Written by Nevella Paul, MBA, PMP

PMI Atlanta’s Healthcare Forum attendees were pleasantly enlightened with the engaging presentation delivered by Brett Byrnes, Project Manager, Implementation Services at nThrive. Brett began has presentation with three intriguing questions:

  1. Where do the Client expectations originate?
  2. What is Statement of Work (SOW)?
  3. How do they become mismatched?

These questions led into a case study that created an interactive discussion on project expectations and what to do when the expectations are not clearly defined. The case study focused on a Patient Accounting System (PAS) conversion project.

Brett delved into the case study by sharing the general background information, initial requirements and the standard timeline for the project. He discussed the importance of having a SOW defined at the beginning of the project and the need to continuously managing expectations throughout the project. The lack of a SOW will mostly like cause scope creep and other changes to the projects. These unmanaged and unexpected changes will create rework in the project management life cycle and subsequently increase the likelihood of project failure.

When this occurs, what do you do now?
Option 1: RUN AWAY or Option 2: Manage Expectations

You should manage the expectations by:

  • Communicating with the Project Team
  • Communicating with the Stakeholders
  • Enact the Change Management Process

Executing these steps will help get the project back in line and increase the potential of project success.

Presentation key takeaways:

  • If there is no SOW or SOW is not clearly defined do not move forward with the project.
  • Plan, Plan, Plan before you execute! If it takes 4 months to plan, DO IT!
  • Pre-planning, do more up front. It will save time and effort throughout the project.
  • Everyone should know their responsibilities and they should be outlined in the Master agreement.
  • Client responsibilities and “Our” responsibilities need to be quantified with dates.
  • The Change Management Process is key in any project

Brett concluded his presentation with a question and answer session, and Lasondria Hill closed the meeting by thanking Brett and the Healthcare Forum participants.

Please join us Wednesday, April 16 from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at the Healthcare Forum for the:

Keynote Presentation: “How a Combination of Treatments and Vaccines Is Creating a Paradigm Shift in Combating Infectious Diseases” presented by Darnisha Harrison, President and CEO, Ennaid Therapeutics

Location: Philips Healthcare
PHA Academy
One Deerfield Centre
13560 Morris Road
Alpharetta, GA 30004