TABLE OF CONTENTS

1.0 INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................................3

1.1 Definition of key terms..........................................................................................................3

1.1.1 Project..............................................................................................................................3

1.1.2 Project management........................................................................................................3

1.1.3 Information system..........................................................................................................4

1.1.4 Project management information system (PMIS)...........................................................5

1.2 FACTORS WHICH SUPPORT THE SUCCESS OF PMIS.....................................................5

1.2.1 features which determine quality of software.....................................................................6

1.2.2 features of good PMIS information....................................................................................7

1.3 BACKGROUND OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS.................8

1.4 Necessary condition for Project Management Information system (PMIS)..............................9

1.4. 1The quality of information it will generate.....................................................................9

1.4.2 The ability of the PMI.....................................................................................................9

1.4.3 Ease of use the information generated............................................................................9

1.5 Research Methodology.......................................................................................................10

2 .0ROLES OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM (PMIS)....................11

2.1 Productivity..........................................................................................................................11

2.2 Planning and schedule;.........................................................................................................12

2.4 Help in budget management;...............................................................................................14

2.5 Project Management Information System helps in Monitoring...........................................15

2.6 Project Management Information System helps in decision making...................................17

2.7 Control of activities..............................................................................................................18

2.8 Managerial task....................................................................................................................19

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 2.10 Saving time to complete work;..........................................................................................20

2.11 reduces the probability of human being errors;.................................................................21

2.12 Communication..................................................................................................................22

2.13 Evaluation..........................................................................................................................23

2. 14 Reporting...........................................................................................................................23

3.0 RECOMMENDATION...........................................................................................................24

4.0 CONLUSION..........................................................................................................................25

5.0 REFERENCES........................................................................................................................26

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ABSTRACT

The research was conducted in Nairobi Kenya by Monica Njooki Kahura which was dealing with
the construction projects. And Monica Njoki Kahura decided to conduct such research in Nairobi
Kenya as Organizations are continually been involved in projects as a competitive tactic to
ensure that they remain relevant in their respective fields. To ensure the success of these projects
organizations are investing in Project Management Information Systems (PMIS) to assist project
managers and the project team in the management and undertaking of the project activities. This
research seeks to find the contribution of these information systems towards project success.
The quality of the software, the quality of information output, the influence of the PMIS user on
the project success was tested. The research found out that the use of the software to generate
quality information needed by the user (project manager) to perform project tasks helped the
project managers perform their tasks in a more professional manner thus increasing the success
rate of the project. The three independent variables (quality of software, quality of information
output and influence of the user) were transformed to get a single variable PMIS which had a
strong and positive correlation (0.954) with the dependent variable (project success). It was
therefore concluded that the use of PMIS helped in the achievement of the project success while
respecting the projects constraints and meeting the project objectives.

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 CHAPTER ONE

BACK GROUND OF THE PROBLEM

The era of globalization and information age has led to the reduction of information illiteracy
and the digital divide. This in turn has led to competitiveness in the businesses not only locally
but also internationally. Increased competition has led organizations to change their tactics to
ensure they retain their market share. Among this tactics is engaging in projects that are critical
for the survival of the organization. These projects run across all industries including but not
limited to construction, Information Technology (IT) and pharmaceutical. The projects need to
be planned, monitored, controlled, evaluated and staffed. The aspects of quality and risk
management must also be incorporated in the management of projects. The commonality of all
these projects is the aspect of management. For these organizations to be successful the projects
must be managed well to achieve their objectives while considering the three major constraints
of projects i.e. quality, budget and time. Use of PMIS has become necessary to effectively and
efficiently manage projects while supporting the project team to meet the constraints associated
with projects. Thus the purpose of this paper is to study the role of PMIS towards the success of
projects a case of construction projects.

The research found out that the use of the software to generate quality information needed by the
user (project manager) to perform project tasks helped the project managers perform their tasks
in a more professional manner thus increasing the success rate of the project.

