Factors Contributing To The Failure Of Payroll System Implementation Project At Queensland Health System

Objective

Discuss about the Value Chain and REA Analysis.

Due to growing complexities and future challenges in the health system implementation projects, it is essential for the Queensland Health System to manage the implementation, stabilization, and maintenance of the information system project implementation in order to ensure the smooth running of the business operations. This assessment will describe the factors that contributed to the failure of payroll system implementation project at the Queensland Healthcare System(Bischoff, 2011). This assessment will also propose several recommendations to identify deficiencies in the system analysis for ensuring the better implementation of the IS projects at Queensland Health System.

Objective- The objective of this report is to identify and analyze the factors that contributed to the disastrous information system implementation projects at the Queensland Health System. This report is aimed at understanding the applications related to the project implementation failure at the Queensland health system on national and state legislations as well as industrial level.

The Queensland Health Payroll System implementation project failure is one of the largest IS failures in the Southern Hemisphere that highlighted the significance of systematic project failure. This project failure accounted for costing to $ 1.25 Billion ASD ($ 245 million AUD for fixing the system failure problem and $1000 Million dollars for maintaining and operating the system). This IS project failure was 300% over budget and 18 months behind schedule. This project failure estimated costs $1.25 billion AUD in implementation, stabilization and maintenance of the system(Thite&Sandhu, 2014). There were several reasons that contributed to the failure of the payroll system implementation at the Queensland Health System which are following as:-

Lack of planning and failure to keep the robust tendering process- The poor project planning and failure of the project team members to put in place the robust tendering process contributed to the failure of the Queensland health system implementation project.

Weak governance structure and Lack of clear roles, duties and responsibilities- The poor governance of the Queensland Health Implementation caused for the unclear and confused system implementation projects. It also created confusion in the roles, responsibilities, duties, authorities, and accountability of the several parties involved in the project implementation process.

Lack of stakeholders’ participation and engagement in the company’s decisions- The lack of all stakeholders’ engagement in the company’ meetings and decision-making process was another reason contributing to the failure of the Queensland Health Payroll System.

Factors contributing to the failure of the Queensland health payroll system implementation

Lack of risk management and poor contingency plan- The pre-implementation process and system testing failed to identify the risks that contributed to the Queensland IS implementation project failure. There was no contingency planning and monitoring process for managing risks that resulted into the over project budget costs for the project implementation activities(Horngren, Harrison, Oliver, Best, Fraser, Tan &Willet, 2013).

Lack of communication and training and poor management control- This was the root cause for the failure of the IS implementation project at the Queensland Health system. There was little communication or less conversations among the project team members that resulted into failure of the implementation of IS projects at Queensland Health System.

The management and project team members failed to deliver optimum project implementation results because of the failure of the project team members to clean up the complex processes for the successful implementation of the new payroll system At the Queensland Health System.

Poor team management structures- The poorly designed team management structure was one of the key factors contributing to the failure of the Queensland payroll implementation projects greatly. The project team members were not assigned the projects activities as per their skills, knowledge, and specialization(Mancini, Vaassen, &Dameri, 2013).

Lack of commitment- The lack of commitment and self-responsibility among the staff members including doctors, nurses, managers, and other employees was another reason caused for the failure of payroll implementation project at the Queensland Health System.

Lack of diligence on behalf of the state government officials- The unwarranted urgency and lack of diligence of the state government health officials caused for the poor decision making that resulted into failure of payroll implementation project at the Queensland Health system(Hall, 2012).

Lack of accountability of the payment of staff members- This factor contributed to the failure of the IS implementation projects resulting from the lack of accountability among the employees of the Queensland Health System including nurses, doctors, and other staff members. Due to indefinite payment structure, the Queensland Health System had to face the grievances and conflicts of the staff members.

Inaccurate estimation of the project scope and complexities- The Queensland Health Payroll System was failed because it was complex comprising of multiple employment awards, large workforce, and various project agreements that resulted into the replacement of QLD payroll system by the new payroll system(Gelinas&Dull, 2009).

