Midterm Flashcards
System Team
Primary function is to plan, coordinate, budget, and manage all aspects of the new system’s implementation.
Team Composition
- Project Leader
- System Champion
- Key individuals from the areas affected by the new system
- Vendor reps
- IT professionals
Fundamental Activities of System Implementation
- Organize the team and identify the system champion
- Clearly define the project scope and goals.
- Identify accountability for the successful completion of the project.
- Establish and institute a project plan
System Champion
Someone who is well-respected in the organization, sees the new system as a necessity, and is passionate about its implementation.
Qualities of a System Champion
- Strong communication skills
- Interpersonal
- Listening skills
- Excellent problem solving and resourcefulness
- Superior organizational talents
Attributes of Project Goals
Should be:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Attainable
- Relevant
- Timely
Project Accountability: Business Sponsor
The individual who holds overall accountability for the project.
-Should hail from the most heavily affected area.
Business Sponsor: Duties
- Secure funding and needed business resources.
- Has final decision-making and sign-off accountability for project scope, resources, and approaches to resolution of project issues
- Identifies and supports the business owners.
- Promotes the project internally and externally. Obtains the buy-in from business constituents.
- Chairs the project steering committee
- Helps define deliverables, objectives, scope, and success criteria.
- Removes business obstacles to meeting project deadlines
Project Accountability: Business Owner
Has the day-to-day responsibility for running a function or a department.
Business Owner: Duties
- Representing their department or function at steering committee and project team meetings.
- Securing and coordinating necessary business and departmental resources.
- Removing business obstacles to meeting to project timeline
- Working jointly with the project manager on several tasks.
Project Accountability: Project Manager
Handles day-to-day direction setting, conflict resolution, and communication needed by the project team.
Project Manager: Duties
- Identify and obtain needed resources.
- Deliver the project on time, on budget, and according to specs.
- Communicate progress to sponsors, stakeholders, and team members.
- Ensure diligent risk monitoring is in place and appropriate risk mitigation plans have been developed.
- Identify and manage the resolution of problems/issues.
- Maintain the project plan.
- Manage project scope.
Joint Duties of Business Sponsor, Owner, and Project Manager
- Set Meeting Agendas
- Manage meetings
- Track project progress
- Communicate project status
- Escalate issues as appropriate.
- Resolve deviations and issues related to the project plan.
Project Accountability: IT Manager
Senior IT person assigned to project is responsible for:
- Representing the IT department
- Has final IT decision-making authority and sign-off
- Helps remove obstacles to meeting timelines.
- Promotes the project internally and externally with IT constituents.
Major Activities of Implementation Process: Workflow and Process Analysis.
Identify ways to:
- Improve workflow
- Simplify tasks
- Eliminate redundancies
- Improve Quality
- Improve user satisfaction
- Avoid automation of outdated and inefficient processes
- Gain initial buy-in by including users during the redesign.
Major Activities of Implementation Process: System Installation
- Install hardware, software, and network infrastructure to support new system.
- Build necessary interfaces.
- Pilot the system in a unit or area before widespread rollout. (Evaluate effectiveness, address bugs/concerns, apply lessons learned to other units)
Major Activities of Implementation Process: Staff Training
- Decide between a “train the trainer” or “pool of trainers” strategy
- Timing of the training: “Just-in-time” training
- Update procedure manuals
- Communicate who to contact for support/troubleshooting
Staff Training: Train the Trainer
- Train select staff in a given area to become Super Users
- Super users train/educate their co-workers
- Super users should be respected among the staff in their given area.
-Cons: Super users may be drawn away from the organization to apply their new skill sets elsewhere.
Staff Training: Pool of Trainers
Selecting staff that are knowledgeable about the entire system and rotating them to different areas/departments to train others.
Staff Training: Just-in-Time
Providing training sessions to staff at regular intervals prior to the go-live in both a distraction-free as well as a live setting.
-Mastery of the system prior to go-live is guaranteed to improve success rates.
Major Activities of Implementation Process: Conversion
- Convert the data from the old system to the new.
- Clean the date prior to conversion. (Ensure the data is complete, accurate, and current)
- Run data through validation checks to ensure accuracy
- Test the use of the newly transferred data.
Major Activities of Implementation Process: Communication
An effective communication plan:
- Aids members of the implementation team in communicating and coordinating their activities.
- Identifies how progress will be conveyed to key constituent groups.
- Formal communication and Informal communications.