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Statement of the problem
Construction projects are commonly acknowledged as successful when they are completed on
time, within budget, and in accordance with specifications and to stakeholders’ satisfaction. Most
of the projects fail in this For instance, the Thika Super highway project whose construction
budget was initially Ksh27 billion but eventually consumed Ksh31 billion; an amount the Kenya
National Highways Authority attributed to inflation and additional works on the road. The
50.4km project overshot its budget by Ksh4 billion due to inflation and additional features that
changed the original design work. So the research sought to explore how the use of PMIS can
facilitate management of projects and in particular construction related projects with regard to
information quality, effectiveness and efficiency of use of the information during the entire
project phases to increase project success rate.

Significance of the study

PMIS are important building blocks of efficient and effective project management and have
considerably changed from been just scheduling applications to complex information systems
that cover wide range of project processes while addressing multitude of stakeholders. Also she
recognized that that PMIS have become comprehensive systems that support the entire life cycle
of projects, project programs and project portfolios. They can support project managers in their
planning, organizing, control, reporting and decision making tasks while evaluating and
reporting at the same time. So the major significance of this study to project managers is that, it
enable them to adopt the use of PMIS as Monica Njoki already display importance of PMIS
towards the success of the project

Research objectives

General objective

The objective of this paper was to investigate the contribution of PMIS towards the success of
construction projects. The research intended to find out the role of each of the three components
of PMIS (namely software, information and user) towards the success of construction projects.

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 CHAPTER TWO

Literature review
In case of literature review Monica Njoki came up with definition of key terms which are
relevant to her area of study

According to (Project Management Knowledge, 2010) PMIS are system tools and techniques
used in project management to deliver information. Some PMIS tools include Micro-Soft
Project, dot Project and Primavera. (Kaiser et al., 2010) PMIS are important building blocks of
efficient and effective project management and have considerably changed from been just
scheduling applications to complex information systems that cover wide range of project
processes while addressing multitude of stakeholders.

The illustration below shows the main variables of PMIS that are necessary towards
success of the project.

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She argued that system qualities of a PMIS includes convenience, simplicity, accuracy,
reliability, speed, availability, stability, compatibility and accessibility of the system. PMIS
should be flexible enough in order to meet the varying construction management responsibility
as the scope of construction management varies from project to project.

FACTORS WHICH SUPPORT THE SUCCESS OF PMIS

when using PMIS there are three factors which support its success in projects and these factors
are; quality of the software, quality of PMIS information output and the use of PMIS by the
project or construction managers to perform project tasks. So there are features which determine
the quality of software used in software as well as the features of good PMIS information.

Features which determine quality of software

Accessibility; any software should be accessible which means that, any good software should be
available in any context so that when there is any project initiated, then there will be possibility
of get the software hence apply it in such project so this will enhance the development and
success of project through using a particular PMIS software.

Easy of learning; A good software must also be easy of learning, means that anyone can learn
and understand it at a short period of time and this will lead to progress of project as there will be
plenty of people who are aware of using and controlling that software so there will be a lot of
labors who can control it hence this will influence the success of project as it will be done on
time but if a software is difficult to learn then there will be few people who are aware of using it
hence efficiency will be poor.

Security; A good software should be enough secured from any damages such as hackers and
virus as these threats can lead to damage of information through reducing or deleting some
important information hence lead to failure of a project through losing some important
information such as budget information which are important towards the success of project and is
not easy to be formulated again as it contain difficult calculations. So when a software is fully
secured then this is not easy to occur hence ensure the success of a project.

Response time; Good software should respond on time for what is responsible for as in case of
monitoring or evaluation so as to provide information on time in order for the project to go on

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time as it is scheduled so as the software is not respond on time, also the project can delay hence
makes some trouble to the project manager as he will be seen as not qualify to be a good project
manager, so in order for project manager to be out of this he/she have to ensure the response of a
particular software used in a particular activity either in data collection, research, budgeting or
evaluation so as to come out with the information on time without any delay.

Integration; A good software should be able to integrate with other software in performing a
certain tasks and any software which does not integrate, that is not a good software as it cannot
enable other software to perform their task as well as when itself fail to some extent.

Features which determine quality of PMIS information output

Relevance; Information provided should be relevant to the reality of a particular project and this
will enable PMIS to work and provide right information about a particular case either in a
budgeting or evaluation of a project. And also providing relevant information is important for the
PMIS to ensure success of a project as it will bring right solutions to a particular case such as
budgeting or activity monitoring.

