Project Management, Where Are Thou?

About nine months ago I was reminded by my client that the tasks, methodology, and client benefits of project management should definitely be stated explicitly within all proposals - and have a price tag attached to them.

I was part of sales dialogs with a tier-1 mobile carrier in the MENA area (Middle East + North Africa) about another innovation project in the mobile P2P area. Mobile networks are a bit sensitive to traffic, as air minutes are quite expensive, and network management and equipment is a bit more complex due to roaming and peering agreements. There are also quite a few divisions involved in such a product innovation project. As a result there are is a steering committee setup and some additional processes plus some political hurdles and hoops you have to jump through.

Such a setup and reporting to various groups with various detail level is of course a bit more time intensive, so the proposal already accounted for that and the timeline for the different work packages was adjusted accordingly. When presenting to the client, he didn’t understand why the whole process would take so long, and why two VPs have to be involved in the whole process from our side in addition to some senior analysts and engineers. Of course the client knew of the setup and political issues, but everything was stated so implicitly, that the real value behind our services was just not readily palpable.

Fortunately I had some slide on my laptop that I was able to show:

Managing a program in its constraints 'time - budget - quality' is crucial for every network operator. To meet this objective Detecon has developed a powerful PM model.

Detecon's Program Management Model and Approach: Managing a program in its constraints 'time - budget - quality' is crucial for every network operator. To meet this objective Detecon has developed a powerful PM model.

Based on our long standing experience and in line with globally accepted program management standards Detecon has developed a model with 9 key processes.

Program Management Process Overview with Main Activities: Based on our long standing experience and in line with globally accepted program management standards Detecon has developed a model with 9 key processes.

Detecon assures through the efficient implementation of the 9 key management processes that the program produces its scheduled and specified deliverables and results.

Overview on Program Management Process Deliverables: Detecon assures through the efficient implementation of the 9 key management processes that the program produces its scheduled and specified deliverables and results.

The result was very simple:

The client suddenly saw that we don’t do hotfixes or are “shooting from the hip”, but have a rather well developed methodology based on our past experience as well as developed competencies with our consultants.
The work involved made sense to him, and he got the bigger picture, effort, skill sets, and expertise that are required to to program management and project management the right way.
He actually gave us two names within his organization to contact for program management needs he needs to fill.

All in all a very nice outcome - we got more than we bargained for. So remember: put the project management and program management in your proposal - beyond the obvious “quality control”, “steering committee”, “dedicated assignment partner”, “ongoing reporting”, etc.

Here’s the PDF file for the three slides above … btw - we have a 120 deck with deep dive information, if anyone is interested…

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PM Hut 2 months ago 1 point
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I have been involved myself in the Telecom industry and I can also tell you that one of the biggest time wasters was the roaming (especially in small operations, where resources are multi-tasking).

Selling Project Management to the client is an excellent idea, the whole thing is about presenting proposals professionally.

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Thorsten Claus 2 months ago 1 point
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True, but here's the caveat: I've seen seven technology consultancies in the past two months, trying to sell me on their technology engineering know-how in the "new media" industry. When I asked about their processes, methodologies, project management, reporting, staffing, sourcing, risk managment, etc., their answer was something along the lines: "we're not *that* kind of consultants who will try and rip you off with useless overhead. We're getting things done."

Which shows me that in some industries consultants have such a bad reputation that selling project or program management even seems to be something *bad*, something unprofessional. While many telecoms might not understand or grasp the reach and impact of "new media", many of technology-centric companies should be able to understand the terror and anger when you would pickup the phone and you have no dial tone (Hello Twitter).

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