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Subject: Managing Information
Technology/system Projects
Assessment Two
“Application of New IT system for an
Excavation Company‐ERP Software”
Name of Student: Omar Moukaddem.
00209201T
Lecturer: Dr.Mo Kader
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Table of Contents
I‐Executive Summary .................................................................................................................................... 3
II‐Introduction ............................................................................................................................................... 3
III‐Examining the Current State of Organization and the Context in which the IT Project is executed ........ 3
IV‐Quality of the Project ............................................................................................................................... 5
V‐ Challenges and Opportunities .................................................................................................................. 8
VI‐Leadership Style of the Project Manager ................................................................................................. 8
VII‐Conflict Management .............................................................................................................................. 9
VIII‐Stakeholder Identification and Effective Communication ..................................................................... 9
IX‐Planning and Conducting Procurement .................................................................................................. 10
X‐Risk Factors and Risk Mitigation Plan ...................................................................................................... 11
XI‐Personal and Professional Reflection ..................................................................................................... 11
XII‐Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................. 12
XIII‐Reference .............................................................................................................................................. 13
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I‐Executive Summary
After the implementation of a new program that facilitate and speed up the estimation process,
it was clear for the employer of EXC‐Co Company that using new IT system for other area in the
company processes would improve the performance, enhance the competitiveness level and
increases the profit. In this report, we are going to identify and assess the new ERP system that
will be implemented in the company and what are the challenges that the PMO and the
company will face during such implementation.
II‐Introduction
Since any type of construction work or business entails many processes to run and all processes
are related in many ways, organising the processes, their inputs and their outputs, is a must in
order to ensure the high productivity and efficiency especially when we are talking about the
resources reallocation (Yang, J., Wu, C., & Tsai, C. (2007)). According to the company employer,
with the increasing of the projects number that are implemented at the same time, the need of
linking the processes all together is increasing and that can be done through a developed ERP
system that allows to connect the processes and automatically send the instructions from the
output of a process to the other’s input.
III‐Examining the Current State of Organization and the Context in which
the IT Project is executed
After several meeting with the employer and visits to the projects sites we can obviously conclude that
all processes are manually linked. In other words, as per example, the project engineer of each project
has to call the construction manager in order to ask for missing material, resources or equipment or in
order to inform the CM about some obstructions on site. The progress of work is also informed to the
CM through a phone call or through an email.
The Construction manager action will be accordingly as illustrated in table‐1, the recommendation that
can be considered as the requirements of what are the areas where the ERP software has to improve
are also shown.
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Information Area Action About the Action taken Recommendation
Received
To arrange staff
This action consists of calling the The CM has to have a
Missing of staff at Staff and HR from other project
project engineers of other projects complete access to the
project N5 that are not in order to ask about the staff work time sheets and the staff
needed or not at that day, and if it is possible to profile that can help him
working. transmit staff from that project to to arrange the needed
the other one, and also to call the staff more easily and
HR department to ask if the quickly.
company has any suitable
employee which has no assigned
work at that day.
To arrange the To call the project engineers of The CM has to have a
Equipment needed Equipment needed equipment. other projects to ask about suitable complete access to the
at project N7 and equipment that is not needed in progress of work and
resources their project and also to call the the equipment that are
equipment department to ask if the being used and to the
needed plant is available. list of available plant
and equipment in the
company.
Work obstruction at Progress of To call the Since the CM and the contractor’s The CM has to have a
project N6 and that work and contractor project PM would have many tasks to carry complete access to the
could not be solved management manager and to out at the same time, the progress of work in each
on site solve the problem. communication could not be done project and have a
with the correct way to achieve the system that shows him
result. The CM may forget to re‐call the issues happen on
the PM in case if he was busy at the site and its solving
first time. progress. (The data of
such system have to be
provided from the
status report submitted
by the site engineers).
Material needed Material and To order the To call the Procurement The procurement
At any project Supplier needed material department in order to arrange the department and the CM
from the suitable purchasing of the needed material. must have an access to
supplier. the work progress and
anticipate the needed
material at least 1 week
before the day of need
on the schedule.
Accounting Accounting, To verify the To call the project engineer and ask The Accounting
department asks for Site progress progress of work about the progress of work. department and the CM
the progress of The accounting department has to need to have an access
work in order to look up for the payment schedule to the work progress
issue an invoice and verify if any invoice can be that is linked to the
issued. payment schedule of
each project.