Reliability; A good information to a PMIS is that which is reliable at any time so as to enable the
system to aces the information at any time when required and this will enable the success of a
project as a particular system will work well through getting information at any time when
needed to perform its tasks

Comprehensive; this means that the details provided to a particular system, should be talk in
deep about a particular project as well as it should provide all necessary information about that
project so through this, a particular software will be able to provide a right information to a
particular project.

Precision; Also a good information to a PMIS should be precise so as to enable software to

provide precise information as well so as to ensure the success of a project at a particular time
framed by a project manager without delaying a project

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 CHAPTER THREE

Research Methodology
There were several methods used to describe in details the contribution of PMIS towards the
success of a construction project such as Questionnaires which were used to collect data
and were administered to a sample of 44 respondents, It contained both open ended and
close ended questions. The questionnaires were sent via email and some hand delivered to the
respondents. purposive sampling was used to select the sample from the population as it
allowed the researcher study a certain cultural domain with knowledgeable experts within.
The target population was project managers, construction managers and project supervisors
working in several construction project management firms based in Nairobi, Kenya. To test
the contribution of PMIS on the project success three factors associated with the PMIS were
tested. These factors are quality of the software, quality of PMIS information output and the use
of PMIS by the project/construction managers to perform project tasks. The quality of the
software was measured using eight characteristics: Response time (how long does it take to
respond to a command), Ease of querying, Accessibility, Ease of learning, Integration
with other system (like human resource management, financial management systems),
Flexibility (withstand component failure), Ease of use (user friendly) and Security (does it
protect your information from invasion & corruption). Each of the characteristic was
measured on a five-point liker scale varying from 1 (very poor) to 5 (excellent).The quality of
information output was measured on the basis of four characteristics namely: Availability
(at disposal when needed), Comprehensive (understandable), Relevance (appropriate to the
matter at hand), Precision (accuracy/ correctness) and Reliability (sound and dependable). A
5-point liker scale was used to measure these characteristics with values varying from 1 (very
poor) to 3 (excellent).

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 CHAPTER FOUR

FINDINGS AND RESULTS

In the research conducted by Monica Njoki, She came up with several findings where she found
and provide the following roles of PMIS towards the success of the project.

Planning and schedule;

These re distinct but inseparable aspects of managing the successful project. The process of
planning primarily deals with selecting the appropriate policies and procedures in order to
achieve the objective of the project. Scheduling converts the project action plans for scope, time
cost and quality into an operating time table. The planning and scheduling and large project
requires the integration of all the processes of project management. Project management
information system(PMIS) can be excluded from making sure that the action plan, scope, time
cost integrate with policies and procedures of the project so that to became successful. In
referring the document of Monica Njoki of construction project in Nairobi Kenya this project
was successful in managing scheduling and planning due to the use of (PMIS) whereby this is
identified in page number 113 where she wrote that “ Project success was measured using the
constraints of time, cost and quality. How well were the project managers able to meet the time
schedule and the project budget while meet the quality i.e. totality of features. The use of PMIS
helped project managers to achieve higher project success in terms of time, budget and quality
with all been rated either good or
excellent. Attainment of time was rated highest at 5(excellent) as per the figure below; this
meant that they were able to adhere to the projects time schedule. It could be attributed to the
fact that planning and scheduling task was rated excellent by the respondents. Due to the
quality of information generated by the PMIS project managers are more productive in their
work since the PMIS tools enhances their capacity to perform the various tasks.
Project performance improvement like staying within the project budget, timeline and quality

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specifications may be achieved through the use of the system by the user to perform project
tasks.

Help in budget management;

The goal of budget management is to control project costs within the approved budget and
deliver the expected project goals.
A project budget is the total sum of money allocated for the particular purpose of the project for
a specific period of time. Our definition of a successful project is one that meets four success
criteria: that the project’s scope is delivered on schedule, it is delivered within budget and, once
delivered, it meets the quality expectations of the donor and the beneficiaries. For project
managers to be truly successful they must concentrate on meeting all of those criteria. The reality
is that most project managers spend most of their efforts on completing the project on schedule.
They spend most of their time on managing and controlling the schedule and tend to forget about
monitoring and controlling the budget. The focus of this chapter is on managing and controlling
the project budget throughout the entire project life cycle while relating budget control to the
other success criteria. Budget management consists of a series of tasks and steps designed to help
manage the costs of the project, the steps are: Defining the Budget, Executing the Budget,
Controlling the Budget and Updating the Budget
Inputs: Inputs for the project budget management include the
following documents or sources of information: WBS, Project contract or initial budget,
Resource requirements, Resource cost estimates, Activity duration estimates, Historical
information, Market conditions, Donor and organization policies, Project Budget Management
Outputs: The project team will use the above information to develop
Three important documents for the project: Cost estimates by activity, The Project Budget and
The Budget Variance Report.

