There might be innumerable challenges an IT / Telecom Project
Coordinator has to take on. But, the most interesting one most of the
times is to play the expert role of a referee in an apparently never
ending fight between ‘ The Procurement ’ and ‘The Vendors’. Well, I
said 'most of the times' because, the other times the coordinator
himself or herself has to get into the fight, playing the better hand,
switching sides with every 11th hour change call from the management.
That's way more interesting, isn't it !!? The focus however, remains in
guiding the fight in favor of the project all those times. And the
worst case scenario occurs when the management (more specifically the
procurement or the one with authority of approval ) is not likely to
comprehend the technological risks or advantages. Then the coordinator
must either be a fresher or a fool not to be prepared to face a sudden
termination. I don't mean to make a fresher project coordinator's life
any harder with this post. I just want you guys (coordinators) to have a
look at these guidelines that I have pointed out from my personal
experience ( Those young coordinators, dozing off looking at the size of
this article , jump to the conclusion) :
1. Give it everything you have got. And by everything, I do mean all the goodies you have earned so far. Your dedication, concentration, ethical strength, potential organizing ability, analytic approach, challenge accepting attitude etc..bring 'em all on. A project is a tremendous opportunity to quench your thirst for knowledge, skills, excellence and for proving yourself. Don't avoid responsibilities. Keep taking on one after another as long as you are carrying out those properly according to their priorities. But, don't let any of those unattended or 'not addressed' in your day roundup. Facing responsibilities with a positive approach takes you more close to the project. It allows you to learn more and to grow more and more expertise in the necessary sides of the project. Once you start dedicating yourself to the project, you'll see all your talents, style, views, your passion, compassion, your way of getting things done, are all falling in place in a perfect blend with your confidence. Just like the way Argentines, Brazilians or Germans deliver their own style, their own culture in the soccer field and come out 'Champions'. And trust me!!, that's exactly the way an exceptional performer, a change maker, a true professional is made out of you.
2. Grab all the learning opportunities with both hands. Specially, the technical briefing and training sessions provided by the technology vendors in the project. It makes you feel better that you are gaining excellence all the time. There might be a few in-house and external training and briefing sessions on technological details, international & local market insights and comparative analysis. If you miss any one of those for your extensive workload, make sure you get all the resources and an immediate briefing on that session sitting with a colleague who didn't miss it.
4. Be smart in your job. Start it with punctuality. Always get to work in time. You need to take this thing very seriously. Because, HR (Human Resource) is a back office department that is most likely to be more interested in tracking your sign in time every morning than keeping records of your staying at work at night after the office hours. Be it to receive a shipment of equipment at the site or to attend an important meeting with the vendors or even to finish a work that had to be started after office hours, you gotta be on time next morning. Even if you see your weekends and holidays have just disappeared because of this project, don't let your fatigue disrupt your office timing. Schedule all your appointments, apply and preserve your energy accordingly. Just never let this department raise any objection against you. This may also include attending departmental training sessions and exams and passing them with satisfactory marks. It doesn't matter if you had to attend vendors and do some critical analysis of the project just before, just after or even in the middle of your exam.
Because, once the project is up and you are back to your regular duties, it's not guaranteed that your records will be treated as a project time special case. Besides, at any moment there can be a change in the HR department. Change can occur as far as in the entire management.
" There are managements and business owners who do draw such dramatic changes when setting-up projects are over. "
In that case, under a new management, you'll see the possibility of you being treated by your HR records, not by your project involvements, increases staggeringly. Hence, stay clean in HR's book.
Track your contributions and fruitful self development along with effective project progress in a daily basis. Maintaining coordinator's own tracking and observation of the project progress all the way, is a very useful practice. Keep a careful watch on technological risks and advantages of all the systems being designed and implemented by the vendors as per SLA ( Service Level Agreement ). It's crucial. Remember, this may not be instructed from the management. But, it is undoubtedly a very useful practice to maintain your personal tracking and evaluation of the project. This could simply be a few lines about the project on your personal diary every night. By the Rahmat of Allah, it offloads your head, lightens your heart and cuts down your struggle on the bed to fall asleep.
