3rd Edition

Project Management in Health and Community Services Getting good ideas to work

By Zhanming Liang, Pauline Stanton Copyright 2019
    264 Pages
    by Routledge

    264 Pages
    by Routledge

    Project management is recognised as a core competency across health and community services environments, yet it can be challenging for new project staff and practitioners to balance the needs of stakeholders and ensure the best outcome for everyone involved.

    This wholly revised edition of Project Management in Health and Community Services presents the tools and techniques for effective practice, offering practical problem-solving strategies for managing projects based on real-life scenarios. The expert authors use case studies and examples from the field to illustrate topics such as the project life cycle, project planning, execution and evaluation, risk management, handling change and building effective teams. This edition also features a new chapter on the importance of incorporating evaluation into project design and implementation, and how evaluation can impact on future project design and development.

    Written by highly experienced authors and underpinned by the latest research, this is an essential resource for anyone studying or working in health and community services.

    How to use this book
    Chapter 1: Why project management?
    What is a project?
    The project life cycle
    Projects in health and community services
    Research for this book
    Project management challenges
    Model for success

    Chapter 2: The industry, the organisation and project success
    The industry: complex, regulated-and still dynamic
    Project capability in organisations
    The project Management Office
    Projects in government departments
    The project portfolio

    Chapter 3: Understanding project management
    The terminology of project management
    The project life cycle
    Differentiating projects and programs
    Project management methods
    Project management tools
    Project management resources
    Project management skills and careers
    Project management courses and professional development

    Chapter 4: The initiation phase: what do you want to do, and why?
    Where do good ideas come from?
    Getting to project goals
    Goals, purposes, problem statements and benefits
    Project scope and strategies
    Turning ideas into projects
    Planning and analysis methods
    In praise of opportunism
    Responding to grants and tenders
    Offering project tenders

    Chapter 5: The project planning phase: what will you do, and how?
    Why plan at all?
    The project charter
    The project plan
    Planning for project assurance
    Project structures
    Planning for human resource needs
    Risk management
    Issue management
    The quality plan
    Communications planning
    Managing project change
    Organisational change management planning
    Planning project logistics
    The project information system
    Planning for evaluation
    Tips for conducting project planning

    Chapter 6: Planning for evaluation: assessing project
    performance
    What is evaluation and why do it?
    Types of evaluation
    Outcome evaluation
    Evaluation approaches and design
    Evaluation in practice-challenges and learning

    Chapter 7: Planning tools: scheduling, budgeting and the
    business case
    Work breakdown structure: tasks, sequencing and timing
    Estimating time and using scheduling tools
    Budgeting
    The project business case

    Chapter 8: The implementation phase 1: making it happen
    Getting started
    Leadership, motivation and teamwork
    Achieving sustainable change

    Chapter 9:The implementation phase 2: controlling, completing, closing
    Control and monitoring during implementation
    When things go wrong: getting back in control
    Project completion
    Sustaining project outcomes

    Biography

    Professor Judith Dwyer AM conducts research in the Flinders University College of Medicine and Public Health, and is a former CEO of Southern Health Care Network in Melbourne, and of Flinders Medical Centre in Adelaide. Dr Zhanming Liang is Senior Lecturer and Course Co-ordinator at the Department of Public Health, La Trobe University and President of the Society of Health Administration Programs in Education. Valerie Thiessen holds qualifications in Health Information and Health Services Management and is a senior consultant at MKM Health in Melbourne.