Mits5001 It Project Management | Assessment Answers

Questions:

Consider the following business case study on Improving Public Health Informatics. As a competent project manager working for a consulting company, the Program manager has called you in for advice on the current project communication plan. Please bear in mind that you are acting independently, and as an experienced PM write a report on the following points:

1.Report your assessment of the current project communication plan.

2.Compare your assessment with sound project management practices.

Answers:

Introduction:

The communication technology has achieved a huge technological development by using the information system [1]. With the problem solving capacity of various types of fields this information technology is also able to solve the problems of the health sector. The basis on the needs of the user this system is also able to track a specific type of information.

In the considered case study, implementation of the information system is discussed on the project of the CHD. This information system technology used for tracking the data of the project of the CHD. CHD has a major problem regarding the information system that it cannot be expanded in the future. To resolve this issue the project manager of CHD has taken a decision to implement some communication plan.

So, this paper will discuss the proposed structure of the communication plan to evaluate whether the decision taken by the CHD is real enough or not as this communication plan will be used for communication with all of the project stakeholder. Following that part, a comparison will be drawn between the project management practices and a case study of the country health department. Also, some recommendation will be given to improving the proposed communication plan. The summarization of the whole discussion will be discussed in the conclusion part.

Communication plan of the CHD:

In the provided case study the main target of the CHD is to develop a project that will be able to detect human disease very quickly. For this, they need a very big database which will contain a vast number of disease information [2]. As this system is able to detect a disease quickly it will be also able to determine the best way to fight against the diseases. This project has great potential for the healthcare field but it has a big problem in the case of successful implementation. The main problem is the financial investment. Some financial investment is required to make the project successful. This financial funding can be provided by the externals stakeholders of the project [3]. To take the help from the external stakeholders a proper method of communication with all the stakeholders is required. To utilize the support from the stakeholders a communication plan is proposed by the project manager.

To prepare a perfect communication plan first the major stakeholders need to be identified [4]. The identified stakeholders are the government agencies, sponsors, clients, senior management, subcontractors, news media and employees. From the above-identified stakeholders client are one of the most important stakeholders. As per the proposed communication plan, the communication with the clients will be done by the emails, meeting and telephone. In this case, the time of the communication depends on the schedule of the project. The communication is done in formal language and high details are shared about the project. Also, the senior management, sponsor and the employees are communicated in the same way as the clients of the project is communicated. By communicating in this way all the basic needs of the project is fulfilled and all the major stakeholders of the project are communicated properly. So, it can be considered as a real communication plan for the proposed project. The main goal of keeping the project stakeholders happy is to regularly update them about the project progression [5]. Also, the disturbance of the project can be minimized by implementing more than one communication method which is followed in this case.

Subcontractors and the suppliers are not needed for this project as all the raw materials are available to the project manager for this project. So these two stakeholders do not need to be communicated.

The other remaining stakeholders are not as important as the clients of the project as they are not contributing anything directly to the project [6]. For this reason, internal information is not shared with these stakeholders which are the news media, government agencies and the community. In this case, the information related to the public safety is shared with them. Also, the details about the project are not shared with them with on regular basis. In this case, the project details are shared whenever it is requested by those stakeholders. This is the best way of communication with the stakeholders who are less important for the project. Thus it is a way of communication which is realistic enough for this project for communicating with the less important project stakeholders.

Project Management Practices and Proposed Communication Plan:

One of the main project management practices is a good communication plan for the project stakeholders [7]. A good communication plan is required to successfully communicate with all the project stakeholders otherwise misunderstanding will occur among the project stakeholders which will lead the project to the failure. These project stakeholders are two types one is the internal stakeholders and another on is the external stakeholders. All of the internal and external stakeholders are identified in this project and how these stakeholders are benefiting the projects are determined. In this plan for the communication, the stakeholders are able to communicate with each other flawlessly. As this communication plan is able to provide proper communication method this is able to manage all the stakeholders which are satisfying the practices of the project management. Another practice for the ideal project management is dividing the whole project into some parts which are followed in this case [8].

Recommendation:

Requirements for a publicly run project is different. So, a different communication plan is recommended below:

• The government becomes the major stakeholders for a publicly run project as to execute any stage of the project permission of the government is required.
  
  
• It is recommended to create a strategic framework before executing the project in any of the stages. The strategic framework is required for communicating with all the project stakeholders successfully.
  
  
• It is recommended to provide the information about the project benefit and the project cost to the government. Thus by knowing this details the government can take decisions accordingly.

Justification: For the publicly run projects the government is the main stakeholder in this case. So, it is required to update the government about each and every single change in the project. Also, for publicly run projects the government manages all the operations related to the costs. For this, a proper communication plan is required among the stakeholders including the government of the project.

Conclusion:

From the above discussion, it can be concluded that the project stakeholders are the main part of a project who helps to successfully complete the project. The stakeholders of the project are able to provide the opportunity to complete the project successfully. The case study of the CHD is analysed in this case and it is determined that the proposed communication plan is realistic enough to successfully complete the project. Also, the practices of the ideal project management plan are compared with the proposed communication plan. Following that some recommendation is given for the project which runs publicly. Further, proper justification is given for the recommendation.

References:

1. Robson, Wendy. Strategic management and information systems. Pearson Higher Ed, 2015.
2. Gouhar, Arshi. "Database Management System." International Journal of Engineering Science11766 (2017).
3. Lawrence, Anne T., and James Weber. Business and society: Stakeholders, ethics, public policy. Tata McGraw-Hill Education, 2014.
4. Marchewka, Jack T. Information technology project management. John Wiley & Sons, 2014.
5. Eskerod, Pernille, and Anna Lund Jepsen. Project stakeholder management. Routledge, 2016.
6. Ditlev-Simonsen, Caroline D., and Fred Wenstøp. "How stakeholders view stakeholders as CSR motivators." Social responsibility journal9, no. 1 (2013): 137-147.
7. Kerzner, Harold, and Harold R. Kerzner. Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons, 2017.
8. Larson, Erick W., and Clifford F. Gray. "A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge: PMBOK (®) Guide." Project Management Institute, 2015.