Application of Project Management Software in Turnkey Electrification Projects in Ghana

Zachariah Pabi Gariba Open University, Accra Institute of Technology

Box AN-19782, Accra-North, Ghana z.p.gariba@ieee.org

Abstract - This study establishes the use of software to provide efficiency for turnkey electrification projects in Ghana. A correlation design method is employed to a sample of thirty one stakeholders in the power distribution sector in Ghana, and it reveals that there is negative perceived ease of use of software for managements of electrical turnkey projects. T-Test conducted on usage of PM software indicated that statistically there is no usage of PM software and those projects are manually managed in Ghana.

Keyword: Software, Turnkey, Projects.

I. INTRODUCTION

A turnkey project originated from contracts where essential design emanates from the contractor and not the owner so that the legal responsibility to the design, suitability and performance on the work after completion rests with the contractor [1]. This is a mode of carrying out international constructional business currently because in such a contract, foreign contractors who mostly are the sponsor construct and turn projects over to the purchaser when it is ready for operation and remuneration. This kind of management methodology is used for extended development projects to developing countries such as those in Africa. A typical example of such a project is GEDAP Grid Extension worth US$16.55 million, which took place in Western Region of Ghana in the year 2012 [2] financed by government of China.

The Government of Ghana mostly goes for multilateral loans such as US$350million from US EX-IM Bank [3] for extending electrical energy to rural communities that have never enjoyed electricity. These loans must be judiciously utilized by incorporation of modern project management (PM) tools such as use of PM software, which are used to execute projects because human management is not reliable and will lead to numerous errors.

In project management procedures, there are five constraints for execution of projects, which are time, cost, scope, quality and resource allocation operating in all projects and are monitored by an advance management system like PM software [4]. There

have been numerous papers [5], [6], [7] on the benefits that PM software provides to construction companies in other countries. These researches indicate that organizations that used project management tools achieved their required results on time, cost, and quality. It enables project managers and contractors on cost savings of 2.1 and 1.8 percent respectively. Colin’s [8] stated that the cause of dispute most often in projects is a delay and automating projects using PM software practice is better than manual process because it eliminates human errors [6], [9], [10]. This study had the objectives consisting of the establish inefficiencies existing with current management techniques for turnkey projects in Ghana, underscoring the role of PM software in turnkey electrification projects in Ghana and developing of a model to analyze the acceptance of technology in projects for the Ghanaian context.

II. RELATED WORKS

In [11], there are four major modes of technology transfer consist of foreign direct investments, joint ventures, licensing and turnkey projects. The scope, strength, weakness and characteristics of turnkey projects have been extensively indicated in [12]. Turnkey projects are popular in a project financed deals [13] where lenders require greater certainty about a project’s final costs. Apple used this as an excellent vehicle to gain entry into the Russian electronic market [14]. There have been numerous criteria on evaluate online project management services in [15]. The emerging paradigm of performing project management over the web has been illustrated in [19] which also described the pitfalls in current project management practices amidst increasing project complexities. Samples of 27 web-enabled PM software are tabulated for tender, design and construction and e-commerce respectively. For a construction industry to successfully embrace web-enabled project management tools at a large scale, it must equally consider technology.

There are application service providers known as Project Collaboration Network (PCN) [16] use sharing project documents, communications, workflow and serves as an online document management system for a project team. The services

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include daily files backing up, keeping a document revision history, and tracking, which access files. PCN also offers online document viewing, online mark-up and plotting. It is hosted on an Application Service Provider’s (ASP) server. A survey in [17] on time performance of different types of construction projects in Saudi Arabia was conducted to determine the causes of delay and their importance according to each of the project stakeholders. The field survey conducted included 23 contractors, 19 consultants, and 15 owners. Seventy-three (73) causes of delay were identified during the research. The most common cause of delay identified by all the three parties is a change order.

A. Technology Acceptance Model

User acceptance of technology has been an important field of study for decades now. Although many models have been proposed to explain and predict system usage, Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) proposed by Davis [18], [19] has been the only one which captured the most attention in Information Systems community; it addresses why users accept or reject information technology. TAM focused on the process of using technology, were Perceived Usefulness and Perceived Ease of Use are the two key factors that affect an individual’s intention to use a technology. Perceived Usefulness means that the user believes the technology will improve his performance, while Perceived Ease of Use refers to the belief that using the technology will be free of effort [20]. Perceived Usefulness and Perceived Ease of Use could be affected by the external variables considered in the original TAM model.

