The Constraints And Assumptions

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Project Front- & Backoffice

This project is based on the operation of the front- and back office of the Rotterdam Eye Hospital. The front- and back office does not function properly. The workflow of the departments has not been documented. As a result employees do not know what to do to ensure a proper quality level. There is also no Product Service Catalog. The client mentioned they need a PSC. The Rotterdam Eye Hospital takes care of Dutch patients as well as from abroad. In this case it is necessary that the PSC will be published in at least Dutch and English, and maybe even more languages.

Although the quality of the health care is important for the patients, it is also important because they are competing with other institutions. The hospital wants to stay on the list of the best eye care hospitals. The results of the customer satisfaction enquiry shows that both patients and employees are not satisfied with the accessibility of the facility management department. They do not know where they can go to for questions, where they can request services and where they can file complaints.

The researchers of the customer satisfaction enquiry have argued that the implementation of a front- and backoffice system will lead to a higher satisfaction level. In that case they will be able to ask their questions at the desk. In response to the customer satisfaction enquiry, the board of directors gives the head of the facility department the assignment to improve the accessibility of the department. They want a split of the facility management process in two departments, a separated front office and a back office. The board wants that issues will be solved and organized after the separation. During this project we will give advice about the location of the desk in the hospital and make a plan of action to make it function right.

The different departments of Facility department are shown below. The departments that need to be improved are colored.

Since the board of directors does not have the time to approach the problem, it will be outsourced.

1.2 Project Question

What is the best way to implement an efficient, effective and well-structured front- and backoffice system on the facility department of the Rotterdam Eye Hospital, to ensure the employee and customer satisfaction level will increase?

1.3 Project objective

The objective of this project is to give in a time of 8 weeks (before 12 April 2013) a piece of advice how to implement an efficient, effective and well-structured front- and backoffice system on the facility department of the Rotterdam Eye Hospital, to ensure the employee and customer satisfaction level will increase.

The client wishes to see at least the following aspects of the implementation in the plan (ModuleManual Project Front- & Backoffice, 2013, J. Martens BBA):

organisation plan, describing tasks, responsibilities and authorisations;

financial plan, specifying investments and effects on operating costs;

information plan, describing the use of information and communication technology;

accommodation plan, detailing place, design and layout of any physical representation of the front office and workplaces for its employees;

quality plan, describing methods to measure and improve quality of the service;

personnel plan, specifying numbers, functions and training of front office employees;

a vision on the possibility and desirability of outsourcing (parts of) the front office.

1.4 Desired outcomes

The objective of this case is to improve the services of the facility department. Based on our first brainstorm sessions and our experiences a few solutions been devised and written down below.

In this stage of the project there are a few solutions which can be used to deal with the problem:

Introduce a front- and backoffice

Only introduce an backoffice

Outsourcings (parts of) the front- and/or backoffic, so employees can focus on a small part of the job. In this way they can make the best progress, because it’s synoptic.

Public insight into the services and procedures of the Facility Services department, which can be done by a public products and services catalogue for all the employees. In this way employees can search and read everything and everyone is aware.

The processes such as the reception will be central and open for clients and employees. The mail, repro and archive will be digitalized; this will make the information available for all the intern people. The valet parking needs an organized process. The other departments have to be connected to each other. They need to be linked in a facility management system, so everything can be arranged through one person in one system.

All the possible services and products need to be written down in a Product Service Catalog. This catalog concludes the products the hospital offers, and all the services that are provided, given with a description of what it consists, the people who are involved, what to expect, and how long a product of service takes time. Besides that there will also be information about the client’s waiting time and the costs of services.

This will be a paperback catalog for patients. It will also be digital for as well patients as employees.

For the employees this will be a facility management system that fits on the demand. It needs to be a system that can be updated at anytime.

Afterwards the processes can be checked if they work correctly because of another customer satisfaction survey.

1.5 Project scope and exclusions

During this project the group will focus on the implementation of a Front- & Backoffice system. The project will not do any research to ways to improve the Facility Services itself in the Eye Hospital.

1.6 Constraints and assumptions

To organize and solve these problems, our project group will be working on it for 8 weeks. This all will happen in close contact with our client. At this moment the client does not know yet what the budget is for investments. It could be possible the project group will advise some investment which are not feasible because of a lower budget.

