IS480 Team wiki: 2010T1 Kaizen
Contents
Why Kaizen??
Kaizen is a Japanese word for “improvement” and refers to practices that focus upon continuous improvement in various areas like business process management. By improving and re-engineering processes, Kaizen aims to eliminate waste (i.e unnecessary tasks in the process) – Indeed an apt name as this is exactly what our team hopes to achieve through this project. Read on to find out more about the project!
Motivation
All of us were keen on taking up a project which all of us will be comfortable working on as well as something challenging that will keep us motivated throughout the project. We decided to take up this project as we believe that it will equip us with practical knowledge and also allow us to apply concepts learnt in class to a real-life scenario. Furthermore, 2 of our team members, Ashita & Aiswarya had some experience working doing a healthcare related project in another IS module.
Project Crew
Team Members
1. Aiswarya Karumathil Raghavan
2. Ashita Ashokan
3. Felicia Natali
4. Khin Thin Su
5. Lau Wei Yee
Supervisor
Assitant Professor Zhu Feida
Client
Alexandra Health
1. Mr. LAU Wing Chew (Chief Transformation Officer) of Alexandra Hospital
2. Mr. Benjamin LIM (Principal Systems Specialist, IST) of Alexandra Hospital
Project Description
This project aims to streamline the current patient discharge process at Alexandra Hospital by implementing a touch screen based web application that can be used by various stakeholders involved in the process.
Our proposed system aims to tackle all the bottlenecks in the current process so as to shorten the time taken to discharge a patient as well as improve the accuracy and timeliness of the patient’s medical records.
<Due to confidentiality issues, we will not be able to post further details of the project on this wiki>
Objective
A touch screen web application deployed on the server at Alexandra Hospital that electronizes the patient case sheet and helps automate the discharge process.
Value Statement
Reduction in discharge time enables faster transfer of patients from A&E (Accident & Emergency) department to other wards thus freeing up beds in A&E for critically ill patients.
Roles & Responsibilities
Role | Primary Member | Secondary Member | Description |
Project Manager | Ashita | Thin Su | Responsible for planning,executing and overall control of the project Tracks schedule and reports progress to team and other stakeholders |
UI Designer | Aiswarya | Wei Yee | Responsible for implementation of User Interface Oversee building of prototypes Involve stakeholders of user interface such as end users for feedback and reviews |
System Analyst | Felicia | Aiswarya | Responsible for planning of system design and architecture Leads the team in system development |
Database Architect | Thin Su | Ashita | Plan Database Design Leads team in database development |
Business Analyst | Wei Yee | Felicia | Analyze business and functional requirements Communicate closely with clients |
Risks
Risk | Mitigation Strategy | Impact | Likelihood |
Conflict of interest among stakeholders. There can be different expectations from clients, supervisors as well as end-users on the system specifications. Hence, it is difficult for us to manage all the expectations | Maintain regular communication with all the parties involved | High | Low |
Wrong estimation of the project schedule | Include buffer time when planning the project schedule | Medium | Medium |
Change of project requirements | Create a modular, well structured system so that changes are easier to accommodate | High | High |
System integration failure | Regularly integrate the software components in each iteration | High | Medium |
Change management is tough (End users are reluctant to adapt to the new process) | - Provide a clear as is to be process and resource analysis to prove the efficiency and advantages the change is going to bring to the hospital. - Create a comprehensive online and manual documentation to ease user in using the proposed new system |
High | High |
Technical Aspects
Development Tools
1. MS Visual Stdio Express 2010
2. MS SQL Server (Express Version)
3. SQL Server Management Studio
4. Adobe Photoshop
Collaboration Tools
1. Dropbox
2. Skype
3. Email
4. Microsoft Office 2007
5. Microsoft Project 2007
6. Microsoft Visio 2007
Milestones
Our FYP Journey
3rd May
We made our first visit to a ward at Alexandra Hospital to observe the patient discharge process closely. Aiswarya,Wei Yee & Thin Su represented the group to observe the process. They spent half a day at the hospital watching how the whole patient discharge process works. They spoke to various parties who were involved in the process to understand the process better. The visit helped the team get a first hand experience and view of the existing process at the hospital.
4th May - 18th May
We spent the next two weeks on briefing group members who were not present for the process observation and by mapping out the As-Is Process. We also collected all the forms that were used in the discharge process to understand what are the necessary information to be captured from a patient's admission to the discharge status.
22nd May - 2nd June
We managed to accomplish quite a number of things despite our hectic internships...
1. Finalized As-Is Process
2. Met with one of the nurses at AH to clarify details of the forms we had collected earlier and sieve out the ones that were relevant to the discharge process
3. Brainstormed on the To-Be Process and came up with the project scope
4. Discussed project scope with Lian Chee and amended the scope according to her feedback
5. Finalized To-Be Process
6. Came up with Work Breakdown Structure & Rough project timeline
3rd June
We submitted the first draft of our proposal to Lian Chee & our clients!!
8th June
2nd draft of proposal submitted after amending according to client's feedback
12th June
We had a client meeting to do a walk-through of our As-Is & To-Be process as well as our project scope. We discussed the project in detail (i.e system functionalities, technologies used, etc) and received many valuable comments from our clients and we decided to incorporate them before the final submission of the proposal.
16th June
Submission of Proposal
20th June - 7th July
We're currently working on the following:
1. Finalize project schedule after client gives the go ahead for the dates we have proposed
2. Database Modeling & Implementation
3. UI Prototypes
10th July
We received feedback from Prof Ben Gan on our proposal. He gave us constructive feedback on the points that we should improve on.
We had a meeting to make amendments according to his suggestions. The following issues were discussed:
1. Discussion on amending project schedule
2. Amending To-Be process according to Prof Gan's comments
3. Creation of Role-Based Access Control tables
4. Risks & Mitigation strategy amended according to prof's comments
5. Technologies & Tools to be used were finalized
6. Decided on what functions to be implemented for the proposal presentation.
18th July
Felicia, Ashita & Thin Su met up to create the database tables on SQL Server Management Studio. The database has been completely set up.
19th July
Felicia, Ashita & Thin Su met up to implement Login function. Wei Yee & Aiswarya are working on the UI Prototypes.