Essay Sample on Information Technology in Knowledge Management

This paper focuses on the Urgent.Ly towing truck app as the small project and the HaBaby as the large project.

Urgent.Ly Towing Truck app

Smartphones have lately become an essential tool for towing and in the roadside industry. Service delivery is easier as the clients contact the necessary help providers fast through the mobile phones. There emerged some roadside assistance apps that truly make AAA a historical thing. Urgent.ly is of late the most regarded towing truck mobile app. It is available for both the iOS and the Android. Earlier before this app was the Honk app. The mainly used app today (the Urgent.ly) offers the same services like the Honk but with that exception of availability outside the app. In the Urgent.Ly app, service requisition is either done on the website or via a phone call (Auntuah, 2015). Unlike the Honk app where prices are determined based on the location, the Urgent.Ly app does quote a flat rate equivalent to $75 for the basic repair services. For up to nearly 10 miles, the rates for towing start at $99. Urgent.Ly offers a detection feature for accidents. It uses the clients smartphones motion sensors for detecting whether the vehicle is accident involved.

According to Auntuah (2015), Urgent.ly app has the family view feature that alerts other family members through a text if your members of your family ever do request help and help one to track the service request status. Thus, it is very beneficial to family members and couples. This feature helps urgently to stand out and beat the competitors in the market. Most clients have estimated that the arrival time for the Urgent. Ly help is mostly within the first fifteen minutes after calling for help. Although, Urgent.Ly has its drawbacks. How Urgent.Ly estimates the arrival times for the tow trucks brings in a disadvantage in its service.

A Baby prenatal, natal and postnatal web app

One of the main issues that are challenging the health of the refugees is a significant number of expectant women with unplanned pregnancies and lack of access to the required antenatal care and the risk of delivering on transit in unassisted facilities. Again, those babies who are born to young mothers are at a greater risk of death as the mothers have little or no access to contraception, lack reproductive health knowledge and maternal health care while in the camps. HaBaby is a web app for prenatal, natal and the postnatal care for women (Benton & Glennie, 2016). The HaBaby originates from the combination of the Arabic word Habibi, which means sweetheart with the word baby. It strives to connect expectant refugee women with the relevant medical information. In this app, there is a list of the common symptoms that are searchable by pregnant women be trimester, what actions one should take and what to communicate to your doctor.

HaBaby pays attention to multiple languages (Arabic and English) and does focus on the visual communication. One can have a live chat with the health care professionals, and the app emphasizes message boards that are anonymous. This app is active in areas with low bandwidth, and most of its functionality accessible offline after the first download once. The HaBaby project currently focuses on the creation of an initial pilot style which can meet the demands of some key populations, and transient refugee pregnant women included and also the women in the UK who speak Arabic. This app helps solve the problem of reducing infant and maternal mortality in the refugee camps and helping prevent infections to the unborn child, (Benton & Glennie, 2016), as well as helping the traumatized pregnant women and those living in poor conditions to lessen complications during delivery.

Areas of knowledge management in project management

Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) entails a collection of the processes and the areas of knowledge accepted as the best practice in this discipline. It recognizes ten knowledge areas and five process groups that are basic (Snyder, 2014). The operations base on inputs, tools, and techniques and the outputs. The primary five process groups include initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling as well as closing. Initiating is the process that aims to define new projects or the new phase of an already existing project to the satisfaction of the projects specifications. Planning is necessary to establish the projects scope, to refine objectives and the course of action to achieve the goals. Execution process is what is performed to bring to completion the plan to meet the project specifications. Monitoring and controlling serve the purpose of tracking, regulating and reviewing the performance and progress of a project. It identifies the areas where changes are required and implements these changes. After all the other processes are complete, closing is performed to finalize the process groups activities so as to close the phase or project formally.

Each of the ten knowledge management areas contains all or some of the processes of project management which necessitate accomplishment within its discipline for effective project management. Each process falls under one process group to create a matrix structure, ensuring that each process is related to one area of knowledge and one process group. The ten knowledge areas are; project integration management, project scope management, project time management, project cost management, and project quality management (Project Management Institute, 1987). The list goes on to the project human resource management, communications management, risk management, procurement management and project stakeholder management.

