Industrial Management XVII Congreso de Ingeniería de Organización. User Software and Information Systems in Engineering Project Management Arias J 1, ubio, Solana J Abstract Project management is important and necessary for every organization, as projects are required either for growing or adapting the organization to the environment, and also because some organizations especially the project oriented ones depend on the successful management and execution of projects for other organizations in order to survive. That is why some software tools have been developed to assist the team of the project in the administration of the work to be executed. These software tools include user software and organizational platforms. Although user software cannot be considered as an information system per se, it can be used together with larger systems which can actually be considered information systems which are knowledge sharing structures involving also the human factor. The final aim of an information technology structure supporting such an information system would be to integrate that software with the underlying organizational information system under which all the relevant information related to the resources of the organization is contained. Keywords: Information Systems, Knowledge Management, Project Management, User Software, & Information Integration Strategies. 1 Information Systems and User Software An information system can technically be defined as a set of interrelated components that collect, process, store and distribute information to support decisionmaking and control in an organization (Laudon & Laudon, 2012). On the other hand, user software might be any kind of information technology based tool that is 1 José Manuel Arias Calvo ( email: jm.arias@alumnos.upm.es) Grupo de Ingeniería de Organización. Dpto. de Organización, Administración de Empresas y Estadística. Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros de Telecomunicación. Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. Avenida Complutense 30, 28040 Madrid. 763
Industrial Management XVII Congreso de Ingeniería de Organización. used by any user to carry out typical desktop tasks like writing a document or preparing a presentation. There is, therefore, a substantial difference between the two concepts. While information system platforms may be based on hardware networks of information technologies that involve the use of intranets or Internets, especially for collecting and disseminating information, user software packages are usually supporting the labor of each individual user of that software. 2 Engineering Project Management On the one hand, system design has a focus on the problem itself, its delimitations, the systemic objectives, the technical aspects of the design and structure of the solution. On the other hand, project management has a focus on the management of the problem solving process, the planning and allocation of material, personnel, finance and similar resources, the organization of the flow of information, of the process of forming an opinion and the process of decision (de Weck & Lyneis, 2011). It is already clear from this definition that project management has a clear tendency towards being supported by management information systems, which may be able to support decision taking and control. This may appear to be clearer in Fig. 1, where decision taking may be used within the project adapting phase in order to establish effective control mechanisms based on the project execution monitoring status to be addressed. Fig. 1 Project model (de Weck & Lyneis, 2011) Apart from this feedback loop inside the project, there is a feedback loop between projects, which corresponds to doubleloop learning organizational processes. This means that learning organization principles might be applicable when try 764
Industrial Management XVII Congreso de Ingeniería de Organización. ing to make different things in the future such that results are better than in previous projects (Argyris & Schon, 1996). In the next sections, the way existing information systems and user software packages can help in the development of engineering projects is discussed, as well as the need for user software packages to transition into management information systems in order to be more effective in the project management function. 3 User Software for Project Management User software involves different software packages like Microsoft Project, Primavera Project Planner, OpenProj, DotProject, etc (ubio, 2013). A brief description of each of them is provided below. Microsoft Project is one of the tools most used in project management. It is applicable to all types of industries. This tool allows the project manager to program all the project activities, allocate resources and people in charge to each of them, follow up the progress of the project, administer the budget and analyze workloads. It is also possible to find the critical path by means of a Program Evaluation and eport Technique (PET) analysis and trace Gantt graphs. It applies the concepts described by the Project Management Institute, and it can be said to be structured along the three great concepts of project management: Gantt, PET and Critical Path Method (CPM). The software also includes the possibility of simultaneously administering several projects, aggregating dependencies among them, and managing shared resources. Primavera Project Planner is a tool that is less extended than the previous one, but also known in the area of project management, and used in all types of industries, although it was first developed for construction engineering projects. Some recommend it as a tool more powerful than Microsoft Project, although less intuitive. For all of this the user is required to have previous knowledge in computing, Gantt charts, critical path, CPM and Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). As in the previous case, it is also necessary to have a clear idea of the different activities that constitute the project as a whole, the resources and the costs associated to these activities. This knowledge allows the user to configure the WBS, so that all the elements to enter the data into the software are available. OpenProj is free software for project management designed as a complete substitute of Microsoft Project able to open project files native of Microsoft Project. OpenProj is run in Java platform, which enables its execution in a variety of different operational systems. Compared to Microsoft Project, OpenProj has a similar user interface and a similar focus for the construction of a project plan: create a list of tasks or WBS, establish the durations, create links and allocate resources. The fields and costs are the same as for Microsoft Project: work, time, material usage and fixed costs. Therefore, a user of Microsoft Project should find it easy to 765
