Developing a Software Mechanism for Scheduling and Tracking Project Lifecycle Using Open-Source Software: An application on a government institution

Journal of Information Systems and Informatics Vol. 2, No. 1, March 2020 e-ISSN: 2656-4882 p-ISSN: 2656-5935 http://journal-isi.org/index.php/isi Published By DRPM-UBD Developing of Scheduling and Tracking Project Lifecycle Software Osman A. Nasr1, Mohammed, A. Hassanen2, Enayat Ali3 1 Management Information System, King Khalid University, KSA, Abha. 2 Business Administrative, King Khalid University, KSA, ABHA. 3 Information System, King Khalid University, KSA, Abha Email: , , Abstract This research aims at developing a software mechanism for scheduling and tracking the status of pre-planned tasks using an open source to achieve projects in government institutions based on project management theory. This mechanism will facilitate the system process via planning, managing, and evaluating the project team activities to ensure that the project is running according to the time and financial plans. The system will also enable the work team to share tasks information and follow their status during the lifecycle of these tasks. The system will also allow the project management to benefit from these reports to continuously assess individuals, tasks, and refine management decisions for present and future projects. The study is also relied on an open source project management software (ODOO) in planning, implementation, and the following up of an academic quality accreditation project of the department of (MIS) in the College of Business (King Khalid University, KSA, 2018-2020). The open source management software has been adopted throughout the development as benchmarking tool. The application of such software will allow improvement, and control participants performance and achievement of the tasks entrusted to them. Such as faculty task scheduling and coordination on tasks. Also, some software components will be added and reused. Keywords: open source software, project management, tasks, activity, project 1. INTRODUCTION Managing a project assumes an accurate follow-up and control of all the activities related to project till its full accomplishment. This following-up reflects a strategic vision and a long-term orientation that insures a successful completion of the project. Project management is one of the key tools used to achieve a strategic plan by ensuring that a project is completed and delivered in due time, and with respect to quality and cost requirements [1]. Many aspects define a project management: activities, time, cost, quality, human resources, communication, risk, 12 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Journal of Information Systems and Informatics Vol. 2, No. 1, March 2020 p-ISSN: 2656-5935 http://journal-isi.org/index.php/isi e-ISSN: 2656-4882 and procurement [2].A project is by its nature temporary and oriented to produce totally new products or services. The emergence of new objectives during the project implementation is not an exception. Statistics of many countries the statistics conducted by many countries indicate that most projects failed to achieve their objectives in terms of duration, and cost ,which requires a scientific project study and a continuous following-up carried out by the staff responsible [3]. The problem of the study is related to the lack of a mechanism that helps to follow up, and achieve the tasks of a project, and the absence of a system that provides immediate reports on completed, or ongoing tasks. It is also difficult for beneficiaries and managers having decision-making authority to have access to report on tasks. They will lead to a difficulty in the evaluation of the individual’s performance. It will also result in a randomness of the organization of the work for the project owners. Also, a serious problem that appears in the current mechanism is the use of paper documents in the follow up and management of the project tasks. This problem has three aspects: cost, time, and cooperation. As for the cost, it is high under the current mechanism, due to the need of the attendance of the team members in the workplace, and the submission of written reports. Thus, written each member must have an office, and must be provided a place to save project documents. From the time point of view, team members need a long time to report on the status of their tasks, as well as to track the tasks. Therefore, members must meet periodically to study the status of the mission. For cooperation, in the current situation cooperation among members or teams in the project is very weak, for cooperation is through face-to-face confrontation. The proposed mechanism offers an electronic system as a software application that can be used by various government institutions, as well as ordinary users at all levels where solutions are suggested to the above-mentioned difficulties, and the factors that limit the possibility of improving the process of projects management. The mechanism is supposed to provide everyone's needs of services, which is an essential factor in project life cycle. The proposed software application uses multiple techniques like email to notify member about his tasks. It also provides a central way to store the users' and institutions' information in a single database. It allows connect between the proposed software application and google drive to store the accreditation files. There are several studies related to Developing of Scheduling and Tracking Project Lifecycle Software, namely Analysis and Design of a Project Management Information System: (Practical Case in a Consulting Company) [4]. This study presents the design process of an Information Systems for Project Management; its main purpose is to manage investment projects throughout their life cycle [4]. Project management information systems: An empirical study of their impact on project managers and project success [5]. The purpose of this study is to empirically assess the quality of the PMIS presently used in organizations and to examine their impact on project managers and project performance, based on a PMIS success model [5]. Rethinking the Project Management Process by Using Osman A. Nasr, Mohammed, A. Hassanen, at all | 13 Journal of Information Systems and Informatics Vol. 2, No. 1, March 2020 p-ISSN: 2656-5935 http://journal-isi.org/index.php/isi e-ISSN: 2656-4882 Unified Modeling Language [6] This article recommends transformation rules from project items into objects and project charts into UML diagrams, to model all project items and processes by using UML [6]. Table 1. Comparison between Existing and Proposed Systems Compared Aspects Cost Time to prepare report Time to meet members Storing documents cooperation Existing System Maximum Can be long periods Can be long periods In place Via meeting Proposed System Minimum Minimum Minimum Online place. Via software, and email This study aims to Provision of detailed information projects, and tasks to the members and managers, and developing a mec (...truncated)