Avoiding Project Failure and Achieving Project Success in NHS IT System Projects in the United Kingdom

Although project success varies from business to business depending on different internally agreed success criteria, most organisations measure project success by analysing if the project delivered the planned project objectives within the set budget, schedule (project timelines), and quality. However, for some projects especially, development projects success goes beyond just meeting time frames and budget goals. In such projects and programmes, success refers to delivering the benefits coupled with the required expectations by stakeholders, beneficiaries, and funding bodies. This paper re-examines why the National Programme for IT (NPfIT), the largest public-sector IT programme that was ever undertaken in the UK, failed and how any future NHS National IT System implementations can be completed successfully.

INFLUENCE OF PROJECT PLANNING STRATEGY ON IMPLEMENTATION OF ENERGY ACCESS PROJECTS IN UNDERSERVED COUNTIES IN KENYA

The purpose of this article was to examine the extent to which project planning influence implementation of rural energy access projects in underserved counties in Kenya. The unit of analysis was households, commercial centers, schools, hospitals and a sample size of 373 respondents was selected from a target population of 5,604 respondents in areas where rural electrification has been implemented in underserved counties in Kenya through stratified sampling and purposive sampling techniques. Data was collected from the respondents through questionnaires, interviews and observation. The research outcome depicted that project planning had significant influence on the implementation of energy access projects in underserved counties in Kenya. The coefficient of determination R2 was 0.042 and it depicted that project planning explained 4.2 % of variations in implementation of energy access projects in underserved counties in Kenya. The remaining 95.8% of variations in implementation of energy access projects in underserved counties remained unexplained and were explained by other variables other than project planning that were not captured in this model. The overall F statistic of F = 4.399(p = 0.05) was statistically significant at P=0.000<0.05 hence was suitable to measure project planning. This study found out that while each country has its own priorities and needs, many have invested in policy reforms and capacity building, mainstreamed energy access within development programs, and used various incentive-based instruments to catalyze finance for energy access markets.

Integrated earned value analysis and their impact on project success

The project management system has many tools and techniques to control projects' main elements schedule, cost, quality, risk, communications and procurements to attain project success and high performance. Earned value analysis (EVA) is the most effective tool to measure project performance which is widely used by many organisations such as Defence Acquisition University; National Aeronautics and Space Administration; Society of Cost Estimates and Analysis; and Project Management Institute (PMI) to measure project performance and control it through cost and schedule, which are illustrated into graphs to forecast the project results to be shared and reported to top management, stakeholders and client in regular basis taking into consideration the other factors such as risk management, project environment, quality, safety, control charts, and sustainability to attain highly performance. Proposed methodology in the presented paper to implement the integrated EVA in an effective and uncomplicated way to attain project success and high performance using an automated sheet to perform analysis for an anonymous hospital design project with the total duration of seven months and illustrates and summarises the key factors based on previous studies and project examples.

Increasing Patient Self-Enrollment in the National Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Registry: Lessons Learned From a Direct to Provider Campaign

Objective: To conduct educational and promotional outreach activities to general neurologists and to increase self-enrollment of persons with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in the National ALS Registry (Registry). Methods: A multicomponent project to educate neurologists and increase Registry self-enrollment was delivered. Project components consisted of phone calls, mailings, train-the-trainer presentations, and key informant interviews. Project-specific metrics, continuing education enrollment, and Registry self-enrollment data were analyzed to measure project efficacy. Results: Mailings were sent to 1561 neurologists in 6 states during 2015 to 2016. Sixty-five percent of responding neurologists remembered the mailing 3 months after receipt. Of providers who saw patients with ALS in the 3-month period, 60% read the provider guide, 22% distributed a patient guide, and 15% advised a patient to self-enroll. No changes in self-enrollment rates were observed. Conclusion: Targeted mailings to providers can be used to educate them about the Registry; however, most providers did not distribute materials to patients with ALS. Increases in providers receiving Registry material did not lead to increases in patient self-enrollment. Practice Implications: General neurologists have competing priorities, and they see patients with ALS infrequently. Neurologists could be the appropriate channel to distribute Registry information to patients, but they are not the appropriate resource to assist patients with self-enrollment. Engaging the support staff of busy specialists can help increase research response rates and information distribution. The lessons learned from this project can be applied to other rare conditions and disease specialists.

Agility in the Archives: Translating Agile Methods to Archival Project Management

“Agility in the Archives” affirms the importance of project management in special collections and archives, demonstrating how agile project management methods can augment success in archival processing projects. Shein, Robinson, and Gutierrez present criteria commonly used to measure project success and examine agile project management factors that have been correlated with project success in other disciplines. The authors introduce agile principles and provide practical insight on how agile factors can be adopted to support project success in archives. Drawing examples from a grant-funded project completed by the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) University Libraries, the authors establish parallels between efficient iterative archival processing and agile project management methods. The study calls archivists to look beyond the details of archival processing techniques and to approach archival processing projects holistically.