Industrial Management XVII Congreso de Ingeniería de Organización. use OpenProj. It controls all the aspects referred to project management: planning and programming, management and allocation of resources, simulation of alternatives in critical processes, etc. DotProject is built by means of open source applications and maintained by a little group of volunteers. It is an application based in web. Free support is provided by volunteers in the community forums and by online documentation. It is a tool with a simple user interface. DotProject is a tool oriented to project management. Therefore, it is oriented to the administration of resources to develop a product whose production requires of a set of activities or tasks carried out in parallel or independently. It enables the management and planning of projects in collaborative environments, the allocation of resources to a single or several projects, and the decomposition into tasks. It also enables the classification and ordering of projects according to their state. Some of the statistics that can be extracted are allocated hours and hours incurred in reality. As it is based in a web platform, it allows the members of a project to participate online. 4 Information Systems for Project Management Information systems for project management involve different software platforms like Planisware 5, ed Mine, Clocking IT, Lighthouse, Springloops, CreativePro Office, No Kahuna, Basecamp, SAP, DOOS, etc (ubio, 2013). Planisware 5 is an Enterprise Project Portfolio Management solution or Corporate Portfolio Management, which supports the portfolio management of organizational projects. It is a tool designed as a project management information system covering costs control, portfolio management, resources management, time planning and collaborative work. It is conceptually different from the software packages previously commented, as it can be actually understood as a work platform for all the organization more than as user software. Project portfolio management is useful to ensure the projects to implement are in line with the organization strategy. Planisware 5 helps to develop and manage a product portfolio under development in equilibrium with a sustainable number of projects. ed Mine is a tool for project management including a nonconformances tracking system. Other tools included are an activity calendar, Gantt diagrams for the visual representation of the projects timeline, wiki, forum, versions control repository viewer, workflow control based on roles, integration with email, etc. It is free software and open code. This tool is very useful for organizing the information stored in the organization. CreativePro Office offers online management tools and is totally free. It is thought for autonomous and little teams of graphical designers and web developers. With this tool, any project manager might be able to administer his team in an easy and intuitive way. Also, all the team can be aware of the project state. 766
Industrial Management XVII Congreso de Ingeniería de Organización. No Kahuna is a simple tool for project management. It enables the creation, distribution and tasks followup of all the project members. It is also possible to delegate tasks, alerts and statistics, as well as visualize the advances of each phase, percentages of the project and everything that might be necessary to warrantee that the project will be finished in the required time. It is free until 30 tasks or 3 projects are open. Many people consider Basecamp the best project management system and collaboration platform that exists. Its main functionalities are: task lists, file sharing possibilities, time management, comments, calendar to see the projects to which one belongs, and the last actions of the employees. Basecamp is under payment, but there is a free version and 30 days trial versions. SAP is divided into modules. Each of them carried out a different function but is designed to work with other modules. It is integrated totally so that it is compatible with all the functions of an organization. It also produces specialized modules in different specific sectors. Some of these modules are: financial accounting, controlling packages, project systems the one of interest for our work, human resources, plant maintenance, quality management, production planning, materials management, and sales. Finally, IBM ational DOOS is a requirements management application for optimizing communication, cooperation and verification of requirements in the organization and all the supply chain. It is a scalable solution that can help to manage the scope and costs of a project as well as to reach the organizational objectives. The DOOS tool allows the user to capture, search, analyze and manage changes in the information, as well as to show conformity with norms and standards. 5 Conclusions The previous distinction between user software and information systems establishes a first idea of how a project management can be better supported by the use of information technologies. In a first step, user software like Microsoft Project would require the manual acquisition of information regarding the current status of a project in order the compare it with the foreseen evolution. If there are meaningful differences, then the original planning would have to be reworked. The problem here would be how to gather all the information required so that an accurate idea can be provided to us of how the project status is at a given moment in time. This task might be carried out more easily with the support of software tools like the ones described in the last section. Integration with organizational resources offers a more interesting way of dealing with the allocation of resources to a given project, as well as the evolution analysis of the different activities involved 767
