Veterinary Clinic Automation Project - Research Paper Example

Team 3, “The Titans” Veterinary Clinic Automation Project IFSM 438 6381: Information Systems Project Management (2152) ITP-5- Project Risk Assessment(Individual Project). Scott Tolbert Project Manager Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Executive Summary: 3 Risk Management Overview: 5 Managing Risks: 6 Appendix A: 11 Appendix B: 15 References: 16 Executive Summary: Happy Tails Veterinary Clinic has teamed with the University of Maryland University College (UMUC) to upgrade its clinic from a paper based system to an automated computer based system. Happy Tails Veterinary Clinic has 22 employees, eight examination rooms, three operating rooms, and three diagnostic rooms that are used to provide veterinary care to pets in the surrounding area. The desire to move from paper records and schedules to electronic versions springs from wanting to take on more patients and improve business practices. Happy Tails Veterinary Clinic chose the Titans Company Inc. to handle this project upgrade. The Titans Company Inc. is a small information technology firm, which specializes in the design, development, and installation of information technology (IT) systems. Founded in 2005, the company has been doing business in the United States and internationally for the past ten years. All Titans Company Inc. employees are Project Management Professional Certification certified (PMP) and dedicated to Happy Tails Veterinary Clinic’s goal of implementing a clinic wide IT System upgrade. The Happy Tails Veterinary Clinic Risk Management Assessment (RMA), similar to a schedule, outlines five major tasks with subordinate tasks and sub-subtasks that range from the Initiation Phase that define the project requirements to the Closeout Phase that involve training users and evaluating project success. The RMA lists all necessary tasks to carry out the project and includes task durations, predecessors and successors, and recurring tasks. There are several milestones that act as decision points for the Project Manager and Client throughout the project along with all project deliverables agreed upon in the Project Plan Document. The WBS utilizes several project management concepts and product design ideas to enable Happy Tails Veterinary Clinic to achieve its overall technological goals. Risk Management Overview: Most Severe Risks to the Project Happy Tails Clinic faces a series of risks that are common to all clinics and other projects that may have similar dynamics as the clinic. However, the main risk that the clinic faces is the lack of completion of the project due to the stakeholders, shareholders or the main sponsors of the project pulling out of the project before its completion. While conducting the initiation phase the project manager has to invite the stakeholders who have to assess the project and decide whether to fund the project in the longrun to ensure its completion (Crouhy and Mark, 2010). The problem is severe since it would halt the project before coming up with other secondary investors who may be interested in investing in the project, which is a contingency plan. The problem with the initial investors pulling out is that although one may find secondary investors, they may tend to be more cautious, and as a result the cash outlay or the funds may not be as high as for the initial investors. Similarly, in the creation of project charter task the pulling out of the stakeholders from the project would run the highest form of risk for the task and also for the project as whole. The stakeholders are important in the funding process of the project, and if they lack interest in investing in the project then the project has to be cancelled. The pulling out of the stakeholders at this stage would be more critical to the company than at the initial stage since there is no contingency plan for getting the secondary stakeholders since the project is already past the first phase. The losses that the clinic would incur as a result are too high for the project. There is the risk of being unable to start the conduct implementation phase due to delays in previous tasks and steps being incomplete. There are many risks that the project faces before the completion of the project, and if a single risk culminates and changes the dynamics of the project, this may lead to delays in the implementation phase of the project. Since the clinic would have the initial parts of the project complete having problems at the initial implementation phase that acts as the stepping stone of the project is unfathomable. The project manager is tasked with overseeing the proper implementation and conduct of the project, and therefore, he has a decision to make in regards to the project. Configuration of systems is also an important part of the project, since it acts as the benchmark and the main source of proper service delivery within the clinic. The task may be faced with the problem of having a system that is not configured within the clinics specifications making it difficult