Myki project case study

By STUDENT NAME A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirement for the Masters in Business Administration Faculty of Cardiff Metropolitan University DATE TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS i LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iv DECLARATION v ABSTRACT vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vii CHAPTER ONE 1 1 INTRODUCTION 1 1. Background Information 1 1. Chapter Roadmap and Content 5 CHAPTER TWO 6 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 6 2. Theoretical Analysis 6 2. Reasons for Project Failure 6 2. Initiating 27 4. Planning 30 4. Executing 31 4. Controlling 33 4. Closing a Project (Close-out) 36 5 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 37 5. The three main classes include people, process or procedure and communications factors. From the research it was clear that communications play a great role in project success, followed by process and finally the people. This means that management of failing projects need to check out on the communication at every management level.

Five steps are included in the management of projects including: initiating, planning, executing, controlling and closeout. CHAPTER ONE 1 INTRODUCTION 1. All the projects failed range from implementation of a new public ticketing system to carrying out a new system of administration of patients (Project management, 2006). All these failures are as a result of a number of reasons that are in occurrence. First, those in charge of the IT projects fail to work with people who will actualize the solution resulting in the failure of the full consideration of the solution. Second, in most cases, the cost and complexity of the projects are usually underestimated (Romanenko, 1997). This explains the use of more budget and time than that which was stated at the first.

This project was described as the most expensive smartcard ticketing system in the world. This system was to be used in trains, trams and buses all over Melbourne in Australia. This system of operation required that every passenger needed to but a Myki card that could be recharged and should carry it any time they were to travel. These cards were to be obtained before boarding a bus, train or tram and even before entering a railway station and couldn’t be bought inside trams or buses. A wide variety of Myki cards were made available including those for children and adults, full fare and concession each getting paid at different rates (Leybourne, 2008). The cards can be topped up automatically through a Myki Card Vending machine, online, by phone, through BPAY and at selected PTV areas (Leybourne, 2008).

This paper analyses the Myki Project between 2007 and 2012 trying to question what led to its failure and assessing how projects can be properly managed to avoid future failures as seen in Myki's case. Moreover it will attempt to evaluate what lessons can be derived from failure if IT projects and pitfalls to keep of from. Myki was a project the comprised the Victorian Transport Ticketing Authority (TTA) charged with the responsibility of replacement of the system if ticketing in Melbourne with the use of smartcards. This was intended to help the passengers use services from all trains, trams as well as buses everywhere in the metropolitan transport grid. The deadline set for the project was at two years, something that the project terribly failed (Walker, 2012).

In addition, there were very significant issues in the implementation process during the project, particularly in the duration for the development and the implementation of Myki that was expected to have been complete within two years as scheduled, to about ten years. This issue completely messed up with the budget incurring unexpected costs that led into an overall increase of not less than 55%. However, the major reason for the failure was the enormous costs and having unexpected costs not catered for by the budget was the major cause for the failure of Myki project. It is clear that in all situations when the funds get finished, the project cannot move on well. The three issues formed 45% of all the complaints about Myki (Tay, 2011).

Further, Myki failed when the management decided to go for micromanaging instead of providing support for the entire project so that the project manager gets a chance to follow the entire process well and ultimately arrive at the expectations that the public has placed on them. The Myki project, during the planning stage was overconfident that the ticketing system would be replaced by the year 2007, a mentality that was totally wrong and has led to the failure of may other projects. The mentality during this time was that other transport systems had already started their journey towards the use of smartcards, and therefore, the sooner the also set out to start their own, the better it would be for them. Furthermore, meetings with the project’s stakeholders, whether lengthy or short, is a very important step that would help in the discussion of the costs, time and quality of the product that is expected for the entire project (Ochieng, Price & Moore, 2017)2.

A number of cases record that such failure could heavily impact negatively on the organization or firm in charge of the project (Assessment of Tendering Methods on the Successful Implementation of Constituency Development Fund Projects in Njoro Sub-County, Nakuru Kenya, 2016). A good example is the Myki project, in which the Victorian TTA was charged with the responsibility of the replacement of the system if ticketing in Melbourne with the use of smartcards. This was intended to help the passengers use services from all trains, trams as well as buses everywhere in the metropolitan transport grid. This project coated double the expected cost ($741. million) than it was thought to cost, that is $350 million, and was also behind schedule by more than nine years.

