HMIS Project Management Topics and Tools - OneCPD

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HMIS Project Management Topics and ToolsThe project manager can prepare for these risks in advance by developing a risk plan that detailsthe potential risks, the likelihood of the risk occurring, the impact an occurrence would have,actions to avoid the risk, and contingency plans if the problem occurs (see Appendix 10).Proactive tasks to avoid risks that are deemed highly likely or highly damaging should be addedto the project plan. Thus, if staff turnover is highly likely and will cause a high impact, thencross-training team members should be added to the project plan.Tools for Managing a Project PlanThere are a variety of software tools that help project managers manage time, resources, qualityand scope. Most often, these software tools use Gantt charts to schedule tasks (scope), theanticipated length of each task (time), and staff and monetary resources. They can also enableusers to indicate dependencies of one task on another. Quality is more difficult to quantify, but isoften a function of the other three variables.Microsoft Project is the most widely used project management software on the market and isused by several HMIS managers around the country. The software costs between $600 and$1500, depending on the version, and is full of features that may be very useful to advancedproject managers and overwhelming and too complex for others.A listing of alternative software tools, including several that are free, can be found athttp://www.columbia.edu/~jm2217/ For example, Open Workbench(http://www.openworkbench.org/) advertises itself as an open source, free alternative toMicrosoft Project. A brief description of about 13 software tools can be found athttp://commercial-solutions.com/pages/pmsoftware.html. More in-depth reviews of theseproducts, conducted by Project Manager Today magazine can viewed, for a nominal price, athttp://www.pmtoday.co.uk/pm_software.asp.Most HMIS project managers contacted for this document used Microsoft Excel to manage theirbasic tasks, budgets and staff assignments. They found Excel adequate for most of theiractivities, even though it does not have built-in project management features to manage taskdependencies or indicate whether staff members are over-allocated. Some managers resorted toExcel even after training and experience with Microsoft Project. Others, however, have not beenexposed to anything else and might not be aware of the potential benefits of off-the-shelf projectmanagement tools.Maintaining Policies and ProceduresIt is critical for every HMIS implementation to develop, adopt, maintain, and enforce standardoperating procedures (SOPs). Policies and procedures generally address privacy protectionagreements, how data will be stored and protected, who is responsible for its protection, whichdata can/cannot be shared, and how it will be done. The Final Notice includes baseline privacyand security standards, and it also allows the options for communities to adopt stricter standardsas necessary. Thus, SOPs should work within the framework provided by the Final Notice toincorporate optional requirements as necessary based on a community vision of how the HMISshould operate. A project manager may also need to create other documents such as a privacy20
HMIS Project Management Topics and Toolsnotice and/or Client Consent Form for clients that may wish to share data with another agency,an Interagency Sharing Agreement, and Data Release Forms. These should be created inaccordance with the Final Notice as well as other federal and state privacy laws, and MIS bestpractices.Developing SOPsThe HMIS Implementation Guide (2002) 2 contains a chapter on Standard Operating Proceduresand Protocols. The chapter on SOPs contains information on several important elements thatshould be included in a SOP manual. They include: privacy protection protocols to ensure theconfidentiality and safety of sensitive information and to protect consumers, developing partneragreements in order to enforce compliance among system partners, and initial and ongoingtraining. The chapter also contains information about achieving data accuracy by conductingrespectful client interviews, by outlining minimal data elements so that there is consistency indata collection and by training data entry staff. Other resources on developing standard operatingprocedures are listed in Appendix 1.Updating Policies and ProceduresProject managers should review SOPs at least once per year. More frequent revisions may berequired based on regulatory, policy, software, technology, or other local changes. A primeexample of a regulatory-prompted change is that project managers with previously adopted SOPsneed to work with their communities to update them to meet the requirements of the FinalNotice. The Final Notice contains baseline standards as well as more stringent optionalstandards. A reasonable first step for project managers with existing SOPs to ensure complianceis to create a spreadsheet of each of the specific minimal requirements described in the FinalNotice, and a column to indicate the community’s policy in that area, and whether the policyneeds to be revised. For those that need to be revised, the project manager should suggestrevisions and devise action steps for revising the SOPs and implementing the changes.Figure 4.1 shows the beginning of a template for mapping SOPs to the standards in the FinalNotice. Note that some sections include several rules. Also, policies only need revision if thecurrent SOPs do not address the area or are more lenient than required by the Final Notice.2 http://www.hud.gov/offices/cpd/homeless/hmis/implementation/implementation.cfm21
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HMIS Project Management Topics and Tools - OneCPD

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