to implement within the clinic. This raises problems since the quality and efficiency of service delivered will be badly affected. The problem is severe to the overall project and should be assessed and critically examined to ensure that the project does not raise any problems in future after the completion of the project. There are other risks that are not as severe as the aforementioned risks but are critical to the project. While generating the test cases task the project faces the risk of having some of the users in the test cases not being available to help build the test. The test cases and the people that are selected have unique characteristics to help with the test. Failure of a person to show up for the tests may be critical to the project as it may lead to incomplete tasks that may in turn lead to incompletion of the project (Holmes, 2012). Similarly, while developing the training specification plan inability to perform the needs and skills analysis as a result of the users’ unavailability may also affect the project. The problem is transferred to the other parts of the project thereby leading to an incomplete project. Managing Risks: Mitigation of The risks One of the most severe risks that the project faces is the pulling out of the stakeholders either at the initial stage or at the creation of the charter phase. The project manager is tasked with the role of convincing the stakeholders that the project is a good investment and ensuring that they support the project to completion. Since the project manager cannot be versed with all the skills, it is important to hire consultants that will help in identifying the parts of the project that will be attractive to the investors. The consultants should consult with the project manager and give advice on how to ‘package’ the project to not only attract the investors, but also to keep them to the end of the project. The pointers are important in ensuring that the investors are on-board hence the funding that the project needs. Delays in the implementation stage of the project are as a result of delays or incompletion of different tasks on the project prior to the implementation (Ansell and Wharton, 2012). It is therefore important for the project manager to make a decision on the factors that are material to the project and can hinder the implementation and those that are immaterial and although important the project should still be implemented. The distinction between the two factors ensures that the manager identifies the problem and although it may cost the project money can go back and through the use of funds revamp the stage that is delaying the project and in turn lead to the implementation of the project (Melham and Lutkenhof, 2009). It is however not tenable to clearly and distinctively identify a specific stage that may cause the delay and as a result the costs for the delays may not be calculated. Configuration of the system for service delivery is hugely important to the project for service delivery. The configuration process may however be hampered by having the wrong systems that may not be configurable to the clinics specifications (Fortinski et al, 2014). The project manager should consult with the IT team and come up with the best system that is configurable to the specifications of the clinic thereby ensuring proper service delivery for the clinic. Costs of the Mitigation Plan to the Project The mitigation processes will have an increase in the level of costs since the project needs to have the best methods in order to ensure that it does not run the highlighted risks that may affect it in the long-run. Hiring a consultant is critical to the project since they are important in selling the project to the stakeholders who are the investors in the project (Makar,2009). Increasing the funds in the project to revamp a sector so as to implement the project on the set time is also important to the project since the implementation stage. This will increase the costs of the project although the funds may not be used if at the implementation stage of the project. On the other hand if the system configuration does not meet the service delivery intended by the project it is important to re-order and re-configure the systems (Snyder and Cox, 1985). This will cost the project more costs but in the long-run the costs will help the clinic in being more efficient and also deliver the service better. The project will therefore cost the project more and be more successful since the risk handling will reduce the level of risks thereby leading to better performance and completion of the project. The costs are determined through approximating the cost of consultation that is important to the clinic and the project as a whole. This will help in enduring that the stakeholders remain on the table since they will be sold on the ideas and the pointers that the consultant instructs. The costs to revamp a task are determined through approximating the number of tasks prior to the implementation stage and coming up with a figure that may be appropriate if