Information System Project Implementation: NSW State Government - Essay Example

Information System Project Implementation: NSW State Government Name Institution Name Date Executive Summary Various studies have concluded that large and complex IS project contracted by big organizations massively fail in meeting their initial project requirements. Information Systems (IS) together with their successful implementation is core to the company productivity. Despite the lauded benefits of IS projects, their successful implementation implementation comes with a myriad of difficulties. This report discusses the issues associated with the implementation of IS projects. The paper also provided recommendation for NSW State Government should use when implementing government funded IS projects. Introduction In the current times, Information System (IS) projects together with their successful implementation is one of the crucial factors that ensure success of the ongoing performance. However, the scheduled overruns as well as massive costs that come with implementation of IS projects pose direct financial cost to a firm together with compromising the organizations core operations including production and sales. Various studies reviewing the issues that undermine IS projects have come up with similar conclusions. For example, the Victoria Police’s Law Enforcement Assistance Program (LEAP) replacement review by Smith (2012), Queensland Health Payroll (Sharma, 2013; Chesterman, 2013), and the research of IS projects by Flyvbjerg and Budzier (2011) all concluded that the problems associated with IS projects is bigger than the organization can ever imagine. This report provides excellent information with regard to IS project implementation issues together with how these issues can be minimized. The report will give NSW State Government a way forward on how to minimize these problems and successfully implement government funded IS projects. Problems of IS project implementation IS implementation issues are responsible for creating or worsening implementation problem. Some experts have categorized these issues as management process issues, organizational environment issues, leadership issues, personnel issues, and technical system issues. These challenges largely impact the planning, procurement, and the final implementation or deployment of information systems in the firm. As aforementioned in the introduction above, IS implementation is not an easy task. Sharma (2013) provides an in-depth review of the various problems that seriously led to a torturous implementation of the Queensland’s Health Payroll System. In the article; Learning from the Qld Health payroll fiasco, Sharma identifies various issues that led to the torturous implementation of the aforementioned IS project. These issues include: Troubled beginnings Inadequate internal organizational governance together with mismanagement of the organization can culminate into awarding the IS implementation tender to a contractor who may not fully deliver on the project (Markovski & Gusev 2013). Similarly, a wrong platform can be recommended for implementing the project. In the event that these two scenarios are displayed at the beginning of a project, such a project is destined to fail. For instance, the company may end up hiring a large number of contractors for software development and implementation from a mix of consulting firms of which others may not be well equipped with the necessary skills and expertise. Flyvbjerg and Budzier (2011) observed that software is an integral part of many products; however, software engineers and managers are the ones responsible for product development but in one way or another they may have limited understanding of how the software should be successfully implemented. In the LEAP replacement project, Smith (2012) identified that poor IS implementation strategy will automatically be detrimental to the entire process. For instance, poor definition of the organization’s IT needs for the future compromises the entire project implementation process. Similarly, confusion among the organization’s senior management leads to poor definition of the system needs. Embarking on implementing an IS program without having a universal agreement among the organizations top management together with the peripheral departments is a recipe for failure of the entire project (Wang & Wang 2012). The absence of agreed upon internal requirements across the organization provides a prime platform for the contractor to be chosen under varying scope environment which leads to the ultimate blowout of the company’s resources. Gross Underestimation Failure to spend enough time on the system designing phase significantly leads into overlooking some of the key aspects of the system. Allocating insufficient time to deliver an IS system for an organization is one of the gross underestimation of the project at hand (Moreno-Dodson 2012). Various activities are prone to be rushed in order to finish the project on the limited allocated time which on the other hand compromises on the quality of work delivered. Sharma (2013) identifies that the time allocated to business requirements and solutions scope of the QLD health payroll system was only two weeks