ScienceDirect. Platform for Management of Business and Educational Projects

Transcription

1 Available online at ScienceDirect Procedia Computer Science 77 (2015 ) ICTE in Regional Development Platform for Management of Business and Educational Projects Solvita Berzisa a *, Ljupco Vangelski b, Aljosa Zorc c, Gatis Vitols d, Nicola Martinelli e a Information Technology Institute, Riga Technical University, Riga, Latvia b Integrated Business Faculty, Skopje, Macedonia c University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia d The University College of Economics and Culture, Riga, Latvia e University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy Abstract Project management information system (PMIS) is one of the main enablers of successful project management. Project management and document centralization are diverting large amounts of energy when working on collaborative projects with academic institutions, private enterprises and government organizations. Each of these organizations include different user roles with different interests for the project, project management practices and requirements for PMIS. Therefore PMIS should be adapted to the needs and requirements of these collaborative projects and users. The objective of this paper is to define functional needs and describe the configuration for PMIS, suitable for common business, educational and research projects based on literature review and assessment of needs. The platform for business and education project (BEP) management of is an online PMIS that will support defined functional needs and configuration The Authors. Published by Elsevier by Elsevier B.V. B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license ( Peer-review under responsibility of the Sociotechnical Systems Engineering Institute of Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences. Peer-review under responsibility of the Sociotechnical Systems Engineering Institute of Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences Keywords: PMIS; BEP platform; Project management; PMIS configuration 1. Introduction Project management information systems (PMIS) are one component 1 of successful project management (PM) but this success and usage depends on data quality, usability and functionality of the PMIS 2. These factors can be controlled by tailoring the PMIS to the project s situation and users 3. The tailoring process includes choosing an * Corresponding author. address: Solvita.Berzisa@rtu.lv The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license ( Peer-review under responsibility of the Sociotechnical Systems Engineering Institute of Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences doi: /j.procs

2 Solvita Berzisa et al. / Procedia Computer Science 77 ( 2015 ) appropriate PM application, additional development or configuration. One problem during the tailoring process is the identification of project and user specific requirements for the PMIS 3. Academic institutions, private enterprises and government organizations work on lot of projects internal, external, collaborative etc. These projects, especially collaborative, require the exchange of PM information and documents. This exchange must be supported by easy to use PMIS. Therefore a PMIS tailored to typical projects of these organizations is needed. The objective of this paper is to define functional needs and a configuration description for the PMIS, suitable for common business, educational and research projects based on literature review and the assessment of needs. This PMIS is referenced as a platform for the management of business and educational projects or BEP. A research process for the identification of PMIS functionality and configuration requirements has been developed to support solution scope definition of the BEP platform. The BEP platform is needed to help academic institutions and private enterprises collaborate and exchange information in a structured manner, using a complete PM tool. The rest of the paper is structured as follows: Section 2 describes the research process; Section 3 describes background information about PMIS and the BEP platform. Section 4 presents results of research activities and summarizes identified functional and configuration requirements of the BEP platform; A conclusion is presented at the end of the paper. 2. Research process The research process is based on the principles of design research 4 and uses methods of solution scope definition from business analysis defined in BABOK 5. Overview of the research process is shown in Fig. 1. The presented research process can also be used to identify configuration requirements for different project types. The research artefact includes the functional needs and configuration that needs to be implemented in the BEP platform during the development and implementation phase. During assessment of the specific needs of the BEP platform, the first configuration possibilities have been evaluated, in order to additionally develop new functionality. Fig. 1. Research process

