Discuss how lack of IT Governance have led to problems in the IT Project in case above.
Study the scenario below and answer the question that follow.
Transcard– an integrated travel card for Johannesburg Metro
The Big 5 (South African Black Business Consortium) won ZAR400 Million contract to build and operate the Transcard system in 2013 and have it operating by 2015. The parent corporation of Affirmative Action Group (AAG) International Inc., is a software engineering application maintenance, program management and consulting services company that had extensive experience in overseeing and project managing transport and technology companies to produce integrated system, and had implemented similar systems in In Capetown and Durban. Big 5 supervised four technology and infrastructure companies and their sub-contractors, and provided back-end financial system. The Big 5 companies provided the terminal management system and fare collection equipment; communication systems installation and maintenance; automated fare collection systems; and smart cards and related card fulfilment systems.
The Big 5 project management of the Transcard system required oversight of four companies and attention to a range of different problems and unique challenges. Some of these problems were described as ‘technical gremlins’, while other problems involved inadequate resources and slow resolution of software problems. The City of Johannesburg identified governance, project management and tight financial controls as areas causing delays in the development and implementation of the system.
The Transcard system is required to function over long distances, far from centralised support services and in sometimes rough and dusty environments, while communicating user information to centralised servers. It has been designed from the ground up, and its specifications make it one of the most sophisticated smart card systems planned.
In comparison, Hong Kong, which has a widely admired smart card system for public transport users, and the highest rate of public transport use in the world, has public transport travellers using the Octopus smart electronic money card in place of conventional tickets.
Complaints about the Transcard online services included the fact that they didnt work with some of the most popular browsers, used confusing jargon, rejected names and addresses, and failed to recharge cards correctly (or at all) sometimes. The ticketing systems caused delays at station gates and charged incorrectly, the touching on and off .The system went live in 2015 and by 2017 the cost of the system had blown out to ZAR 12 million, including additional start-up costs and an extra ZAR 6 million to keep the old system running. Approximately ZAR 8 million is being spent on the running of the Transcard system, as well as ZAR 10 million to buy extra equipment for the Gautrains and buses
The Johannesburg Municipal Government announced the following changes to the Transcard contract in December 2017:
- Improvements in project management, governance and key performance measures
- The appointment of a third party certifier to monitor the remaining development and ensure the system fully meets the state’s and public’s requirements
- A rigorous testing and project oversight regime to be introduced to inform the third party certifier at critical evaluation points up to the end of the delivery phase
- Complexity of the project to be reduced (where possible) to provide a reliable ticketing system and reduce the risk of further cost increases. Buses caused delays, setting buses behind schedule, and some stations lacked machines to allow users to top up their cards. The ticket machines are not designed for use by some disabled travellers, and had to be upgraded to accept notes as well as coins. Because of the delays, the municipality had to operate the existing ticketing system in parallel with the Transcard roll-out, adding to the costs.
Adopted from ( Enterprise Africa.net)
Discuss how lack of IT Governance have led to problems in the IT Project in case above.
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