- Although methods may vary, the message should be consistent and the information presented timely and up-to-date.
Major Activities of Implementation Process: Preparation for Go-Live
Implementation team ensures:
- The system is ready through testing
- Staff are adequately trained.
- Appropriate procedures are in place.
- Disaster recovery plans are in place.
- IT staff in place to monitor and assess system issues/errors.
Major Activities of Implementation Process: System Downtime Procedures
Processes in place for the the expected and unexpected downtime that the system will experience.
Managing Change: Leadership
Leaders must:
- Define the nature of the change
- Communicate the rationale for and approach to the change.
- Identify, procure, and deploy necessary resources.
- Resolve issues and alter direction as needed.
- Monitor the progress of the change initiative.
Managing Change: Language and Vision
Describe the Vision:
- What will the world look like after the change?
- How staff roles and work life will be different?
- Why is this change important?
Use careful Language:
- “Should” instead of “Must”
- “We’ instead of “You”
Managing Change: Connection and Trust
Staff are willing to rise to a challenge if they TRUST their leadership:
- Act in the best interest of the staff/organization
- Listen and respond to the concerns of the staff/organization
Managing Change: Incentives
Intrinsic: Excitement over change; Fear of what happens upon failure
Extrinsic: Bonuses, promotions, awards
Managing Change: Planning, Implementing, Iterating
Change must be PLANNED:
- Tasks must be allotted resources.
- Accountable staff for task performance must be determined
- When problems arise, iteration and adjustment is necessary
Behavioral Factors: Appropriate Environment
Create an appropriate environment:
- User expectations will vary
- Clear and effective communication is key
Behavioral Factors: Not Underestimating User Resistance
- Understand the culture of the organization before investing in a system.
- User acceptance occurs when users see and realize the benefits to themselves and to patients upon adoption of the new system.
Behavioral Factors: Manage Unintended Consequences
- More work or New work
- Workflow
- System Demands
- Communication
- Emotions
- New kinds of Errors
- Power shifts
- Dependence on the system
Organizational Factors: Allocation of Sufficient Resources
- Adequate technical staff expertise
- Reliable and secure IT infrastructure
Organizational Factors: Provide Adequate Training
- Training BEFORE launch and AFTER launch, as the system is updated
- Use varied training methods to target different types of learners.
Organizational Factors: Establish a Strong Vendor Relationship
- Define expectations, resource needs, and timelines
- Have open, honest, and candid conversations when problems arise or differences in expectations occur
Support and Evaluation: Problem Detection and Solution
Problems WILL be detected and changes WILL be required:
- IT staff should correct the problem or work with the vendor on a solution.
- The vendor may detect glitches and develop upgrades or patches.
Support and Evaluation: Optimize System Use
Maximize efficiency by:
- Additional training
- Revised workflows
- Adding new features and functionality
- Using data from the system for quality improvement initiatives.
IT-Enabled Value Defined
Value can be:
- Tangible and Intangible
- Significant
- Variable across organizations
- Diverse across IT proposals
- Diverse in a single investment
- Have different analyses for different objectives.
IT-Enabled Value: Tangible
- Increases in Revenue
- Fewer Errors
- Reduction in Turnover
IT-Enabled Value: Intangible
-Improved Decision Making, Communication, and Compliance.
National Research Council (NRC)’s IT Objectives: Infrastructure
Enables other investments or applications to be implemented and deliver desired capabilities.
National Research Council (NRC)’s IT Objectives: Mandated
May be necessary in order to comply with the initiatives of accrediting bodies
National Research Council (NRC)’s IT Objectives: Cost Reduction
Highly amenable to ROI and other quantifiable dollar-impact analyses
National Research Council (NRC)’s IT Objectives: Specific New Products and Services
Involved consumer utilization, competitor response, and impact on related businesses.
National Research Council (NRC)’s IT Objectives: Quality Improvement
Examples:
- Reduced Waiting Times
- Improved patient query for physicians
- Improved treatment outcomes
- Reduction in errors
National Research Council (NRC)’s IT Objectives: Major Strategic Initiative
Intended to significantly change the competitive position of the organization or redefine the core nature of the enterprise.
Classes of System Investment: Transformation
- Effects a significant improvement in overall performance
- Changes the nature of the organization
Classes of System Investment: Renewal
- Upgrade core IT infrastructure and applications
- Reduce the costs
- Improve the quality of IT services
Classes of System Investment: Process Improvement
-Improve the operations of a specific business entity.
