Introduction
In project management, four (4) factors have to be achieved in a successful project include, the requirement (scope) management, cost management, quality management and time management. Keeping in view the fact, a project is said to be a success, if all the project requirements (scope) and quality are achieved within agreed time and cost (Shenhar and Dvir et, al, 2001.). It is pertinent to mention here that a success is relative to the project client; therefore, the predefined project success factors can be amended or considered based on the requirements of the clients.
Therefore, it can be stated that every project has its own predefined success and failure criteria. The document analyzes two (2) similar projects in the field of health, from which, one of the projects was a success, whereas, the second project was failed. The projects are analyzed considering their identification and specification of the project objectives and strategies. The projects are investigated in terms of the role of the project sponsor before project inception, during project execution and after the completion of the project. The document examines the objectives of the each project to know whether these (objectives) were realistic and achievable, moreover, these were achieved by the projects at completion. The document analyzes whether the project stakeholders were accurately identified and involved throughout execution of the project. The projects are scrutinized to know whether the project completed within agreed cost and time. The challenges of the projects are specified in the document along with the solutions adopted by the project managers. The document proceeds to explain the cultural factors affecting the performance of the project. The risks involved in each of the projects and how well these risks were managed by the project team. And in the end of the document presents lesson learnt by comparing the specified to two (2) projects.
Projects Introduction
The document compares two (2) project titled “HealthSMART e-Health” – a failed project and “ARGOS e-Health” – a successful project. The HealthSMART project was initiated by the department of health, Victoria, Australia in the year 2004 and planned to be completed in the year 2007, with a planned / estimated cost of $566 million AUD (Calleam Consulting Ltd., 2012). The project was failed as it was not able to achieve the project objectives within specified time and cost due to the various reasons provided in the upcoming section of the documents. The ARGOS e-Health project had a budget of €605, initiated in the year 2010 and successfully completed in the year 2011 (Empirica, 2014). The team of the project was comprised on forty two (42) professionals having diverse job descriptions and roles.
Strategy Specification
One of the vital and initial milestones of the project is the identification of the project implementation strategy that would help to achieve the objectives of the project. If by any means, the implementation strategy is not clearly defined, it becomes very difficult to achieve the project objectives. Therefore, the strategies of the projects under discussion should be analyzed, keeping in view the significance of accurately defining the project implementation strategy. The main mistake made by the management of the HealthSMART project team was not identified and specified the project business case. The business case facilitates to develop the project implementation strategy. As the business case was not precisely defined, therefore, the project implementation strategy was not accurately identified by the project team. This had become one of the major reasons for the project failure. However, on the other hand, the project strategy of the ARGOS eHealth project was precise and clearly communicated to all the stakeholders.
In the HealthSMART project, the plan was to purchase an e-Health system from the USA, and then it would be customized to meet the requirements of the health department, Victoria, Australia. But unfortunately, the envisaged gap between the health department’s requirements and the system functionality was much lesser than the actual. In this regard, the system has to be customized at a large scale than it was planned in the project implementation strategy. And therefore, it can be stated that the project implementation strategy was not developed after thorough investigation and analysis.
Estimated Benefits
In project management, a feasibility report has to be developed to identify and analyze the cost and benefits after completion of the project. The identified benefits of the project should be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time (SMART). If the identified benefits are not SMART, then there is a great possibility that the benefits would not be achieved. Therefore, both the under discussion projects should define the benefits in a smart manner. The benefits of the HealthSMART project (a failure) were defined precisely; however, it is pertinent to specify that the project has not gained major estimated benefits after completion of the project. This is why the project is said to be a failure.
The management of the ARGOS e-health project had not only identified benefits realistically, but also the project team had achieved the benefits of the project. The benefits of the ARGOS e-health project had been divided into three major categories include sustainability, accessibility and quality. After completion of the project the department has provided health management tools to eliminate the redundancies and the services are provided in an efficient manner through electronic / digital health records. The project enabled the management to integrate acute and primary information system to provide a centralized system. And the project resulted into the provision of secured and efficient services to the patients (Lideharo, 2010).
Stakeholders Identification
Stakeholders affect the project success significantly. Therefore, the project stakeholders are required to be accurately identified and specified properly. Moreover, it is significant to not only identify the stakeholders, but also an appropriate stakeholder management plan should be developed in order to involve the relevant stakeholders during the execution of the project. In the stakeholder management plan, it should be intended that each of the stakeholders should be communicated and informed the status of the project. Moreover, it is pertinent to develop a schedule for all the stakeholders in order to participate in the meetings before and during the execution of the project. Keeping in view the above given guidelines, both the under discussion project should be evaluated. In the HealthSMART project, all the project stakeholders were involved in the project execution; however, the input of the stakeholders had not been incorporated in producing / developing project deliverables. However, in the ARGOS e-health project, the project stakeholders have been involved in each and every phase and deliverable of the project. And managing the stakeholders has become one of the reasons resulted in the project success.