Environmental and technological project drivers- This was another factor that contributed to the failure of the Queensland IS implementation projects.

Failure to deal up with the complex processes required for the implementation of a new system

The factors responsible for the failure of the Queensland Health payroll system implementation project are classified into the relevant phases of the first step of the System Development Lifecycle Approach including System planning, Analysis, Design, Implementation and Maintenance/Review. These factors are following identified as per different phases of the System development Life Cycle approach:-

Planning- This phase includes the factors that contributed to the failure of the payroll system implementation, such as the lack of planning and failure to keep the robust tendering process, early establishment of conditions of stakeholders’ participation and expectation management, lack of contingency planning, employment agreements, and review shared services central approach to centralization and flexibility.

Analysis- This phase includes the factors, like weak governance structure, unclear roles, duties and responsibilities, lack of alignment of people, process and technology,environmental and technological project drivers, periodic review of the business needs in cope with the changing environment(Romney, Steinbart, Mula, McNamara &Tonkin, 2012).

Design- This phase includes the factors, such as failure to clean up the complex processes required for the implementation of a new system, lack of risk identification and management, poor system design and lack of supervision, lack of new system requirements, lack of commitment and self-responsibility, and lack of interest of the management to deliver the best system design solution.

Implementation- This phase includes the factors, such as comprehensive change management, external environment and technological forces, lack of professionalized training and education,  mature and inconsistent system testing, impact of system management changes, inaccurate estimation of the project scope and complexities, and lack of accountability of the payment of staff members(Eden &Sedera, 2014).

Maintenance/Review- This phase of SDLC approach includes ongoing project management, reviewing the system performance, ongoing stakeholders’ engagement, and lack of periodic planning, review and control of high risk projects.

The Queensland health implementation project failure is one of the largest IS failures in Australia that requires a series of recommendations to overcome the deficiencies for the future implementation of the projects at the firm. The following recommendation could be applied to improve the information system implementation projects at the Queensland healthcare system:-

Greater Communication- Communication is an important project management aspect that should be taken into account by the management of the Queensland Health System to ensure the successful implementation of the future IS projects. It is recommended for the senior management of the Queensland Health System to promote greater communication among the project team members for ensuring the successful completion of the future IS projects. The inter-organizational communication is imperative to the IS project management team to minimize the user-resistance barriers. An effective communication among the project management team members will assist to resolve the conflicts and disputes of the organizational members by protecting their interests. Along with this, the greater communication will bring them together to work on the projects for removing the deficiencies or loopholes in the IS projects by sharing their experiences, values and knowledge with each other(Considine, Parkes, Olesen&Blount, 2016). For this, the communication tools, such as team viewer, Skype, social media (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Google+), e-mails and intranets can be used to enhance the level of communication among the project team members at the organization.

Classification of the factors into the phases of the first step of SDLC approach

Improved data quality and system testing- It is important for the Queensland Health System to improve the quality of data and system tests for attaining the better IS project implementation results at the firm. The system testing will analyze the effectiveness and efficiency of the organizational IT system of the Queensland Health system to remove the problems of discrepancies, casual labors, overtime claims, inadequate and unstructured payroll system. Along with this, the system testing will improve the data quality by performing the data conversion security, integrity and quality management issues. The integrated computerized system can also be used to improve the quality of data(Cram101 Textbooks Reviews, 2016).

Digital transformation of health services- The Queensland Senate’s digital transformation of the healthcare services will assist to enhance the knowledge and experiences of the project team members, clinicians, and digital health experts by using the digital technology. The digital transformation will also improve the digital hospital information infrastructure of the Queensland Healthcare System by performing all activities electronically(Gelinas, Dull &Wheeler, 2014). The digital transformation of the health will resolve the payroll system implementation problems by supporting the quality of healthcare, consumer health, quality measurement and improvement, public accountability and clinical education and health researches.

