Projects Negotiation and Conflict Report for Queensland Health Payroll Program

PROJECTS NEGOTIATION AND CONFLICT REPORT
NAME OF PROJECT
+3522PPMP20011 Projects
Negotiation and Conflict Report
1 PROGRAM INFORMATION
Program Name: Queensland health payroll program
Date: 8 March 2010
Project Ownership: The payroll portfolio steering committee (PPSC)
governs the overall strategic process and the requirements of the payroll
business. The payroll portfolio office represents the PPSC delivery arm.
The release management group (RMG) and the release working group
(RWG) are responsible for maintaining the governance structure (KPMG
2012). Mr. Walsh was appointed in 2010 as the executive program director
(Queensland Health Payroll System Commission of Inquiry 2013).
Prepared by: A governmental specialized unit called 'CorpTech' is the
responsible unit for managing the payroll and finance implementation of
the projects in the governmental departments. The implementation of the
projects in Queensland had three main stakeholders represented in the
staff members who form the end user of the system, IBM that represented
the main contractor and CorpTech the responsible unit for managing IBM
role in Queensland Health (QH) implementation project (Eden & Sedera
2014).
Distribution List: This report introduces an overview of the current
situation of QH. It provides information and not allowed to be distributed
unless referred to KPMG to take the permission. It is mainly prepared to
fulfill QH special request (KPMG 2012).
In summary, the failure of the implementation of the payroll health
information system (IS) is the most surprising IS failure in the Southern
Hemisphere. A large number of doctors and nurses and other employees
were not paid correctly or unpaid. The system failure had many reasons,
including the resignation of the minister of health and the loss of jobs for
some employees (Eden & Sedera 2014; The Courier-Mail 2012).
2 THE PROJECTS
This section describes the recommendations provided by KPMG (2012). It
considers the recommendations as four main projects and provides
justifications to each project.
2.1 Project 1: Forward strategy for payroll system
The characteristics of project 1 are discussed according to KPMG
(2012), as follows:
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PROJECTS NEGOTIATION AND CONFLICT REPORT
NAME OF PROJECT
 The future payroll models of operations and services should be
identified, documented and communicated with the QH.
 A list of priorities for the payroll projects should be developed and
implemented to ensure no negative impact would occur and affect the
staff.
 The electronic work should be investigated to ensure its scalability and
ability to integrate with SAP and the long-term objective of the QH.
The justifications for these characteristics according to Walker & Walker
(2015), could be done in relevance to the diamond perspective (novelty,
complexity and technology). There is no one size system that fits all
projects. The IS management should ensure its novelty. It goes beyond
innovation to the invention in order to develop a new way of dealing with
the platform. To integrate the system entities into a new complex form
and finally to choose the appropriate technical level.
2.2 Project 2: Governance and decision-making
The project characteristics are discussed according to KPMG (2012), as
follows:
 To implement decisions that ensure improvements in the performance
of the payroll system, including accuracy and automation of data entry.
 To develop the governance structure by allowing senior leaders to join
it and provide clearly defined responsibilities.
The justifications for these characteristics according to Walker & Walker
(2015), could be done in relevance to Turner and Cochrane four-
quadrant perspective. The implemented project of QH should be one of
four project types, engineering project, known as the 'earth' that involves
a scientific view of the operations management influence. The project
development, known as the 'water' project that could be fluid but
structured. The application software development, known as the 'fire'
project that has a solid methodology but lacks well-defined goals. Finally,
the research and organizational change projects, known as the 'air'
project that lacks well-defined methods or goals. The selected type id the
project development.
2.3 Project 3: People and change
The project characteristics are discussed according to KPMG (2012), as
follows:
 To implement a stakeholder engagement program that focuses on
communication and trust in the payroll system.
 Changes in the business process are to be supported by a
comprehensive communications approach.
 To ensure that improvements take place before making significant
changes to the payroll system.
 To simplify the award process in the QH.
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PROJECTS NEGOTIATION AND CONFLICT REPORT
NAME OF PROJECT
The justifications for these characteristics according to Walker & Walker
(2015), could be done from an organizational learning process
perspective.
The project could provide a learning activity that gathers people around
some activities to achieve common goals. It creates knowledge based
on best practices.
2.4 Project 4: Funding
The project characteristics are discussed according to KPMG (2012), as
follows:
 To differentiate between different cost drivers, including system
maintenance, enhancement and project improvements.
 Provide information about the committed and received funds to help in
prioritizing the future spending.
 To evaluate the actual benefits of the funding usage compared to their
costs to get the maximum benefits.
The justifications for these characteristics according to Walker & Walker
(2015), could be justified from two perspectives;
 The identity perspective: It lies in the shared values and the core
culture. The project vision stems from its purpose. The failure of the IS
project could happen because of the failure of management to identify
its vision.
 The complex product-services perspective: The complexity of the IS
system adds value to the project needs, but it could lead to its failure if
it is not implemented properly.
3 THE PARTICIPANTS
In order to apply the collaborative communication methodology, an
effective project structure will be provided through this section. It identifies
the participants of each project, including, owners, designers and
contractors and the potential conflicts they might face during the project
implementation.
3.1 Project 1: Forward strategy for payroll system
For Project 1 the negotiating position and conflicts in relationships
of the participants of this project are described below.
3.1.1 Owner
The negotiating position of the owner will be QH, the staff, the financial
department and the insurance department that represents the end
users according to Peña-Mora & Tamaki (2001).
The potential conflicts in relationships that the owner may have are
resistant to change and failure to adapt to the new requirements.
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