DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF ONLINE TRACKING PROJECT MANAGEMENT SOLUTION
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the study
Project Tracking is essentially a job-costing system designed for businesses who want to analyze their costs, revenues, or both, for a job or a project. Because of Project Tracking’s unique design, any key business indicator you wish to analyze separately from your general ledger can be considered a project. Project Tracking can be used for more than simply reporting the overall costs and revenues of each job or project. Project Tracking can give you specific information about revenue and costs across a wide range of projects. A housing developer may want to see not only the profitability of each house, but also how much is being spent on specific expenses, such as paint or concrete, for all houses or, for all houses within a specific development. You can easily accomplish this type of reporting using a combination of breakdown codes and transaction user-defined fields. For example, the housing developer would define a transaction user-defined fields as “DEVELOPMENT” with values such as Manhattan, Bronx, etc. and would define breakdown codes called “PAINT” and “CONCRETE”. When transactions are entered in the system, the transaction will be tagged with a development code (for example, Manhattan) and one of the breakdown codes (for example, PAINT).
A unique feature of Project Tracking is the ability to keep information across fiscal years. For example, a mortgage broker opened escrow on a property in December but the escrow closed in January of the following year and the broker’s fiscal year ends on December 31. Since Project Tracking is not tied to any fiscal or calendar year, the mortgage broker can close the project or the general ledger at any point in time. And yet, reporting can be specified to an exact time frame by general ledger posting date or document date range to create weekly, monthly or quarterly reports. Many other reports and configurations are possible. The level of detail you will be able to obtain from Project Tracking reports depends on how you set up your user-defined fields and breakdown codes. Not all Project Tracking user-defined fields are equal.
There are seven transaction-level user-defined fields tied to each transaction distribution line that can be used for project analysis. You can pre-define a list of values for each of the transaction-level user-defined fields. For example, a housing development may have five general phases (Foundation, Framing, Mechanical, Finishing, Landscaping) and the developer may wish to track transactions by phases; the housing developer will set up a transactionlevel user-defined field for Phases and will enter the list of phases for that field. After the field is set up, the user will be able to select the appropriate phase when entering transactions. Project level user-defined fields are much more restricted in their usage. There are 41 project-level user-defined fields available which hold one value per field per project. For example, a housing developer may want to keep track of the square footage of each house (project) that is built. This value will remain constant for the entire life of the project and applies to the project not to individual transactions. Therefore, the developer will use a project-level user-defined field (numeric value) to track square footage. Project level user-defined fields can be in date, numeric, check box, or text format.
1.2 Statement of the problem
Online tracking is an illusion and not what determines project success. Plans are living documents that changes as the environment of the project changes. In the new world of information technology, success is dependent on strategies, resources and people.
1.3 Significance of the study
Once a project has advanced to the phase of performance, the consistent and constant flow of information on the true status of the project is essential. During performance phase, focus now shifts from discovery to tracking and reviewing what was said would be done. Online tracking of projects which goes hand-in-hand with monitoring is discussed together with other critical management processes such as change, risk management etc.
1.4 Objectives of the study
1. To identify a relationship between online tracking and project management solution.
2. To deduce whether the design and implementation of online tracking system will aid project management solution.
1.5 Research questions
1. Is there a relationship between online tracking and project management solution?
2. Will the design and implementation of online tracking system aid project management solution?
1.6 Research hypotheses
1. Ho: There is no relationship between online tracking and project management solution.
Hi: There is a relationship between online tracking and project management solution.
2. Ho: Design and implementation of online tracking system is not a solution to project management.
Hi: Design and implementation of online tracking system is a solution to project management.
1.7 Limitations of the study
a. Financial constraint- Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).
b. Time constraint- The researcher will simultaneously engage in this study with other academic work. This consequently will cut down on the time devoted for the research work.
1.8 Scope of the study
The study focuses on the design and implementation of online tracking project management solution using Socio Economic Right and Accountability Project (SERAP) Headquarters, Lagos as a case study.
1.9 Definition of terms
Online tracking: This refers to the practice of tracking web users (and mobile apps users) on the Internet.
Project Management: This is the application of processes, methods, knowledge, skills and experience to achieve the project objectives.
