Project Management in the Human Services sector
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A workshop/presentation on how Project Management is used in different facets of the Human Services Industry.
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Project Management in the Human Services sector
- 1. Project Management in Human Services KerryJ, Online Education Designer, TIU Dip. Project Management, BSci Electronic Journalism Introduction
- 2. Acknowledgement of country Acknowledgement of country I respectfully acknowledge the First Peoples on whose land I walk, work and live.
- 3. My name is _________ I’ve helped to organise _______ for ________ because _______ Group discussion
- 5. Project: 4 major features – specific – specific – specific – specific need time people (stakeholders) output 4 Major features of projects
- 6. Projects within a policy, campaign or program Sub-goal: reduced new infections in young people 2011-2013 Schools-based education campaign Years 10-12 Pre- and post-campaign surveys Goal • prevent new infections • improve outcomes for those infected Project: raise awareness
- 7. How do projects start? Identify a need/problem Identify people affected Cost* of action vs inaction Potential output that will lead to solution When is it needed? How do projects start?
- 8. Project vs. operational change Is it a project? Specific problems Specific stakeholders Specific timeframe Specific output Is it a project?
- 9. You know it’s a project if… Easily measured deliverable It ENDS Focuses on output that leads to outcome You know it’s a projec
- 10. You know it’s a change to operations if… It’s about how It is ongoing You know it’s a change t
- 13. We can do it THIS WAY… CAN we do it this way?
- 15. Initiation Planning Execution Evaluation Closure Stages of a project
- 16. The actions needed to get from idea to finish were _________ My name is _________ I’ve helped to organise _______ for ________ because _______
- 17. Some projects in Human Services External
- 18. External initiation External sponsor Internal initiation Internal sponsor External stakeholders Internal stakeholders Budget = Money + Time “External project”
- 19. “External projects” Internal initiation Internal sponsor External stakeholders Internal stakeholders Budget = Time
- 20. “Internal projects” Internal initiation Internal sponsor Internal stakeholders FOR External stakeholders Budget = Time
- 21. Final thoughts
- 23. Project Management in Human Services WELF 2014 KerryJ, Online Education Designer, TIU Dip. Project Management, BSci Electronic Journalism Introduction
Editor's Notes
- About me – background in journalism, website development, video production – education since 2005, worked 3 years at the Australian Institute of Social Relations and Relationships Australia, SA Here to provide overview of project management, share some case studies, get your brains primed for your workshop.
- Bachelor of Social Science (Human Services), Bachelor of Psychological Science Bachelor of Urban and Regional Planning (Honours) – 5 students Bachelor of Social Science Bachelor of Social Work What projects – in your personal life – have you been involved in? Take about 2 minutes and fill in these blanks for me at your desk.
- So why learn project management formally when everyone has at one time or another run a project? Because you will be working with or as part of a team, perhaps having to manage client expectations and ensuring the project fulfils expectations. CLICK Here is a typical project what happens when there is a lack of communication and documentation…
- Before we look at project management, it’s really important to understand what a project is. There are lots of things we do that require teamwork, planning and hard work such as our every day work. But everyday work doesn’t always involve projects. Operational work therefore is managed quite differently. The four major features of a project are - It addresses a specific need. It has a specific time period it will start and stop. It is of benefit to specific people. And there is a specific outcome that can be measured. Which means success – click is measureable. Measurement of success is critical in human services. You need to help funders justify their spending and you have to ensure they have a realistic idea of what they can expect. And in a world where people are looking at new and unusual types of funding, such as crowdsourcing, it is vital to be able to report results. Projects can be part of a bigger project, campaign or programme. Let’s look at a quick example.
- Here is a quick example from the realm of public health strategy Australia’s 2nd National STI Strategy – as do all the national health strategies – had two main goals prevent new infections improve outcomes for those infected Within this strategy, one priority population was young adults presenting with new infections. The government set a goal of reducing new infections within this priority population. One of the Projects was a Schools-based education campaign to run 2011-2013 with the goal of raising awareness in groups of young people just starting to have sex on a regular basis. Research told them that while first sexual encounters can happen younger, regular sexual activity ramped up in years 10-12. The goal was to raise awareness of what STIs are out there and how STIs are contracted, The measure was the number of correctly answered questions on a survey after the campaign as compared to before the campaign. The project is part of a bigger campaign with longer term goals. But the project itself is finite, and specific
- How do projects get hatched? What is the problem? Why do you want to solve it? What evidence is there this is a problem? Why YOU? Is someone else trying to solve it? What output can support solving the problem? Who are you trying to solve it for? Age, Gender, Location, Culture, Religion, Family status, Sexual preference When will you be finished?
