The use of digital project management solutions by project businesses : a case study of a selected mine in the Limpopo Province

Abstract

There have been some technological shifts globally in the discipline of project management, which include the development of Project Management Software tools and Building Information Modelling systems. The apprehension in project management research is the unclear adoption and usage of the abovementioned developments, especially in developing countries. In addition, researchers have questioned the usefulness of digitalisation in project management since project management challenges are still prevalent. The purpose of this study was to investigate the awareness and adoption levels of digital project management solutions by project businesses at a selected mine in the Limpopo Province. The study further investigated their project management challenges. It examined the impediments of adoption and the readiness of project businesses that had not yet adopted digital project management solutions, to adopt these solutions. The qualitative research survey was distributed and emailed to project businesses at a selected mine in the Limpopo Province, where 110 project businesses participated in this study. SPSS v26.0 software was utilised to process data. The study revealed that the level of awareness of digital project management tools is higher than the level of adoption. It was found that project businesses that have not employed digital project management tools experience several internal challenges, while external challenges were faced by various project businesses. This study identified several barriers which affected project businesses that had not employed digital project management tools, for example, lack of knowledge and the high costs associated with the use of digital project management solutions. These barriers were also identified as factors that affected the readiness of project businesses to adopt digital project management tools. The study proposed several recommendations, including that software developers should consider integrating their software packages with external systems that could enhance project management processes. It was further recommended that the South African mining sector should set a minimum standard requirement of project management training and the South African business development agencies should consider offering ongoing training programmes that are focused on digitalisation and knowledge building in the discipline of project management.