The Coupling of Two Big Industries

 

Healthcare and IT are two major industries on their own. These two powerhouses are being integrated in many interesting ways that are helpful for patients and efficient for companies in both fields. The August PM Network cover story reports that project managers are seeing increasing opportunities in initiatives involving electronic health records, video consultations and smartphone apps for diagnosis. Particular challenges in these projects are scope creep due to the high degree of customization, privacy concerns, prevention of hacking and gaining engagement from doctors and nurses.

How do Enterprise Project Management Offices (EPMO) secure C-suite buy in in order to deliver results? Four EPMO leaders provide their ideas on increasing alignment to organizational strategy, dealing with C-suite turnover and the best ways for EPMOs to deliver value.

Big elections are making the news this year. In the project world, what’s new and growing (slowly) is the concept of online voting. New South Wales, Australia held the largest-ever online election in 2015. Estonia is a pioneer in online voting. Project teams taking this on must tread carefully because of security challenges. Online voting systems need rigorous requirements management and robust testing and risk mitigation.

In the latest entry of the periodic feature Projects on the Map, PM Network looks at Vietnam, Asia’s newest manufacturing powerhouse with the world’s ninth-fastest growing economy. To sustain this growth, the country needs US$200 billion in infrastructure projects, creating opportunities and challenges. Projects tend to be late and over budget, but leaders are aware that increasing fundamental project skills will help.

A case study in this month’s issue dives into how research scientists and engineers needed to embrace the value of project management to complete a €1 billion, 20-year initiative to construct an experimental fusion device in Germany. Another profiles a project to create the National Gallery Singapore from two colonial-era buildings.

The Edge is PM Network’s news section and highlights include projects to coordinate anti-terror data among countries, a report on creating high-tech textiles and information on a trend showing increased corporate relocations.

Practitioners, executives and subject matter experts come together in the Voices section of PM Network to provide advice and interesting reading. For example, Arctic Portal senior project manager Kamil Jagodzinski tells how his organization, which facilitates cooperation among Arcitc stakeholders, created his position to help get involved in larger projects. Lindsay Scott from Arras People answers questions on how young project managers can grow their reputation, how to move out of the oil and gas industry and whether a project manager should train in agile. Other articles cover project pet peeves, using a PMO to translate high-level business requirements into lower-level requirements and preventing problems when you have to leave a project team.

Our “Getting It Done” practitioner-writers cover mindfulness techniques and managing anxiety prior to taking the PMP exam.

Did you know…if your native language is español or Português and you are a member of PMI, we have you covered! You can read the current and recent issues of PM Network in your language.