Taking the Next Bite

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.

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Topics: Scheduling, Scope Management, Stakeholder Management

You can never eat an entire meal in one bite, and you certainly cannot devour your ice cream too quickly (or you risk getting brain freeze!). And yet so many people, especially customers, want to see the project completed in a week, or perhaps they simply expect to see some miraculous move forward after they identify what the problem is.

Projects happen steadily over time, all according to the plan and the schedule that the project manager and the project team put together. You cannot force it…you just have to take it one bite at a time.

The Work Breakdown Structure
One of the first and smallest bites you need to take is the work breakdown structure. This is the process of looking at the entire scope of the project and breaking it down into small, bite-sized morsels. You might start by looking at the entire project and splitting it into different phases, perhaps based on the development lifecycle associated with the project.

From there you continue to isolate the chunks of work that need to be done until you have an entire WBS that creates a cohesive picture of how the project will be executed and the scope will be accomplished. This WBS will show the project team how it can work one bite at a time.

The Project Schedule
Once you have a work breakdown structure, you need to create a schedule of how to enjoy the meal one bite at a time. You will probably …

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