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Project Kickoff and Getting Started
Upon completion of this chapter, the reader will be able to:
- Describe the essential deliverables needed to kick off a project
- Describe the components of a typical timeline
- List common Transition and Activation Planning goals
- Describe the governance and committee structure
- List the components of a committee charter
- Name the major categories for a Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM) budget
- List the typical components in a communication plan
- Explain the purpose and use of a Decisions Document
- Review common metrics that should be included on a project dashboard
Introduction
The beginning is the most important part of the work. (Plato, The Republic)
Starting off on the right path with a clear plan is the first step to ensuring a successful project. When developing the plan, the Transition and Activation Lead should include project-specific information including the scope of work, goals, and roles and responsibilities for each team member. In our experience, having a dedicated Transition and Activation project manager responsible for the management and oversight of the project is critical to ensuring that the project remains on track. This chapter will provide an overview of the elements and deliverables required to get you started.
Getting Started: Where to Begin
Step 1: Transition and Activation Planning Project Assessment
Every project is unique in scope and complexity. Each facility's organizational culture is unique, so the Transition and Activation Plan should be customized to best suit the needs of the organization and project scope. It is critical to align the project objectives, priorities, and requirements with the culture to ensure success. Use past experiences of successful implementation of change or managing projects in the organization and apply them to the Transition and Activation Planning process. Consider reviewing Lessons Learned documents and historical information within the organization and consulting with outside organizations that have recently completed similar projects to better understand the task at hand.
To begin the Transition and Activation Planning process, a needs assessment should be conducted to validate the organization's goals of the project and the resources required to complete the project. The scope of work, resource requirements, and gaps and risks are identified during the assessment. The information gathered during the assessment will be used to develop a comprehensive project plan. The level of participation in the assessment will vary from project to project based on the organization's culture, so it is important to validate the approach and goals with the designated Project Executive to ensure congruency. Some organizations limit involvement to senior leaders and the executive team, while others include frontline staff and representatives from the community and family councils.
The assessment process begins with the leadership team and project sponsors to identify the stakeholders and participants who will be included in the department interviews. During this meeting, validate best practices for communication in the organization. For example, clarify with stakeholders whether email, phone, intranet, or in-person meetings is preferred. It is helpful to use familiar language, tools, and processes when working with a new facility.
After meetings with the leadership team, department interviews are conducted with departments that will occupy the new facility and any department impacted as a result of the new facility. The goals of the interviews are to validate the assumptions of the new building and to obtain the following information:
- General building changes: impacts to space, census/volume, fire alarms, security, access, parking
- Department operations: anything that will be new or different in their department
- Human resources: staffing, role or job description changes, shared staff, or other changes
- Equipment/technical: new or different equipment or IT devices and programs
- Other: anything else they are concerned about. (A good question to ask is “What is keeping you up at night related to the operations and move into the new facility?”)
Closed-loop communication is a communication technique used to avoid misunderstandings. Once the sender gives a message, the receiver repeats the message back to confirm understanding.
Goals and Outputs from the Assessment with Executive Team or Project Sponsor
- Validate scope of work
- Validate work completed to date
- Validate stakeholders
- Validate resources currently available and identify any additional resources needed
- Validate roles and responsibilities of the construction project team, executive team, Transition and Activation Planning Team, and end-users
- Confirm committee structure and governance
- Confirm project timeline and identify project milestones
- Confirm meeting cadence and participant availability and constraints
- Validate Transition and Activation project plan for next 90 days
- Confirm new department placement and “From–To” list
- Identify organizational challenges and competing priorities
Goals and Outputs from the Assessment with End-Users
- Validate new and different department operations and service line plans
- Validate required changes in workflow as a result of the new design or layout
- Validate new and different equipment and systems
- Confirm any challenges or concerns as a result of the new facility that are “keeping them up at night”
- Validate work completed to date
- Develop task list
- Validate end-user participation availability and constraints
- Validate Transition and Activation project plan for next 90 days
Use of a Full-Time Transition and Activation Planning Consultant
The ideal timeline to engage a Transition and Activation Planning consultant will vary based on the project size and scope. To provide a benchmark, this guide is using a 150–200 bed community hospital relocating to a brand-new facility as an example throughout the guide. The recommended timeframe to engage a Transition and Activation planning consultant for a facility of this size is two years prior to Day 1 Activation.
Step 2: Transition and Activation Planning Timeline
The next step is to develop a comprehensive Transition and Activation Planning timeline. The timeline includes activities based on the construction schedule and owner requested date for Day 1 Activation. Much of the information needed to develop the timeline can be obtained from the construction project plan. The construction project plan includes information such as expected equipment and system installation, room or department completion, and key milestone dates that drive the planning activities. The balance of the information comes from the executive team and organizational goals.
The Transition and Activation Planning timeline should include project milestones and any organizational initiatives that may compete with the Transition and Activation Planning project activities, such as an electronic medical record upgrade or a planned regulatory or accreditation survey. It is important to remember that most of the stakeholders have full-time jobs in addition to the project work related to the new facility; therefore, all organizational initiatives must be considered when developing the Transition and Activation Planning timeline.
Typical Transition and Activation Planning Milestones: Town hall events to share project information with stakeholders, Substantial Completion, Dress Rehearsal events, Certificate of Occupancy, Regulatory Visits, Mock Move, Move Day, Day 1 Activation.
Considerations and Implications When Developing a Timeline
The Transition and Activation Planning Lead is responsible for creating and managing the Transition and Activation Planning timeline for the facility. The timeline is developed with input from the following groups: construction, facilities, IT/IS, communications, equipment, furniture, supply chain, procurement, operations and support department leaders, regulatory, education and training, HR, EVS, security, and vendors such as Transition and Activation planning consultants, equipment planning consultants, and the move company. It is important to take into consideration the dependencies of each activity and any impacts to the downstream teams when creating a timeline. The building needs to be secured before other activities can be coordinated. For example, EVS must clean the space so furniture can be installed, then IT can place devices on the furniture, and equipment must be delivered and installed so that staff can be trained on the new features. Because this is a construction project, it is wise to add float time or buffers to the timeline to account for any unplanned events that may cause project delays.
Step 3: The Transition and Activation Planning Team
The Transition and Activation Planning Team are typically leaders from the existing facility who possess strong project management skills and understand the organization, operations, and culture. The organization should identify an executive sponsor who is actively engaged in the construction project and serves as a champion for the project. A dedicated Transition and Activation Planning Lead will serve as the facilities leader and oversees all aspects of the Transition and Activation Plan.
If funding or support for a full-time Transition and Activation Planning Lead is not available, then the team should have clear roles and reassignment of existing workload and responsibilities in order to ensure the project receives the attention needed to support the project's success.
Other dedicated team member roles include representatives from clinical departments, facilities, IT, procurement, logistics, finance, education, and project support. Chairs, co-chairs, and members for the various committees will need dedicated time to work on Transition and Activation Planning activities. Typically, these participants are department managers and staff from the departments that are moving.
The following roles should be included for a project with a scope of 150–200 new beds:
- Transition and Activation Planning Lead
- Clinical op...