System Development Life Cycle- This approach is also known as application development life cycle that can be used by the project management team of the Queensland Health System to implement the IS projects successfully by overcoming the loopholes and shortcomings in the system design. This approach uses information systems, system engineering and software engineering to implement the process for planning, designing, testing and deploying an information system. This approach will be supportive to identify the deficiencies in the existing system and thereby defining the new system requirements after analyzing the environmental forces and technological changes.

Clinician engagement- This is important for the project planning, evaluation, and delivery improvement of the healthcare services at the Queensland Health system for achieving the desired IT project results and healthcareefficiency(Gable, 2008). For this, the Queensland Clinical senate can develop a position statement on the clinician engagement to assist the healthcare, hospital and medicare services in order to measure the efficiency of the clinician engagement against the clinical senate statement.

Advance care planning- The advance care planning can enhance the effectiveness of the Queensland healthcare services by improving the quality of end of healthcare for the patients. The Queensland Health System should focus on development and implementation of the standardized practices advance care planning documentation for providing the quality of primary care, hospital services, and medicare services.

Clinical Teaching and training- The clinical learningand training is an important aspect that the Queensland Health System should be focused on for improving the quality of health system at the organization(Cooper, Funnell&Lee, 2012). For this, the Queensland Health System should focus on budget allocation, the learner-teacher experience, information governance, professionalized training, and team-based simulation training to improve the effectiveness of the healthcare system implementation projects at the firm.

Conclusion

From the above studies and analysis, it can be concluded that the Queensland payroll system implementation failure was one of the largest information system project implementation failures in the southern hemisphere that was caused from a range of factors examined by the Royal CommissionAustralia (healthcare system enquiry judiciary of Australia). Several recommendations were also suggested by the Royal Commission that can be applied to the Queensland healthcare system in order to overcome deficiencies in the IS implementation projects.

References

Bischoff, L. A. (2011).Porter’s Value Chain and the REA Analysis as an Accounting Information System. Australia: Grin Verlag.

Considine, B., Parkes, A., Olesen, K. &Blount, Y. (2012).Accounting Information Systems: Understanding Business Processes. Australia: John Wiley& Sons.

Cooper, K., Funnell, W. &Lee, J. (2012).Public Sector Accounting and Accountability in Australia. Australia: UNSW Press.

Cram101 Textbooks Reviews (2016).Accounting Information Systems. UK: Cram101 textbooks Reviews.

Gable, G. G. (2008).The Information Systems Academic Discipline in Australia: Australia: Anu E Press.

Gelinas, J. U., Dull, B. R. &Wheeler, P. (2014).Accounting: Sydney: Cengage Learning.

Gelinas, U. &Dull, R. (2009).Accounting Information Systems. USA: Cengage Learning.

Hall, A. J. (2012).Accounting Information Systems. USA: Cengage Learning.

Hall, A. J. (2015).Accounting Information Systems. Melbourne: Cengage Learning.

Horngren, C., Harrison, W., Oliver, S., Best, P., Fraser, D., Tan, R.,&Willet, R (2012).Accounting. Australia: Pearson Higher Education.

Mancini, D., Vaassen, J. H. P. &Dameri, P. R. (2013).Accounting Information Systems for Decision Making. Melbourne: Springer Science& Business Media.

Romney, M., Steinbart, P., Mula, J., McNamara, R. &Tonkin, T. (2012).Accounting Information Systems Australasian Edition. Australia: Pearson Higher Education.

Eden, R. &Sedera, D. (2014).The Largest Admitted IT Project Failure in the Southern Hemisphere: A Teaching Case.Retrieved from: file:///C:/Users/subh/Downloads/QueenslandHealth%20(5).pdf.

Thite, M. &Sandhu, K. (2014) ‘where is my pay? critical success factors of a payroll system – a system life cycle approach’, The Australian Journal of Information Systems, Vol.18, No.2, Retrieved from: https://journal.acs.org.au/index.php/ajis/article/viewFile/820/582.