Table‐1
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IV‐Quality of the Project
It is not easy for any company and manager to adopt an ERP software (Enterprise resource planning)
because of its complexity and because of the difficulty to understand its aspects. (Maditinos, D.,
Chatzoudes, D., & Tsairidis, C. (2012)).
The ERP software has to use all the database collected from the various processes and share it through
an interface that can be used and controlled by the CM and other users. After programed analysing of
the collected data, the software has to develop several instructions or other data that have to be sent to
the suitable department at the proper time.
The benefits that can be achieved after the implementation of such project are not limited to:
‐Enhance the coordination and the communication between all departments.
The coordination between all departments will be done automatically, the role of each department is to
enter the required data or information to the software through an interface and to receive the feedback
or the instructions from the software.
‐Implementation of Processes more efficiently
It is obvious that reducing the human work would eliminate the human error and using an automated
system will cut down the time and ensure the quality of the result.
In order to avoid any error occurrence or at least to reduce the probability of errors, the ERP software
includes the option to monitor and rectify at any time some processes that can be changed or edited
according to some circumstances. This edit access will be allowed for the users that the employer will
nominate.
‐Reducing the cost of work
Since such system would reduce the Re‐work due to the possible errors and since it reduces the time of
processes, eliminates the repetition and emphasise the effective communication between them, it
would accordingly reduce the cost of operations, processes and control.
‐Making daily management easier
Since the CM and the end users can monitor and control any area from the most important processes
that the business relies on, the project management will be easier and more effective.
‐Facilitating the decision making and Management planning
The detailed monitoring and sharing of the data collected from the various processes will provide a clear
idea to the CM and other users in order to make a fast decision and to arrange an alternative plan or
strategy to avoid any delay or conflict.
The Charts below shows how an ERP software can use the database received from processes and users
in order to generate instructions or comments.
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Order Management
Company Depot
Time sheet
And Equipment log
Send Invoice, approved contract
ERP
Accounting Send Available Resources
Resources
Ask for required Resources
CRM
Site comments
and notes
USER
Equipment and
Company Depot Tools Material
plant
Equipment Human
Resources Resources Resources
Steel Order for Steel Order for Steel Order for
Piling work Capping beam Shotcrete work
(Cages) work
Order
Management
Concrete Order Concrete Order Concrete Order
for piling work for Capping for Shotcrete
beam work work
Invoices and
Accounting
Receipts
Invoices and
CRM
Receipts
Site comments General needs
and notes and comments
Approved
Contract
V‐ Challenges and Opportunities
As mentioned in the previous report, the employer strategy is to use the automation system in the
various area of the company. Using an ERP software aligns with the strategy of the company that is
looking forward to handle more projects at the same time and to meet the customers’ satisfaction.
It is very vital that the implemented IT project will align with the Company strategy and that will
facilitate the creation and execution of the project. This alignment helps the PMO to mitigate the risk of
challenges occur during the project planning and execution. Because of this alignment and because the
company strategy, the PMO can defeat the challenges with the collaboration of the employer and all
stakeholders.
The Total Technology Risk (TTR) and the security are the most important challenges that the PMO will
face in addition to the resistance to change that will be discussed in the leadership style of project
manager and how to manage the relevant stakeholders during the execution of the project. Another
challenge that has to be taken into consideration is the Variation and the change of requirements
especially that this project entails all the company departments and the probability to change the
requirements is very high due to the numerous stakeholders. This challenge can be overcome by
ensuring that all stakeholders are included in the stakeholders register and their requirements are
analysed and agreed within the stakeholder strategy.
VI‐Leadership Style of the Project Manager
Generally, managing people is the most difficult part of the project manager task. When it comes to an
IT Project, the level of that difficulty increases because most of IT Projects entail a change in one area or
more of the Business as usual processes. In our case, the project manager has to deal with the internal
and external stakeholders (From the PMO Company and the client Company) and that obliges him to use
two or more style in leading the project.
IT project involves thoughts and innovation, therefore, the Project manager has to use the Authoritative
style and the All for one and one for all style in order to enhance the collaboration between the project
team members and take advantage of the variety of thoughts and ideas that could help him to achieve
the project with high quality and on time.
During the implementation of the project, the Project manager can use the coercive style because the
Company employees have superficial knowledge in IT project especially that this project will involve
some foremen and supervisors who will enter and receive some data or instructions through the new
software. In order to mitigate the impact of the resistance to change however, the project manager has
to use Authoritative style that helps him to implement the change in several steps and through
incremental changes.
