Initiation Stage in Information Technology (IT) Project Management

Project Management

The Importance of the Initiation Phase in Project Management

For a project to be classified as successful it should be delivered on time, in budget, and to the correct specifications (Schwalbe, 2010). All stages of project management are important, but in a recent article published in the International Journal of Healthcare Information Systems and Informatics LeRouge, Tulu, & Wood (2014) argue that the initiation stage of the project is the most important state. In their article titled "Project Initiation for Telemedicine Services," the authors study the initiation of telemedicine services, looking not only at the general important, arguing that a collaborative process is important during the initiation stage for telemedicine.

The article notes that the introduction of telemedicine technology into an organization may be challenging. A literature review is presented that supports the argument the initiation process is the most important stage to the successful implementation of a project that will provide long-term, sustainable benefits. During the project initiation phase there will be the development of a clear project definition. Information within the literature review, and elsewhere emphasis the need for a good project definition to provide clarity for a project, not only defining at is needed, but also developing the constraints so that the project does not become sidetracked (LeRouge et al., 2014; Schwalbe, 2010). The definition phase is also noted as being important as it is also the Stage which the vision to the project is set (LeRouge et al., 2014). The need for the strategic vision and preparation for an IT project is as important as any other type of project, and the authors look telemarketing, as this is an area that appears to have been underrepresented in the research. The research has presented uses multiple case study approach to assess the way in which the initiation phase takes place.

The primary research was undertaken using multiple case studies in order to gain an in-depth insight into the way that telemedicine projects were implemented, and identify best practice (LeRouge et al., 2014). As there are many varieties of telemedicine, the research was undertaken using only a single type of project in order to create direct comparability between the different projects, using telestroke projects. The research findings supported the expected outcome indicated in the literature reviews, that all stages of project management were important, but that project initiation was able to exert a significant influence on the outcome of the project, and was the most sensitive and the most important phase if the project outcomes were to be met (LeRouge et al., 2014). Importantly, it was found that a common approach within initiation phase was use of collaboration, with comprehensive collaboration and strong analysis of the results of the collaboration being positively associated with a greater potential for the project to be completed successfully ((LeRouge et al., 2014). This also supported earlier research on general healthcare IT projects, where not only was initiation a critical phase, collaboration was associated with success (Fleurant et al., 2011; Schwalbe, 2010).