Online Plan Portal Migration: Project Implementation Plan

Words:	1425
Subject:	Sciences, Tech & Engineering
Pages:	6
Type:	Essay

Introduction

The implementation plan for the Online Plan Portal Migration project will address the most significant steps necessary to carry out the project’s goals. Firstly, it will include a human resource plan covering the required roles, authority, skills, and responsibilities of everyone involved in the project work. Secondly, the document will present a quality management plan to validate the quality policies utilized to complete the project tasks and the overall quality requirements for the project. Finally, the procurement plan will address the description of external resources selection and management process. Accurate description of the project specifications in corresponding plans will enhance the project implementation and its overall success.

Human Resource Plan

Human resources are crucial for successful project planning and implementation. To construct a human resource plan, it is necessary to identify the roles, responsibilities, authorities, and competencies of the project team members, develop a concise project organization chart, and generate a staffing management plan. Reasonable human resource management ensures project success by establishing the skills set and expectations concerning all the constituents of the process.

Roles and Responsibilities

According to the Project Management Institute (2017), roles and responsibilities of everyone involved in the project “should be closely linked to the project scope definition” (p. 110). The scope definition of the Online Plan Portal Migration project concerns the migration of the MS Word documents containing client’s Benefit Specification Form to the new Online Plan Portal. Thus, a project manager, an implementation manager, and account managers will be in the project team and will be responsible for appropriate tasks completion. The roles, responsibilities, authorities, and competencies are described in Table 1.

Table 1. Roles and Responsibilities.

	Role	Authority	Responsibility	Competency
Project Manager (PM)	PM acquires human resources, delegates the tasks to the implementation manager and the account managers, and evaluates the overall performance of the project stakeholders.	PM approves and authorizes the actions and decisions made within the project	The main responsibility of the project manager is planning which guarantees the successful performance of all other participants of the team (Kerzner, 2014).	The PM must be competent in project planning and scheduling. PM has to have leadership and communication skills.
Implementation Manager (IM)	IM’s role is to coordinate the team members and facilitate the completion of the implementation plan.	IM has the authority to delegate tasks to account managers and report about the plan tasks completion to the PM.	IM is responsible for the smooth pharmacy benefit migration (Reed & Anderson, 2017). IM monitors the advancement in the project implementation.	IM has to obtain time management skills and effective communication skills to guarantee collaboration within the team.
Account Managers (AMs)	AMs play the crucial implementation role in the project due to their task of carrying out the transition from Benefit Specification Form to Online Plan Portal Migration.	AMs report to the IM and PM about the completed tasks and the difficulties when performing according to the project implementation plan.	AMs are responsible for entering the information to the new Online Portal. Also, they will provide training services for their clients to facilitate the transition to the new Online Portal.	AMs will need to have practical skills of using the software and entering the necessary information to the portal. Also, communication and training skills will be needed to ensure productive educational cooperation with the clients.

Project Organization Chart

The people involved in the project work should cooperate according to the set framework of responsibilities and authorities. The organization chart shows the subordination scheme that places Project Manager at the top of the chart (Kerzner, 2014). Implementation Manager works under the Project Manager’s supervision and controls the performance of Account managers aimed at the smooth transition to the Online Plan Portal. Account managers report to both the Implementation Manager and the Project Manager. The Project Organization Chart shows the relations of each project stakeholder to the other participants.

Staffing Management Plan

In addition to responsibility identification and the subordination establishment, it is essential to plan the staffing management. This plan addresses “when and how human resources will be brought onto and taken off of the project team” (Project Management Institute, 2017, p. 111). The table presented below contains the specifications concerning staff acquisition, time framework, and training needs that might be necessary during the project implementation.

Table 2. Staffing Management Plan.

Staff acquisition	The staff needed for the Online Plan Portal Migration project will be constituted of the internal human resources. Account managers working for the company will perform within the project tasks. Project manager and implementation managers will also be attracted from inside the enterprise.
Time framework	The project implementation is anticipated to take seventeen weeks in total. Project manager and implementation manager will be involved in the process throughout the whole time. Twenty account managers as the performing participants of the project will be involved in eight weeks of data entry, four weeks of data comparison, one week of AM training, and four weeks of clients’ training. Overtime hours and weekends will be needed as working time to complete the project tasks on time.
Training needs	Account managers will need a one-week training course to develop skills for using the new online portal and to obtain a scope of knowledge necessary to educate the clients.

Quality Management Plan

The purpose of the quality management plan is to identify the applicability of the project deliverables to the organization’s quality policy. Quality management consists of quality planning, quality assurance and quality control (Project Management Institute, 2017). The smooth transition from Benefit Specification Form to Online Plan Portal Migration is expected to be performed on the highest possible level.

At the stage of quality planning, the project deliverables will be evaluated on the basis of the accuracy of the data entry throughout the first stage of the project implementation. To implement this primary quality requirement, the implementation manager and the project manager will control the process throughout the eight weeks of the first stage. Also, the account managers will provide PDF reports daily to ensure the step-by-step delivery of essential results within each stage of the project implementation.

Quality assurance phase will be implemented by comparing the data in the new forms with the benefit specification forms. The quality measurements will be applied to validate the transition procedures and ensure the positive shift in the data processing and clients’ satisfaction. As for the quality control, account managers will provide reports to the implementation manager and the project manager to enable their control over the processes carried out within the project tasks. The achievement of the ultimate goal of a complete migration to the online portal will show the compliance to the organization’s quality standards.

Procurement Plan

For the project to be successfully implemented, a procurement plan addressing the attraction of outside sources is needed. A thorough analysis of the resources available within the organization enables the identification of the lacking elements and justifies the necessity to use external resources for proper project completion (Larson & Gray, 2014). To identify the applicability of the new product to process the benefit specification data, it is essential to analyze the outside products existing in the market. Thus, the staff involved in the project will need to procure external products to validate the quality of the one used to meet the project needs.

Also, a Pharmacy Benefit Manager will be procured to establish effective project implementation. Compulsory negotiations and contract finalization will be needed to establish the responsibilities of the implementation manager for “smooth transition to the new PBM” (Reed &Anderson, 2017, p. 1). Consultations concerning the new pharmacy benefits program implementation will be retrieved from the outside resource which is the PBM. Therefore, the procurement plan goals will enable clear communication of the project goals and will enable the overall success of the new online portal implementation.

Conclusion

The implementation plan is one of the decisive elements in work on a project. Within the Benefit Specification Form to Online Plan Portal Migration project, the implementation plan incorporates a human resource plan, a quality management plan, and a procurement plan. A project manager, an implementation manager, and account managers will be needed to perform following the project tasks. The human resource management plan underlines the roles and responsibilities of all the constituents of the process, the duration of their engagement in the project and the expectations concerning their skills and the quality of performance. Overall, the project will procure outside PBM and will analyze the existing products of benefit specification data processing to ensure the success of its deliverables.

References

Kerzner, H. (2014). Project management best practices: Achieving global excellence (3rd ed.). New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.

Larson, E., & Gray, C. (2014). Project management: The managerial process (6th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Project Management Institute. (2017). A guide to the project management body of knowledge (PMBOK® Guide). Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute.

Reed, A., & Anderson, B. N. (2017). Mitigating disruption and reducing plan costs: Keys to a successful PBM implementation. Milliman. Web.