Technical Project Management in Telco Projects

Many Telco’s have realised that technical projects do not manage themselves, but require a project manager for successful project delivery.  However, it would be a mistake to think that employing the services of a project manager is all that is needed.

A project manager, no matter how experienced her or she may be, will not be able to succeed if the organization does not support some degree of project management methodology and project management governance. Project governance is normally performed in larger Telco’s by a project management office (PMO), or in smaller Telco’s, by the project manager him or herself.

A technical project in a Telco is different from other types of projects. Because the deliverables are technology based, there is more opportunity for technical issues to arise. Issues typically include software incompatibility, design flaws, interoperability problems with existing network infrastructure, incorrect dimensioning assumptions, product unavailability, multiple change requests; the list can be very long.

In larger well developed Telco’s the project manager is supported by a solution architect. In smaller less developed Telco’s, this is often not the case.

It is therefore critical to have technical projects well managed by a competent project manager who is supported in an organization having the correct level of project governance. 

But what is the correct level of project governance?

If there is too much governance, the project manager becomes a process monkey. When something happens that falls outside of the procedure, the procedure comes to a quick stop. Staff tend to hide behind rules and procedures. The flexibility for quick decision-making is removed.

If there is too little governance, the project structure is lost. Planning becomes virtually impossible as critical project documents are not formally agreed to and are subject to change at a later date. One stage of a project may not be completed before moving on to the next stage. Risks and issues remain undefined and cannot be mitigated. Change requests are not evaluated. Project transparency is lost.  

So where is the balance? How much governance is needed for a project to be successful?

The answer to this question is different for every organization. It depends upon a large number of factors including the company culture, the size and complexity of the project, the applicable deadlines, the amount of vendor support available, the maturity of the organization, the amount of risk involved, the skills and experience of the staff, the perceived priority of the project; once again the list can be very long.  

For every project, a good start would be to identify the project’s biggest challenges and evaluate how the Telco would respond to those challenges. Very soon a relationship would start to develop between the project’s challenges, the Telco’s ability to rise to those challenges and the amount of project governance that will be needed to allow this to happen.

Pulse Telecom offers a training module on technical project management methodology, especially for telecom operators and regulatory authorities.

As well as providing training material, Pulse Telecom can assist Telco’s define a customized project structure before the project commences and provide on-going support. The project structure will allow the project’s scope, budget and timeline to be managed transparently and to the quality agreed to.

Please contact us for more information on how we can help you with your telecom project training and mentoring service.