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VII‐Conflict Management
Although using Authoritative leadership style and agile methodology have many advantages in IT
project, the disadvantages of that methodology and leadership style appear when various ideas and
requirements have been proposed. The disagreements on any idea can create a conflict and obstruction
that delays the project and might affect the quality and the time of completion.
In order to manage such conflict, The Project manager cannot obviously satisfy all the stakeholders.
When any conflict occurs, the Project manager has to investigate and identify the source of that conflict
and then analyse the reasons. Even though that the Agile methodology accepts many change during the
implementation of the project, the project manager has to be aware to not accept any scope creep and
to always align the project with the approved baseline.
An effective communication has to be used in order to lessen any conflict impact on the project and
ensure that all the relevant stakeholders are satisfied or at least have no problem about the agreed idea
or step.
VIII‐Stakeholder Identification and Effective Communication
There are different types of stakeholders that involve in our project from the PMO employee, the
project manager to the employer, the Company employees at more than one level (management, office,
Site, engineers, Foremen).
In order to well managing all stakeholders, the Project manager has to prioritise them according to their
interest and power on the completion of the project. The chart‐1 below can be used in order to
prioritise the stakeholders and avoid any conflict.
1‐In the area where the power of the stakeholder is high and its interest is low (A), the Project manager
has to ensure the satisfaction of this stakeholder. The part of accounting department that will involve in
the payment of the ERP software has to be satisfied regarding the project budget and payment
schedule.
2‐in the area where the power and the interest of the stakeholders are not high (B), the project manager
has to keep monitoring their feedback. The administration department of the company is not involved
directly in this ERP projects. This department will receive the information and the instructions from the
HR department that is directly involved.
3‐In the area where the Power and the interest of the stakeholders are high (C), the project manager has
to ensure that he always listens to their requirements and ensure that they are satisfied. The Company
employer and the Construction manager are classified in this area.
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4‐In the area where the interest of the stakeholder is high while its power is low (D), the project
manager has to keep them informed of all changes and progress. (Such as the PMC and some Company
employees)
Chart‐1
Power
Satisfaction Manage
Closely
A
C
Monitoring Keep Informed
B D
Interest
IX‐Planning and Conducting Procurement
In order to implement the project, the PMO has to plan to purchase many stuff during the execution of
the project and others will be needed during the test and the implementation of it.
The Employer asked for a change that allows for some user to use a Tablet instead of Computer while
using the ERP software. This change leads to add tablets and other stuff to the procurement plan.
The implementation of the new ERP software requires to upgrade the existing computers and to arrange
good internet connection all the time.
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X‐Risk Factors and Risk Mitigation Plan
Risks anticipated with the implementation of our project is related to the IT Project in general from a
side and to the change implementation on the other side.
Risks that are considered to have high and medium impact on the project are shown in the table below:
XI‐Personal and Professional Reflection
Since the implementation of new ERP software is considered as Re‐engineering process improvement
because it involves the entire Company processes, the challenges anticipated with the implementation
of the project increases. Using business ready system (such as Oracle or other) can facilitate the
execution of the project. The customisation of the ERP system that fits the organisation needs and
circumstances conducts to high complexity but it helps the Project manager to satisfy and meet the
stakeholders’ requirements more easily.
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XII‐Conclusion
Working with employees who feel proud to work with Company and have high level of belonging to it,
has facilitated the work. The Employees who were involved in the project have shown high level of
collaboration and the majority of them are willing to change and improve the Company situation.
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XIII‐Reference
Yang, J. B., Wu, C. T., & Tsai, C. H. (2007). Selection of an ERP system for a construction firm in Taiwan:
A case study. Automation in construction, 16(6), 787-796.
Gargeya, V. B., & Brady, C. (2005). Success and failure factors of adopting SAP in ERP system
implementation. Business process management journal, 11(5), 501-516.
Maditinos, D., Chatzoudes, D., & Tsairidis, C. (2012). Factors affecting ERP system implementation
effectiveness. Journal of Enterprise Information Management, 25(1), 60-78.
Finney, S., & Corbett, M. (2007). ERP implementation: a compilation and analysis of critical success
factors. Business Process Management Journal, 13(3), 329-347.
Altamony, H., Al-Salti, Z., Gharaibeh, A., & Elyas, T. (2016). The relationship between change
management strategy and successful enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementations: A theoretical
perspective. International Journal of Business Management and Economic Research, 7(4), 690-703.
Sandøy, M., Aven, T., & Ford, D. (2005). On integrating risk perspectives in project management. Risk
Management, 7(4), 7-21.
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