Web-based Project Management

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Web-based Project Management

Georgios Karatzas - 4560272

Msc Advanced Computing Science

School of Computing Sciences - Faculty of Science University of East Anglia

April 2010

ABSTRACT

This paper sets out the revolutionary effects on project management by Internet and new technologies. It defines the terms ’project’ and ’project management’ and then ad-dresses the challenges which faces and the limitations of cur-rent project management techniques. It then emphasizes on the innovation of performing project management through the web, introducing the web-based project management systems and how the internet and the new technologies in information technology has affected the current project man-agement techniques and methods. In addition, benefits and advantages of web-enabling the project management will be addressed. On the other hand, limitations and drawbacks of performing project management over the web will be set out.

1. INTRODUCTION

Project management is the planning, scheduling, and controlling of project activities to meet project objectives. Project management is essentially about managing a project from the start to its completion meeting its goals and its ob-jectives. The projects’ complexity today has been increased as never before. Projects today include “larger capital in-vestments, several disciplines, widely spread project partic-ipants, tighter schedules, more strict quality standards etc.” [Alshawi and Ingirige, 2003]. These factors in addition with high-speed developments in Information and Communica-tion Technology and the popularity of outsourcing world-wide have influenced project management practices to follow new techniques and patterns introduced by new technology using new software and tools in order to improve the effec-tiveness of current project management techniques. Also, communication among companies and between clients and companies it is a critical factor in order to successfully be met the targets of a project. New technology and revolution-ary innovations of information technology has created new ways of communication. In this paper it will be set out the evolution of project management, the challenges and prob-lems facing the current project management practices. It then will be focused on the impact of the latest advances in technology on project management emphasizing on the innovative fact of performing project management over the Web. Finally, benefits and advantages of web-enabling the project management will be addressed pointing also critical limitations and drawbacks of performing project manage-ment over the web.

2. PROJECT MANAGEMENT

2.1 Definitions

Project is defined as a “a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product or service” [PMI, 2004]. Projects they have definitive start date and definitive end date and they exist until they reach their goals and objectives [Held-man et al., 2007]. A project usually splits into smaller projects (sub-projects), it creates a unique product or ser-vice, it is purpose-oriented and involves the coordinated un-dertaking of interrelated activities [Brandon, 2005] [Frame, 2005]. Managing a project, formerly named as project man-agement, is “the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to the project activities in order to meet or exceed stakeholder needs and expectations from a project” [PMI, 2004]. It is responsible for planning, organizing, monitoring, and control of all the parts of a project and it also respon-sible for management, leadership and motivation of all the aspects take part in order the project to achieve its goals and objectives [Brandon, 2005]. The major objectives of project management that must be met are cost, performance, time goals while in parallel it must controls or maintains the pur-pose of the project at the defined level [Lewis, 2001].

2.2 Challenges

Even if the project management exists as term for some decades there are still challenges. Below, the major chal-lenges on project management are addressed.

1. Quality: Quality can be a problematic aspect on project management. Usually, quality control is set to be managed by a contractor or other third-party. As [Amalraj et al., 2007] refer quality control and as-surance should be managed by the parent company. It is also referred that the parent company must review and approve specific contractor quality plans at the early stage of the project plan. The project’s devel-opment process and the quality contractor must take place together otherwise there would be inconsistency between the prior plans and the actual result. 2. Cost: In many cases, projects are beginning with

a lack on cost information providing lower estimated costs. This happens because a project with lower cost is more attractive and more likely to be approved in order to get started. Also, clients demand high-quality products and services at the lower price. This af-fects the project’s cost plan driving, in most cases, the project’s real cost out of the planned one and the most

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important fact is that this usually affects the quality of the final product or service [Alshawi and Ingirige, 2003].

3. Environment and complexity: It is very important for project managers to take into account the place, the time, the weather conditions and the ethics of the environment that the project will be constructed and will be published. There are different cultures, dif-ferent difficulties and difdif-ferent challenges by place to place. The project’s complexity increases and causes communication problems to every party involve into a project. Hence, the project must follow the stan-dards and the codes of its environment and must there are specialists who contribute to the decision-making process. [Amalraj et al., 2007] [Alshawi and Ingirige, 2003].

4. Schedule: A lot of companies do not have the appro-priate staff with project planners and schedulers and this fact can create problems in project schedule and productivity plans. If there is a clear-defined schedule on a project, it can avoid the project’s costs to run out of the budget [Amalraj et al., 2007].

5. Unreal targets: Unreal or over-ambitious project’s objectives without having the appropriate resources and abilities can cause delays in the project’s com-pletion and pressure to the project team causing low productivity [Amalraj et al., 2007].

6. Globalization of the marketplace: Globalization causes pressure to many industries as there is a disap-pearance of tariff barriers and this fact creates confu-sion due to different level in each state’s economy. This can be a challenge due to the fact that some foreign companies can be competitive with local companies on price, quality and delivery [Alshawi and Ingirige, 2003].