3 128 Solvita Berzisa et al. / Procedia Computer Science 77 ( 2015 ) Backgrounds 3.1. Project management information systems and it configuration PMIS are a standardized set of automated tools and techniques used in PM for planning, execution, management and closing of the project, as well as for collecting, combining and distributing project information 6. PMIS consist of one or more PM applications 3. The main functions of PMIS are planning and controlling projects, generating reports, facilitating collaboration, allowing convenient information collection and its sharing. Administration and configuration of different project types are also parts of PMIS which are often neglected and therefore are also in the main functions that need to be supported by the BEP platform. Most PMIS provide tools for its configuration and modification. The configuring of PMIS is facilitated using a set of configuration options provided by a software vendor without making modifications on the code level 3. When the initial configuration is defined, the most appropriate PMIS configuration items are selected, depending on the nature and classification of the project, such as environment, enterprise factors, organization process assets 3,7. Definition of PMIS configuration requirements must include the following information 3 : Data entities or work items used in project; Attributes or data fields of each data entity; Processes or workflows related to the data entities. Examples of the work items are activities, risk, change requests, roles, deliverables, resources etc. One PMIS configuration problem is the identification of specific project configuration requirements. One solution is the application of a knowledge base 7. Another solution is the analysis of documents and literature based on the research process proposed in Fig Basic capabilities of the BEP platform The BEP platform has been created on the basis of the free online PMIS Redmine 8 and takes over all functionality available in Redmine that will be extended according to specific needs of business, educational and research projects. Main PM functionality already available in Redmine 8 is work item tracking, Gantt charts, calendar, news, document and file management, notifications, wiki, forum, time tracking and reporting. Other administrative functions include support for multiple projects, role based access control, work item configuration (work items, fields, workflows), Multilanguage support etc. This Redmine functionality is equal to the basic capabilities of the BEP platform. 4. BEP functionality and configuration This section summarizes results of research process activities and final proposed new functionality and configuration of the BEP platform for support of business, educational and research projects User cases and users The objective of the BEP platform is to ensure online PMIS for business, educational and research PM 9. These are also the main use cases or project types of the BEP platform, only business PM is divide into two cases - general and IT. The IT PM case has been included as a special business project case because of its popularity and BEP platform development is also an IT project. The BEP platform can be used by three target groups: academic institutions, business or private enterprises and government institutions. Each target group includes different user roles with different interests in the BEP platform.

4 Solvita Berzisa et al. / Procedia Computer Science 77 ( 2015 ) The user roles and the use cases of the BEP platform and their key relations have been summarized in Fig. 2. A project manager and a project owner are user roles outside of all target groups because these roles exist in all use cases Use case analysis The general PM case includes basic PM concepts and the work items that have been defined in general PM standards and methodologies: PMBOK 6, ISO , IPMA competence baseline 11,12 and PRINCE2 13. Based on existing research about PMIS 14,15,3 the information items used in the general projects have been summarized in Table 1. The IT PM case uses the same information items as the general PM case with some additional information items. IT project specific information items are related to project scope definition, test management and quality assurance description. These information items vary, depending on the software development lifecycles (waterfall, iterative or agile), methods (waterfall 16, DSDM 17, Scrum 18,19, Kanban 20, iterative 21, spiral 22 etc.), and methodologies (MSF 23,24,25,26,27, RUP 28,29 ). These specific information items have been summarized in Table 1. Fig. 2. User roles and use cases of the BEP platform The research PM case is based on information items that are used in the general PM case with some additional values. The research project examples are Erasmus +, FP7, Horizon2020 projects, government research project grants, university research projects, PhD research etc. The main information items of the research projects identified from existing researches 30,31,32,33 have been summarized in Table 1. The educational PM case is based on information items used in the general PM case with some additional information items. The educational project examples are study program renovation, course design, workshop development, studying towards an academic degree, project-based teaching, group work, problem-based learning, debates, bachelor and master thesis etc 34,35,36,37.

