PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Project Management

Project Management

Introduction

Projects can be difficult to design and manage. Even with a good plan there is no guarantee that the project will be successful. As the scale of the project gets larger the complexities involved in managing it increase and the likelihood of failure increases. Many large scale projects carried out by government are failures, even though they may eventually deliver what was expected. The failure is often in terms of timescale, costs or system errors. When the user is involved from the beginning of the project the project team will be getting input from the people who are going to be most affected by the system that is being built. The project team can use their experience and knowledge to help in setting out what is expected, what is useful and can use their feedback as the project progresses to find out whether what is wanted is being delivered. Without user involvement people are likely to be hostile to the project because people fear change. A successful project needs project managers who can manage the project well. It also needs to have staff that has the right mix of skills to do all the jobs that are needed.

Objectives

The aim of the UKPS Biometrics Enrolment test was to check the methods and record clientele experience and attitude during the notes and verification of facial, iris and fingerprint biometrics, rather than check or develop the biometric technology itself - it was not a expertise trial. Evidence contained within the report has demonstrated that the above objectives have been successfully achieved. The Trial prime contractor was Altos Origin whose responsibilities included the overall project management including the design, build and support of the Trial equipment and software, and analysis of data collected during the Trial. UKPS, Home Office Identity Cards Programme, DVLA and Atos Origin would like to thank all contributors to the Trial especially the participants, the staff from UKPS, DVLA, the Post Office, Newcastle Registrar's Office, MORI, Disability Matters Limited (DML) and the technology partners of Altos Origin. The Trial had originally been scheduled to run for 6 months starting on the 2nd February 2004, but actually began on the 14th April 2004. Testing the enrolment system outside of ideal laboratory conditions, with people unaccustomed to interacting with biometric devices identified some technical / interaction problems. Such problems are not unusual when using emerging technology, but had to be overcome before the Trial of 10,000 people could commence. The test ran for 8 months rather than of the scheduled 6 months. This was due to the difficulty of recruiting the required diversity of people for the biometric sampling. At the end of the test, all personal biometric data was destroyed. (Lilly Brown 2009 Pp. 32)

Trial Samples and Recruitment

Before 2004 the agency as a whole had very little information technology and few IT skills. The management started to make changes to the culture because outside influences from the government were making them think about how they could ...