Project Initiation Documentation (PID) For Dental R Us Practice Management System

Objectives of the project

A dental practise named Dental R Us was set up 2years back in order to accommodate dental care in a newly developed residential area with one dentist, a dental assistant an administrative assistant. However, with an effective operation of the dental practise, the client base has increased as well resulting in the addition of two new dentist and dental assistants or supporting the Practise manager. It is quite a problem to manage all the operations and records manually with the increase in number of staffs and clients. Therefore, as suggested by the practise manager, it is decided that the owner should implement a dental practise management system for facilitating the data to day work of Dental R.

The major objectives of the project are as follows-

1. To design a dental practise management system that will manage the daily operation of Dental R.
2. To design the system in such a way so as it becomes easier for the officials to access and use the system.
3. To automate the billing process by the information system
4. To increase the efficiency of operation by integrating this system in day to day operation of Dental R.

The desired outcomes of implementing the dental practise management system are as follows-

1. The system is expected to streamline all the processes running within Dental R
2. The system is expected to increase the efficiency of the processes and infomrtaion flow.
3. The system is expected to reduce the manual workload of Practise Manager and the employees
4. The system is expected to save a considerable amount of time in data processing.
5. The system is expected to store and manage the clients’ data in en effective manner.
6. The system is expected to be a cost effective solution to Dental R.

7.Since the project is assigned to a local IT group, it is expected that the business will be promoted within that area as well.

The project aims at designing and developing an information management system for Dental R. that will facilitate all the operations of the organization. The operations include keeping a track of the appointments booked for the week, reminders set, patients’ records, accounts and billing details. This information system is to be designed with an aim of reducing the load of the Practise manager in handling the increasing data and workload.   The interface of the system will be simple and easy to use (Mirza, Pourzolfaghar and Shahnazari 2013). However, a proper training is to be imparted to the staffs about the operation of the information system prior to the system being live.

The Project exclusion includes the regular maintenance of the information management system.

Constraints

The project constraints are as follows-

1. The dental practise management system is to be delivered within the scheduled time, and no delay is allowed
2. The resource allocated for the project should be enough to complete the project (Remenyi and Sherwood-Smith 2012)
3. The project cannot undergo a budget revision except for extreme cases.

Assumptions

The assumptions for the project are as follows-

1. The resource allocated is enough to complete the project
2. The tools and techniques chosen for project completion is appropriate
3. The organization will assist in execution of a user acceptance testing

The users of the dental practise management system are definitely the staffs of Dental R. The organizational clients can also use the system for knowing the status of their appointments and billing details.

The interested parties in this project include similar organization that would be benefitted by the implementation of an information management system in their organization.

The interfaces of this project include the project manager and the project owner. The interaction among all the stakeholders associated with the project is a major need for successful completion of the project (Alhawari et al. 2012). Therefore, the project manager is an important interface of the project. Interface management is important in a project as it streamlines the communication process within the project.

Desired outcomes

The iterative waterfall model is the chosen approach for the project as the project size is small and the project is needed to be completed within a scheduled time. In iterative waterfall approach, the entire project is planned at the beginning of the project and the project is implemented according to the plan. This reduces the risk of the project going a budget revision or scope creep during the project implementation (Balaji and Murugaiyan 2012). The iterative waterfall model furthermore have active feedback path that helps in improvising the project during the project implementation phase.

The project aims at developing a dental practise management system that will not only facilitate the different operations of the organization but also increase the business revenue of the organization. This is because the new management information system is expected to improve the business outcome of the organization as well.

The project is expected to complete within 6 months of initiation. All the manual record keeping process would stop after the depletion of the system.

The project is justified as it aims at developing a system that will facilitate and streamline the operations of Dental R. This system aims at reducing the time and labour of manual record keeping. Furthermore, the system is expected to reduce the information flow and data processing time within the organization.

The owner of Dental R., the project executive, and the project manager will approve the project.

Since the project size is small, the project management team consists of only the project manager, the contractor, the supplier, the designer, the coder, tester and application demonstrator. The supplier, coder, designer and the tester reports to the project manager, who manages and supervises the entire project.

The project manager is responsible for laying out a detailed project plan, which will be followed throughout the implementation of the project. The project manager is responsible for the allocating the recourses as well. The supplier will supply the necessary materials for the project. The designer, coder and the tester are a part of the development team. The application demonstrator will demonstrate the software after its delivery.

A quality criterion for a project is to be established and to be included in the project plan. It is the responsibility of the project manager to ensure regular quality checks during the implementation of the project (Kerzner 2013).

Configuration management is a strategy that ensures consistency in the product’s performance, physical attributes, function and operation.

Constraints and assumptions

The configuration management strategy of this project includes automatic back up of the system data and checking for regular updates (Larson and Gray 2013). Configuration management strategy helps performance evaluation of the application (Schwalbe 2015).