- Projects have a time-sensitive outcome or deliverable. The project within the health campaign was about raising awareness within a timeframe. Events run and then they’re over. Houses are built, finished and signed off on.
- Instead of a deliverable with a set date, the body of work is meant to change attitudes, opinions and procedures over the long term. Again, looking back at the campaign and project – over time the government’s STI policy wants to reduce new infections and improve quality of life for those infected. That’s the goal. How it is done is through a series of projects and trials that can then change the way people and governments think and act. Ideally there would never be a new instance of an STI ever again. And if this is the ideal – why not make it happen within the next week or month or year?
- Okay, so it’s a project. Now what? If the path to solving a problem or providing a need looked like this – we could just jump in and make it happen. But reality doesn’t look like this…
- It looks more like THIS… How many ways are there to celebrate a birthday? Build a house? Get information out about STIs?
- Because there can be multiple ways to execute a project CLICK CLICK and multiple considerations - There needs to be a framework in which planning takes place so the decisions made are objective and rational. CLICK CLICK Obviously rolling a die or flipping a coin are not optional.
- The iron triangle Scope – How big is your project? How many people will be affected? Time – what’s the time frame you have to achieve your solution? Cost – what do you have in terms of resources– money, people, materials, infrastructure? All of these impact on Quality and each other Quality – what does success look like? If the scope is big but you don’t have very much in the way of resources and time, what will the result be? This phase has to happen before any other – if you don’t have access to the time and the resources to solve the problem or fulfil the need as you originally envisioned it, you either change the scope to and quality expectations to match or you go out and get the resources you need and bargain for more time to make things happen. Unless of course, time cannot be budged. If your problem is time sensitive and non-negotiable– a birthday or wedding, an imminent disaster like a hurricane, an abusive situation for an individual, -- then scope and budget/cost are going to have to adjust to get the desired quality of outcome – or the quality of the outcome will need to be reduced. Okay, we’ve decided that our project scope, time and resources are spot on and we have a clear idea of what quality looks like. What next? If your project is an internal project – someone writes up a project charter with this information in it. If the project is external, someone has already created a project charter and has either put out a tender or set guidelines to apply for grant money. It’s your job to determine whether you can meet the requirements set out and make a case for it.
- There are several stages of a project from identifying the need and determining whether or not one can meet it – through to planning how to meet it then putting the plan into action evaluating performance and closing off and reporting on the project. Many people think it looks like this. When in fact, it looks more like this: Each step can cause you to go back and revisit a previous one for some or all of the project. And evaluation is an activity that has to happen throughout. When you can – prototype. Do a small, low risk test run when you can and gauge results.
- Okay – let’s talk about your projects and fill in the last bit. Did the path you follow look pretty similar to the project stages we just looked at?
- Now here –are projects I was involved in Take Control Went for grant money External funder – state government Had to write up specific goals in terms of outputs and throughputs
- Went for grant money External funder – state government Had to write up specific goals in terms of outputs and throughputs. Explain project – 10 kid think tank to develop an awareness campaign and education tool for kids who game Took them through process using group work where they identified previous campaigns, learned about the different stages of intervention and used a WHO tool to decide what the approach should be and the level of emotional impact They then wrote and worked on a YouTube video and helped to promote it and the resultant web site They critiqued the web site, providing feedback on style and content My role was to Review the original brief and funding contract Manage the schedule of group work to ensure we were making progress Report to internal stakeholders so they could pass info on to funders Organise meetings and ensure all internal workers kept up to date with their commitments Reviewed outcomes against the original brief and contract to ensure we’d met all deliverables asked for.
- Workshops and information sessions for advocacy groups and external organisations Support materials for students Promotional materials
- Research project - Internal initiation, internal and external for external audience
- You have experience in planning and delivering projects in your personal life, call upon this experience as you learn how to do so in your professional life There are multiple ways to plan and deliver projects and no real “right” way provided you follow any funding reporting guidelines and meet the objective. Most projects need to adjust course somewhat from the project plan – so ensure yours has flexibility built in and time to evaluate and recalibrate at each step. The project plan should be a living document that is reviewed throughout the process.
- Questions?
- About me – background in journalism, website development, video production – education since 2005, worked 3 years at the Australian Institute of Social Relations and Relationships Australia, SA Here to provide overview of project management, share some case studies, get your brains primed for your workshop.