Industrial Management XVII Congreso de Ingeniería de Organización. in a Gantt chart. This is especially demanding in an organizational environment where there are multiple projects running simultaneously. It is interesting to see that from a system information evolution point of view, the firstly mentioned user software only represents a very primary contribution to an information system, where most of the tasks would have to be carried out manually. On the other hand, information systems like Planisware 5 or IBM ational DOOS enable the integration of the planning tools with the overall organizational system. Human intervention is always needed in an information system, but in this last case, it is easier to accommodate, for the technology behind already covers much of the work. Therefore, big room for improvement is left for user tools like the well known Microsoft Projector or Primavera Project Planner. It is then proposed from this contribution that future evolutions of these products gradually evolve towards an integrated information system solution like the ones described under the last section. In a greater context, it is clear that a good planning system is necessary to ensure the success of project management in the long run. By means of model simulations like the one in Arias (2012), it can be shown how the influence of information systems is determinant in the future resources consumption of a project. If the information system in place is of high quality, then the planning will be good, and the resources consumption will not increase dramatically during the development phases of the project. The way information systems affect the planning of a project is depicted below. 768
Industrial Management XVII Congreso de Ingeniería de Organización. aw Productivity Effect of Use Behavior Base Use Behavior elative Use Behavior Potential Work ate Minimum Time to Based on Staffing Levels Finish a Task Maximum Work ate Based on Tasks Available Work Being Accomplished Fraction Correct and Complete Actual Use Behavior Normal Fraction Correct and Complete Work Done Correctly Effect of User Satisfaction Effect of Undiscovered Work to Do ework on Fraction Correct ework Generation Undiscovered ework elative User Satisfaction Initial Work to Do Base User Satisfaction Actual User Satisfaction Fraction of Work Believed Done Correct and Complete <Work Done> Maximum Time to Discover ework Minimum Time to Discover ework ework Discovery <Project Finished> Time to Discover ework Effect of System Quality Effect of Perceived Productivity Effect of Work Progress Fraction eally Complete elative System Quality Actual System Quality Base System Quality Effect of Information Quality elative Information Quality elative Perceived Productivity Base Information Quality Actual Information Quality Base Productivity Normal Staff Staff Effort Expended Work Done Project Finished Fraction Complete to Finish <Initial Work to Do> <ework Generation> Work Believed to Be Done Cumulative Work Done ate of Doing Work Fraction eported Complete <Work Done Correctly> <Initial Work to Do> Actual Perceived Productivity Unitary Task Unitary Work Done Cumulative Effort Expended B B Fig. 2 Project dynamics model (Arias, 2012) 769
Normal Fraction Correct and Complete 0 Effect of Undiscovered ework on Fraction Correct 0 Fraction of Work Believed Done Correct and Complete 0 <Work Done 0> Fraction Correct and Complete 0 Initial Work to Do 0 Minimum Time to Finish a Task 0 Work to Do 0 Maximum Time to Discover ework 0 Minimum Time to Discover ework 0 B Maximum Work ate Based on Tasks Available 0 ework Generation 0 ework Discovery 0 Time to Discover ework 0 Effect of Work Progress 0 Potential Work ate Based on Staffing Levels 0 Work Done Correctly 0 Work Being Accomplished 0 <Project Finished 0> aw Productivity 0 Undiscovered ework 0 Fraction eally Complete 0 Work Done 0 Work Believed to Be Done 0 <Initial Work to Do 0> Staff 0 Fraction eported Complete 0 Normal Staff 0 Project Finished 0 <Initial Work to Do 0> Fraction Complete to Finish 0 Unitary Task Unitary Work Done <ework Generation 0> ate of Doing Work 0 <Work Done Correctly 0> Effort Expended 0 Cumulative Work Done 0 Cumulative Effort Expended 0 Actual Perceived Productivity 0 Book of Proceedings of the 7 th International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Industrial Management XVII Congreso de Ingeniería de Organización. Fig. 2 (continued) Project dynamics model (Arias, 2012) 770
Industrial Management XVII Congreso de Ingeniería de Organización. 6 Limitations The research which has been previously presented constitutes a compared analysis of a discretional number of software applications used in project management. Further work would consist on identifying a set of criteria for establishing a more extensive set of software applications under study. However, the intention of the article is to establish a framework for the performance of additional research. 7 eferences Argyris C, Schön DA (1996) Organizational Learning II. AddisonWesley Publishing Company, United States of America. Arias JM (2012) The Influence of Information Systems in the Learning Organization within the Context of Project Management. System Design and Management thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Laudon KC, Laudon JP (2012) Management Information Systems. Pearson Education, Upper Saddle iver. ubio (2013) Influencia de los Sistemas de Informacion en la Gestion de Proyectos de Ingeniería. Proyecto Fin de Carrera, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. De Weck O, Lyneis J (2011) Successfully Designing and Managing Complex Projects. MIT Press. 771