Phase 1: Planning

The planning phase typically takes 1-2 weeks to complete. It is crucial to the success of the project as it prepares the organization and defines the tactics and strategies for the implementation.

Duration: 1-2 weeks

Guiding Principles

First, determine what principles are going to be used to provide overall direction during the implementation. These principles will guide governance and decision-making.

Example principles:

• 100% radiologist satisfaction and adoption of the system

• Best of breed is more important than integration

• Minimize disruption to current workflows where possible

Governance

Developing a governance structure provides the project team a systematic decision-making apparatus.

Required Governance Structure

Group	Purpose	Members
Executive Committee	Project oversight	CEO, CFO, CMO, CIO, Project Manager
Radiologist Advisory Group	Clinical guidance and validation	Senior radiologists, department leads
Project Team	Day-to-day execution	Core team leads, team members

Critical Success Factor: The Executive Sponsor should be a radiologist (not CIO). Radiologist engagement in the project is extremely important and vital to success.

People

Building the project team includes identifying and allocating the following roles:

• Sponsors - Executive oversight and support

• Core team leads - Phase and workstream leadership

• Core team members - Day-to-day execution

• Super users - Power users who support peers

• Trainers - Training delivery and support

• Go-live support - On-site and remote support staff

Resource Allocation

1

Assess Time Requirements

Time allocation of these resources is based on role. At times, there will be 100% allocation required for the project.

2

Plan for Backfill

Determine how to backfill these resources to support daily operations and legacy applications during the implementation period.

3

Document Availability

Create a resource availability calendar that accounts for vacations, on-call schedules, and other commitments.

Scope

This project element involves determining what is going to be done during the project:

• What applications will be implemented and replaced

• Third-party application integrations

• Integration requirements

• Template migration approach

• Technical requirements

Finalizing scope during the planning phase provides the foundation for Gap Analysis and project governance. It ensures team members understand what to do and what not to do. If something is requested and is out of scope, it would be managed by governance to approve the change.

Documentation

The following documents are created during this phase:

Document	Purpose
Project Plan	Timeline, milestones, and deliverables
RAID Log	Risks, Action items, Issues, Decisions
RADPAIR Implementation Workbook	Living document to guide all subsequent phases

The RADPAIR Implementation Workbook is a living document that will guide all subsequent phases of the project. Keep it updated throughout the implementation.

Phase Deliverables

By the end of the Planning phase, you should have:

• Documented guiding principles

• Established governance structure

• Identified and allocated project team resources

• Defined project scope

• Created project plan

• Initialized RAID log

• Started RADPAIR Implementation Workbook

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Next: Phase 2: Workflow Discovery