Statement of Competency: PLO E

Informatics PLO (core competency) E: Work collaboratively in teams and use project management practices effectively to solve user-centric information and data problems.

            One of the most important abilities that an informaticist can have is the ability to work collaboratively in teams and use project management practices effectively in the execution of informatics related tasks and projects. The need for collaboration across the field of informatics is clear. After all, storing, cataloging, and retrieving data only works if everyone agrees on established norms and catalogs accordingly and consistently. Furthermore, the informaticist must collaborate with workers in the field in which they are applying their information science principles. “The continued collaboration between informatics professionals and nurses serves to greatly benefit all involved, including the patients we serve,” writes Dr. Lorraine Frazier in an article published in the University of Texas’ School of Biomedical Informatics blog (2015).

            After the need for collaboration across the field of information has been established, the next question that comes up is: how do we collaborate effectively in large and small groups? Our final project in INFM-204: Human Centered Design was a group project in which myself and two other students worked collaboratively to critique and redesign Derek Savage’s eponymous website. Through regular meetings, distribution of tasks, long discussions, and online document collaboration in Google docs; we were able to create a proposal and deliver a presentation outlining the complete redesign of dereksavage.com.

In INFM 205: Informatics Project Management, we dug into the nuts and bolts of being a project manager and facilitating the success of a project from start to finish. To this end, we learned about project management frameworks, reviewed project management software, and read about best practices for project initiating, planning, and communicating; culminating in my paper titled Planning for Project Management Success. For my final paper in INFM 205, I wrote about the prevalence, pros, and cons of office drinking and beer bashes.

References

Frazier, L. (2015, April 22). The importance of collaboration. SBMI Home – The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) School of Biomedical Informatics. Retrieved September 9, 2021, from https://sbmi.uth.edu/blog/apr-15/04222015.htm.