the sectors fail keeping in mind that not all the tasks will fail to be completed on time. The costs of re-configuration are determined through consulting the IT team who have the costs of the initial configuration and can determine the costs of reconfiguration (Hester and Harrison, 2010). This helps in ensuring that the clinic has the best system that helps it in service delivery upon the completion of the project. Mitigating these risks is important since their status is severe meaning that any collapse in one of these tasks would lead to a complete disaster for the project and a result, the project would not be finished on time. Breakdown of the costs with a $20000 Budget The initial project risk before starting the project would cost the project roughly $2000 to mitigate the risk of the stakeholders pulling out. The creation of the project charter where the clinic faces the problem of the stakeholders pulling out $2000 to hire consultants that would help in convincing the stakeholders At the implementation there needs to be roughly $8000 to revamp any stage that delays the project implementation plan The reconfiguration of the system and its specifications that would cost $5000 if the configuration system was not compatible to the clinic specifications $3000 would be for any eventualities or unforeseen risks such as incremental costs that may affect the clinic The initial process of the project and the hiring of consultant as well as the creation of the charter that requires the same cause of action would be implemented (Darter, 2012). The reconfiguration process is also important to service delivery and given that there is a five day delay for the project this would be implemented to ensure that the project runs smoothly. Since there is no certainty as to the task that would delay the project the revamping of the tasks would not be appropriated properly and therefore would have to be foregone in this case. Most Expensive Contingency Plan The most expensive contingency plan would be the revamping of the projects and decision making process by the project manager to ensure that there is implementation of the project on time. Given that the cause of the delay is unknown the project manager has to wait and see the task that causes any delay before acting. It wastes a lot of time as the project manager looks to come up with the best method to ensure that the task is completed on the set period of time specified. The expenses that the task would incur also increase since the project manager has to look and try different permutations before coming up with the best policy to help in the specific task and project. Appendix A: Terminology Table: Additional risks: Risks for additional tasks: Results of handling each risk after controls are implemented: Consequences or cost at risk (Mandatory): The consequences of a risk can again be ranked and classified into one of the five categories, based on how severe the damage can be. 1. Insignificant: Risks that will cause a near negligible amount of damage to the overall progress of the project. 2. Marginal: If a risk will result in some damage, but the extent of damage is not too significant and is not likely to make much of a difference to the overall progress of the project. 3. Moderate: Risks which do not impose a great threat, but yet a sizable damage can be classified as moderate. 4. Critical: Risks with significantly large consequences which can lead to a great amount of loss are classified as critical. 5. Catastrophic: These are the risks which can make the project completely unproductive and unfruitful, and must be a top priority during risk management. Likelihood or probability (Mandatory): Based on the likelihood of the occurrence of a risk the risks can be classified under one of the five categories: 1. Definite: A risk that is almost certain to show-up during project execution. If you’re looking at percentages a risk that is more than 80% likely to cause problems will fall under this category. 2. Likely: Risks that have 60-80% chances of occurrence can be grouped as likely. 3. Occasional: Risks which have a near 50/50 probability of occurrence. 4. Seldom: Risks that have a low probability of occurrence but still can not be ruled out completely. 5. Unlikely: Rare and exceptional risks which have a less than 10% chance of occurrence. Final risk score or product (consequence times likelihood) (Mandatory) Quantitative numerical consequences, probabilities, and risk scores (rather than subjective, qualitative, or adjectival assessments): Additional narrative discussion of each risk, Handling method, etc.: Total of all the risk scores (risk products) for the entire project after risk controls are implemented, in dollars: Once the risks have been placed in the matrix, in cells corresponding to the appropriate likelihood and consequences, it becomes visibly clear as to which risks must be handled at what priority. Each of the risks placed in the table will fall under one of the categories, for which different colors have been used in the sample risk assessment