Project Management Case Study (Case Study Sample)

Project Management Student’s Name Institutional Affiliation Course Number and Name Instructor’s Name Due Date Project Management Project management is defined as the application of skills, processes, knowledge, methods, and experience to realize predetermined project goals and final deliverables, which are typically constrained to a finite budget and timespan. In other words, project management refers to the process of leading and managing the work of team to achieve specific objectives within particular limits as described in the project documentation, such as time, scope, and budget (Richardson & Jackson, 2018). The objective of project management is to provide deliverables that comply with clients’ needs. Effective project management is fundamental to the sustainability of business functions, a realization that has renewed interest in creating and evaluating new managerial ideologies for project managers (Richardson & Jackson, 2018). Accordingly, numerous project management frameworks have been developed to enhance project success and ensure economic, social, and environmental sustainability. According to San Cristobal et al. (2018), about 63 percent of projects fail to meet the requirements due to issues such as task dependency, changes in project objectives or an organization’s priorities, poor stakeholder relations, and procrastination, among others. The resultant lack of clear direction usually subjects projects to delays, scope creep, and budget overruns. The case of Girard Medical Center is an ideal example. The hospital incurred substantial cost overruns and delays that eventually caused the entire EHR implementation to fail due to poor project management. Poor relationship between the client and vendor, lack of skills, inadequate supervision by the client, unclear project goal, poor communication, and inattention to project requirements are some of causes of failure. The use of an appropriate project management framework could have prevented the catastrophe. Implementing an EHR system is inherently complex. According to San Cristobal et al. (2018), complexity in project management is an important consideration because it influences project control, planning, and coordination. It all deters the identification of objectives and goals, affects project outcomes, and influences the selection of suitable experience requirements for personnel. Indeed, complexity has been found to be a core factor in project success or failure. Therefore, a project’s complexity should be considered in the choice of appropriate project management frameworks. In this case, the Kanban framework could have been used to avoid the notable deficiencies in Girard Medical Center’s implementation process. This framework follows the tenets of the agile project management methodology and focusses on visualizing projects on Kanban boards to promote collaboration and transparency while enabling managers to keep track of progress and manage projects efficiently (Zayat & Senvar, 2020). This framework would have been ideal due to its inherent compatibility with existing organizational settings. It focusses on enhanced workflow, flexible task management, customer involvement, and continuous improvement. The Kanban framework enables teams to eliminate bottlenecks, maximize quality, improve efficiencies, and boost output based on four core principles. Project managers are required to concentrate on current tasks and processes to understand what works and what does not work. This information is then used to make incremental changes rather than radical ones (Zayat & Senvar, 2020). Applying these principles to the case of Girard Medical Center, the hospital management as well as staff from Cerner Corporation, the vendor, should have taken time to understand the project requirements, scope, and deliverables. According to Beaudoin (2012), hospital officials and board members acknowledged that they lacked complete understanding of the contract. Instead, they relied on Cerner’s explanation of the contract’s details through a presentation that promised a fully integrated administrative and patient records system. It would have been prudent for both Cerner and the project manager to review the hospital’s existing practices and processes to determine the requirements of the EHR system to prevent the subsequent dropping of core features, such as the attendance tracking functionality, and the increasing annual costs. Thirdly, the framework emphasizes working with existing roles within a team or organization rather than creating new ones. Finally, it encourages leadership among all personnel irrespective of titles or roles to promote innovativeness and continual improvement (Alaidaros, Omar, & Romli, 2020). Hospital administration admitted to lacking in-house expertise to supervise the complex implementation and contract with the vendor (Beaudoin, 2012). The two existing IT personnel should have been trained on core aspects of the project to enhance their proficiency with EHR systems and leadership competency. The Kanban framework also proposes six practices for successful project management. Firstly, the workflow should be visualized using a virtual or physical board to facilitate task tracking from one stage to the next. Work in progress should also be limited by restricting the number of tasks that each team should handle simultaneously in each phase of the project (Alaidaros et al., 2020). Given that Girard lacked an internal IT team and the Cerner staff at the site did not have sufficient experience with healthcare and EHR implementation (Schectman, 2012), limiting the work in progress would have enabled the team to handle tasks more efficiently. The Kanban framework also advocates actively managing workflows to monitor and eliminate bottlenecks or roadblocks and improve efficiency. This process is based on clearly defined and communicated process guidelines on how tasks are accomplished and the required outcomes in each phase before moving to subsequent stages (Alaidaros et al., 2020). Additionally, project managers should constantly use feedback loops that can be obtained through reports or metrics from multiple review exercises. In the present case, early feedback would have enabled the project manager and other personnel to identify shortcomings and performance deficiencies to facilitate early corrective measures. Finally, as with most agile frameworks, the Kanban framework encourages evolving, adapting, and improving processes to facilitate implementing incremental changes and enhancing workflows. The Scrum framework could be used to prevent the failure of Girard’s EHR implementation project. It allows close-knit teams to complete complex projects incrementally by decomposing tasks to easily actionable and consumable tasks that can be completed in specific sprints. Specifically, long-term projects are divided into smaller goals or sprints that are then assigned to team members with the requisite project management competencies or skills to maximize efficiency (Zayat & Senvar, 2020). Scrum is an iterative process in which personnel discus performance regularly in retrospect and continually make improvements. Each sprint is prioritized based on its relative importance. This versatile procedure allows for incorporation of any changes in the scope of a project. The Scrum framework could have enabled Cerner to make changes to the system as necessary to meet the client’s requirements. Instead, Cerner failed to make any substantial progress, perhaps because the project was not split into manageable sprints. Part of the reason for the failure of the project seems to have been poor communication. According to Schectman (2012), Cerner staff did not provide consistent answers to the client’s questions and their knowledge of the healthcare industry and the company’s products was deficient. Cerner management also failed to respond to inquiries made my Girard via email. Price quotes were also inaccurate and much of the information provided in the contract was allegedly false. According to Mohindra and Srivastava (2019), effective communication is crucial to project management because it allows team members to understand and be aligned to project objectives, goals, and expectations. Ideas and opinions need to be shared between professionals working on related or similar tasks to promote efficiency, collaboration, and quality. Specifically, most projects are implemented by interprofessional teams of people with diverse skills and backgrounds (Richardson & Jackson, 2018). Communication through different channels, such as emails, face-to-face meetings, phone calls, surveys, discussion boards, memos, presentations, or other techniques enables leaders to coordinate these professionals’ efforts, share feedback, and make recommendations. Effective communication prevents the duplication of tasks, resource misallocation, scope creep, and missed goals and deadlines. Another cause of the project’s failure is the lack of skills and competency among the team members in both organizations, a significant barrier that should be addressed in future projects. Project leaders and other people involved in project implementation need hard and soft skills as well as specific personality traits to ensure project success. Knowledge of project management methodologies, software solutions, team management, project planning, scheduling, time management, budgeting, negotiation, leadership, and risk management, among other skills is required of every project implementation team (Armenia et al., 2019). Additionally, teams have to be adaptable to respond to changes. Members have to be respectful, critical thinkers, patient, and realistic to promote healthy work relationships. In the present case, Girard Medical Center alleged that on numerous occasions, Cerner staff were overheard making derogatory, irresponsible, and...