2.3 Limitations

Facing up the challenges which have been already ad-dressed, current project management practices have many limitations in order to deal with these demands efficiently. These limitations are being addressed below:

1. Lack of adequate communication: The most com-mon problem that project managers have facing is lack of adequate communication among participants. Cur-rent project management practices are often “isolated and concerned with managing problems related to in-dividual stages of the projects” [Alshawi and Ingirige, 2003]. Communication problems usually occur extra work or re-work increasing the cost of the project. These are caused by the conflicts created by conflicting information and information delivered in different time that the expected. The major reason for this is the in-consistency between in the flow of information between the parties which are involved within the project. 2. Lack of integration within the supply chain: The

practices that the companies follow in order to execute ordering, purchasing and invoicing processes are facing delays in supplies being received, low-level collabora-tion within the manufacturers and suppliers and low

level integration of purchasing with accounts software [Alshawi and Ingirige, 2003].

3. The introduction of automation into manage-ment practices: Many companies use information technology in order to improve the management and quality of products, services and processes. Although, as almost every company uses both traditional and electronic practices, usually there are conflicts between them and makes it hard for the project managers to process the right information as and when required. This happens not only because of the lack of education on using automatic systems but also because the dif-ference on the way the information provided between human and machines.

4. Lack of software integration: Most of the IT sys-tems solutions focus on specific tasks such as project planning and monitoring, estimating, design etc.. Al-though, there is a lack of communication links between these applications, usually there is incompatibility be-tween hardware and software and also there is a lack of integration of current systems which provide smooth flow of information between the levels of project’s de-velopment and maintenance [Alshawi, 2000] [Faraj and Alshawi, 2000].

5. Lack of a standardized platform for informa-tion exchange: Some of the problems caused by in-compatibility between hardware and software in a sys-tem produce difficulties to project managers in order to access and manage project information. As [Alshawi and Ingirige, 2003] mentioned that the reason for these problems are “the lack of standardization of project information that can facilitate the flow of information between incompatible hardware and software”. 6. Lack of proper decision-making tools for

project planning: Planning is always a significant and difficult process that takes a long time. [Alshawi and Ingirige, 2003] mentioned that this process can be improved if the project managers use decision-making tools into their structure.

7. Lack of standard processes for project manage-ment: Each project manager follows his own stan-dards and patterns and applies his or her own experi-ence on project management. Hexperi-ence, the management of a project can be vary and these practices can create an important impact on the “capability of coordinating and controlling the project information”[Alshawi and Ingirige, 2003].

3. WEB-BASED PROJECT MANAGEMENT

3.1 General

Web based Project Management Systems (WBPMS) is a new concept that combines the web and its associated tech-nologies in order to improve the management of construction projects. Although, this revolutionary concept can be ap-plied for every type of project. WBPMS is an electronic project management system conducted through a private network that uses Internet protocols to transmit information as the WBPMS applications are collaborative web-based ap-plications designed to store and manage project information.

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WBPMS allow different groups related to a project to have a controlled and automated access to information and focuses on services and tools that make the manager to manage their projects easier and more effective. Web-based project management provides “an instant, demand, secure on-line solution for every team member to communicate, share documents and collaborate using a standard web browser” [Matheu, 2005]. Also, WBPMS involves the project to be completed under the agreed budget and following the agreed schedule and also improves the communication between the people related to the project development to become faster and more efficient. In addition, promotes the idea of collab-oration, enabling all the associated groups of the project to work together. The goal of collaboration is to develop a pro-cess in which there are electronic documents enabling them to be located at a secure central place and can be accessed by the people and groups that have access permission on them during the maintenance of business processes, supply chain relationships and organizational hierarchies. Effective collaboration improves productivity and optimizes decision-making process [Matheu, 2005].

In figure 1, there is a comparison between tradi-tion project management and web-based project man-agement systems. As it is shown, the most impor-tant difference is the centralization of the information.

Figure 1: Communication mechanisms between en-terprises

The goal of web-based project management system is to “translate an internal standard project management system into an Internet-based system, which securely allows multi-user access with dispersed locations, resulted with the con-cept of Web-based and Web-enabled Project Management and Collaboration System (PMCS). In other words, web-enabled and web-based PMCS provides a centralized ’all-in-one’ solution both to project management and collabora-tion needs of dispersed team members” [Nitithamyong and Skibniewski, 2004]. Although, a web-enabled application is different from a web-based application . As [Becerik, 2006] refers, “unlike a web-based application, a web enabled ap-plication is not based on the HTML language, but instead it is a special software application that is distributed across the Internet much like standard network programs that can be accessed over a Local Area Network (LAN)”.

Below there are the services that a WBPMS provides [Matheu, 2005]:

• Document Management: Management of file for-mats, uploading/downloading tasks, search functions, backup facilities, tracking history of files’ actions.

• Team Communication: real time discussion be-tween groups, project calendar and event planning, team communication.