according to the original project documentation. This gross underestimation one of the major contributors to the failure of the project. Poor definition of business requirements at the beginning of the project always result into gross underestimation (Belbaly & Hind 2012). Questionable procurement processes Poor or questionable procurement process is another issue that ultimately compromise the implementation of an IS project. Choosing the prime contractor without fully evaluating his capability including knowledge and expertise and making it certain that he is well equipped to undertake the project (Wang & Wang 2012). Poor scrutinization of the bidding process is always leads to selecting a prime contractor with no essential expertise and capabilities. Dry run not being affordable to all bidding vendors in one way or other locks out potential and capable vendors. Consequently, attracting and retaining experienced IT project managers will be difficult due to unequal playing ground. Questionable procurement practices makes the delivery of a complex IS almost impossible. In this regard, basing IS implementation on loosely defined organization’s business requirements within a grossly underestimated time-frame is actually harder than imagined. The project blowout is inevitable within such arrangements. Cutting corners and the Contractor’s duty of care When the prime contractor is allowed to operate under a varying scope while the contracting organization keep on signing off the changes requested, it is obvious that organizations initial objectives of successfully implementing an IS project will not be realized. When the system finally comes live after its completion the cost will have gone beyond the initial cost. Accordingly, delaying a mutually agreed baseline scope have massive impact on project including its implementation and testing phases. Smith (2011) in his review of the LEAP project established the following as they main issues that hinder successful implementation of an IS project: Poor project governance whereby there is more than one project manager at a time High turnover of project executive sponsors’ High turnover of project managers, business managers, and senior project staff High turnover of technical team leads Lack of well embedded project management methodology Failure in costing project risks in order to determine contingencies required Failure in updating properly the business case documents Changes in the scope of IT projects once underway Lack of expert outside scrutiny and review of IS implementation. Flyvbjerg and Budzier (2011) in their work; why your IT project may be riskier than you think, observed that having various organization departments may have an antiquated IT network that is a mix of incompatible department specific computer system. For this reason developing and implementing an IS system that successfully delivers on the company objectives is extremely hard. Accordingly, IS that are developed are large touching on various organizational aspects which automatically may pose a new organizational risk. Poor implementation of IT projects and their management usually cost organization’s top management their jobs (Flyvbjerg and Budzier 2011). Given the above establishments, Flyvbjerg and Budzier (2011) observed the true IT implementations pitfalls highlighting cost overruns as the main issue. Recommended measures For NSW State Government to develop, deliver and implement excellent government funded IS projects and successful using the set project budget and within the specified time they should consider the following recommendations: Prior to embarking on any IS development and implementation, NSW State Government should always create a favorable platform for the latter. In this regard early preparedness will significantly guide the development and the final implementation of an IS project (Moraveck 2013). In this regard it is important to clearly state the project policy, objectives and goals, ensure that the tendering process is transparent, select the prime contractor based on merit, and more importantly appoint one project manager. Similarly, a clear IS implementation strategy should be developed that will ensure that the prime contractor works within the set implementation plan (Flyvjerg & Budzier 2011). In this essence, the IT requirements of the organization should be clearly defined. The selection of subsequent consulting IS implementation firms should be vetted to ensure that they meet the set threshold. When the NSW State Government follows this, troubled IS implementation beginnings will be eliminated and thus the IS implementation process will start on the right footing thus ensuring success of the entire process. Consequently, NSW State Government must allocate enough time and resources to the IS project implementation (Bell 2013). Enough time resource should be dedicated towards the IS designing phases to ensure that nothing is overlooked. Similarly, the subsequent project activities must be allocated enough time together with the necessary resources to ensure that they are not only not rushed but also undertaken fully in order for the entire process to be successful (Jacobs 2012). The work at stake should be exhaustively defined and