One key suggested move that can promote the success of any project is proper project planning. First, those in charge of project planning need to evaluate the risk involved in undertaking the project together with the alternatives. Forward thinking is also an essential part of the project for a proper plan (Determinants of Successful Implementation of Geothermal Projects in Kenya: A Survey of Menengai and Olkaria, 2015). The alternatives that offer a lesser risk are better than those with higher risks. This is an important aspect, especially in cases where there is a high impact of decisions that are made whereas the information that is available is little. First the TTA members who has been assembled did not have the right and enough skills on how to go about the whole project.

Moreover, they did not have a prior background knowledge on the environment of the transport ticketing system. The result was the that the architecture selected was from a vendor that wasn’t proven yet. Moreover, the project became complex suffering greatly since the move taken, the complexity kept increasing tremendously. This was to the fact that the TTA staff members and the vendor given the task kept negotiating on the terms of the contract laying their basis on the outcome with all the documents exchanged during the tendering process. However, the full implementation was yet to take place as by 2012, the project was already four years behind schedule. The deadline set for the project was at two years, something that the project terribly failed (Walker, 2012).

When the project was already two years down the line, only one of the members of the TTA experience in the ICT project. During the initial assessment of the six renderers to take up the project, the successful bidder could not evidence a proven solution. The others chose sites where the solutions were in place (Managing Complex Projects and Programs, 2014). From various reports, enormous costs and having unexpected costs not catered for by the budget was the major cause for the failure of Myki project. It is clear that in all situations when the funds get finished, the project cannot move on well. There are sometimes when the funds that were estimated become too little to complete the project, and this was the case for the popular Myki project.

This situation can however be prevented in the early stages when the lack of resources can be traced. Following the Myki project, the previous Victorian Labor government did not try to investigate the other kinds of smartcard ticketing systems found all over the world. The Myki project, during the planning stage was overconfident that the ticketing system would be replaced by the year 2007, a mentality that was totally wrong and has led to the failure of may other projects. The mentality during this time was that other transport systems had already started their journey towards the use of smartcards, and therefore, the sooner the also set out to start their own, the better it would be for them. However, this was the point that they got it all wrong as rushing towards the implementation of a particular suggestion is not in any way helpful to anyone, instead it could be highly devastating (Doyle, 2015).

This clearly explains the extremely high costs that exceeded the one stated in the budget plus the extended time for the implementation of the new ticketing system. By 2013, One-Link's contract with the government had not yet expired and the company had already been paid out more than $270 million more than what was stated in the budget. The three issues formed 45% of all the complaints about Myki (Tay, 2011). However, in 2012, a more encouraging news concerning the project was received with the establishment of the Public Transport of Victoria, which led to the improvement of the oversight as well as the contractor’s management. However, an urgent move was necessary to prevent the repeating the same mistakes because the probability of risks was high at the state.

For the completion of the project before retendering when the contract was to expire in 2016, June, but with an option of extension to December 2016, the audit made some recommendations to the PTV (Kopp, n. d. In this case, the method will be used to evaluate various studies done on the topic to collect additional information on the subject. Some of the sources that will be analyzed include; journals, articles, books, magazines, documentaries, documents on IT project failure and any other relevant source that can provide information on the topic. The data used for the study was obtained from the following sources: a) Case Study of the Myki Project A thorough case study analysis of the Myki project was conducted with the aim of acquisition of more information on why it failed.

Articles and journals were used in this study to come up with crucial factors for success of projects. This is a quantitative research method that is useful in the examination of the contemporary situations in the real life as well as in the application of the findings to the problem studies, in this case, the Myki project. This step was used due to its usefulness in the designing of the subject under study. iii. Data Collection At this point, data was collected from various sources with an intent of getting different sources giving evidence for the project under study. All the evidence gathered was stored in a systematic and comprehensive way for the purposes of referencing as well as finding out the similarities and differences from all these sources.

iv. c) Project Management Books Various books on project management were also used to provide more information on the process involved in project management as well as draw the necessary conclusions on what needs to be done for major IT projects to succeed and how those at the verge of failing can rise up once again. Hypothesis Formulation H0: IT projects fail to meet up with their budgeted costs a time set for the project completion. H1: Project Management fundamentals can be used to help meet up with the expectations of the project. CHAPTER FOUR 4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 4. Key Findings The following were the major findings of the research: Failure Factor 2007 Research CompTIA Research Communication 43% 54% People 15% 28% Process 32% 18% Table 1: Key Findings 4. The data from this survey is quite similar to that done by the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) which was conducted on 1000 people on the web poll.

