Marlyn Ladroma
BSCE-4B
PRE-TEST
Questions:
1.
Explain the importance of cost estimate.
Answer:
Cost estimation is to predict the quantity, cost, and price of the resources required
to complete a job within the project scope. It helps you achieve what you say you're
going to achieve within the financial constraints you're given by executives and
stakeholders. As one of the defining features of successful progress, accurate project
cost estimation must take a front seat when it comes to setting up a project's
parameters.
2.
What do you think is the major problem why PMIS fails?
Answer:
Top Reasons Why Construction Project Management Information Systems fail:
 The system is not flexible. Many PMIS solutions force a team to manage a project in a
specific way. The reality is that most companies, projects, and people do things
differently. Processes also evolve over time. A PMIS system should be flexible and
adaptable – without requiring expensive custom coding.

Internal politics prevent adoption. Multiple departments are involved with managing a
project. Each one has its own specific workflows and software platforms. Implementing a
“one-size-fits-all” PMIS across these disparate groups often leads to resistance and lack
of adoption. But who can blame them? Deploying a new software tool that doesn’t
integrate with other departments’ existing platforms is making more work for them, not
less. So, everyone falls back on manually importing and exporting Excel files to
collaborate. Not exactly a gain in efficiency.

The systems lack internal support. Individuals who are involved with projects from
requirements through implementation make ideal project champions for choosing the
proper PMIS. These champions are critical to helping a product gain acceptance in the
organization and creating grass roots acceptance. Without internal support, systems “die
on the vine” only to be replaced with another expensive system that never gets
implemented. The system is blamed for the failure and not the organization.

Companies don’t understand what they have. Project managers and executives are busy.
They often simply don’t have the time or technical skills to evaluate the capabilities of
their current tools. So, they bring in a consultant. But most consultants make money
selling fancy new software platforms as well as the services required to deploy and
customize them. But this approach overlooks the most efficient and effective option:
improving the PMIS solution that the company already owns.

A company’s IT department “locks down” the application. Once a PMIS is absorbed into
a company and hosted on their internal servers, the IT department takes over managing
the tool. Further customization and feature requests from users are too often stifled or
delayed. Users then have one more reason to not use the tool.

Business requirements are not valued. Many companies jump into buying an expensive
PMIS solution thinking that the software itself will fix their issues. They then task the
implementation of the system to those in the organization that know the least – usually
the “newbies” since other subject matter experts are busy running projects. But this
immediately devalues the product. A system is only as good as the people that develop
and support it. There must be commitment to the entire software development lifecycle
for a product to be successfully adopted in an organization. Without knowledge of the
business processes, proper training, and acceptance by the organization, all enterprise
software systems will fail

The wrong team is implementing the solution. Software development and
implementation is a unique craft. Most construction professionals think they can do it
because they managed a construction project. But the truth is they lack the technical
experience to do the implementation right. On the flip side, IT companies that don’t know
construction and try to build solutions often fail because they build tools that are not
grounded in how work is actually performed in the field. A PMIS will fail without the
expertise of the right team that knows both construction and how to implement software.

The solution lacks a unified vision. Companies typically buy the “best of breed” software
to do specific things (dashboards, cost, contracts, etc.). Then they end up using only 5%
of each systems’ functionality because the rest of the features don’t fit their needs and
don’t integrate with other systems. We’ve heard horror stories of team members using
up to 10 different systems to do their job – many of which become corporate mandates
that make doing their job even harder. What ends up happening? These individuals enter
the least amount of information they can get away in these mandated systems, but
ultimately end up doing their real job in Excel. Again, less efficiency, not more.

Management is sold an “out-of-the-box” lie. Every consulting and software company will
claim to offer a one-size-fits-all solution. But there is no such product. Most, if not all,
PMIS deployments are custom coded. Each and every change will be expensive and make
the tool more difficult to update in the future. The consultants you hired to install and
configure your new PMIS will never leave because the platform is too complex for your
in-house IT to manage. Ultimately, the cost to develop and maintain the product will
become its downfall.

3.
Companies try for the Hail Mary. Companies too often try to do too much when they
deploy PMIS solutions. Instead of getting the small win, they end up in a state of constant
re-engineering.
In your own opinion, explain the importance of PMIS in construction cost engineering?
Answer:
Project management information systems (PMIS) are widely considered as an
important building block and today’s project management. The PMIS helps with cost and
schedule forecasts to help if changes are required mid-project. Materials management, cost
collect, performance measurement and, of course, reporting are all supported by PMIS.
Especially when closing out a project, PMIS is a great help. PMIS ensures that project is
implemented, controlled, and sustained to completion in a manner that achieves “all of the
project goals and objectives while honoring the preconceived project constraints of time,
budget, quality, and scope as well as optimizing the allocation and integration of inputs
needed to meet pre-defined objectives while mitigating any risks.”
SELF-EVALUATION
Answer the following questions comprehensively:
1. Aside from the challenges to implementation to PMIS mentioned in the module, what
do you think are other challenges to implementation to PMIS?
Answer:
For me the other challenges to implementation of PMIS, lack of requirement on
information system, it could be the absence of understanding of the people or the employee on
the system, and the shortage of staff to implement the PMIS.
2. Cite common examples of PMIS, briefly explain?
Answer:
A project management information system (PMIS) is the analytical organization of the
information that requires the organization to help and accomplish the projects successfully.
There are a number of Project Management Information System types out there, from allinclusive to fragmentary. Microsoft project, Basecamp are a few examples with a wide array of
capabilities: for a cost. A Microsoft Project is a powerful tool that allows project managers to gain
insight into the availability of resources, their use, availability, costs, and more. A basecamp, that
organize everything in one place, the progress is clear and a sense of calm sets in.
POST TEST
Identify whether the statement is true or false. Write T if true, and F if it is a false.
F
1. Engineering Design does not impact whole-life cost of products produced.
T
2. One key objective of cost engineering is to arrive at accurate cost estimates and
schedules and to avoid cost overruns and schedule slips.
T
3. An information system (IS) is a formal, sociotechnical, organizational system designed
to collect, process, store, and distribute information.
T
4. At the center of any modern PMIS is software. Project management information system
can vary from something as simple as a File system containing Microsoft Excel documents,
to a full-blown enterprise PMIS software.
T
5. PMIS is made to support some aspects of project management and the information
they monitor or collect.
T
6. Schedule and Planning: Computes early and late schedule, slack times and the critical
path.
F
7. The system is flexible, is one of the reasons why PMIS fail.
T
8. Project Management plan should include a routine collection of work performance
information.
F
9. Cost engineering, then, cannot be considered an adjunct of traditional engineering.
T
10. Control and Performance: Analyze and control cost and performance, updating
existing plans as actual against planned data changes, provide what-if scenarios for the
project manager.