Classes of System Investment: Experiments
Evaluate new information technologies and test new types of applications
Sources of Value Information
- Conferences
- Industry publications
- Industry research organizations
- Consultants
- Vendors
- Formal Financial Analysis
Formal Financial Analysis: Net Present Value
Calculated by subtracting the initial investment from the future cash flows that result from the investment.
Formal Financial Analysis: Internal Rate of Return
Discount rate at which the present value of an investment’s future cash flow equals the cost of investment.
Comparing Different Values: Scoring
- Select key proposal areas for scoring
- Assign a score to each area ranging from 1 (minimal/no contribution) to 5 (significant contribution)
Benefits:
- Forces leadership to discuss why team members scored areas differently
- Forces leadership to defend their decision to denounce a high score or support a low score
Tactics to Reduce the Budget
Questions to address proposed IT solutions:
- Is it mandatory due to new regulations?
- Can it be put off for another year?
- Does the IT staff have time to take on a new project?
- Does the user department have stable management?
- Are the value propositions and resource estimates complete?
- Is there a less expensive application or non-IT solution?
- Can the progress occur at a slower pace?
Common Proposal Problems: Fractions of Effort
Saving fractions of staff effort does not always lead to salary savings.
Common Proposal Problems: Reliance on Complex Behavior
People do not always behave as we expect or want them to.
Common Proposal Problems: Unwarranted Optimism
- Assumption that nothing will go wrong
- Assumption that you can control all variables
- Assumptions that exact changes in work processes have been pinpointed and system needs are therefore concrete.
- Assumptions that everyone can devote all of their time to a project.
Common Proposal Problems: Shaky Extrapolations
Assuming that first year gains will continue during the remainder of the project’s lifetime.
Common Proposal Problems: Underestimating the Effort
-Forgetting to account for the time users and managers devote to system design, developing workflow changes, and training
Common Proposal Problems: Fairy-Tale Savings
Redeploying expenses instead of reducing the budget
Common Proposal Problems: Failure to Account for Post-Implementation Costs
Maintenance contracts, hardware upgrades, etc
Ensuring Delivery of Value
- Make sure the homework is done on a proposed project.
- Require formal project proposals
- Manage the project well
- Manage outcomes
- Conduct Post-Implementation Audits
- Celebrate value achievement
- Leverage organizational governance
- Shorten the deliverables cycle
Ensuring Delivery of Value: Increase Accountability for Investment Results
- Business owner should defend the investment
- Project sponsors and business owners must understand the accountability for successful completion of the project
- Present projects in a forum that routinely reviews requests.
Ensuring Delivery of Value: Benchmark and Communicate Values
Benchmark your performance against the performance of your peers
Develop a Communication plan for 12 months ahead
Types of Portfolio Investments: Infrastructure
The core IT that serves as the foundation for all applications.
Types of Portfolio Investments: Transactional
Supports the core operations processes
Types of Portfolio Investments: Informational
Supports the decision making, such as clinical decision support, quality measurements and analyses, market assessment, and budget performance
Types of Portfolio Investments: Strategic
Critical to the furthering of an organization’s strategy
IT Value Challenges: Factors that Hinder Value Return
- Overall strategy is wrong or it fails to adequately assess its competitive environment.
- Necessary IT applications and infrastructures are not appropriately defined.
- The organization fails to identify all the investments and initiatives necessary to carry out its plans
- Failure to execute the IT plan well
- External factors (competitor actions, customer reactions)
IT Value Challenges: Investment-Performance Relationship
- Spending more money on IT is no guarantee that the organization will improve.
- Factors other than the appropriate tool for the task can influence the relationship. (e.g. nature of the work, competitive position in the market)
IT Value Challenges: Progressive Realization of IT Value
- Requires innovation in business practices
- Economic value comes from incremental innovations rather than “big bang” initiatives
- Strategic impacts comes from the cumulative effect of sustained initiatives to innovate business practices.
Digital Maturity
Studied the performance of companies based on two variables:
- Digital intensity
- Transformation Management Intensity
-Defined by CapGemini
Digital Maturity: Digital Intensity
The extent to which a company had invested technology-enabled initiatives to change how the company operates.
Digital Maturity: Transformation Management Intensity
The extent of the leadership capabilities necessary to drive digital transformation through the company.
-Determined to be the more important variable of the two.