of those interviewed stated communications issue as the first and principal factor that causes project failure while 28% believed that resource planning, people factor, was the second major factor that led to the failure. It is important to note down these factors before moving on to the project management fundamentals (Anderson, 2004). Process and Procedure Factors a) Underestimation of the cost and complexity From various reports, this was the major cause for the failure of Myki project. It is clear that in all situations when the funds get finished, the project cannot move on well. Mr. Carolan stated during a parliamentary hearing that not so much effort was applied in the taking of jurisdictional voices, both in Australia and overseas. This would have helped Australia become aware of the pitfalls the Myki project would face during the implementation of a new smartcard ticketing system and thus avoid them as early as possible as some examples would have been well studied to derive some lessons from such instances.

This is why the planning stage is a very crucial stage, as it determines whether or nor the project holds weight, and if it would succeed or fail (Gilb, 2005). The Myki project, during the planning stage was overconfident that the ticketing system would be replaced by the year 2007, a mentality that was totally wrong and has led to the failure of may other projects. b) Poor Planning and being Overambitious Poor planning result in poor projects that fail to measure up to the expectations of the public. Having prior knowledge of what the success of the project entails is important though it’s better never to lose focus on it. Failure to have a clear focus as early as possible to avoid facing much problems in future.

Moreover, meetings with the project’s stakeholders, whether lengthy or short, is a very important step that would help in the discussion of the costs, time and quality of the product that is expected for the entire project (Chanda & Ray, 2015). However, Myki’s project poor planning and some other critical deficiencies led to the critique of the vague and some highly overambitious goals. d) Inadequate Documentation and Tracking This was another reason that led to the Myki project failure. This is the responsibility of the person managing the project. Having the correct and sufficient documents, as well as tracking how the project is fairing is important to know how far the project is from meeting its expectations (Portny, 2017). The project manager tries their best to ensure that the records are well kept and up to date and monitored well to ensure that the resources needed are available to finish up the project at the right time (John & Chris, 2015).

Had Myki's project manager ensured that there was accurate and adequate documentation of the entire project, then, the project would have been successful. Ramifications should be present at any time when the job done doesn’t measure up to the standard. It is mandatory for tasks to be ranked with the ones given the highest priority first and assigning them to the staff or people who have the best of skills to perform these tasks (Madsen, n. d. Without enough resources, it’s inevitable for people to compete for the available resources as well as funding. Therefore, having accurate estimations of the costs for the project is important to ensure that the expectations are met. Otherwise the project collapses. Giving the project managers a challenge, is in no way a wrongful act if it doesn’t get them to a place that’s beyond their abilities (Dvir, Sadeh & Malach-Pines, 2006).

c) Culture or Ethical Misalignment In any company, culture and ethics are a very crucial aspect for the good of the firm. The major composition if culture that are to be in each organization include competence, productiveness together with professionalism. Lack of these makes the team members become less motivated to give their best and work to their full potential (Garland, 2009). Project management fundamentals are the best practices that could help in having successful projects that achieve their goals and measure up to the expectations of the public (Maddison, 2016). First, it is a matter of great importance to deliver a business that has value at any given instance. This can be done by first evaluation of the business course that the project takes, identifying the right stakeholders in the project together with how they relate with it, assessing what the project requires for its success as well as having metrics of the best quality that will be of assistance when developing the product and when reevaluation of the business case (Calderon, et.

al, 2015). Moreover, it’s equally important to have a clear definition of the scope of project delivery and having a breakdown of how the work in the project would be structured. Therefore it is necessary to have a goal to work towards. These objectives are to be set hierarchically and are dependent upon what the customers need as well as the general purpose of that particular project (Weerasinghe & De Silva, 2017). This means that the purpose of the project should be included when setting objectives for the efficiency in the running of the project. Moreover, the objectives set are to be discussed the project sponsors to ensure that they have all the information that they require for project (Bourne, 2008). A number of general principles for the running of the project are listed below: 1.