Control of activities
Activity means something that is done as a work or for a particular purpose. Or sometime can be
defined as something that is done for pleasure and that usually involves a group of people. Also
in projects there are several activities which done for a particular purposes and each activity has
got its effect towards the success of a project and these are like monitoring, evaluation and
budgeting so each of these activities are for a particular purpose towards the achievement of a

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particular project so as to get implemented on time and in the journal of Monica Njoki about the
influence of project management system towards the success of project in Nairobi Kenya, she
argued that PMIS are important building blocks of efficient and effective project management
and have considerably changed from been just scheduling applications to complex information
systems that cover wide range of project processes while addressing multitude of stakeholders
(Kaiser et al., 2010)

Ahleman (2009, cited in Caniels et al., 2011) notes that PMIS have become comprehensive
systems that support the entire life cycle of projects, project programs and project portfolios.
They can support project managers in their planning, organizing, control, reporting and decision
making tasks while evaluating and reporting at the same time. (Raymond et al., 2008)

According to Elonen et al. (2003, cited in Caniels et al., 2011) inadequate balancing of scarce
resources often results in additional pressure on the organization leading to poor quality of
information and longer lead times of project. PMIS is considered advantageous to project
managers because of the alleged contribution regarding timelier decision making and project
success (Raymond et al., 2008). Powerful PMIS have become a prerequisite in the management
of projects more efficiently and effectively while aiding the project manager in decision making
and communication of information among the project team and the stakeholders. According to
Raymond et al., (2008) a successful PMIS should have individual impact in terms of satisfied
users and effective use of the system and organizational impact i.e. impact on project success in
terms of respecting the budget, schedule and specifications

It help in Communication
the use of project management information system [managements it enhance and improve the
system of communication through the fact that it assist in passing information among the
project’s stakeholders through the use of PMIS communication working tool . PMIS delivers
related knowledge and information promptly between members of the team via either external or
internal networks. . The quality of information been used to make decision among other things
in a project can greatly affect the outcome of the project; if wrong/ inadequate information is
generated it will lead to wrong decisions been made and consequently negatively affect the
outcome of the project.

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According to Swanson (1974, cited in Lee et al., 2011) the quality of information generated by
the PMIS determines the quality of the system itself. Zmud (1979, Cited in Lee et al., 2011)
insists that accuracy and timeliness of the information are critical determinants of information
quality. Kim (2007, cited in Lee et al., 2011) concludes important factors that determine the
quality of information include ability to understand, accuracy, availability, precise, currency,
conciseness, consistency, interpretation and fidelity. The use of PMIS is advantageous since it
provides relevant and correct information that may be required in the day to day running of a
project.

Project Management Information System helps in decision making

Decision making refers to the process of identifying problems and analyzing developing and
choosing between alternatives course of actions to achieve a desires objective. Decision making
is more than selecting from the list of alternatives where the following characteristics have in the
Project Management Information System as follow;

Handle large amount of data; this allows decision makers database for information also helps to
solve problems where a small amount of data is required.

Provide support to individual as well as groups; many organizational problems involve group
decision making, the less structured problem frequently require the involvement of several
individuals from different department and organizational level. Attempts to improve the
effectiveness of decision making; this means accuracy, timelines quality rather than it is
efficiency cost of decision making including the charges for computer.Is equipped by a
knowledge component; this enable to solve effectively and efficiency on solving difficult
problems. And in the document written by Monica Njoki Kahura, Ahleman (2009, cited in
Caniels et al., 2011) notes that PMIS have become comprehensive systems that support the
entire life cycle of projects, project programs and project portfolios. They can support project
managers in their planning, organizing, control, reporting and decision making tasks while
evaluating and reporting at the same time. (Raymond et al., 2008) According to Elonen et al.
(2003, cited in Caniels et al., 2011) inadequate balancing of scarce resources often results in
additional pressure on the organization leading to poor quality of information and longer
lead times of project. PMIS is considered advantageous to project managers because of
the alleged contribution regarding timelier decision making and project success