5 130 Solvita Berzisa et al. / Procedia Computer Science 77 ( 2015 ) The educational PM case supports two groups of educational processes: Organizational processes for example, design and deliver a course that includes planning of lectures, resources, monitoring of course progress, measuring of performance etc. The organizational process includes all general PM activities 34, 35. Teaching processes the planning and organizing of student group work as recommended in 37 that works not only in problem-based learning 36. The information items in the educational projects have been summarized in Table Project administration needs Basic project administration needs have been identified from the basic capabilities of the BEP platform, PM needs have been identified in the use cases, as well as the objectives of the BEP platform 9. Basic administration functions for the BEP platform are: Create a project; Manage the project lifecycle thought project stages: initiative, approved, in progress, blocked and closed; Choose the work item that corresponds to project type; Manage project members and roles; Manage versions and issue categories; Manage time tracking activities and other classifiers; Support potential partner search for projects; User grouping into organizations. Table 1. Summary of the use case information items General PM IT PM Research PM Educational PM Work breakdown structure, Activities, Milestones, Schedule; Costs, Budget, Baseline; Resources, Roles, Project team, Stakeholders; Deliverables, Project documents, Plans; Reviews, Progress data, Reports, Metrics, Key Performance Indicators, Measurements; Risks; Procurements and Contracts; Meetings; Issue log; Change request; Lessons learned; Configuration items; Calendars, Notifications, Actual work lists. General PM + Bug / defect; User story; Task; Requirement; Change Request; Issue; Feature; Test case / Test Epic; Backlog, Burndown chart; Review / code review. Research issues; Project scope, schedule with deliverables and milestones; Resource and equipment; Project cost; Progress report, technical report; Problems; Risks; Procurements; Reviews; Document management; Project management dashboard; Communication and meetings. General PM + Different kind of outputs and / or events: lecture, workshop, seminar, course, program, presentation, test, exam, publication. Requirements for project results and deliverables especially for students prepared deliverables.

6 Solvita Berzisa et al. / Procedia Computer Science 77 ( 2015 ) Summary of functionality and configuration After the analysis of needs for all use cases, 18 work items have been defined to support the objectives of the BEP platform. For each work item applicable fields and workflow have been defined. 10 different workflows with statuses and transitions have been defined for the purposes of the BEP platform (Table 3.). An overview of work items, workflows and applicable use cases (project types) is given in Table 2. For the purposes of the BEP platform 13 roles have defined to support categorization of project members: manager, cost manager, stakeholder, participant, analyst, developer, tester, researcher, partner, consultant, teacher, student and potential partner. In many cases all these requirements can be added to PMIS using configuration options. The basic capabilities of the BEP platform also support these configuration options. Based on the assessment of needs and existing capabilities some missing features of the BEP platform have been identified, which are needed in order to support basic functionality for project administration and management, corresponding to its objectives. Some of these new features are: Administration of project type recommended work items, roles, custom fields etc.; Project initiative administration and potential partner search functionality; Cost tracking and reporting with limited access to cost information; Advance notifications; Meeting module with integration to online conferencing tool; Integration with Moodle systems. 5. Conclusions The new functionality description and the configuration description for four project types (BEP platform use cases) have been developed as a result of this research. The key needs and requirements for the BEP platform are identified from PM standards and methodologies that ensure that the BEP platform will support general PM processes. Additional implementations of three specific project types ensure easy adaptability of the BEP platform to specific needs of these projects. To extend the scope of the BEP platform new specific project types can easily be added because implementation of the specific requirements is based on the configuration of the BEP platform. Table 2. Overview of work items in BEP platform. Work Item Description Workflow Use cases G. IT R. E. Activity Defines work performed during course of project 6 Activity X X X X Deliverable Metric Risk Procurement Defines any unique and variable products, results or capability to perform a service that is required to be produced to complete a process, phase, or project 6 Defines performance, quality metrics for progress monitoring and measurement of success Defines uncertain events or conditions that, if it occurs, has a positive or negative effect on one or more project objectives 6 Defines necessary purchases (and related contracts) of products, services or results needed from outside the project team 6 Deliverable X X X X Metric X X X X Risk X X X X Procurement X X X Meeting Defines physical meeting performed during course of project Activity X X X X Online Meeting Defines online meeting performed during course of project. Activity X X X X Issue Define points or matter in questions or in dispute, or a point or matter that is not settled and is under discussion or over which there are opposing views or disagreements 6 Activity X X X X