The requirements stated form the basis of the contract for the work. Six major questions are answered in this step including; • The kind of product, service or result that should be expected for delivery by the project • The time that it’s expected to be delivered • The place for delivery • The number or products or services that will be delivered • The overall cost for the delivery of that service, product or result • The quality of performance of that product or service 4. Development of the Project Charter This is the final step in the initiation step of the project. It entails the writing of a very important document by the project manager. First, the charter gives a clear description of what the project entails or what it’s all about.

Failure to have a clear focus as early as possible to avoid facing much problems in future. Moreover, meetings with the project’s stakeholders, whether lengthy or short, is a very important step that would help in the discussion of the costs, time and quality of the product that is expected for the entire project. Thus, giving the project planning phase maximum concentration and treating it with all the care required is needful to succeed in the project. This phase involves two major steps including having the definition of the project and drawing the work plan, that is, having ban overview of how the work will be conducted (Anton, 2003). Defining the project Having a brief description of the project is an essential procedure in the planning phase of project management.

b) Timeframe- the project should be scheduled with each activity given a specific duration with during it is to be completed. c) The staff are selected. For the success of the project, well trained, experienced professionals should be selected. d) Leaders too, supervisors can be selected to lead the staff towards the right direction ensuring that the work is done well. e) The principles for working are set at this particular stage to ensure that the project runs smoothly without any complications (Shelley, 2015). The project manager ensures that all the vital information concerning the project is properly laid out, making it one of his or her prime responsibility. The project manager also seeks to coordinate all the processes and procedures in the right way to avoid problems in the future (Jacobsson, 2011).

Controlling Once the project begins the execution phase, tracking how it functions is a very vital step that helps ensure that the warning signs are not ignored and hence the success of the entire project. Failure to take this step leaves the project with an extremely high risk of failure (Raymond, L. and Bergeron, 2008). The project manager tries their best to make sure that the records have been kept well, updated frequently and monitored well so that the resources needed are availed early enough for the completion of the project at the right time (Attarzadeh & Ow, 2008). This step also involves the assessment of the cost of the project to ensure that the delivery is within the set timeframe. This means that when the cost of the project goes beyond that which had been previously set in the budget, it can be clearly noted and easily assessed early enough to avoid dropping the project midway due to hefty costs.

Again, the tracking helps ensure that all activities and tasks go as per the schedule without any interference (The Emergence of Project Management: First-Generation Programmatics, 2014). Analysing Project Programs In addition, keeping track of the operation of project programs is also an mandatory aspect that ensures that the programs are up to date. Planning the process is the second step involving decision-making concerning the entire framework of the corrective action. Developing and documentation of the corrective process in which a comprehensive detail of the corrective action is made. Conducting training for those who are to initiate the particular corrective action is necessary to ensure that only those qualified take up the task. Once training has been dine, implementation of the particular corrective action that was decided upon takes place.

The procedures of the action come up live and the system mechanisms start their operation. However, if the projects are in the public sector, they face much scrutiny from the public who want to dig out what went wrong with them , and, at other times, could end up in court being litigated. The articles written concerning IT projects that have failed seem to approach the issue with some form of delight or spreading alarming rumors. Therefore, people fail to focus on their IT projects with prior knowledge of what can be expected if not managed carefully and in the end their projects fail too. Most of the projects fail because the people in charge of the IT projects do not work with people who will actualize the solution resulting in the failure of the full consideration of the solution, leading to the failure of projects.

In many instances, the cost and complexity of the projects are usually underestimated. In addition, following the Myki project, the previous Victorian Labor government did not try to investigate the other kinds of smartcard ticketing systems found all over the world. Instead, the cost of the project was just set without any consultation. In the end, the labor made great under estimations of the project cost leading to severe shortage and its ultimate failure. Poor preparation and inaccurate planning was another major cause for the project’s failure Had Myki's project manager ensured that there was accurate and adequate documentation of the entire project, then, the project would have been successful. The problem of lack of proper communication was evident all through the Myki Project until 2017.

The alternatives that offer a lesser risk are better than those with higher risks. This is an important aspect, especially in cases where there is a high impact of decisions that are made whereas the information that is available is little. Proper risk management methods as well as estimation during the project planning stage. Running the Monte Carlo simulations, a method involving the repeated random sampling, has proven to be helpful by assisting the decision makers have a variety of probabilities and a number of possible outcomes on the occurrence of particular events. Using the PTB Analytics helps the planners and decision-makers aware work that is most likely to be involved together with a rough estimate (probability) of the duration that the project would take.

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