Discussion: The existing plan for the communication
The case study discusses about the existing health information system at the County Health Department. The case study states that the existing health information system is capable of the storing of the data in effective way. However, the health information system lacks of the required flexibility. The parents and the users have to enter the same data regarding the information of the patient for several times in the database for taking appointment at the different department [3]. In order to bring the flexibility in the system, the improvised and the modified health care system has been proposed. The focus of the discussion of this paper is to evaluate the communication plan for the proposed project and make the recommendations for the improvisation of the current communication plan.
The communication plan is the important feature for the management of the project. In this context the communication flow between the stakeholders are needed to be maintained [8]. The proper communication between the stakeholders will help to mitigate the chances of the scope creep in the project. Apart form that the gathering of the requirement and providing proper update about the progress of the project can be achieved through the proper implementation of the communication plan.
In the current communication plan it has been seen that the existing stakeholders are the clients, the sponsors, project management team, government agencies and the media [1]. The communication plan is said to be proper if the flow of the communication has been maintained between the every stakeholders in a proper way.
It can be seen from the existing communication plan that there is a lack of communication in the existing communication plan which is not a desired quality of the proper communication plan [5]. The lack in the flow of the communication can lead to the scope creep in the project.
The practices regarding the management of the project is important as it helps the project to deliver the right outcome. There are five stages for the management of the project which is included in the project management life cycle [2]. These five stage are – initialization of the project, planning and designing of the project, execution of the project, controlling and monitoring of the project and the closing of the project. Following of these five steps in a proper way can help to project to deliver the right outcome.
The communication plan is an important aspect of the project management as it helps to maintain the flow of the communication throughout the five stages of the project management. The sharing of the information between different stakeholders is important during the development of the project. It has been seen that the current communication plan does not have the proper flow of the communication between different stakeholders [7]. The information sharing is enable between the client and the project team members. However there is not specific way of communication mentioned between the project team members and the media along with the government. This will lead to the miscommunication and the possibility of the scope creep in the project. The scope creep defines the sudden changes in the requirements of the project while development. The scope creep is not desirable in the project as it will lead to the increase of the time and the budget for the delivery of the outcome of the project.
In this case the scope creep can raised as the communication plan is not compete and proper. Apart from that the people will not be informed about the progress of the project in a proper way as there is a lack of communication between the project team members and media [3]. Moreover, the lack of communication between the government agencies and the project team is not desirable for the government owned projects like improvisation of the information system in County Health Department.
The proper project management plan consists of the compilation of the all five stages of the project management life cycle. The update regarding the progress of these five different states are needed to be shared among the existing stakeholders of the project. In order to do this proper project management plan and the management of the stakeholders are needed to be carried out in a proper way. The sharing of the information regarding the progress of these five stages among the stakeholders in the project will help to deliver the project right outcome [6]. The lack of the communication can lead to the scope creep in the development of the project.
It has been seen that the mentioned communication plan in the case study is lacking the proper flow of the communication which is not desirable. In order to mitigate the lack of the communication between different stakeholders of the project some of the steps can be taken. The communication between the clients and the project team members can be improved along with that the implementation of the way of communication between the team members and the government agencies along with the media can be taken into concern [4]. This will help the government and the media to get updated about the progress of the project and the people can be concerned about the progress of the project. The feedback taking system can be improved through the improvisation of the communication plan [2]. Part from that the clarity in the requirements can be achieved through the implementation for the proper communication plan. The improvement and the specification of the way of communication can be mentioned clearly in the modified communication plan.
Conclusion
The paper discussed about the existing health information system in the County Health Department. The flaws in the existing health information system has been identified. In order to mitigate the issues regarding the information system the proposal of the modified health information system has been implemented. It has been found out that the communication plan mentioned in the case study has some flaws. In order to mitigate the flaws certain steps has been recommended. It can be concluded from the discussion that following of the steps mentioned in the recommendation can help to mitigate the existing problems in the communication plan.
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