PROJECT MANAGEMENT FOR TELECOMMUNICATIONS MANAGERS CHAPTER 16 pot

Chapter
16
ENGINEERING
Engineers can be involved in any aspect of project management and the
project team. The primary role of the engineer is generally that of the team
member responsible for the technical components of the product or service
development. But frequently the project manager also comes from
engineering. It is hard to imagine a telecom project that does not have
engineering involvement, almost certainly using a technical prime, and
probably also using engineers in other roles as well, such as project
management or marketing.
The Engineering Role
Engineering departments are the home for many types of technical skills,
and these skills are in high demand for telecom projects, since most telecom
project are highly technical. This includes hardware and software skills,
from design to building and testing. Engineering will ensure that definition;
design and development are structured to produce the best possible results
Many engineers love their work, and enjoy having their technical skills
appreciated. This makes them good candidates for working on projects, as
the project teams generally appreciate having someone to provide the
technical expertise. For some engineers, though, projects can be a challenge.
In engineering, maybe more so than in other disciplines, there are people
who are generalists, and people who are specialists. Projects are a good
environment for generalists, because team members should be aware of, and
hav
e
a good understanding of, the full projects – its scope, goals, objectives,
timeframes, etc. Many times team members are called upon to assist others,
when the work loadings do not match the staff availabilities. If one person is
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Engineering

too heavily loaded, while another is too lightly loaded, the project benefits
from having people share the load. With highly technical work, this can be
difficult, if the assister does not have the required skills. It is often possible
for an unskilled person to assist with technical tasks, but not all engineers
have the ability to segregate their work to allow someone without the
relevant skills to assist. And as with many functions, it can take more time
and effort to break up the work, and show someone how to assist than it
would have taken to just do the work. Schedule slips associated with
engineering tasks are therefore very difficult to recover. On the other hand,
the engineer might well be asked to assist others with their work. To a
specialist who prefers working in his own area, this can be quite
disconcerting. Many will accept this ‘problem’ occasionally, but people who
have a strong preference for working in their own field sometimes avoid
projects because they do not at all enjoy doing other work. To many
engineers, this other work seems to be a waste of their time and skills. And,
for an engineer who has a niche skill which is needed on many projects,
projects become somewhat of a threat because they interfere with his
opportunity to develop new skills, or even keep his own skill current. Project
teams should keep this in mind. Whereas in some areas just using skills is
enough to reinforce them, in technical fields, technologies are rapidly
changing, and those working in these fields need to have training, and/or the
opportunity to work with the newer technologies in order to keep their skills
current.
In addition to having strong technical skills, many engineers also
demonstrate strong management skills. Such people are very useful
resources for projects, often even as project managers. If the engineer has
both the skill and the interest to manage projects, using him as a project
manager is a very good idea. Before this is done though, it would be wise to
provide PM training, so that he can use the proper PM techniques. It is
surprising how many companies take people with good management skills

and expect that to manage projects well, without giving them any related
training. While it is true that good management skills are required for PM,
and that these skills will enable the PM to do much of the work well, it
stands to reason that with the appropriate PM knowledge, tools and skills,
the results should be better, and the work should be easier to accomplish.
Possessing the abilities does not automatically give a person the knowledge
and skills.
The other issue that should be considered is the interest of the engineer.
The fact that an engineer has demonstrated good management skills does not
mean that he is interested in doing a job that is essentially a management job,
Engineering
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as opposed to a technical one. I have been approached by engineers
wondering what they need to do to be able to get back to doing “real work”,
when their companies keep pulling them off to manage projects. It is the
responsibility of the engineer to identify that he really isn’t interested, as the
management probably think that they are giving him a reward by allowing
him to manage projects. But not everyone is interested in this sort of work.
As mentioned, technical background is needed on most telecom projects.
The environment is by nature a technical one. However, in addition to the
advantages of engineers’ having technical background, there are also some
dangers in this. First, the engineer might be assigned a dual role, of both
project technical expert and project manager. This frequently happens on
smaller projects where the workload of each position may not require a full
person. In this case either the team is staffed by people who are also assigned
to other work, or some people play double roles. For many, this is an
interesting challenge, because it offers the opportunity to use two sets of
skills and to see the project from two different perspectives. For others it is a
problem. Some personality types need to work within a defined
environment, and a dual role can be more than the usual challenge for this

type of person.
In addition, the dual role can place the holder into a compromising
position from time to time. There are bound to be occasions when decisions
must be made which involve the technical aspects of the project. Sometimes
the best decision from a project management perspective is to move in one
direction, while from a technical perspective the best decision would be to
move in a different direction. Even when the engineer is not placed in a dual
role, but in just the PM role, this same type of situation can occur, and the
engineer who is loyal to his field, or who would strongly prefer to be doing
the technical job, is in a very difficult position, with a tough decision to
make. Given that the project manager views the project from a broader
perspective, the PM direction is usually the right one to take. But this is very
hard for the engineer, who might even be viewed by his peers as selling out.
Engineers must take great care to ensure that they are acting in the best
interests of the project overall, while still holding to their ethical convictions,
and ensuring that the best technologies and designs are used.
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