Picking Things Up Midstream

Kenneth has 14 years of healthcare experience in government and private industry. Over eight years of experience managing healthcare IT projects, operations, contracts, and personnel. His work experience includes project management, contracts and procurements, data analysis, claims adjudication, business writing, and business process modeling. Kenneth was certified in 2006 as a Project Management Professional.

  Risk Management  

Sometimes when you are assigned to a project, either as a project manager or as a member of the project team, the project is already in flight. While it would be great to take some time to get up to speed appropriately and ease into the project, there is rarely time for that. You are usually inheriting tasks that are already late, and there are a hundred items due tomorrow (and they are all high priority)!

Jumping into a project midstream can be very challenging. You need to approach it carefully, even at an accelerated timeframe.

Ramping Up
One of the first things you will need to do is ramp up to a point where you are knowledgeable about the project and the work you will be doing on it. Even if you do not have much time, you need to gather all of the documentation and resource material you can get your hands on and do your homework.

There is no shortcut for hard work. You may be jumping in and working on tasks, but you can still be spending some time doing the work to get caught up. You need to review all of the processes that determine how the project is managed. As an objective viewer, you may even see room for improvements when you are reviewing all the information.

Interviews
If possible, spend some time talking to and finding out information from the other project team members. This is perhaps the most invaluable source of information. The people on the …

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