Communication Plan and Project Management Practices for Integrated Public Health Informatics System

This report discusses the communication plan and project management practices for the development of an integrated public health informatics system. It assesses the current communication plan, compares project management practices, and provides recommendations for effective communication. The recommended communication plan is communication matrix along with informational method as this best suit the public projects and offers high success rate to the project.

Project Management

Table of Contents
Executive Summary...............................................................................................................................3
Assessment of the Current Communication Plan..................................................................................3
Communication Plan vs. Project Management Practices......................................................................3
Recommendations.................................................................................................................................4
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................5
References.............................................................................................................................................6

Executive Summary
In the below report, the communication plan as well as the best project management practices have
been discussed in order to accomplish the project related to integrated public health informatics
system. The main reason behind adopting this project is that a lot of time is wasted while collecting
all the necessary information from different sources at the time of an epidemic outbreak. The
County Health Department (CHD) felt the need for increasing the capacity of their informatics and
hence, this project was initiated by the new epidemiologist of CHD and a leading role in this is being
played by the communicable disease section of CHD. In the end of the report, a communication plan
as well as communication method has been suggested by keeping in mind about the nature of the
project that is a public project, which is different from privately managed projects.
Assessment of the Current Communication Plan
Communication is the basis for success of any project and hence, effective communication is a must
for successful completion of the project. In order to develop an integrated public health informatics,
it is very important to communicate the plan with every stakeholder and involve them in this process
as resistance from any single stakeholder can disrupt the process of the project. In the given case,
the communication plan has included all the major stakeholders who will be affected by the project
or has some role to play in the project. The communication plan has also included the issues or
problems that will be encountered while dealing with each stakeholder. Along with this, the
message that needs to be communicated to each stakeholder has also been mentioned like, sharing
the status of the project as well as any kind of milestones arising in the completion of project. The
communication plan has also included about the method that is going to be adopted in order to
communicate these messages to the relevant and respective stakeholders. The nature of the
communication has also been included in the communication plan of the project like whether the
communication is going to be formal or detailed, etc. Hence, it can be said that the communication
plan of the project is well prepared and has given almost all the relevant details regarding the
communication process related to the development of integrated public health informatics project.
Communication Plan vs. Project Management Practices
There are many different project management practices like the waterfall method, six sigma
method, agile approach and kanban technique. On the basis of the given case study, it can be said
that the management practice that best suits the situation is the waterfall method. This method is
adopted when the picture of final product is clear, as in this case the final product is integrated
public health informatics system. In this method, the need is realized in the beginning and then the

project is designed and implemented with continuous verification and maintenance 1. Lean and
scrum also falls under the project management practices 2. Project Management Institute or PMBOK
is not a method but it provides with a set of guidelines that helps the project managers in order to
carry out the project successfully 3. Apart from the methods there are certain practices that should
be adopted by the project manager in order to successfully complete the project like defining the
scope and objectives of the project, project planning, having a detailed work plan, communicating
the plan, tracking as well as reporting the progress of the concerned project, undertaking the change
management strategically as well as adopting quantitative as well as qualitative risk analysis and also
finding solutions to risks in order to reduce its probability 4. After the completion of the project it is
important to hold a wrap up meeting in order to learn from the mistakes and make necessary
amendments as well as to practice control 5. All these practices need to be undertaken on a
continuous basis 6.
Recommendations
Communication is an important as well as at the same times a lengthy process and hence, it is
important to plan the communication roadmap with utmost care so that the message is
communicated without eating a lot of the valuable time of the project process. Communication
matrix is the best strategy for communication plan as it provides with all the necessary information
in a single place. Communication matrix describes about each and every stakeholder along with the
information that needs to be communicated via the selected and most suitable mode.
Communication matrix also provides the frequency of the communication with respect to the
concerned stakeholder as well as it also describes about the responsibility of the concerned person
to communicate the necessary information to different stakeholders 7. Informational
communication plan is the best plan that should be adopted in a public project. This is so because a
public project has impact on a number of people and hence, in order to communicate with a whole
population personal meetings is not possible. Hence, in a public project the information should be
published or displayed on websites or through advertisements so that the necessary information
related to the project as well as what impact it is going to leave can be clearly mentioned to each
and every stakeholder. Apart from this meetings, mails are also used in public projects
communication plan in order to circulate the necessary information as well as reports regarding the
process of the projects 8.

Conclusion
In the end, it can be concluded that the communication plan developed in the given case is sufficient
to circulate all the necessary information as well as project reports on a timely basis to all the
concerned stakeholders of the project. The need as well as urgency for the adoption of this project
has also been mentioned clearly and hence, it can be said that least resistance will be experienced
while carrying out this project. The recommended communication plan is communication matrix
along with informational method as this best suit the public projects and offers high success rate to
the project.

References
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[Accessed: 05- Jun- 2018].
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https://www.wrike.com/blog/project-management-best-practices-infographic/.
[Accessed: 05- Jun- 2018].
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Available: https://thedigitalprojectmanager.com/project-management-best-practices/.
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[8] ICPM, "Use Three Communication Types in Your Communication Plan", Theicpm.com,
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