7 Steps to Implement Agile in Healthcare Projects

Agile project management’s blueprint originated from the software industry. The software project managers usually followed a rigid sequential approach, resulting in delayed project delivery.

Healthcare projects face a similar issue, as they too follow traditional norms while project delivery. In healthcare too we have many stakeholders involved in the decision-making process like government bodies, regulations, budgetary situations, resources, administrative rules, front-line caregivers, and patients.

Let’s dive deeper and look at the Step by Step Process to Implement Agile in Healthcare

Vision Set Up in a Strategy Meeting – A strategy meeting, in the beginning, addresses the core subjects relevant to a project like :

For: The customer
Who: The primary team members
Boundaries: The project category or limitations
USP: Project Benefits
Unlike: Alternatives available
Project differentiation: How this project will solve x problems in one go

2. Building the Project Roadmap – A goal-oriented roadmap charts out all the below-given aspects of the project are the goal, date , metrics and features.

3. Release Plan – Timelines help in setting a tentative date of delivery. A release plan takes about 3-5 sprints.

4. Planning out Sprints- Sprints are small tasks divided where each sprint lasts up to 1-4 weeks.

5. Daily Stand-ups – Stand-ups are meetings where each member is standing in the meeting. The agenda of these meetings is to keep a tab on activities that are completed and activities that have issues that need to be addressed.

6. Review Meetings – At the end of each sprint completion; review meetings are conducted to look at all the sprints comprehensively to assess the drawbacks and the productive journey of the team as a whole.

7. Plan for the next Sprint –At the end of the sprint post review, the team coach decides the next steps of the project with newsprints.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Micromanagement of Sprints- Sprints mean to create self-sufficient teams who are competent to address the tasks assigned to them. So it’s important to avoid micromanagement for better project outcomes and build the trust factor.

Resistance to Change-Agile methodologies will create resistance to cultural change. An attitude of keeping the final goal; that is 100% customer satisfaction will create an empowered team.

Team Planning-Teams in agile need to be cross-functional to deliver the tasks assigned to them. Many times inexperienced managers overlook the nitty-gritty of team planning and this becomes a major roadblock for agile teams to perform efficiently.

Flexibility-Companies tend to be too rigidly placed when it comes to the contract signed. Agile functions best when there is room for improvement ad-hoc bases.

Leader Support-Most top-line managers have an indifferent attitude to an agile delivery process. A project setback makes the whole team look for solutions leaving their priority tasks at hand. Budgetary control is also a constrain in case of a setback to the project.

Incomplete User Stories-Incomplete information on the requirements gives way to time lag to go back and forth or requirement assessments. It’s best if the outline for the outcome is given at the beginning of the sprints.

Barriers between teams-The open collaborative atmosphere, meeting rooms, and whiteboards will enhance the team’s co-working. Interdependence is the key to delivering an agile project quickly.

So these are rules for implementing agile in healthcare projects by avoiding well-known mistakes