Start your day with the first ray of the sun. Do your household chores yourself. Establish your command on your day proceedings.
If this sounds pointless to you, then let me remind you that as the project coordinator you are dealing with loads of challenges every day at the project site. To name a few:
5. Never hesitate to communicate. Specially, with other engineers, detecting any flaw or just to resolve a confusion. For example, there might be a separate department or another guy taking care of the power system installations for the entire project. This system more or less consists the AVR (Automatic Voltage Regulator), power generator, transmission lines, PDF (Power Distribution Frame) , grounding system, backup UPS, battery bank setup, power lines to the precision air-conditioning system etc. You need to stay always in close ties with that department or with that person(s) to ensure the installation of a safe power supply. Because, the last thing you need is an unexpected voltage spike or an upsurge damaging your core business equipment. Talk to all the vendors about it and seek a special attention of the management before commissioning the entire power distribution and backup system. Remember, the procurement or anybody with high level authority may approve comparatively chipper equipment for the power supply system. But, when such a disaster strikes, it obviously affects the entire project and everybody in every department.
Another example could be the case of getting the equipment safely to the project site. If the core technology vendor is supplying the core equipment from overseas, you need to make sure that doesn't get stuck anywhere because of custom clearance or for any other reason. This can very well cause mishandling and damage to those. It's not at all surprising to find the packed equipment submerged under trapped rain water opening the big wooden boxes. That's because, the business owner or the procurement left those boxes stuck in the port yard for months. Tell you what !! opening those boxes it could very well appear as if, those Next Generation Network (NGN) equipments for your telecom project have turned into decorations of possibly some third generation aquariums!!
" In such cases the best way to absorb the shock is by making a guess that a rare gold fish collection must be on the way. "
Drawing continuous feedback from the vendors, the coordinator should take initiatives talking to the management to avoid undue and unexpected delays in equipment acquisition. He or she should make the management alert about such possible disasters. " The more you communicate, the more you learn and eliminate chances of severe blunders in the project."
6. Keep calm if a misunderstanding or a conflict arises with your colleagues that you think totally uncalled for. Don't just start running to the management with a bucket full of complains right away. You certainly don't want your management or HR to mark you a whinny baby, do you !!? Remember, all your colleagues may not be engaged to the project the way you are but the project itself may have equally important impact on all of 'em. The management may have chosen you from all your colleagues to play the role of the project coordinator because, at-least once they relied more on you than on any other to carry out this particular responsibility. So, some really baseless 'feelings of complex' like frustration, insecurity, inferiority are very much possible to occur temporarily among your colleagues.
" This sort of theatrical entertainments ( if you are sensible enough to deal with it) are almost inevitable when HR recruits a bunch of too less experienced executives or fresh graduates for a highly intensive international telecom business setup project and makes a mess of the ranks. "
Now, you are the one to not let the management down. Play a mature role. Prevent those temporary complex feelings turning into permanent clashes. Sit with them, talk to them, talk to the management if needed. If they are available, try sharing your coordination responsibilities with them drawing an watchful eye of the management. Utilize their skills and talents, make them feel actively more involved in the venture. Just make a sincere and effective effort to resolve these conflicts. Don't say that you don't have time to fill up alarming gaps with your colleagues when you are always available to the vendors. That's an integral part of a project coordinator's job.
Here, I'd also like to talk about similar brazened confrontation that you face particularly in the regular project phase reporting and analysis session or at the periodical meeting of all the coordinators taking care of different sides of the projects. Now, see if my words matches with what you experience in such situations.
"This is just bullshit !!!"," What've you done !!!?, "Don't you have the bloody sense how your action is affecting the whole project !!?" "Just how did you get that bloody audacity of not consulting with us before taking that bloody action !!?" "Did you by any chance forgot to windup your mechanical brain that morning !!? "................................. Your fellow coordinators and your Project Manager / CEO/ CTO/COO are just tearing you apart with harsh criticisms finding a blunder ( doesn't matter how small and recoverable it is) that you've just conceded...!!!?............ Keep calm !!........... Don't be too shocked or too surprised that either gets you start mumbling or makes you loose it completely and start shouting back. Despite all your dedication, calculation, precaution and hard-work, blunders do pop up almost out of no where in such intense projects. That doesn't mean you are failing to keep up with the pressure. With a calm but strong and clear voice, admit that it could have been done in a better way avoiding that blunder and apologize for it and In Shaa Allah, you are through.... That's the way you are supposed to tackle that 'not friendly' situation, take lessons from it(deal with it and get used to it) and when your turn arrives, you can show how smartly, graciously and effectively an active hard-worker can be corrected / helped with constructive criticism. After all, there is a very common saying "Attitude is everything." Stick it on your desk in small fonts and have a look at it before walking to the meeting room.