The risk management strategy for the project includes three steps (McNeil,  Frey and Embrechts 2015)-

1. Risk identification
2. Risk Evaluation
3. Risk Mitigation

The risk is identified in the project initiation stage. The risk associated with the project are (Pritchard and PMP 2014. )-

1. Technical risk
2. Schedule risk
3. Resource risk

The impact of the technical risk is high and therefore needed to be mitigated with high priority. The likelihood of occurrence and impact of this risk is medium and therefore can be mitigated in due time.

The risk mitigation strategy for technical risk would be risk avoidance. The schedule and the resource risk can be mitigated by ensuring that the project is implemented according to the plan.

Managing a proper communication among the team members is necessary for ensuring successful implementation of the project. The communication tools include phone, email and face to face conversation (Burke 2013). Weekly meetings are scheduled throughout the project implementation phase for ensuring proper communication management throughout the project life cycle (Raupp and Hoffjann 2012).   

The project for implementation of dental practise management system is divided into a number of stages (Bryde, Broquetas and Volm 2013)-

1. Project Planning and Requirement gathering
2. Designing the Framework
3. Coding the Software
4. Testing and Bug Fixing
5. Software Demonstration

These project stages are followed throughout the project implementation phase thus executing the project in a structured manner.

Since the project is to be completed within a set budget, it enforces financial control in the project. Furthermore, it is important to have a regular quality check for ensuring delivery of an error free product. Hence, it is essential to ensure quality Assurance control in the project. Apart from these, the entire project is enforced with document control that ensures every steps and processes followed in the project is properly documented.

• To discuss about Project Scope
  • It was discussed that the project should not experience any scope creep after project initiation.
• To set the project budget
  • Discussion about the set budget of the project was a major agenda of the project.
• Discussion about the project schedule
  • The project is decided to complete within 6 months of project initiation. The project cannot experience any further delay.

Action	Assigned To	Deadline
Documentation of the decisions taken	Project manager	<mm/dd/yy> Please Insert
Requirements gathering for the project	Project Manager, Project owner	Please Insert
Developing a project plan	Project manager	Please Insert
Developing the project milestone	Project manager, Contractor	Please Insert

• The project will follow the set project plan throughout the project implementation.

Practise Manger of Dentists R

Agenda

• Design selection
  • Understanding the requirements of the client and designing the software according to the specifications set
• Setting a Proper Release Date
  • After clearing the project requirements and specification it is necessary to set up a release date for the project
• Finalizing the requirements
  • The specifications of the information management system that is to be developed for Dentists R is finalized

Action	Assigned To	Deadline
Documentation	Project Manger	<mm/dd/yy>
Project Initiation	Project Manager	Please Insert
Designing the product framework	Designer	Please Insert
Coding	Coder	Please Insert

• The project will follow a planned approach
• Coding is to be followed by proper testing of the application

• Determining the Testing methods
  • After completion of coding the software, it is essential to undergo through testing. Different testing methods are finalized in this meeting
• Deciding the time required for bug fixing
  • Discussion on how much time the project team requires to fix the bugs identified in the testing phase
• User Acceptance testing
  • The board members had a discussion on performing the user acceptance test in Dentists R.  

Action	Assigned To	Deadline
Setting up a date for user acceptance test	Project Manager	<mm/dd/yy> Please Insert
Setting a schedule for software demonstration	Project manager, Tester	Please Insert

• The user feedback collected will be analysed properly and will be resolved in a scheduled time
• The project including bug fixation should be completed within the scheduled project time.

References

Alhawari, S., Karadsheh, L., Talet, A.N. and Mansour, E., 2012. Knowledge-based risk management framework for information technology project. International Journal of Information Management, 32(1), pp.50-65.

Balaji, S. and Murugaiyan, M.S., 2012. Waterfall vs. V-Model vs. Agile: A comparative study on SDLC. International Journal of Information Technology and Business Management, 2(1), pp.26-30.

Bryde, D., Broquetas, M. and Volm, J.M., 2013. The project benefits of building information modelling (BIM). International journal of project management, 31(7), pp.971-980.

Burke, R., 2013. Project management: planning and control techniques. New Jersey, USA.

Kerzner, H., 2013. Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.

Larson, E.W. and Gray, C., 2013. Project Management: The Managerial Process with MS Project. McGraw-Hill.

McNeil, A.J., Frey, R. and Embrechts, P., 2015. Quantitative risk management: Concepts, techniques and tools. Princeton university press.

Mirza, M.N., Pourzolfaghar, Z. and Shahnazari, M., 2013. Significance of scope in project success. Procedia Technology, 9, pp.722-729.

Pritchard, C.L. and PMP, P.R., 2014. Risk management: concepts and guidance. CRC Press.

Raupp, J. and Hoffjann, O., 2012. Understanding strategy in communication management. Journal of Communication Management, 16(2), pp.146-161.

Remenyi, D. and Sherwood-Smith, M., 2012. IT investment: making a business case. Routledge.

Schwalbe, K., 2015. Information technology project management. Cengage Learning.