Impact Of Information Technology In Project Management

Information Technology has great involvement in these days towards the project management. Pakistan inherited the whole of public and government sector management infrastructure from the British colonial role and adopted it with very little modification at the time of its independence, in 1947. From the Independence Day Pakistan is facing problems. Before establishing National Database & Registration Authority all the records were kept through manual registers. The aim of company is to reengineer these sectors to make transparency in the system. The company has used the best available information technology to make possible and transparent the system. Pakistan’s biggest IT consuming company which is reengineering the business processes in Pakistan where peoples are trying to get benefits with fake documentation. With the establishment of the National Database Registration Authority (NADRA) and the launch of the computerized national identify card (CNIC), the federal government took an important step towards streamlining the process of registration of the citizens of Pakistan. Relying on impressive information technology tools and replacing the outdated, manual modes of registration and issuance of national identity cards, NADRA offers a very important public service, with the entire population as current or potential clients. Public expectations of an efficient service are justified.

Introduction:

Project management is in complete without involvement of information technology. It is not been possible to complete a project on time and within a budget without use of tools which are provided by information technology. Project managers are using these variety of tools to fulfil the requirement of their projects. Manay companies those are providing project management consultancies need to communicate, track and analyse the problems through information technology. But unfortunately many of project management teams are lake of trained of these specific tools.

Information technology has a great impact in managing the projects. There are varieties of information technology tools are being used in the projects to manage and keep record of every thing. IT is playing a vital role from very beginning of the projects. From planning a project to successfully and smoothly running the projects, every project needs different kind of software and tools to make possible the things.

National Database & Registration Authority, Pakistan has launched their first project to computerise the data of all citizens of Pakistan but they faced problems in managing the large of number of data and still they are facing the problems to deal with the data. But after the first launch of project they came up with another project of utility bills payment machines called KIOSK and they haven’t yet succeeded. In this research we will discover the reasons and discuss the loop falls behind the failure of project.

Reasons for Research:

The first reason of research is to investigate the problems and give suggestions to the higher management of NADRA, Pakistan, so they can emphasis on the particular issues. A general previous research shows that the reason behind the most of the failed projects is inappropriate use of information technology especially in information system projects. The company which I will discuss in the research have some problems of implementation of their technologies specially the machines they used in and insufficient communication system. This research we will investigate the improper use of tools during the project which causes the loss of money and time, how information technology can play a role towards the success of projects. There are variety of software are available through which we can improve the efficiency and track the problems in every step of a project.

In year 2000, when the first project was launched it has been seen that the staff which was choose to involve in the project was not very much familiar with the technology and the procedure in which they archive the all old record was not enough suitable. The big reason behind the failure of first process is, the record was in big quantity and the resources to compile that record was not sufficient, therefore the project which was suppose to be finished with in one year took more than one year. This method didn’t make the procedure transparent. After the management realised that the project is not delivering the desired result the chairman Saleem Ahmed Moen came up with another idea to get the desired result and then they launched another systematic approach called NSRC. But still they are facing the problems running a smooth, transparent and free of fraud system throughout the country.

We will consider these two projects and compare each other.

Secondly this document will provide the help for those other companies which they have same kind of problems in their projects. I believe that there is a more knowledge

1. Why Projects Fail

Mostly projects fail when they do not meet the success criteria:

It is delivered on time.

It is on or under budget.

The system works as required.

Only a few projects achieve all three. Many more are delivered which fail on one or more of these criteria, and a substantial number are cancelled having failed badly.

So what are the key factors for success? Organisations and individuals have studied a number of projects that have both succeeded and failed and some common factors emerge. A key finding is that there is no one overriding factor that causes project failure. A number of factors are involved in any particular project failure, some of which interact with each other. Here are six of the most important reasons for failure.

IT Awareness:

Awareness of Information technology is necessary for project managers. They must know that what exactly they should use in the process, if they choosen a tool firstly and going with that tool for some time and then they realised that it is not perfect one they will try to use other one.

Relevance:

Information technology is growing and growing in last two decades, it has been involved in every business now a day. The companies, in which they were using manual registers and records, are now using information technology software to provide better results and earn more profit.

My personal background and interaction with information technology and interest in project management encourage me to discover the relationship between these two important subjects and reasons behind the success and failure of the NADRA projects.

Methodology:

Questionnaires:

The required data will be collected by providing questionnaire papers to the professionals involved in the project, so we will get the specific answers on specific questions, it will be easy to analyse and make right decisions.

Personal Interviews:

A personal interview is the other method to gather the data from responsible officials. I have some personal relationships with few officials of the company and I will make some appointment with other to approach them and then we will see their response to the projects.

Literature Review:

A lot of literature is available on the internet and articles and broachers of the company which they have been issued time to time to promote their business and usage of the technology.

Company has its own internal monthly magazine in which its upcoming and running project update available. Personal views of the officials on the projects can be find out there.

Annual Reports:

The company have issued their annual report which is easily available by requesting the company.

Resources:

The primary data will be taken by the companies professional those were involved in the projects. We have a lot of available articles online and

Implementation Plan:

Being a student of project management and information technology, I had decided to break my work into three stages. As I have already started my research and my past experience of doing assignments I have planned to finish my dissertation before the date is due which is 27th September 2010. I realised that I haven’t done enough work yet but right after the submission of my assignments on 06th august and 09th august I will go straight on my dissertation. The break down of work is as follows:

10th August to 17th August 2010:

The initial research will be taken out and will prepare the questionnaire and survey forms and the officials to where I can get the authentic information. I have planned to meet the officials and get the appointment for meeting them. In the mean time I will search for the current situation and standing of the company.

18th August to 25th August:

In the second stage I will have meeting with officials and collecting the questionnaire and analysing the received data.

26th August to 1st September 2010:

During this week I will summarise the data and check the quality of data and then will go for typing and will find out that what other information needed and how can I get this particular information and from where will be the authentic information can be taken.

Conclusion:

During the initial research and having meeting with my supervisor I had concluded that a proper training and awareness of information technology is necessary for project management students. We can improve the success rate of projects only if we know that we use right technology at right time. It will reduce the risk in terms of money, time and human resource.

Recommendation:

Training should be give about software operating and using them effectively during the study of project management is highly recommended.