NYCAPS and City Time

Final Case Study 2
Name
Institution
Final Case Study 2
Q1.
The New York City Automated Personnel System (NYCAPS) and CityTime Projects were important for the New York City because they would modernize government systems and increase efficiency. This meant reducing paperwork while dealing with employee benefits and job allocation. They would automate the payroll system and manage overtime payments that employees requested. Above all these projects were crucial in eliminating mismanagement in order to deliver programs accurately (Business Problem-Solving Case, n.d).
The objectives of NYCAPS and CityTime Projects was to create a modern automated system to allow updating and managing personnel data. NYCAPS aimed to minimize the costs used in the city budgets. Through CityTime Projects, the idea was to reduce under-deserved overtime payments that city workers claimed (Business Problem-Solving Case, n.d).
The benefits of the projects if they were successful is the ability to reduce millions of dollars used in managing the traditional file system while handling payments and benefits. It would have saved revenue for the city since proper monitoring would be employed to check employees that deserve overtime payments. Finally, overall business operations for government agencies would have become efficient (Business Problem-Solving Case, n.d).
Q2.
The risk factors of both projects included lack of proper leadership to take up the necessary requirements to ensure project success. The leaders moved the projects from one direction to another without taking time to evaluate the effectiveness of such moves. For instance, Bloomberg administration constantly took the NYCAPS project to outside experts without evaluating their potential to complete the project effectively. Poor project management is another risk factor because the top leadership did not create measures to ensure proper implementation. For instance, the NYCAPS project was mainly controlled by government officials who had no prior expertise to make decisions on Information Technology (IT) systems leading to poor management and additional costs. Inefficient time management is another risk factor that marred the project because none of the projects were completed on time. Poor system design is also a risk factor because the management misunderstood the requirements of the project and failed to manage this change properly. For example, the NYCAPS project was tainted by errors where users of the system could view and download personal data of other users leading the project to be shut down (Business Problem-Solving Case, n.d).
Q3.
NYCAPS had the problem of errors in the system when it was being implemented. The government officials controlling the project did not have expertise to make the right decisions and this created errors when their website was launched. Users could view with ease personal data of other users violating privacy. NYCAPS also suffered from mismanagement of funds as cases of fraud were regularly pointed out and investigated. During implementation, CityTime project lacked satisfactory government oversight to manage funds and this led to misuse. Millions of dollars were lost while the project was being implemented (Karas, Raisinghani & Webb, 2009). Management factors that led to these problems involved poor management of resources. The mismanagement of resources resulted in corruption and this turned to misuse that added millions of dollars to the initial budget of the projects. Organizational factors contributing to failure primarily related to poor leadership that did not take control to ensure that design, goals, and implementation of the projects was done accurately. Technological factors including failure to hire or recruit IT experts that had the expertise to design and implement the project (Russell, 2007).
Q4.
In order to control risks in projects in these projects, first, it would be best to hire experts in IT who understand how to design and implement projects successfully. The idea is to have people who understand the IT systems because they would eliminate errors. Secondly, hiring of auditors to conduct audits in each phase of the projects. This would ensure that corruption and fraud are eliminated ensuring that money wastage is stopped. This would also cut costs and ensure effectiveness in creating a budget. Third, placing leadership group that has an understanding of the project design, goals, and implementation phases. When leaders of a project understand a project properly, they are able to offer proper management that generates the required goals. These leaders wo...