EFFECTS OF INFORMATION SYSTEM PLANNING ON INFORMATION SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION PROCESS: CASE STUDY OF UNIVERSITIES AND UNIVERSITY CAMPUSES IN KISII COUNTY, KENYA MOFFAT KOMBO BARONGO A Thesis Submitted to Graduate School in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Conferment of Master of Information Systems Degree of Kisii University KISII UNIVERSITY NOVEMBER 2013 COPYRIGHT STATEMENT Attention is drawn to the fact that copyright of this thesis rests with the author. Copies of this thesis have been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognize that its copyright rests with the author and that they must not copy it or use material from it except as permitted by law or with the consent of the author or Kisii University. © Moffat Kombo Barongo, 2013. All Rights Reserved. ii DECLARATION AND APPROVAL DECLARATION This work has not been previously submitted for any other degree award to any other University before. To the best of my knowledge and belief this research work contains no material previously published. Mr. Moffat K. Barongo MIN14/20007/11 Signature…………………………………….Date ……………………………………… APPROVAL This thesis has been submitted for examination with our approval as the university supervisors. Prof. Constantine Nyamboga Faculty of Information Communication and Technology Kisii University Signature…………………………………….Date ……………………………………… Mr. Benjamin Kyambo Faculty of Information Communication and Technology Kisii University Signature…………………………………….Date ……………………………………… iii DEDICATION I dedicate this Research to my family, especially; To My Son Tamir Kombo and Wife Ruth Kwamboka for their patience and understanding, My Late Dad, Benson Kombo for instilling the importance of hard work and higher education, My Mom, Fridah for encouragement and guidance, My Brothers and Sisters, May you be motivated and encouraged to reach your dreams. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to express my gratitude to our one and only creator, God, who has provided me everything, and all those who contributed to this work. I also grant my deepest appreciation and sincere thanks to my supervisors; Prof. Constantine Nyamboga and Mr. Benjamin Kyambo for their supervision, support, invaluable encouragement, guidance, and comments in this process of thesis writing. My respect and thanks are due to all the staff interviewed in selected institutions for their friendly cooperation. Thanks to my able System managers and users whom I got to interview are similarly worth a big thank you. All staff members at selected institutions had furthermore motivated me in my work by keeping the work atmosphere positive and inspiring. Finally I would like to thank my family; My Wife Ruth Kwamboka, and our close friends for their unrelenting support. v ABSTRACT Organizations are continuously introducing information system (IS) projects and every new IS is a large investment. It is very crucial to smoothly get the best out of these systems by ensuring that they succeed. According to Lyytinen & Hirschheim, (2010) unfortunately the percentage of failure compared to success is very high. Therefore Information System Planning (ISP) has a significant effect on the quality and effectiveness of any information system Implementation (ISI) process. The main objective of the study was to find the effectiveness of ISI processes and how this was affected by ISP. The researcher used census sampling in selecting the entire population of universities and university campuses in Kisii County. The study adopted a descriptive survey where quantitative data from questionnaires was used for analysis purposes. The researcher also adopted both purposive and cluster sampling design in sampling respondents in these institutions. The findings reflect the perception of 125 respondents; 100 system managers out of 114 and 25 system users out of 33. Data was presented in tallies, frequency distribution and analyzed using a Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 12.0. The r values were established as .814 and .954 for system users and system managers respectively and this represented the actual correlation value in the population hence the researcher was meant to believe there was a very strong positive relationship between ISI and ISP. It was established that there was minimal planning prior to the implementation and study confirms the general notions that IS projects face a lot of challenges and often fail in one way or another due to poor planning. It was noted that best practices and above all the practical methods are still being developed. It is further concluded that it is important to practice ISP by aligning both organizational, business and Information system strategy in IS projects implementation process. A notable part of IS projects issues were related to user acceptance, ways of handling challenges and application of critical success factors as ISI components. It was further established that few information technology professionals were familiar enough with the concept and methods of organizational change management which was part of the user acceptance. Recommendations formulated were aimed at enhancing both users’ and managers’ organizational satisfaction in Institutions of Higher Learning (IHL). The importance of finding management commitment and knowledge of best practices were also highlighted in this study. This study will be helpful to both organizations which have implemented or are in the process of implementing IS projects together with researchers for further comparative study elsewhere. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS COPYRIGHT STATEMENT -------------------------------------------------------------------- ii DECLARATION AND APPROVAL ---------------------------------------------------------- iii DEDICATION -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ------------------------------------------------------------------------- v ABSTRACT ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ------------------------------------------------------------------------ vii LIST OF TABLES ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- x LIST OF FIGURES -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- xi LIST OF ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS ----------------------------------------- xii CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ----------------------------------------------------------- 1 1.1 Background to the Study ---------------------------------------------------------------- 1 1.2 Statement of the Problem ---------------------------------------------------------------- 1 1.3 Objectives of the Study ------------------------------------------------------------------ 2 1.4 Research Questions ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 2 1.5 Significance of the Study ---------------------------------------------------------------- 3 1.6 Scope and Justification of the Study --------------------------------------------------- 3 1.7 Limitation of the Study ------------------------------------------------------------------ 4 1.8 Delimitation of the Study ---------------------------------------------------------------- 4 1.9 Operational Definition of terms -------------------------------------------------------- 4 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW ------------------------------------------------- 6 2.1 Information System Strategy Triangle ------------------------------------------------- 6 2.2 Information System Planning Process ------------------------------------------------- 7 2.3 Acceptance Levels ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 8 2.4 Implementation Challenges ------------------------------------------------------------- 9 2.5 Critical Success Factors ----------------------------------------------------------------- 14 2.6 Conceptual Framework ----------------------------------------------------------------- 22 CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY --------------- 23 3.1 Research Design ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 23 3.2 Study Area -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 23 3.3 Target Population ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 24 3.4 Sample Size and Sampling Procedure ------------------------------------------------ 24 vii 3.5 Data Collection Procedure -------------------------------------------------------------- 25 3.6 Data Collections Instruments ---------------------------------------------------------- 25 3.7 Validity and Reliability of the Instruments ------------------------------------------ 26 3.8 Data Analysis Methods ----------------------------------------------------------------- 27 3.9 Ethical Issues ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 29 3.10 Thesis Writing ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 29 3.11 Expected Outcomes --------------------------------------------------------------------- 30 CHAPTER FOUR: DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION-------------------- 31 4.1 Response Rate ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 31 4.2 Respondents’ Education Level -------------------------------------------------------- 32 4.3 Respondents’ Area of Operation in institutions ------------------------------------- 33 4.4 Respondents’ Age -----------------------------------------------------------------------