost – What’s our budget? Are we sticking to it?
- Schedule – How long do we have to get this done? Are we hitting our milestones?
- Risks – What could potentially go wrong? How are we mitigating it? What is getting in our way?
- Activities – What tasks do we need to complete to reach our goal? What have we accomplished so far?
Wouldn’t it be great to find the answers of all of these questions at a glance?
It’s relatively simple to implement some basic project management processes should you have the resources to do so. Even if you don’t feel you have the resources to do it now, imagine how much more time you would have if you could be proactive about issues rather than reactive! It’s all about processes people!
We’ve come up with a barebones dashboard type template you can use to better track your initiatives and projects.
We recommend that you use this dashboard to:
- Track major initiatives and projects weekly
- Have your team inform you of any roadblocks that need removing when they can’t seem to remove them themselves. Don’t let them be shy and don’t let them struggle too much.
- Ensure your team understands how the project fits into the strategic mission of the organization
- Recognize positive progress. Projects in healthcare can be slower moving due to regulations and office politics, so accomplishments should be celebrated when appropriate.
Please feel free to copy, alter, and use this slide as necessary. This is just a starting point, but will hopefully keep you organized and understand the top issues your projects are facing at a glance.