The critical success factors of declaration of the universal service provision projects' completion

Abstract

This research focuses on improving project declaration in the Universal Service Provision (USP) projects upon project completion. The USP in Malaysia is an initiative undertaken by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) to bridge the digital divide in rural and remote areas, particularly areas with no or limited services. There are three objectives of this research (1) to identify the critical success factors in managing the submission of project declaration upon project completion, (2) to implement the proposed interventions to overcome the problem, and (3) to implement the second intervention and investigate the improvement of submission of the USP project completion. The research was conducted using mixed-methods approaches, namely qualitative and quantitative in two action research cycles. In Cycle 1, the data collection starts with a qualitative method, where the researcher has conducted an interview session with the respective officers. The information gathered was analyzed using NVivo 12 Plus software for thematic analysis. Then for quantitative, the questionnaires were distributed to a total of 13 respondents for their feedback. The questionnaires cover both pre and post-intervention. The data collected from the quantitative method was analyzed using SPSS 21 software. The Cycle 1 intervention has addressed the first and second research objectives. From the study, there are five critical success factors that have been identified for the declaration of project completion for the USP projects. It consists of project mission, client acceptance, monitoring, communication, and management support. In Cycle 2, the data collection was undertaken using qualitative method to address the third research objective. Overall, the result of the interventions undoubtedly has a significant impact on how a project can be managed effectively, specifically for USP projects under the MCMC governance.