Telecom Project Management

Naokhaiz Afaqui
Naokhaiz.afaqui@waridtel.com

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 Why is Project Management
important?
• “When things are going well, something will go
wrong. When things just can’t get worse, they
will. When things appear to be going better, you
have overlooked something.”

• Project Management ensures that potential risks

and contingency plans are in place to achieve
the desired objectives

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 What Is a Project?
• A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to
accomplish a unique purpose

• Success of a project is (typically) measured by

three dimensions
– quality/performance (meeting specifications)
– timeliness ( Speed)
– within Cost budget

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 What is project management?
• The application of knowledge, skills, tools,
and techniques to project activities in order
to meet or exceed stakeholder needs and
expectations from a project. [PMI, Project
Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide), 2000]

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 PM schools of thoughts
• IFIs Models
• PMBOK 3rd Edition (PMP)
• Prince2 Maturity Model (P2MM)
• Project Management Maturity Model (PMMM)
• Portfolio, Programme and Project Management
Maturity Model (P3M3)
• Organizational Project Management Maturity
Model (OPM3)
• Capability Maturity Model (CMM)
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 PM Processes

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 Overlap of Process Groups in a
Phase*

*A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK®

Guide) 2000 Edition
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 Project
Project was
was identified
identified like
like this
this
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 After
After plan
plan itit looked
looked like
like this
this
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 As
As designed
designed by
by the
the designers
designers
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 What
What was
was actually
actually approved?
approved?
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 What
What was
was constructed?
constructed?
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 What
What the
the users
users actually
actually wanted?
wanted?
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 Project Management Package

T
T

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 PM Tools

•Work Breakdown Structure: an analytical tool

for dealing with project components in an
orderly way.
•Gantt Chart: a schedule presented in bar
chart
•Milestone Chart: Summary of major critical
activities required for completing the project

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 PM Tools
• Critical Path Networking: system for
calculating critical activities and for
providing graphic output needed to
schedule and control the project

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 Sample WBS for Intranet
Project in Chart Form
In t r a n e t P r o je c t

C oncept W e b S it e W e b S it e R o ll O u t S u p p o rt
D e s ig n D e v e lo p m e n t

D e s ig n U s e r In t e r f a c e D e v e lo p P a g e s
a n d L in k s

D e s ig n S e r v e r S e t u p D e v e lo p
F u n c t io n a lit y

D e v e lo p S e r v e r C o n te n t
S u p p o r t In f r a s t r u c t u r e M ig r a t io n /In t e g r a t io n

T e s t in g

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 A Gantt Chart
Month
0  2  4  6  8  10
Activity

Design house and

obtain financing

Lay foundation

Order and receive

materials

Build house
Select paint

Select carpet

Finish work     

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 Milestones

5/6/2002 5/24/2002 6/25/2002 7/18/2002 8/2/2002

Project Interim Design Final Design Test Rediness Project
Start Review Review Review Completion

5/13 5/20 5/27 6/3 6/10 6/17 6/24 7/1 7/8 7/15 7/22 7/29
6/5 2/8
6/18/2002 7/2/2002
Operator Manual Operator Manual
Review Approval

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 Critical Path Method
(CPM)
Critical Path
Build
Mechanical
Components
Integrate
Components

Build Test
Design
Electronics System

Write Validate
Operator Operator
Manual Manual

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 Top 10 PM Software Products
Name of Product Produced by: %use
• Microsoft Project Microsoft Corp. 48.4%
• Primavera Project Planner Primavera Systems 13.8
• Microsoft Excel Microsoft Corp. 8.5
• Project Workbench Applied Business Tech. 8.1
• Time Line Time Line Solutions 6.1
• Sure Trak Primavera Systems 5.3
• CA-SuperProject Computer Associates, Intl. 2.8
• Project Scheduler Scitor 2.8
• Artemis Prestige Lucas Management Systems 2.0
• FasTracs Applied Microsystems 2.0

• Fox, T.L. & Spence, J.W. 1998. Tools of the trade: A survey of project
management tools. Project Management Journal.

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 The Project Management Career
• A 1996 Fortune article called project management the “number
one career choice”

• #1 position that IT managers say they will need for contract help

• Average salary for project managers is atleast 1.5 times more as

compared to an equally experienced professional.

End
User

PM

Project
Staff Executive
Mgt

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 Telecom Value Chain

The end user can be a residential consumer or it can be a huge multinational business using voice, data,
video and multimedia services in a business environment

Telecom Service provider industry includes the traditional telecommunications, which has typically been voice
service, with the addition many years ago of data service as well

Some vendors sell products in a single area while many sell products in multiple areas of telecom, maybe
having business lines with wireless, broadband and optical products. Some vendors are local or regional,
while many offer products nationally or internationally

At component manufacturer level, there will be a variety of projects specifically related to the development
and manufacturing processes

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 Telecom Jargons
•A career in telecom today demands high level of project management skills.

•In short, there is a need for Project Management Professionals at entry & managerial
levels who can handle end-to-end infrastructure in the following domains:

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 Conclusion
• Project Management is a discipline that broadens horizon and
builds competence in multiple knowledge areas

• Project Management equips with wonderful tools to enhance

productivity and management skills

• There is a great demand of good Project Managers in

Telecom industry

• Good Project managers can work on any technology or

industry

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 Thank You

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 What does a Project Manager DO?

Project Managers are a fortunate lot, for, as everyone knows, a project manager
has nothing to do; that is, except...
To decide what is to be done;
to tell somebody to do it;
to listen to reasons why it should not be done,
why it should be done by somebody else,
or why it should be done in a different way;

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 What does a Project Manager DO?

And then:

•To follow up to see if the thing has been done;

•to discover that it has not been done;
•to enquire why it has not been done;
•to listen to excuses from the person who did not do it;
•and to think up arguments to overcome the excuses .

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 What does a Project Manager DO?

And then:

•To follow up a second time to see if the thing has been done;
•to discover that it has been done incorrectly;
•to point out how it shall be done;
•to conclude that as long as it has been done it might as well be left as it is;
•to wonder if it is not time to get rid of the person who cannot do a thing correctly;
•to reflect that in all probability any successor would be just as bad, or worse.

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 What does a Project Manager DO?

And finally:

•To consider how much more simply and better the thing would have been done
had he done it himself in the first place;
•to reflect satisfactorily that if he had done it himself he would have been able to
do it right in 20 minutes
•and that as things turned out, he himself spent two days trying to find out why it is
that it has taken somebody else three weeks to do it wrong.
•To realise that such an idea would have a very demoralising effect on the project
team, because it would strike at the very foundation of the belief of all employees
that a project manager has nothing to do.

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