• Business Process Automation: browser compati-bility, plotting, server located in a secure data centre, system authentication, virus protection

In figure 2 it is shown the schema of a web-enabled project management system.

Figure 2: Schema of a WBPMS

3.2 Benefits

• A WBPMS improve communication between the teams and groups that participate into a project and all team members are kept informed of issues instantly. • Also, it reduces the amount of re-work needed and the time needed for generating new projects by stor-ing both the information and knowledge applied to a project.

• It reduces the cost as the documents are electronic so the printing and postage costs are reduced automati-cally and also it reduces the cost and the time needed to store, sort, find and protect the documents as they are stored centrally in a server.

• It improves the overall control of project from the start to the beginning of the project. All the actions are monitored and can be recorded. That fact makes the access to data easier and faster and reduces the time needed to request and receive information. Also, re-duces the possibility of errors that caused during the delivering of information from people to people. In ad-dition, due to the fact that the project processes are monitored and recorded, it can be easier performed the process of maintenance.

• It minimizes the project life cycle as the information is delivered instantly making faster the decision mak-ing process. It avoids all the possible delays caused by written feedback as there is no time between the request and feedback actions. Also, minimizing the project life cycle brings benefits such as reduction of costs and expenditures.

• It reduces the risk and potentials errors as the infor-mation is become available as soon as it are published, reducing the risk on working on old data.

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• Project schedules are executing faster and appropri-ately. The system automatically delivers specific tasks to a team member’s contact box and then the member can start working on his/her tasks avoiding wasting time. After, the completion of their tasks the team member must be update the project task status wait-ing for feedback.

• It increases the flexibility of the project as web-based software allows the teams or individuals of a project to access, create, edit and update project’s tasks by any web browser, at any place of the world at any time. Also, due to increase of outsourcing worldwide, it is even more important for companies to web-enable their projects as a WBPMS provides this flexibility. More benefits can be added progressively as the tech-nology and the software quality operations are improv-ing day-by-day. Also, other benefits can be identified or created by individuals of a project team adjusting the system to their own needs.

3.3 Limitations

There are several limitations working on web-based project management system. Below the major limitations are being addressed [Matheu, 2005]:

1. Security: Security is a critical factor on every sys-tem that shares sensitive information. A WBPMS de-mands security measures in order keep the safety of its data. In, addition there is another significant issue that affects the security level of a system; trust is very important issue in every project. Some clients may be completely trustworthy and others may be needed to be check all the time. This fact, in addition to a proba-ble threat, can increase both the time spent on project and also the cost of it. [Matheu, 2005] mentions that “there is definitely a need to ensure that people is en-couraged to see this technology as a benefit rather than a threat”.

2. Infrastructure: Infrastructure is also a major limita-tion in a WBPMS. Companies need to have the neces-sary infrastructure (networks, hardware, internet, soft-ware) in order to work smoothly. Most of companies do not provide appropriate infrastructure due to vari-able reasons such as cost of infrastructure, not likely to change their organization structure, fear of the new technology. In addition, the operation of web-based system is primarily based on internet networks so it is very important the internet connection to exist. Sev-eral and significant problems will be created in web-based project if there is no internet connection. In addition, software or hardware incompatibility can be another critical limitation.

3. Training: Project team members must be well edu-cated and trained in order to use a WBPMS. Further-more, the managers must have the appropriate knowl-edge of software’s abilities in order to choose the ap-propriate software to use. Another important factor is the personal interesting on new technologies. Many people are not familiar with the technology or they are not keen to use it. Also, it may takes a lot of time in order the people to be trained to use new technologies.

Also, [Hjelt and Bjork, 2007] research shows that the participants who received limited or no training, put rate low the tasks both of how easy is to use and how easy is to learn the features of the system. Another im-portant fact from this research was that self-learning of the system it does not require much time but this op-tion is only for people with good computer or software skills or experience.

4. Personal and cultural characteristics: People that uses a WBPMS are required to learn how to use an innovation and change the way the usually work. Users are usually not keen to adopt to changes related to their working habit. Also, there are important is-sues as far as it concerns the user interfaces and how easily the users can adopt to them regarding cultural and social aspects.

4. CONCLUSION

Information and communication technology (ICT) offers to companies and project managers a real revolutionary chance to improve the project management practices, the quality of final projects and also, an opportunity to decrease the project time of implementation, providing software and web tools. However, despite these benefits that ICT offers, there are limitations associated with the adoption of these tools. Web-based management can minimize the distances, improve and make easier the communication and collabo-ration, reduce the time spent for re-works, etc., but these advantages can be gained only if all the participants of a project are ready to redesign the way they work. Besides the fact that is very difficult for companies which are existed for years to change their business structure, they should take into consideration the potential changes and the benefits that van gain from ICT. On the other hand, in order to use these tools, project participants must be trained and appro-priate infrastructure must be provided taking into account security issues that might exist. In my opinion, ICT can im-prove not only the project management practices but also the most business tasks that take place into a company or organization.

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