1.7 The user(s) and any other known interested parties

The user of our products will be the Facility Manager of the Eye Hospital in Rotterdam. Besides this person, the whole Facility department could be interested in our products.

1.8 Interfaces

This research is a result of the previously satisfaction report among patients, visitors and staff.

Capital 2. Project Approach

The focus should be on the relationship with the customer. The more the customer trusts the hospital, the better the fear will be taken away. In this way the hospital achieves important benefits and will be even more competitive.

By better cooperation between the front- and back office, it is easier to achieve this result. Therefore the focus should be on improving the front- and back office. Customer satisfaction will increase. It is also very necessary to research other hospitals, so you can compare with each other. This is possible by means of field- and desk research. During this research three interviews will be taken. At least one of them will take place in an organisation in the cure and care sector.

During this project the group will use the Prince2 method. At the beginning of this project, the group will do Field- and Deskresearch. During this research we will use different sources like literature, websites and articles. Next to these sources, the projectgroup will also have three interviews with different companies.

Capital 3. Initial Business Case

To increase the accessibility of the facility department the Board of Directors wants to implement a front and back office. This is also the main reason for this project.

The internal clients of the hospital have many complaints about the service of the facility department in the Rotterdam Eye Hospital. These complaints are mainly about arranging simple matters, such as a television in a patient’s room. Patients and employees want their requests to be taken care of with just one phone call.

Because no one exactly knows who is responsible for these kind of requests things go wrong. These responsibilities should be secured in for example a personnel plan. In the current situation the facility management department is inaccessible.

The occasion of this problem is the many complaints and the satisfaction enquiry. The most important result from the enquiry is that it is not clear for patients and employees to who they can turn to ask questions, submit complaints or to request any services. The goal of the Rotterdam Eye Hospital is to create a more efficient and effective front and back office. Therefore a good and flexible front and back office is needed.

There is an upcoming competition for the Rotterdam Eye Hospital. If they don’t conduct this project the competition will be too high to catch up. This will result in losing a lot of patients and also foreign patients. Foreign patients come to the Rotterdam Eye Hospital for the specialty they have there. The quality of the hospital is well known among the people. Abroad they want to make equally hospitals. The Rotterdam Eye Hospital wants to keep their patients from abroad to make a special department for foreign patients. Also they want to make information available for a lot of languages.

The client asks the project group for an advice about implementing a possible front and back office system. Research so far gives three types of how to organize a front and back office. The project group has to consider which of the following models is suitable for the Rotterdam Eye Hospital.

The information centre model: the function of the front and back office is just to answer questions and give information.

The account managers model: this is a more extensive model which handels complaints made by employees or patients.

The cluster model: this is the most extensive model and deals with all kinds of questions and complaints and is central point for everybody.

Benefits

An efficient, effective and well-structured front- and backoffice system is implemented

The employee and customer satisfaction level will increase, what can lead to increase the number of patients

It’s clear to patients and employees where they can go to, to request some facility services

It’s simple for everybode to request some facility services.

Costs

The Rotterdam Eye Hospital made a selection of different facility groups to make an implementation plan for the front and back office of the Rotterdam Eye Hospital. They chose our project group to make this implementation plan. It is possible we advise the hospital to invest in the front- and backoffice system. Specific costs are not known at this stage of the project.

Capital 4. Project Management team Structure

During this project there will be a project manager, a project support and a project assurance. The manager will manage the team and will divide the work over all the team members. The project support will be do the secretary tasks during this project. The project assurance will check the quality off all our product. Every week there is a formal meeting with the client. During this meeting will be spoken about the progress of the project and sometimes questions can be asked to the client.

4.1 Role description

During this project Remco van Witteloostuijn will be the project manager. He will be the contact person for the client. Besides that he will be responsible to distribute the tasks over all the team members.

Maxime Dubbeld will be the project support. She will do all the secretary tasks like collecting all the documents and give them good version numbers. She is also responsible for the financial part of our project group. So she will write down all our money which we spent.

Max Gielen will be our project assurance. He will be the person who has to monitor our products and make sure they are good enough. He will check the quality of our documents based on the criteria in the manual and the once provided by the client.

During the formal meeting, Linda van Kasteren will be the chair. The person who has to make the minutes will rotate every week.

All team members will be responsible to do their tasks which are given by the project manager and make sure the use of the English language is good.

