A project management case study
The following project management case study of a project with a team from the University of Alaska — School of Nursing describes the challenges involved in doubling the size of its graduating class and the team’s ability to meet those challenges.
Situation
Following a spring nursing shortage in 2002, the Alaskan health care industry challenged the University of Alaska’s School of Nursing to meet its current and ever-growing need for qualified nurses.
Critical issue
UAA School of Nursing provides the large majority of qualified nurses to the growing Anchorage area. When the shortage occurred, the Nursing School was requested to double its number of graduates by the spring semester, 2006, without impacting the high caliber of graduates completing the program.
Needs:
The needs prompting the UAA School of Nursing to seek PGS’ Dynamic Planning™ Project Management tool were:
- A variety of viewpoints needed to be considered and stakeholders catered to successfully
- The quality of the nursing program could not be jeopardized in the expansion
- Many different tracks of activity needed to be completed and coordinated in order to double the size of the program including faculty recruitment, funding, student recruitment and retention, clinical and partner sites, and so forth.
PGS Facilitated
Dynamic Planning™, which provided:
- An easy-to-track and understand "map" of a two year implementation plan.
- A tool that allowed quick identification of issues and progress on tasks to enable project to remain within time and budget constraints.
- Integrated input from key stakeholders and other players in the health care industry which gave the project the broad perspective necessary.
- Regular follow-up and revisions throughout the process which kept the plan live, the team motivated and the project moving forward.
Results
Successful implementation of the program expansion
“The key is that we never would have gotten where we are without (the Dynamic Plan). There were over 100 tasks that were critical and that had to be done to get to where we are. I can’t imagine how we would have identified, tracked and moved through the last couple of years to get where we are without going through the Dynamic Planning™ Process.”
— Jan Harris
UAA School of Nursing
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