IS Project Manager

Overview

This position will primarily be responsible for managing medium to large-scale projects involving all types of Information Technology (IT) solutions. The Project Manager will perform project management for new system implementations, large-scale upgrades of existing systems, special focus projects requiring multiple resources and expertise from across the enterprise and any other IT-related projects which require a high-level of management and organization to be successful.

Responsibilities

Project Management

• Leads project teams to ensure scope, timelines, deliverables, budgets and quality are meeting and exceeding expectations.
• Lead project teams through all phases of life cycle development on complex large scale projects.
• Effectively lead project team through the scope development process on medium to large scale implementations. Ensuring complete requirements are developed and addressing the requirements is incorporated into the overall scope.
• Leads multiple medium to large scale projects and project teams simultaneously.
• Demonstrate strong decision making skills and is able to provide recommendations on and implement policy and process improvement opportunities.
• Develop a project plan in accordance with industry standard and NCH IS specific methodologies.
• Develop a project plan which details the begin/end dates, tasks, resources, milestones, and expectations of all project resources (people, equipment, vendors, systems, dollars, etc.).
• Maintain the accuracy of the project plan in conjunction with vendors, resource managers, and key stakeholders.
• Create and maintain project documentation as appropriate for every project assigned.
• Provide feedback on assigned team members performance routinely to the resource managers.
• Contribute to the definition of project goals, alignment of those goals with organizational goals and ensure success criteria are defined during project initiation.
• Appropriately set and manage customer and team expectations.
• Establish meeting agendas in advance of project meetings; coordinate attendees and their contributions/deliverables for each meeting; manage meeting times and topics; at the end of each meeting summarize important decisions made, what action items are due and by whom, when the next meeting will occur.
• Maintain an issues list and manage the deliverables and resolution of those issues in an effective and timely manner; use judgment in escalating issues when appropriate.
• Develop and maintain risk and decisions logs.
• Effectively utilize appropriate tools to communicate project information to a broad audience.
• Ensure system test plans are developed, approved, and implemented.
• Assure effective project hand-off to support teams.
• Assure disaster recovery, security, and availability is addressed as a part of the project.
• Manage the vendor(s) relationship; manage vendor work effort to contract and scope document.
• Plans and controls scope for complex, ambiguous or fluid projects.
• Engage appropriate stakeholders to quickly and thoroughly define and document project scope following Nationwide Children's PMO methodology.
• Applies firm-but-flexible change control to balance necessary change and scope creep.
• Does thorough analysis of scope change impact before bringing forward to project steering team for recommendation.
• Documents scope change requests and recommendation in PMO Scope Change Request and updates Scope documentation when Scope changes.
• Effectively manages project requirements such that final solution matches not only the written specification, but also the business need. Installs/manages processes to ensure specific requirements are met and approved by users where critical to project results and timetable.
• Accurately scopes out length and difficulty of tasks for larger projects, measures performance to schedule, able to anticipate schedule issues and risk areas and recommend proactive corrective action.
• Develops and maintains a realistic project schedule that captures all the required work, ensures buy-in from project stakeholders and ensures required schedule changes are communicated and discussed as far in advance as possible. Manages critical path. Keeps the plan up-to-date through the life of the project.
• Tracks and communicates progress and the right level of detail for the audience.
• Ensures appropriate formal and informal communication of project status to the project core team, supporting IT staff, actively involved business partners, and senior leadership.

Project Quality Management

• In conjunction with the Managers and Directors, manage the external vendor relationship ensuring optimal performance and project outcomes.
• Develop pre- and post-implementation studies to measure project achievement of goals and capture lessons learned.
• Seeks regular project reviews from peer Project Managers, managers, and/or directors to ensure quality project delivery.
• Establishes process to ensure that projects satisfy defined requirements.
• Is accountable for quality control and quality assurance, as well as ongoing quality and process improvement for the project.
• Works with project team to ensure testing is successfully led and defined if QA staff are not assigned. Actively includes testing and correction time into project schedules. Ensures adequate test plans and scripts are developed and documented.
• Ensures project team has appropriate training on test processes and documentation if needed.

Planning and Budgeting

• Work with customers and IS managers/directors in the planning and budgeting of assigned capital and operating projects.
• Develops, manages, documents and reports on the entire budget for their project and is accountable for staying within budget guidelines for both capital and operating and communicating clearly and early when there is a risk to budget and developing options.
• Follows NCH Budget tracking guidelines and utilizes NCH budget templates.
• Minimize project change orders that impact project cost and timeline.
• Accountable and responsible for managing the project budget and making budget decisions and recommendations in partnership with the responsible manager or director.
• Develops project timeline and responsible for ensuring project is delivered on time.
• Works with stakeholders to define overall project scope and ensures that scope is clearly understood by all project team members and stakeholders.
• Responsible for ensuring overall project scope is met.

Project Management Office Team

• Provide feedback and report project risks to the PMO team.
• Provide input to and seek direction from the PMO team on project prioritization.
• Work with PMO to enhance project management techniques and methods.
• Work with IS Managers and Customers to ensure unified goals are being met.
• Help to ensure adherence to PMO methods across Information Services.
• Mentor others in IS on the PMO Methodology and Tools.
• Administer IS Portfolio of projects and interpret Top IS Status reports for Senior Level Management.

Information Assurance

• Knowledgeable of and adheres to Nationwide Children's Hospital policies, processes, procedures, standards, and guidelines governing privacy, security, and disaster recovery/business continuity.
• Develop, implement, and/or maintain systems following IS Information Assurance policies, processes, procedures, and guidelines and industry standards to address security, privacy, and disaster recovery/business continuity needs to protect Nationwide Children's Hospital information and resources at established, defined levels.
• Actively protects sensitive, classified, and confidential information.
• Use and access systems and information only for authorized purposes and in accordance with security procedures and guidelines to perform job duties as assigned.
• Maintain individual accountability for security controls and measures (e.g., individual passwords are not shared with other users).
• Report suspected security and/or privacy incidents following established Nationwide Children's Hospital procedures.

Education and Staff Development

• Supports and assists with leading PMO process and methodology training for all IS leaders and staff.
• Provides general direction and coaching to Project Managers assigned to their program or project.
• Routinely evaluates team member performance on a timely basis and provides that feedback to the respective manager.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES REQUIRED:

• Bachelors degree required.
• Project Management Certification recommended; otherwise, demonstrated career path and plan for future attainment of certification.
• 3 to 7 years of experience in information systems management, project management, and systems implementations.
• Experience implementing Epic projects as a project manager required.
• Healthcare/EPIC experience is preferred.
• Strong skills in use of technology and project management tools.
• Excellent communication skills with all types of employees and management. With a strong ability to communicate effectively with executive level management.
• Proven experience in leading large-scale IT project management and systems implementations.
• Proven track record in successful project completion (on-time, on-budget, goals met).
• Knowledge of operating systems, application development, database management, interface engines.
• Proven experience in leading large scale projects through all phases of the project management development life cycle including extensive scope development.
• Demonstrated ability to lead multiple medium to large scale projects simultaneously while effectively meeting all deadlines and budgets.
• Demonstrated ability in team development, management, and consensus-building.
• Knowledge of information systems principles, methodologies and assumptions required.
• One to three years previous healthcare experience desirable.
• Ability to modify work schedules and practices to meet job requirements; requires occasional overnight travel.