Project Integration in a Telecommunications Environment

This paper is being presented to highlight, in general, the critical nature of project integration in project management and, specifically, in a telecommunications environment.

This presentation looks into practical integration situations in telecommunication projects and the strategies developed for overcoming them. It will also offer hindsight into various types of telecommunication projects with both fixed and mobile operators.

Project integration is

• Integration of all aspects of projects: objective, cost, schedule, systems, and processes
• Integration along all life cycle phases of the project and its deliverables
• Integrating concerns of all stakeholders into project objectives
• Integration across all the vendors
• Integrating project management processes and functional processes

Background

In my opinion, project integration is one of the most difficult areas in project management. This is even more difficult in a telecommunications environment in which integration is required within IT systems, network systems, and between IT systems and network systems. Most of the projects involve working with multiple suppliers and integrating the work done by them. In addition, an average telecommunications project will impact at least three of these systems.

Since the beginning of the twenty-first century,…