Articles published by [21] on TAM from 1980 to the first part of 2001 in periodicals known to include this type of study. Out of more than 80 articles consulted, their study kept 22 for analysis. The articles were selected using the following criteria: TAM is used in an empirical study, the integrity of TAM is respected, the research methodology is well described and the research results are available and complete. Out of the 22 studies, only seven included both attitudes towards using and behavioral intention to us. Three included only attitude towards using, while eight included only behavioral intention to use. The study concluded that TAM has been tested in many empirical researchers and the tools used with the model have proven to be of quality and yielded statistically reliable results.

III. METHODOLOGY

A. Design of study

In this study, a mixed research method was employed using case study, survey and correlation methods. The Electricity Company of Ghana is used as an entity for the case study because it supplies electricity to 70 percent of Ghana’s population [22]. This research considered only turnkey projects

stakeholders because that is relevant for this study. In the survey, a population is of 147 project stakeholders comprised of project owners, project managers, contractors and project engineers having quality experiences in turnkey projects within the power distribution sector of Ghana were selected based upon the number of turnkey projects they had executed.

A sample size of 31 stakeholders comprised of 2 project owners, 3 project managers, 5 contractors and 21 project engineers was established. A cross-sectional survey method was used to select the sample elements which involving the aforementioned stakeholders. The computed sample size with respect to population as which is good. A linear correlation study is used to the establishment of usage extent of software in turnkey projects for cost optimization and its relation with success of projects. In this respect, we stated study hypotheses ( ) and alternative ( ) for testing significant between means of those using project software and those not using:

• : Majority of stakeholders use PM software

• : Majority of stakeholders do not use PM software.

B. Instrument

The questionnaire measured the use of software in managing turnkey project parameters such as time, cost, scope, quality and resources projects. When developing the instrument for this research, some items of resources were adapted from previously validated instruments for use in online learning community context. The items of the remaining constructs were developed by experts who were parts of the research team. A five-point Likert-type scale [23] was used to answer the questions in the seven constructs of the questionnaire. Since some items were developed this study and some were adapted from previous studies, a pretest was required. We task 10 project stakeholders comprising of the four categories to complete the preliminary questionnaire of 20 items. By measuring the scale’s reliability based on the value of Cronbach’s alpha [24], [25] which ranged from 0.90 to 0.92, we found that the questionnaire was reliable in the pretest. Then, we could provide the formal questionnaire to our sampled 31 respondents and analyze the responses statistically.

IV. RESULTS Table 1 indicates the number and categorization of respondents issued with our questionnaire. In all a total of 25 respondents representing 81 Percent have proper training in turnkey projects and 6 respondents representing 19 percent are not trained. Upon further checks by interviews, we could realize that the 6 respondents are newly certified contractors, and engineers

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recruited to assist the experienced stakeholders due to overwhelming of projects. The study realized that there are presently eighteen turnkey projects worth $1.4 billion dollars. These contracts are funded by different institutions and developed countries.

TABLE 1

Classification of respondents

Turnkey Training

Total No Yes

Stake-holders

Owner 0 2 2

Project Manager 0 3 3

Project Engineer 5 16 21

Contractor 1 4 5 Total 6 25 31

The application of PM software for managing the projects categorized by stakeholders is listed in Table 2. In all 19 respondents representing 61.3 percent indicated that they do not use software for managing their turnkey projects and 12 respondents representing 38.7 percent indicated yes which means they do use project managing software. The summary of categories of stakeholders on project management software usage for turnkey projects is given in figure 1 which is a pie chat.

TABLE 2 PM software usage in turnkey projects

Frequency Percent Valid Percent

Cumulative Percent

Valid

no 19 61.3 61.3 61.3

yes 12 38.7 38.7 100.0

Total 31 100.0 100.0

Fig. 1 Pie chats of software usage categories

Table 3 is a cross tabulation between project stakeholders and turnkey management. Two out of the thirty one respondents indicate the application of software in their projects. Twelve and sixteen indicated manually and, software and manually. The manual only users are respondents whom indicated that they do not use any PM software in managing their respective turnkey electrification projects. The software users are those whom perceived to use software in management of projects. Those whom chose both manual and software method are those whom used manual system mostly but may used software for checking time on Gantt chat in enabling them preparing report for quarterly stakeholders meeting. None category is a respondent whom abstained.

TABLE 3

Stakeholders against management methods

Management methods

TotalManual Software

Software &

manuallyNone

Stake- holders

Owner 1 1 0 0 2

Manager 2 0 1 0 3

Engineer 9 1 11 1 21

Contractor 1 0 4 0 5 Total 12 2 16 1 31

A. Test of significant

Table 4 gives result of the hypothesis test by one sample independent t-test. The first three columns test the hypothesis that the two groups of PM software usage, which is yes and no categories have the same variances. Because the significance for the F - Test is greater than 0.5, we accept hypothesis that the variances are equal between yes and no categories. The 2-tailed significant value is below 0.05 so T-test coefficient is significant at 95% confidence. The coefficient in this case is the difference in mean between the two groups. The mean difference of -0.48684 implies that with 95% confidence, that the mean for no category is -0.48684 higher than that for yes. The last two columns provide the 95% confidence interval for this difference in mean which is between -0.82799 and -0.14570.

