Just-in-time project management.

In a perfect world, project management would begin before projects got underway. But who works in a perfect world?

In an ideal environment, several planning tasks are completed prior to the initiation of a project. The tasks are intended to provide ongoing project management and a framework to ensure successful project completion. The Project Management Institute offers a structure for project management tasks by defining component knowledge areas: scope, time, cost, quality, human resources, communications, risk, and procurement. These areas are coordinated through the process defined as project integration management, which we commonly refer to as project management.

Case studies

A regional hospital in New England initiated two large-scale clinical system implementation projects. Chronologically, the first project was the installation of a nursing order-entry system to replace an in-house legacy system. The project was large enough to require fulltime project management. ("Large enough" means that any one person could not perform his or her routine duties in addition to overseeing project resources and implementation.) However, it was not until the project was underway that the assessment was made that full-time project management was needed. Unfortunately, no internal resources were available that could be committed 100 percent to the project.

The second project was the installation of a surgical scheduling and resource utilization system. One year into the project, the determination was made that full-time project management was needed to bring it to completion.

In both projects, the component knowledge areas of project management had not been thoroughly completed or, in some cases, even started. The projects had become more complex and time consuming than anticipated, leading to a work overload of the assigned project managers. It was also not feasible to restart either of the projects. The same decision was made for each project: An experienced project manager needed to be brought in to assume project management responsibility. Therefore, a catch-up process for project management had to be initiated. In essence, project management had to occur as it was needed -- just in time. As a result, project planning and management had to occur simultaneously with the system implementations.

I was contracted as an independent consultant to manage both projects. Just-in-time project management evolved through a team effort and was not attributable to any individual. This article describes how a framework for JITPM was developed and applied under the circumstances -- in one case successfully, and in the other case unsuccessfully.

Approach

The ideal approach to project management is to prepare planning documents prior to initiation of a project. The planning documents should cover scope, time and cost (Gantt chart),…