CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
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
Ho: There is no relationship between online tracking and project management solution.
Hi: There is a relationship between online tracking and project management solution.
Ho: Design and implementation of online tracking system is not a solution to project management.
Hi: Design and implementation of online tracking system isa solution to project management.
1.7 Limitations of the study
- 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).
- 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.