Manage Telecommunication Projects in Latin America
A number for techniques are used to monitor the progress of the project. The project Manager
has the primary responsibility for supervising the exercise of these techniques and for keeping
the customer updated regarding the status of the project.
Workshops with the customer can be used to review and analyze the information provided by the
customer. These can take as long as three to four weeks.
It is very important to explain the following concepts to the customer:
- Classification
Allows data themes to be created, and is used to facilitate display control and display
performance - class display is user definable
Examples: Land base, Structures (UG/Aerial), Fiber.
- Features - Similar to Entities
Anything of significance can be defined as a feature, which can be graphic ONLY,
graphic and non-graphic or non-graphic only. Complex relationships between features
can also be defined as part of the rule base and/or in the RDBMS. Features may have
graphic and non-graphic characteristics that are usually controlled and validated by
predefined rules.
Examples: Manhole, Pole, Address, and Fiber Cable.
- Components
A component is a subset of a feature. Components can be graphic or non-graphic,
optional and/or repeating. As with features the characteristics of components are
validated and controlled by predefined rules.
Example: Pole - Anchor, Guy, Brace.
- States
The system maintains a time sensitive network data model; this is a powerful capability
that allows engineers and managers to visualize the dynamic nature of the network and
other related features.
Example: Facility Life Cycle - Proposed, As-built.
- Connectivity
Connectivity is an association between two or more facilities in the network model. This
association usually corresponds to a real-world relationship. For example, manholes and
conduits are usually connected. In reality, a manhole is physically attached to a conduit.
Connectivity is necessary in the application model only if you wish to perform trace
analysis operations. This analysis, accomplished through graph traversal and search
algorithms, allows the engineer to understand how circuits would flow through a fiber
network. Analysis is accomplished by viewing the facility model as a network, or tree
graph. Although it is not necessary to maintain a connected model, most companies do
want to know the physical relationships between their various types of equipment. This is
best modeled through connectivity.
- Ownership
Allows important “rules” to be enforced to ensure data integrity and validation. For
example it may be important to enforce the rule that all splice enclosures must be
“owned” by a manhole - this rule will ensure that no orphan and invalid splice enclosure
records are created causing confusion and inaccurate asset assessments.
- Segments
A segment is a logical division of facility data into smaller, more manageable sections.
Used for large geographic areas. By using multiple segments, you can break a model into
more manageable data sets such as wire centers or maintenance districts.
- Virtual Display
The graphic information is presented as a continuous and seamless model. As the user
crosses design file boundaries, Virtual Display automatically attaches and detaches
reference files relevant to the area of interest.
Virtual Display provides view manipulation commands such as WINDOW AREA,
ZOOM IN, ZOOM OUT, and VIEW ON.
It is very important to review the system the customer is using to do the work and identify
different options to avoid causing undue impact when the new system is installed.
It is also very important that the vendor and the client know a common language, and it is the
responsibility of the vendor to speak the local language.
Finally, a very clear documentation process should be defined and followed.
Development
Armed with a clear set of requirements and detailed solution design, during this stage of the
project it is very important to discover any problems and to fix them to ensure that the
customer’s expectations are met and also to provide the best transfer of knowledge.
The customer needs to develop test plans for all possible business cases. The vendor must assist
in achieving this goal if the customer lacks the resources and knowledge.
Then the correct persons to be included in the test of the new application should be defined.
A Factory Acceptance Test (FAT) and Site Acceptance Test (SAT) are commonly performed.
The amount of time needed to perform these tests will depend on how many there are. But one to
two weeks should be planned for each.
The purpose of the FAT or SAT is to certify that the system is functional and ready for use at the
customer site. Use a subset of the test Procedures portion of the Test Plan.
After each test, the results should be reviewed along with comments from the tester. Then each
point must be analyzed and an agreement reached on each point. A database should be used to
track comments and problems with the application (Trouble Report “TR”) and to define the
status of each TR.
Data collection, conditioning, and conversion form the Achilles’ heel of many projects.
Conversion costs generally represent the largest portion of the project costs and the absorb the
greatest investment of the resources.
The delivery phase provides for the smooth transition of the system from development to
production. The first activity in this process is to create the system-operating environment. This
involves several tasks:
- Stage the system at the customer site
- Establish the baseline-operating environment
- Set up the system with all product-related data such as product administration
accounts and product schema definitions
- Initialize the system and bring it on-line according to the startup instructions.
- Load converted data and connect to corporate data on other systems.
- Create, Configure, and customize, as appropriate, the required user accounts.
Training may have begun earlier and continues into this phase. Training is vital to the immediate
and ongoing success of the system. Conduct the on-site, custom training according to the training
plan, since it has been reviewed and approved by both the customer and the project manager.
Following this plan may make a difference between successful and stressful training. Users
should be fresh out the standard training prerequisite courses. It is essential that users complete
training courses that cover the prerequisites, unless they have recently had hands-on experience
via on-the-job training on the hardware and/or software subsystems included in the class
prerequisites. In this part of the project is a big plus to have documentation in the local language.
Implementation.
In this stage is very important to define the long-term plan to start production using the new
system. The customer should start working the old and new systems in parallel, because the
transition process should be slow and very well defined in order to have the least negative impact
on day-to-day operations.
Regardless of the maintenance approach, the project manager of the development effort remains
responsible for the following tasks.
- Ensuring a successful transition from development project to a maintenance activity.
- Ensuring that maintenance organization is adequately staffed and trained on the system.
- Ensuring that maintenance agreement are in place for commercial products and
developed code.
Distributed data storage is key. Most applications are scalable; data can be stored in a central
data vault or distributed across the enterprise network. Be certain the customer has sufficient
hardware equipment, and that the network is not already saturated.
This is not the end of the project. This is merely the end of the Phase One. Planning for Phase
Two and perhaps Phase three should already be complete or at least underway.
