Project management - pharmacists know how to do project management but here are a few additional tips and specifics about it to help you personally and professionally.

I have my student pharmacist on rotation with me, Dustin Chandler who’s a 4th year at Belmont to help me out with this one.

• What is project management

Project management is generally the way in which one person or team manages their resources in order to complete a project. These resources can be anything from time, money, personnel, or physical resources like materials needed to build houses. 

• So then why do you need to be good at project management?

Project management is can help people, teams, or organizations complete task effectively and efficiently. By this, I mean if one keeps track of your project, your progress, your goals, what you start with or end with; you can reduce the total cost by planning ahead and analyzing your current resources. As for time, being able to balance all of the projects that you have on your plate along with when they are due is crucial to having them done on time. Like a good chef, you would be able to work on multiple dishes at the same time to have them all come out hot, fresh, and ready for your customers. 

• Role of PM?
  • PM is to define, document, and keep everyone on task with these seven…   
  • 1.    For any project, what is the Problem?
  • 2.    What is the Objective?
  • 3.    What are the major Steps in getting to the objective?
  • 4.    Who is responsible to complete each step?
  • 5.    When is each step Due to be completed?
  • 6.    What is the Deliverable(s) for the project?
  • 7.    What is the Budget and have we stayed within budget?

·         The five roles in PM - https://hbr.org/2016/11/five-critical-roles-in-project-management Written in a way that is intended for major projects.  But still applies to more discrete projects such as my definition of the 7 items above.

• How do you achieve good project management?

One major thing you need to have is clear understanding of where you are and what your goals are. If you know where your current resources are allocated and where you need to spend them to accomplish your goals, then you can do better forward thinking. If you goals are clear, there will be less last minute adjustments as you try and get a better picture of what you want out of a project toward the end.

This leads to you needing realistic and achievable goals. One thing that I always heard is that your goals need to be SMART: Specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely.

Another important aspect that you have to consider is that someone has to be taking stock in how well you are progressing. If you just continuously work on a project without taking a step back every now and then to make sure you or your team is on the right track, you could get to the end and realize you never hit your goal. But that’s not necessarily bad, you’ve gained experience working on this type of project and you’ve attained some value from this failure.

• Part I: Define the Problem 
  • Define the problem, not the symptoms.  Avoid rushing to solutions.  
• Part II: Identify Stakeholders
  • What are their goals
  • Who has a stake in the outcome
  • Who are the key players in Projects?

Sponsor: Person at the head of the project who helps get everything available to use. This person is usually the one who either has to approve, fund, or collect your budget/resources. They generally have SOMETHING to gain out of the project

Project manager: this individual (or individuals) is generally the head operator and reports to the sponsor. They can tell how much the budget is, what needs to be done, set timelines, goals, and milestones, along with many other tasks.

Team Leader: while most of the time the project manager takes on this role, this is not always the case. The team leader is the one who facilitates the other team members. Do they have complaints or problems? He listens to them and reports to the project manager. He also does work on the project as well, setting a good example for other members.

Team Members: these are the people who do most of the work on the project and with the project team. These members need to have some sort of skill or area they excel at that would help the project. Have someone who is really good at IT? Great for a project focused on technology, not so great for ones focused on manual labor. Generally skills are either technical, problem-solving based, interpersonal, or organizational. Each team generally needs a member who excels at atleast one of these skills to be balanced. Over the course of the project, you may find that you need to increase your skill balance by adding or subtracting members from your teams. For instance, if you have a team member who never communicates what they are doing, it might be a good idea to replace them with someone with better interpersonal skills. 

A project is: a set of interrelated activities, usually involving a group of people who are working together toward a common goal over a period of time.

Getting everyone on a project team aligned behind the project’s objectives isn’t easy. How to surmount this challenge? Ask for help from team members who object to the project goal. Invite everyone’s input during project meetings. And explain the thinking behind your decisions.

-      Gain trust

-     Ask for help

-      Listen to opinions of others 

• Part III. Define Objectives
  • SMART—specific, measurable, action-oriented, realistic, and time-limited.
• Part IV: Determine Scope, Resources, Major Tasks
• Part V. Anticipate Trade-offs
  • conflicting demands of your stakeholders? What trade-offs can you anticipate in terms of quality, time, and cost? 
  • What "scope creep" can you anticipate? What additional problems might stakeholders want the project to solve? Clarify what lies inside (and outside) the project's scope.
• Phases involved = Planning, Buildup, Implementation, Phaseout

 The Four Phases of PM - https://hbr.org/2016/11/the-four-phases-of-project-management .  Very corporate and written in a way that is intended for major projects.  E.G. building a reservoir and hydroelectric dam in Bolivia.  But still applies to more discrete projects such as my definition of the 7 items above.

1.       Planning: Set up what problem you are trying to solve, who needs to be involved, and what you want to have done. In this phase you are making estimates about time, resource, and monetary requirements. This is also the phase of a project that has the most fluidity. Nothing is set or is being set in stone yet. Think the scope of the project is to big? Separate it down to smaller ones or trim some of it down on the current one. Have budget concerns? Cut down in other areas to reduce the budget. The major factor in this phase is t...