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reduces the probability of human being errors; As PMIS involves software which are more
computerized, this helps in reducing the probability of errors occurrence in project activities such
as budgeting, monitoring, as well as project evaluation through ensuring better and well
organized activities in a whole running of a project and most of the activities which do not use
PMIS in planning, and budgeting, they got failure at the end and this was shown by Monica
Njoki in her journal where she argued that, the Thika Super highway project whose construction
budget was initially Ksh27 billion but eventually consumed Ksh31 billion; an amount the Kenya
National Highways Authority attributed to inflation and additional works on the road. The
50.4km project overshot its budget by Ksh4 billion due to inflation and additional features that
changed the original design work. These additional works were either initially ignored or were
not well planned to fit into the overall project plan without pushing the cost higher and
increasing the time initially set. Another project was the construction of the Police Department
houses under the Office of the President. It is one of the stalled projects that were earmarked for
completion in the 2011/2012 financial year. The first contract project was started on 1st
December, 1997 and was mutually wound up in 1999. The 2nd contract commenced on 23rd
January, 2006 and was due to be completed on 22nd January, 2008. Due to poor cost-time trade

off by the contractor the contract was terminated on 8th October, 2008. This points out to poor or
underutilization of information necessary for planning and for use during project
implementation. So this is an example of human errors which led to some errors in budgeting.

Project Management Information System helps in Monitoring

This refers to the continuous assessment of a program or project in relation to the agreed
implementation schedule. Monitoring in Project Management Information System (PMIS)
provide continuous feedback on the project implementation as well as assist in the identification
of potential success and constraints to facilitate timely decisions. Monitoring is not only
concerned with the transformation of inputs into output but can take the various forms as
follows;

Physical and financial monitoring; this concerned with the measurement of the progress of
project or program activities against established schedules and indicators of success

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Process monitoring; these deals with identification of the key factors accounting for progress of
activities or success of output production.

Impact monitoring; this form of monitoring deals with measuring the initial responses and
reactions to project activities and their immediate short term effects.

AGREEMENT ON FINDINGS

After conducting a research Monica Njoki came up with her agreement/standing on the use of
PMIS where she argued that the use of PMIS has become necessary to effectively and efficiently
manage projects while supporting the project team to meet the constraints associated with
projects which are quality, budget and time. And in supporting her argument, Monica Njoki
provided a list of projects which failed due to denied the use of PMIS for instance the Athens
Olympic Games Stadium exceeded its budget by 9 billion Euros while the Canadian Arms
Registry was completed 10 years later also the Thika Super highway project whose construction
budget was initially Ksh27 billion but eventually consumed Ksh31 billion; an amount the Kenya
National Highways Authority attributed to inflation and additional works on the road. The
50.4km project overshot its budget by Ksh4 billion due to inflation and additional features that
changed the original design work. So these were basic examples of projects which failed in
Budget and time due to failure in use of PMIS. And another major factor for her argument is due
to the research from Gartner Research (an Information Technology Research and Advisory
Company) estimates that 75% of IT projects managed with the support of Project Management
Information Systems (PMIS) will succeed while 75% of those that don’t have the support of
PMIS will fail. Although the use of PMIS in the management of projects is not a guarantee that
projects will be successful PMIS have become a necessity in the management of all projects
whether small or large, public or private projects.

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 CHAPTER FIVE

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

3.0 RECOMMENDATION
Parks (2005, cited in Lee et al., 2011) argue that for efficient work performance among
the project team members; PMIS supports three basic functions namely communication,
collaboration, and community (PMIS supports accumulation of related information and data
through information sharing)

4.0 CONLUSION
Although the use of PMIS in the management of projects is not a guarantee that projects will be
successful but PMIS have become a necessity in the management of all projects whether small or
large, public or private and also the use of PMIS has become necessary to effectively and
efficiently manage projects while supporting the project team to meet the constraints associated
with projects.

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