Effect of project management information systems on project performance: the case of construction projects in Ethiopia

Abstract

Projects are supposed to be successfully completed when they are carried out within the delineated scope, time and budget and when they satisfy the relevant stakeholders. There are many unpredictable issues that arise during project execution which might affect these project dimensions. The study aims to examine the effect of implementation of Project Management Information Systems (PMIS) on project performance in the construction industry of Ethiopia. It examines how project performances are related to PMIS from the system, information quality, use and user perspectives using survey data collected from selected enterprises engaged in construction business. Structured questionnaire was administrated to collect the data required for analysis from 126 randomly selected respondents working in construction enterprises. The final data was then analyzed through the use of descriptive statistics and appropriate regression models. The survey result has shown that about 71% of construction enterprises use PMIS for at least one purpose. The use of PMIS for the different project functions include 20.6% for project formulation and appraisal function; 71% for planning function; 60% for reporting function and 27 purpose for evaluating function. The assessment of the quality of PMIS software, information, use and user indicated that there are several problems regarding quality unlike the reasonable degree of PMIS use in general. The average quality of PMIS software, information, use and user were estimated to be about 67%, 64%, 54% and 69% respectively based on the rating of different parameters. Regarding how the performance of projects influenced by the use of PMIS, 74, 68 and 66 percent of the survey respondents respectively indicated that by implementing the right PMIS, performance of projects with respect to meeting timeline, respecting budget and meeting quality objective could be increased reasonably. The study also revealed that the use of PMIS as well as the quality of PMIS software, information, use and user have all statistically significant association with project delivery time, budget/cost, quality/scope and overall project performance. Both the results of bivariate and multivariate analysis depict that PMIS has greater effect on project delivery time performance followed by project quality and budget. The regression model results showed that PMIS quality have some positive and significant effect on the overall project performances with quality of system software and information having greater effect followed by PMIS user and PMIS use. The evidences generated in the study will serve as an important input for futures researches on how PMIS use could affect project performance in the context of Ethiopia.