Capital 5. Quality Management Strategy

Quality management is very important to ensure a good final result. The aim of quality management strategy is to write a report what is written in good English, with a good content so the Rotterdam Eye Hospital can use to implement the advice. During the project the project group will control each other’s work and give feedback at each other. The whole project group is responsible for a good quality of all the products. The final responsibility of the quality will be by Max Gielen, our project assurance.

The process to ensure a good quality is as follows: at first every project member makes their own piece of documents. Before the deadline strikes the project members send their documents to Maxime Dubbeld who is project support. She will make all the separate documents to one final document. She also sends the final document to all the project members by email and will place it on Dropbox. The project members read each other’s work and provide it with feedback. The group members check their own piece of the document and correct the feedback. After that, the project members send the piece with feedback back to Maxime Dubbeld and she makes the one final document and places that also on Dropbox. She also does the final layout of the documents.

The project group use some support to give good feedback. The project group will use ‘The little Prince 2’. By using this book the project group can check if the documents are written in the correct way. The project group also use the assessment forms from the Hogeschool Rotterdam for checking if all the subjects an criticism is not missing. For the use of English we use the English lessons. In this lessons the project group get information about the use of formal written English. The project group use also dictionaries for the use of correct English words. For the Quality role description look at table Quality management roles.

Activities

Remco

Jan-Willem

Maxime

Ilse

Linda

Anne-Marie

Max

Writing the documents

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Send pieces to project group

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









Make one document

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Send whole document

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Give feedback

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







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Correct feedback

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Make final document

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Quality management roles

Capital 6. Configuration Management Strategy

For every document what the project group have to hand in, the tasks will be divided. So every single Project member will have their own pieces to make. The project leader will divide the tasks over the project members in deliberation. In that way every member can prefer a section of the report that fit to the quality of the project member.

Every single document what is written by a project member must be stored at Dropbox. Before the deadline strikes. Every document has to be saved at the right folder in Dropbox. For example a piece of product what is for the final report have to be saved in the folder ‘final report’. In the title of the document has to be the name of the author(s).

For keeping everything clear about different version numbers, the first document has to be named :

"title 1.0. all the following documents with the same title has to be named "title 1.1" "title 1.2" etc.

Following this method for saving documents it is always clear which document is the last version.

The Project Support, Maxime Dubbeld is responsible for keeping every document separate with different version numbers.

The project manager is responsible to hand in the documents. Some documents will be handed in on N@tschool. The final versions of the documents will be handed in, in hard copy.

Capital 7. Risk Management Strategy

There are some risks which can lead to problems that hinder the progress.

To minimize those risks which can occur during the implementation of this project, will the project group use risk management strategy.

First of all it is important that de project group uses the time which has been given as well as possible. The process of this project will run easily when the group members work hard and efficient.

This will also prevent the risk of missing deadlines.

Besides working hard, the group members are going to storage their documents  on the hard disks of their computers and also email those documents to the other group members. This will be done to prevent losing documents when a computer crashes.

Another risk which can lead to problems during the project is the lack of communication. To prevent mistakes which can occur when the communication is not good, are the tasks devided and do all the group members know what the other members expect from them. When a group member faces trouble during the developing a product, he can ask the other group members to help him or her.

When a group member can not be present because of certain circumstances, it is very important that good appointments have been made to divide the task of this group members among the other group members. This risk can be divided in long and short absence. In case of long absence, will the long term be tasks divided among the others. In case of short absence, will only be the tasks for that moment be divided.

When the client is not satisfied with the products we compose, we try to improve the products on the basis of the feedback we had. When things are not clear, we ask questions to find out why the client is not satisfied with the product.

Risk

Measure

High Risk

Wasting time

When a member can not be present for a long time

Lack of communication

Missing deadlines

Client not satisfied

The group members work hard and efficient

Dividing his or her tasks among the others

Dividing tasks and knowing what the other members are expecting of you

The group members work hard and efficient

Improve the products

Middle Risk

Losing documents when a computer crashes

Storing documents on hard disks and sent it by email to the other group members

Low risk

When a member can not be present for a short time

Dividing his or her tasks among the others

Capital 8. Communication Management Strategy

The communication is generally by e-mail. This is the best way, because everything is easy to read back and everyone has a mail address. Furthermore, there can be no misunderstandings because everything is on paper.