template provided with this article. Here are some details on each of the categories: Extreme: The risks that fall in the cells marked with ‘E’ (red color), are the risks that are most critical and that must be addressed on a high priority basis. The project team should gear up for immediate action, so as to eliminate the risk completely. High Risk: Denoted with ‘H’ with a pink background in the risk assessment template, also call for immediate action or risk management strategies. Here in addition to thinking about eliminating the risk, substitution strategies may also work well. If these issues cannot be resolved immediately, strict timelines must be established to ensure that these issues get resolved before the create hurdles in the progress. Medium: If a risk falls in one of the orange cells marked as ‘M’ , it is best to take some reasonable steps and develop risk management strategies in time, even though there is no hurry to have such risks sorted out early. Such risks do not require extensive resources; rather they can be handled with smart thinking and logical planning. Low Risk: The risks that fall in the green cells marked with ‘L’, can be ignored as they usually do not pose any significant problem. However still, if some reasonable steps can help in fighting these risks, such steps should be taken to improve overall performance of the project. Appendix B: List of terminologies used Risk management: This is the identification, assessment and prioritization of risks that is followed by strategic and economical application of the resources in order to minimize control and influence the impact of the risks or the unfortunate results in in order to maximize on the set objectives. Mitigation of risks: It is the responses that are available to a project in order to ensure that the occurrence of a risk that has been forecasted does not occur. It involves the strategic responses that the project has to adapt to ensure that it does not suffer from the risk. Incremental costs: These are the costs that are suffered in the production of an extra unit of a good or service within the project. They are essential in the projects since they define the timelines that the project takes as a result of any changes in the output in the project Reconfiguration: This is the remodeling or restructuring of a particular object or system to suit the specific need. Stakeholders: these are the people that benefit from investing in a project and they are the main sponsors for the project since they help in ensuring that there are enough funds for the completion of the project. Permutation: these are the different ways that a given scenario is set to pan out. In projects the project manager needs to assess the different permutations in order to understand the different ways that a project can change and as a result strategize on the eventualities. References: Ansell, J., & Wharton, F. (2012). Risk: Analysis, assessment, management. Chichester: Wiley. CPMM Guidebook. (n.d.). Retrieved January 30, 2015, from   http://www2.cit.cornell.edu/computer/robohelp/cpmm/CPMM_Guidebook.htm   Crouhy, M., Galai, D., & Mark, R. (2010). Risk management. New York: McGraw Hill. Darter, K. (2012, November 7). WBS Analysis. Retrieved January 26, 2015, from   http://www.projectmanagement.com/articles/275780/WBS-Analysis   Fortinsky, R. H., Iannuzzi-Sucich, M., Baker, D. I., Gottschalk, M., King, M. B., Brown, C. J., & Tinetti, M. E. (2004). Fall-Risk Assessment and Management in Clinical Practice: Views from Healthcare Providers: FALL RISK ASSESSMENT AND MANAGEMENT. Journal of The American Geriatrics Society. doi:10.1111/j.1532-5415.2004.52416.x Hester, R. E., & Harrison, R. M. (2008). Risk assessment and risk management. Cambridge, UK: Royal Society of Chemistry. Holmes, A. (2012). Risk management. Oxford, U.K: Capstone Pub. Makar, A. (2009, October 26). Dont Fear the WBS. Retrieved January 26, 2015, from   http://www.projectmanagement.com/articles/252435/Don-t-Fear-the-WBS  Mehlman, M. A., Lutkenhoff, S. D., United States., & International Symposium on Chemical Mixtures: Risk Assessment and Management. (2009). Risk assessment and risk management. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Scientific Pub. Co. Project Scope Management. (2008). In A Guide to the project management body of knowledge:   PMBOK guide: 4th ed. (4th ed., p. 116). Newtown Square, Pa.: Project Management Institute.  Project Time Management (2014). In Project Management From Simple to Complex. The Saylor Foundation. Retrieved January 1, 2018, from http://www.saylor.org/site/textbooks/Project%20Management%20- %20From%20Simple%20to%20Complex.pdf  Snyder, C., & Cox, J. (1985). A Dynamic Systems Development Life-Cycle Approach: A Project Management Information System. Journal of Management Information Systems, p61-76. Working with People on Projects (2014). In Project Management From Simple to Complex. The Saylor Foundation. Retrieved January 1, 2018, from: http://www.saylor.org/site/textbooks/Project%20Management%20- %20From%20Simple%20to%20Complex.pdf Read More