Project integration management covers the activities and processes that help identify, combine, unify, as well as coordinate the activities and processes of project management within the process groups for project management. The tasks are the development of the project charter, the plan for the project management, directing and managing the work, monitoring and controlling the project work and closing of the project or phase. In both projects, there definition of the project as this is the starting point (Snyder, 2014). Project scope management ensures that all the required work is included in the project. The boundaries for each project are defined clearly and rigorously monitored. The projects team has to plan scope management, collect the requirements, define the scope, create the work breakdown structure and validate the scope along with controlling the coverage. The HaBaby project being large targets many people women everywhere so that they can provide proper maternal health while the Urgent.Ly app project has a limited scope and thus some of these are not necessary.

Project time management process guarantees timely project completion. It is the area of knowledge management that is most time-consuming. The project manager has to divide the project during planning into tasks and set dates for accomplishment of each task. Here the activities are planning a schedule management, defining the activities, estimating the resources and time needed, developing and controlling the program. In both projects, there is need to plan an event schedule but now for the Urgent.Ly project you are not sure of when a client needs help so cant specify the time required. Project cost management takes into account planning, financing, estimating, budgeting, managing, funding, and control of costs to complete the project without deviating from the approved budget. For a small project, carrying out these tasks is easy while for the larger project it's tiresome and there can be under or over budgeting. Again, since the Urgent.Ly project has to involve movements; the cost allocation can mislead while for the HaBaby information is intact online.

Quality management of a project defines the activities and processes of the performing project which determine the objectives, quality policies and responsibilities for the project the project to satisfy the purpose. Human resource management is a prerequisite for any project. It deals with organizing, managing and also leading the project team (Snyder, 2014). In the case of the two projects, there is the need to track the performance of the project team as this ensures consideration of their well-being for as well as that of the clients in need. Like in the small project where there is a lot of travel time there is the need for motivating the team.

Project communications management ensures doing a timely and the appropriate planning, creation, collection, distribution, storage as well as retrieval. It also includes managing, controlling together with monitoring and the eventual project information disposition. In the HaBaby project, there is a need for timely information constantly as there are no calls like in the small project. Risk management for any project revolves around risk management planning, analysis, and identification of risk, planning on ways of responding and risk controlling for the project. The towing truck app is riskier for the project team and thus the need to insure them for accidents. For the HaBaby project, the information provided is an advantage for all.

Procurement planning, source selection, solicitation planning, contract administration and closeout fall under supply management. Stakeholder management identifies all the organizations and the people the project impacts, conducts an analysis of the stakeholders expectations and the impact on the project, and comes up with management strategies that are appropriate for engaging the stakeholders effectively in making decisions and execution. For the Urgent.Ly project, the response time is minimal so as to satisfy the clients on the roadside quickly because of the risks, especially at night. The HaBaby projects ensure proper information delivery by using multiple languages and visual communication. The challenges for small projects are a failure to recognize work that can be called the project, lack of planning time as opposed to larger projects, and not able to follow the plan created for the small projects (Project Management Institute, 1987). There is also the presence of unrealistic deadlines communication neglect, and mixing operational and project work. Any project will collapse if the management does not identify and prioritized it.

Knowledge area Tasks Small project (Urgent.ly) Large project (HaBaby)

Project integration management Charter, management plan development, directing and leading, integrated control, closer Little planning time Has all the time to plan for the tasks

Project scope management Scope definition and planning, validation and control, collecting requirements, work breakdown structure Limited in scope management Has a lot scope management activity

Project time management Schedule planning, defining activities, their sequence, resources and duration Lacks planning time and time management Engages a lot of time planning and management

Project cost management Planning and estimating cost, determining budget and cost control Cost planning and budgeting given little attention Budgets and budgetary control are carried out

Project quality management Planning quality management, perform quality assurance and control Little services audit Extensively reviews services delivery

Project human resource management Planning of HRM, acquire, develop and maintain the project team Time for staff planning is limited Values the project team well being

Project communications management Plan, manage and control communications Less effective communication Effective communication

Project risk management Plan for risk management, identify, and conduct risk analysis, plan risk responses and control risk Risk management is well managed Risk...