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TABLE 4

Independent T-test on PM software usage

B. Project software TAM

We modified the original TAM [19], [20], [21], [22] into our project software model as indicated in figure 2. The new model is now composed into PM software context. To reflect the transposition, the dependent variable Actual System Use is replaced by Actual PM software Usage and Usage intention is replaced by Intention to use PM software. The direct relation between Perceived Ease of Use and Intention is removed because such a relation is insignificant. Perceived usefulness is replaced by perceived relative usefulness, a revision which is motivated by absence of competition in case of classical project management procedures. Finally the model is supplemented with Perceived Interaction.

The external variables are interface design of the present project management software that are available for managing projects, the stakeholder experience with previous software on project

management, anxiety towards software programs that exist in corporate environments and, self efficacy towards computer and its software application in electrification projects. It is these mentioned variable which directly have influences on perceived relative usefulness of the PM software, perceived ease of use of PM software and the perceived interaction that exist among stakeholders and the PM software.

The perceived relative usefulness in this context deal with stakeholders believes in using PM software would enhance their progress on their projects. Perceived ease of use deals with the degree to which turnkey project stakeholders believe in using PM software would be free from their efforts. The perceived interaction is the various interactions that exist between the stakeholder the PM software. Intention to use PM software is what the various stakeholders want to use the PM software for in their project. The actual PM software use is about how the software is really used by the project stakeholders.

Fig. 2 Project Software TAM

V. DISCUSSION

The available data indicated that manual approach is the means by which the turnkey projects are executed. There stakeholders are not aware of capabilities and superiority of PM software

over manual management system. The T-test conducted on means between the two categories of usage of software confirms that there is statistically significance and that stakeholders do not use PM software for projects.

F Sig. t Sig. (2-tailed) Mean Difference

95% Confidence Interval of the Difference

Lower Upper

Equal variances assumed 0.025 0.875 -2.919 0.007 -0.48684 -0.82799 -0.14570 Equal variances not assumed -2.919 0.008 -0.48684 -0.83142 -0.14226

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Available literatures indicate that the rational for using PM software in projects include graphical presentation, modeling, resource assignment, resource scheduling, multi-project capability, tracking, cost allocation, report formats and data transfer capability. With regards to time and claim issues there are features for manipulating schedules, assign multiple resources to a task, allocate budgets and costs to tasks, and produce comprehensive reports. However, stakeholders do not explore the potentials of web base software in monitoring, tracking of activities, information dissemination and material acquisition as is done globally; they use PM software as an addendum in development of Gantt charts for clerical reporting of progress of work but not for monitoring and tracking.

A. Impact of Project Software TAM

The external factors have a direct impact on how stakeholders have perceived relative usefulness, perceived ease of use and perceived interaction. The perceived ease of use in the PM software has a direct effect on perceived relative usefulness and perceived interaction because available data indicate that all the stakeholders are properly trained in classical project management procedures, which utilize a manual system of management, so stakeholders have no interest of using software because they have perceived manual approach to be better. Therefore, there is perceived relative non-usefulness and reduce interaction with the software.

Since perceived ease of use of PM software has a direct relation with perceived relative usefulness and perceived interaction, is a negative effect on intention to use PM software. The project stakeholders’ bad perception resulting on them is having no intention to use the software. Furthermore, there is direct relation between intention to use PM software and actual PM software usage. From the model, it is realized that perceived ease of use negatively influences perceived relative usefulness and perceived interaction with the software. Intention to use PM software influences actual PM software usage.

VI. CONCLUSIONS

This paper has been able to present the importance of using software in managing turnkey globally in the electrical power sector. Presently, to obtain quality management of projects in other to save resources, cost and times, the best avenue is to apply web base PM software to manage electrical turnkey projects. This study indicated that though stakeholders are experienced in managing electrical turnkey projects, they do not use PM software in managing turnkey projects funded by institution of developed countries. Mostly, the turnkey projects are managed manually from planning stage, execution stages and closing stage. This means that the project managers depend on the manual reports given by stakeholders which are full of errors due to human deficiencies.

In this study has been transformed TAM into Project Software (Ps) TAM which composed of PM software context. By the Ps TAM, perceived ease of use negatively influences perceived relative usefulness and perceived interaction of the software. Intention to use PM software influenced actual PM software usage. Researchers are encouraged to pursue empirical relationship between the features of Ps TAM and PM software usage in Turnkey electrification projects in Ghana.

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