7 132 Solvita Berzisa et al. / Procedia Computer Science 77 ( 2015 ) Change Request Task Defines formal proposal to modify any document, deliverable, or baseline 6 Define works for a member of the team. Use in IT project - similar to activity Change X X X X Activity Review Define code, design, deployment or other kind reviews and it results Review X X Bug Define errors, problem or potential problem in application, IS etc. Activity X User Story Defines requirements to project deliverables used in Agile development models Requirement Requirement Defines requirements to project deliverables Requirement X X Feature Define main functions of developed software Requirement X Test case Defines tests and test scenarios that are need to pass developed software Test w Epic Captures a large body of work Requirement X Research Issue Define research objectives, problems and requirements Research issue X X X X Table 3. Overview of workflows and it statuses in BEP platform. Workflow Activity Deliverable Metric Risk Procurement Change Review Requirement Test Research issue Statuses New, In Progress, Resolved, Closed, Cancelled, Feedback, Postponed New, In progress, Delivered, Accepted, Rejected, Cancelled New, Monitoring, Closed New, Analysis, Open, Occurred, Closed New, Preparation, Announced, Evaluation, Approved, In progress, Closed, Cancelled New, Analysis, Approved, Cancelled, Feedback, Postponed, In progress, Resolved, Closed New, Cancelled, Postponed, In progress, Closed New, Approved, Removed, In progress, Resolved, Feedback, Closed New, In progress, Passed, Failed, Closed, Cancelled New, In progress, Resolved, Feedback, Closed The configuration description has been created following the general guidelines for description of PMIS configuration requirements and ensures that the configuration description can be reused for the configuration of other online PMIS that need to support business, educational and research PM. Another reusable result of this research is the research process that can be used to identify PMIS configuration and functional requirements. From the quality assurance and usability tests that have been performed on the BEP platform, particular aspects for its improvement have been identified in the direction of further facilitation of user communication and interaction. Such aspects cover user meetings, both formal and informal, since they tend to represent a significant amount of every PM process. Therefore, as one of the possible extensions of the BEP platform, in its later release, will be the inclusion of online meetings, in audio, video and text, as well as MoM tracking, in order to allow the project participants to keep track of these project activities as well. Acknowledgements The research has been conducted within the framework of Erasmus + program project No МK01- KА Innovative strategic partnership for European higher education.

