One of the largest IT implementation failures Australia has seen was the
implementation of Queensland health’s payroll system. A number of reports have been
commissioned by the previous and current Queensland Governments.
These reports describe a number of key factors that led to this failure.
They include:
• Unclear governance of the project management;
• Centralisation of payroll processing leading to disconnection from Information
about local pay processes; and
• Failure to rationalise the level of complexity of the employment awards and
entitlements of staff
Three reports have been made available for your reference. You can download these
from Blackboard from the Assessment tab.
1. Auditor General of Queensland Report to Parliament No. 7 for 2010 Information
systems governance and control, including the Queensland Health
Implementation of Continuity Project Financial and Compliance audits, State of
Queensland, 2010.
2. Queensland Health Review of the Queensland Health Payroll System, KPMG,
2012.
3. Queensland Health Payroll Commission of Inquiry. Available at
http://www.healthpayrollinquiry.qld.gov.au/home
There are four parts to this assessment
a. Use both your evaluation of the literature and your critical analysis of the
failures of governance in the Queensland Health Payroll Implementation Project
to illustrate and discuss the importance of governance to the delivery of
successful project outcomes.
b. Provide an analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of centralised and
decentralised organisational structures, particularly in health care, to effective
business management and continuity.
c. Outline the issues that are faced in healthcare management due to the complexity
of health care organisations in comparison to other industries and describe how
these contributed to the project implementation failure.
d. Discuss the immediate and longer term organisational impact of this IT
implementation failure.