Estimated Time and Resources
Keeping in view the definition of a successful project, the time, cost, requirements and quality are the major factors. Therefore, the project has to be completed within agreed time and cost in order to complete successfully. The HealthSMART project was planned duration of the project was three years (3) that is from 2004 to 2007 and the budget was $323 million. However, the project was not completed within the planned duration and in the year 2012, the project was closed unsuccessfully. As the duration of the project increased, therefore, the cost of the project was also increased than it was envisaged (LeMay, 2012). And this reason is considered one of the major reasons for claiming the project as a failure. However, on the other hand, the ARGOS e-health project was initiated in the year 2010 and completed in the year 2011. The project was planned to be completed within two (2) years and the project team successfully managed the project to complete it as planned. The project team achieved all the deliverables, milestones and objectives of the project within the planned and agreed timeframe. Moreover, it is pertinent to mention here that both the projects have utilized all the resources (technical as well as human resources), however, one project (ARGOS) successfully managed and utilized the resources, however, the other project (HealthSMART) was not able to utilize the resources properly.
Human Resource and Technical Challenges
It is the primary responsibility of the project manager to manage the human resources and technical issues to be faced during the execution of the project. During the execution of the project, when a problem arises the relevant human resource should inform the immediate reporting authority (can be a project manager). The project manager should resolve the matter, and if by any means, the project manager would not able to resolve the matter should be communicated to the project board for resolution or final decision. Both the under discussion projects should be analyzed keeping in view the guidelines for managing the human resources as well as the technical issues. The technical issue faced by the HealthSMART project was the gap between envisaged requirements and the actual business processes of implementing the electronic health solution was too much. And unfortunately, the gap issue had not been managed by the team of the HealthSMART project and this resulted in the project failure. However, the ARGOS e-Health project also faced various technical issues like the integration of the acute and legacy software modules with the newly developed system. The project team of the ARGOS project not only successfully managed the technical issues and human resources, but also completed the project within agreed deadline.
Cultural Factors
The effect of the culture in managing the projects has become one of the significant issues to be considered by the project managers to complete the project successfully. The issue commonly arises in the communities / countries having a multi-culture society. As per the recent research in the field of cultural issues in the project management, the cultural differences should not only be managed among the team members, but also in the organizations and societies to complete the project successfully. It is pertinent to specify that the cultural issues have not been reported in the both under discussion projects. This can be seen as two opinions i-e either the projects have not faced the cultural issues or the information on the cultural issues regarding these projects is not available publically.
Project Risks
Risks have abilities to impact the project, either positively or negatively. In order to manage the project successfully, the project manager is required to develop a risk management plan. In the plan, the first phase is the identification of the potential risks in the project, analysis and evaluation of the risks, prioritizing the risks and developing appropriate corrective actions for the identified potential risks. The project manager should manage the project risks considering the above-given risk management processes. Therefore, the projects under discussion should be analyzed with respect to the risk management. The Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) implementation approaches were among the major potential risks found during the execution of the HealthSMART project. And it is pertinent to mention here that the project management team was failed to mitigate the risks. Therefore, the project was turned into a failure. As the AGROS e-health project involved a huge number of stakeholders, therefore, the availability of the stakeholders in the scheduled meetings was the major risk. And the project team had successfully managed the risk by developing meeting schedule in the inception / planning phase of the project management and communicated to all the relevant stakeholders.
Unexpected Problems
The unexpected problems have the capabilities to detract the project that can lead to the project failure. Therefore, the project manager should have the capabilities to manage the unexpected problems in a way to complete the project successfully. As already specified in the document, the HealthSMART faced a major problem of the gap between the actual customization of the software application and the planned or estimated requirements for customization. This unexpected problem was faced due to an inappropriate project implementation strategy that had led the project to failure. However, the AGROS e-health project had also faced the unexpected problems, but it is significant to specify that the project team successfully managed the unexpected problems to achieve the project objectives within agreed and specified time and cost.
Comparison of Two Projects
The comparison of the failed and successful projects enabled me to understand the main reasons / factors make the project successful or failure. As already stated, the comparison highlights the significance of the four (4) success factors include, time, cost, quality and scope. The study leads to know the responsibilities of the project manager in order to complete the project successfully by managing the critical success factors of the project management. The comparison between the projects enables to differentiate between the good and bad project management methodologies, approaches, principles and guidelines. The highlighted mistakes made by the project management team of the HealthSMART project facilitate to know about the bad management. The project management methodology of the AGROS project makes facilitates to understand that how to manage the critical path of the project, and identifying and managing potential risks in the project. Moreover, the project makes us understand the importance of developing appropriate project implementation strategy. Moreover, the study helps us to understand the diverse concepts of the project management. And therefore, the study enables us to understand the project management theories as well as the practical implementation of the approaches and methodology.
Reference List
Calleam Consulting Ltd. (2012). HealthSMART – Victoria. [online] Available at: <http://calleam.com/WTPF/?p=3847> [Accessed 29 November 2014]
Empirica. (2014). eHealth & Telemedicine Projects. [online] Available at: <http://www.empirica.com/themen/telemedizin/projekte_en.php> [Accessed 30 November 2014]
LeMay, R. (2012). Victoria dumps HealthSMART e-health project. [online] Available at: <http://delimiter.com.au/2012/05/21/victoria-dumps-healthsmart-e-health-project/> [Accessed 30 November 2014]
Lideharo. (2010). ARGOS Project – A Case of Innovation. [online] Available at: <http://www.slideshare.net/lldeharo/argos-project-in-ehealth-2010> [Accessed 30 November 2014]
Shenhar, A., J., Dvir, D., Levy, O., and Maltz, A. C., 2001. Project Success: A Multidimensional Strategic Concept. Long Range Planning Journal – Pergamon 711 – 714