8 Solvita Berzisa et al. / Procedia Computer Science 77 ( 2015 ) References 1. Raymond L, Bergeron F. Project Management Information Systems: An Empirical Study of Their Impact on Project Managers and Project Success. Int J Proj Manag 2008;26(2): Ali ASB, Anbari FT, Money WH. Impact of Organizational and Project Factors on Acceptance and Usage of Project Management Software and Perceived Project Success. Proj Manag J 2008;39(2): Bērziša S. Application of Knowledge and Best Practices in Configuration of Project Management Information Systems. RTU Publishing House; p. 4. Vaishnavi, V., Kuechler B. Design Science Research in Information Systems [Internet]. Assocation for Information Systems Available from: 5. A Guide to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK Guide), 2nd ed. IIBA; p. 6. A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge ( PMBOK Guide ), 5th ed. PMI; p. 7. Bērziša S, Grabis J. Knowledge Reuse in Configuration of Project Management Information Systems: A Change Management Case Study. In: Proceedings of the 15th IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Engineering Systems IEEE; p Redmine [Internet]. Available from: 9. BEP Software Platform Overview. ISPEHE ISO 21500: Guidance on Project Management. ISO; p. 11. ICB: IPMA Competence Baseline [Internet]. IPMA [cited 2015 Aug 16]. Available from: Fangel M. Proactive Project Management: How to Make Common Sense Common Practice. Fangel Consulting; p. 13. Hedeman B, Heemst GV Van, Fredriksz H. Project Management Based on PRINCE2 (Best Practice). 3rd ed. Van Haren Publishing; p. 14. Bērziša S. XML-based Specification of the Project Management Domain and Its Application. In: Databases and Information Systems VI Volume 224 Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence and Applications. IOS Press; p Bērziša S. The Baseline Configuration of Project Management Information System. Sci J Riga Tech Univ: Comput Sci. RTU Publishing House; 2009;5(40): Waterfall Model [Internet]. [cited 2015 Aug 20]. Available from: The DSDM Agile Project Framework [Internet]. DSDM Consorftium. [cited 2015 Aug 20]. Available from: Schwaber K. Agile Project Management with Scrum. Microsoft Press; p. 19. Scrum Framework [Internet]. Agiletrick. [cited 2015 Aug 20]. Available from: Brechner E. Agile Project Management with Kanban (Developer Best Practices), 1st ed. Microsoft Press; p. 21. SDLC - Iterative Model [Internet]. TuturialsPoint. [cited 2015 Aug 20]. Available from: Boehm BW. A Spiral Model of Software Development and Enhancement. Computer (Long Beach Calif). IEEE Computer Society Press 1988 ;21(5): Turner, M.S.V. Microsoft Solutions Framework Essentials: Building Successful Technology Solutions. Microsoft Press, p. 24. MSF for Agile Software Development Process Guidance [Internet]. Microsoft [cited 2015 Aug 20]. Available from: MSF for CMMI Process Improvement [Internet]. Microsoft [cited 2015 Aug 20]. Available from: Agile Process Template [Internet]. MSDN [cited 2015 Aug 20]. Available from: CMMI Process Template [Internet]. MSDN [cited 2015 Aug 20]. Available from: Gibbs RD. Project Management with the IBM(R) Rational Unified Process(R): Lessons From The Trenches. IBM Press; p. 29. IBM. Rational Method Composer. Rational Process Library [Internet]. [cited 2015 Aug 20]. Available from: 03.ibm.com/software/products/en/rmc 30. Huljenic D, Desic S, Matijasevic M. Project Management in Research Projects. In: Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Telecommunications, 2005 ConTEL IEEE; p Rossi R, Mustafa PN. Project Management Principles Applied in Academic Research Projects. Issues Informing Sci Inf Technol 2013, 10: Ge N, Li H, Gao L, Zang Z, Li Y, Li J, et al. A Web-Based Project Management System for Agricultural Scientific Research. In: 2010 International Conference on Management and Service Science. IEEE; p Wei X, Li Y. Role Control Based Workflow Management for Research Projects. In: th International Conference on Information Management, Innovation Management and Industrial Engineering. IEEE; p Plepys A. Project Management of Educational Projects [Internet]. [cited 2015 Aug 20]. Available from: Designing Education Projects [Internet]. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Available from:

9 134 Solvita Berzisa et al. / Procedia Computer Science 77 ( 2015 ) Levi R. Innovative Approaches in Project Management for Personnel in Educational and Public Administration Fields [Internet] [cited 2015 Aug 20]. Available from: Kofoed LB, Stachowicz MS. Project Planning and Management for First Year Engineering Students. In: Joint International Conference on Engineering Education & International Conference on Information Technology p Solvita Berzisa holds a Doctoral Degree and is a Lecturer and Researcher at the Institute of Information Technology of Riga Technical University (Latvia). She obtained her PhD (2012), MSc (2007) and BSc (2005) degrees in Computer Science and Information Technology from RTU. Her main research fields are IT project management, project management information systems implementation and application and project data analytics. Also she works as IT Project Manager at Exigen Services Latvia. She holds PMP and CBAP certificates and is awarded with the IPMA Outstanding Research Contribution by a Young Researcher Member of PMI, IIBA and Latvian National Project Management Association. Ljupco Vangelski is a Lecturer at Integrated Business Faculty (Macedonia). He obtained his MSc (2012) and BSc (2005) degrees in Electrical Engineering and Information Technologies from Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje. Aljosa Zorc is a head of IT department on Faculty of administration Ljubljana (Slovenia). He obtained MSc (2009) degree in Business Informatics from Faculty of Economics of University of Ljubljana. Gatis Vitols received PhD in Information technologies at Latvia University of Agriculture (Latvia). Primary research fields include cross-cultural information systems development, usability and database technologies. He works as a researcher and docent at Faculty of Information Technologies in Latvia University of Agriculture. Nicola Martinelli is a IT Technician at Department of Economics and Management of University of Pavia (Italy). He obtained his MSc (2012) degree in Electronic and Telecommunication Engineering from University of Pavia.