When quick decisions have to be made, this will be done by phone call. The consultancy company will use WhatsApp for appointments and little questions, because it is easy and everyone reads it very quickly.

Another way for the consultancy company to communicate, is in the formal meetings. These will take place every Monday during this project. Besides the formal meeting, there will be some contact moments, for example during the Project English Lessons.

The manager of the Facility Management department is the contact person to the consultancy company. With this person arrangements will be made.

In the consultancy company is the project manager responsible for communicating to the manager of the Facility Management department. Also he will give the information and agreements to the other members of the consultancy company.

Capital 9. Project Plan

To bring the project to a successful end, a good planning is essential. Below shows how the planning will be during this project.

Week

What?

Who

3

4 March 2013

Formal meeting

Everyone

Information plan

Ilse & Max & Remco

Personnel plan

Jan-Willem & Anne-Marie

Vision on outsourcing of frontoffice

Linda & Maxime

Collecting the documents and doing the layout

Maxime

Check on a good use of English in the PID

Anne-Marie

7 March 2013

Hand in PID

Everyone

Interviews

Max, Maxime, Anne-Marie

4

11 March 2013

Formal meeting

Everyone

Information plan

Ilse & Max & Remco

Personnel plan

Jan-Willem & Anne-Marie

Vision on outsourtcing of frontoffice

Linda & Maxime

5

18 March 2013

Formal meeting

Everyone

Accomodation plan

Max & Linda

Quality plan

Maxime & Remco

Financial plan

Ilse & Anne-Marie & Jan-Willem

6

25 March 2013

Formal meeting

Everyone

Accomodation plan

Max & Linda

Quality plan

Maxime & Remco

Financial plan

Ilse & Anne-Marie & Jan-Willem

7

Collecting the documents and doing the layout

Maxime

Check on a good use of English in the draft version

Anne-Marie & Remco

4 April 2013

Hand in draft version of final product

Everyone

8

8 April 2013

Formal meeting

Check on a good use of English in the final version

Anne-Marie & Remco

12 April 2013

Hand in final version of product

Everyone

9

Presentation and defense

Everyone

Capital 10. Project Controls

To keep the client informed of the progress of the project, there will be a meeting every week. In this meeting the group can ask the client questions about the project, but she can also give feedback on documents the group made. Because of the meetings, the client knows what the group is doing and if they are doing well at the project. During the meetings also minutes will be taken. Because of the minutes everyone knows what the group and the client discussed every week. The meetings will take place every Monday from 14.45 till 15.45, except in week 2 and 3, when the meetings will take place from 15.15 till 15.45. During the meetings Linda van Kasteren will be the chair. The minute taker will rotate every week. Below indicates who has to take the minutes on which week.

Week 1: Maxime Dubbeld

Week 2: Jan-Willem van Eldert

Week 3: Anne-Marie van der Veer

Week 4: Remco van Witteloostuijn

Week 5: Ilse de Jong

Week 6: Max Gielen

Week 7: Maxime Dubbeld

Week 8: Jan-Willem van Eldert

Remco van Witteloostuijn is the project leader. During this project he is the contact person for the client. Besides that, he is also responsible to distribute the tasks over all the team members.

During this project there will also be a project assurance. Max Gielen will be the project assurance during this project. He is responsible for the quality of all the documents. He will watch over the quality of this project by reading all the documents and criticize on the main points which are written down in the module manual. Besides that, he also has to check on fraud and plagiarism.

Maxime Dubbeld will be the project support. She will do all the secretary tasks. Her tasks will be collecting the documents, but she is also responsible for the financial part of the project.

Besides the meetings, the project group will also have contact, to make this project to a good end.

The project group will after the meetings come together to discuss some things and to distribute the tasks. Every other contact will go by e-mail or whatsapp.

To collect all the documents, the group will use Dropbox. Every document will be dropped in Dropbox, where everyone can read each others document and give feedback on them.

Tailoring of PRINCE2

During this project, the project group uses the Prince 2 method, because the client requested to.

This method is written by Ans Koning and Mark van Onna and is explained in the book: ‘The little Prince 2’. This book will be used as a guideline during this project.

According to the Prince 2 method contains a project of the following phase:

Starting up a project

Initiating a project

Managing stage boundaries

Controlling a stage

Managing product delivery

Closing a project

At this moment is the project group in the phase: initiating a project. When this phase is finished, will the project group go to the next phase.