resources allocated accordingly so that quality work is done to deliver on the IS project implementation. In this regard, the NSW State Government will avoid gross underestimation of resources and allowing the project to be comfortably and excellently executed. By defining the project requirements clearly, the NSW State Government will be able to allocate enough time and resources thus ensuring the successful completion of the project within the specified time and resources. The NSW State Government should also ensure that procurement process for IS project development and implementation is open and transparent. The bid for the project should equally be floated to all applicants; the final choice of the prime contractor should be based on capability, knowledge and expertise. In this regard, all applicants should be subjected to the same evaluation process without prejudice. This will ensure that the right people are chosen for the job. By having a clear and transparent procurement process NSW State Government will always ensure that the selected contractor has the ability and capacity to deliver on the organization’s IT requirements. In this regard, questionable procurement processes will virtually be eliminated and openness and transparency will always be embraced (James 2012). By doing so, the business IT requirements will be fully implemented by qualified individuals. There should be a strategy for attracting and retaining experienced IT project managers; the NSW State Government this regard should manage risk turnover through robust engagement and contractual negotiations. The NSW State Government should have a clear operational scope that will demand that the prime contractor operate within a specified framework. The room for changes to the initial project should be limited thus restricting the contractor from changing the first defined project. Having such restrictions in place will dictate the contractor to work to deliver on the project objectives as stated in the project requirement definitions. This can only be achieved when the project requirements are exhaustively defined and documented. In this essence, the NSW State Government will ensure that cutting corners and contractor duty of care is taken care of. Conclusion Large and complex IS project contracted by large organizations have been found to massively not meet the initial requirements. Currently, Information System (IS) projects together with their successful implementation is one of the crucial factors that ensure success of the ongoing performance within any organization. However, poor implementation strategies lead to the failure of such projects. The above discussion excellently review different IS implementation issues. For instance, the report has identifies troubled project beginnings as one of the issues; without proper and clear definition of project requirements automatically compromises the successful delivery of the final project. Secondly, gross underestimation; this is where insufficient time and resources are allocated to project activities. Under-funding the projects in terms of time and resources culminate into shoddy work. Questionable procurement process is another critical issue as it leads to the selection of under-qualified contractors who will eventually compromise the delivery of a quality IS project. And lastly, cutting corners and contractors duty of care; when the prime contractor is allowed to work and a varying scope, the initial project objectives can be easily changed. The report also provides recommendations that NSW State Government should implement in order to ensure that all government funded IS projects are successfully pursued. References Belbaly, N & Hind, B 2012, Successful OSS Project Design and Implementation: Requirements, Tools, Social Designs and Reward Structures, New York, Gower Publishing Ltd. Bell, S 2013, Learning with Information Systems: Learning Cycles in Information Systems Development, London, Routledge Publishers Chesterman, R 2013, Queensland Health Payroll System Commission of Inquiry. Retrieved from http://www.healthpayrollinquiry.qld.gov.au/?a=207203 Flyvjerg, B & Budzier, A 2011, Why Your IT Project May Be Riskier than You Think, retrieved from http://hbr.org/2011/09/why-your-it-project-may-be-riskier-than-you-think/ Jacobs, A 2012, Buying Information Systems: Selecting, Implementing and Assessing Off-The-Shelf Systems, London, AuthorHouse James, D 2012, Buying Information Systems: Selecting, Implementing and Assessing Off-The-Shelf Systems, London, Gower Publishing Ltd. Markovski, S & Gusev, B 2013, ICT Innovations 2012: Secure and Intelligent Systems, New York, Springer Science & Business Media Moraveck, C 2013, Unmasking Project Management: The Business Perspective of Information Systems Success, London, Palgrave Macmillan Moreno-Dodson, B 2012, Is Fiscal Policy the Answer? A Developing Country Perspective, New York, World Bank Publications Piazolo, S & Felderer, M 2013, Innovation and Future of Enterprise Information Systems: ERP Future 2012 Conference, Salzburg, Austria, November 2012, Revised Papers, California, Springer Science & Business Media Wang, S & Wang, H 2012, Information Systems Analysis and Design, New York, Universal Publishers Read More