Written by Gregory Barnett
The April Healthcare Forum started on time with 15 – 20 people in attendance.
Karl J. Welch, PMP, formerly employed at McKesson, described his experience as Scrum Master on a legacy replacement project and led an engaging, interactive discussion on effective uses of Agile. Karl also drew comparisons with the waterfall approach and highlighted the intricacies of replacing a legacy system.
First, Karl outlined similarities shared by all projects such as customer buy in and change management. As with all projects, there are unique challenges, and Karl explained many that he faced. Adding functionality or providing a different way to utilize existing functionality requires an understanding of the legacy system being replaced, which was not available in Karl’s case. It is imperative that the replacement functionality not impact existing legacy systems. The tendency of users is to want the exact same functionality regardless of the access method, and in most cases, users want the same access method. Said another way, users don’t want any changes made to systems they’ve become comfortable using. The nature of agile development teams present unique issues when it comes to planning and user interaction. As the PM, Karl had to strike a balance between highly skilled developers and the user representative to insure that the functionality met the user community’s needs without impacting existing processes. Finally, replacing a legacy system or functionality as part of an existing legacy system is an all or nothing proposition. There is no phased approach for a rollout that affects multiple hospital implementations.
Karl asked if any of the attendees had similar experiences or if they wanted to share their insights and many responded. Karl shared examples of how he overcame challenges, such as not having proper user representation and project knowledge. He provided his perspective on the use of Agile methodologies vs. the waterfall approach. The major difference is the quicker turnaround time agile provides and the flexibility through the use of sprints. However, Karl made it clear either methodology can be used, depending on the project. The strategy that Karl outlined for this project involved dedicating a number of sprints as phases to a specific user group such as providers and coders. Once the functionality was accomplished within all phases, and all defects were addressed, the product was available for rollout. Product rollouts could be available in 3 to 4 months, in some cases, however, Karl discovered that most hospitals preferred implementations in 12 -18 month increments.
This was an engaging and interesting forum. Everyone participated and they were able to take away valuable tools to use on their next project.
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