7. Keep a careful eye on the regulatory affairs. In case of a telecommunication project where there are some regulations regarding the specific business license and 'Go Live' timelines fixed by a 'Telecom Regulatory Authority of the Land', you just cannot afford to exceed the timeline or go beyond their instructions by any means. Because, doing that you might have to face huge amount of penalty, enlistment as a defaulter in a highly competitive market and even the cancellation of license. Hence, having a 'Regulatory Compliance Check' of every new action that deems necessary is an unavoidable obligation (As good as it is having a periodical analysis of the phase and pace of the project considering the possibilities of disasters and their recovery time) .
8. Maintain your integrity all the way. There might be one or more cross-roads on your way. There, you may be provoked to be benefited sacrificing your honesty or integrity. You know, by compromising your professional commitment, cutting loose on your dedication, making some undue favors to any party to get benefited risking the project etc. But remember, this is your career and how you deal with your project will define it.
( And a bonus 9th point ! ) Be ready for surprises. Don't get carried away , don't get too excited and please don't be shocked.....
"It's very natural for a 'coordinator for the first time' to be unmindful about the time (if and when it arrives) to take the horse ride out of the merry-go-round "..... So, don't let any surprise take your feet off the ground or just leave you totally disgruntled. Neither is good for your career. Well, there is nothing more to explain on this point, is there !!?
Now, if you are still awake or at-least haven't yet started snoring, let me draw a conclusion summarizing what I actually wanted to say.
There are basically four official (man-made) factors playing key roles behind the success or the failure of the project coordinator in such a Telecom business setup project:
"Coordinator-ship of an intense telecom business setup project itself is a gifted chance for you to prove that character or to test it for yourself or to build it or may be just to cut off the rough edges (Finding out and getting rid of the 'not helping' traits of your character)."
In the end, everything is an achievement for you In Shaa Allah, by the grace of Allah if you have given it your everything smartly and wisely. - Engr. Mainuddin Ahmed
1. Give it everything you have got. And by everything, I do mean all the goodies you have earned so far. Your dedication, concentration, ethical strength, potential organizing ability, analytic approach, challenge accepting attitude etc..bring 'em all on. A project is a tremendous opportunity to quench your thirst for knowledge, skills, excellence and for proving yourself. Don't avoid responsibilities. Keep taking on one after another as long as you are carrying out those properly according to their priorities. But, don't let any of those unattended or 'not addressed' in your day roundup. Facing responsibilities with a positive approach takes you more close to the project. It allows you to learn more and to grow more and more expertise in the necessary sides of the project. Once you start dedicating yourself to the project, you'll see all your talents, style, views, your passion, compassion, your way of getting things done, are all falling in place in a perfect blend with your confidence. Just like the way Argentines, Brazilians or Germans deliver their own style, their own culture in the soccer field and come out 'Champions'. And trust me!!, that's exactly the way an exceptional performer, a change maker, a true professional is made out of you.
2. Grab all the learning opportunities with both hands. Specially, the technical briefing and training sessions provided by the technology vendors in the project. It makes you feel better that you are gaining excellence all the time. There might be a few in-house and external training and briefing sessions on technological details, international & local market insights and comparative analysis. If you miss any one of those for your extensive workload, make sure you get all the resources and an immediate briefing on that session sitting with a colleague who didn't miss it.
4. Be smart in your job. Start it with punctuality. Always get to work in time. You need to take this thing very seriously. Because, HR (Human Resource) is a back office department that is most likely to be more interested in tracking your sign in time every morning than keeping records of your staying at work at night after the office hours. Be it to receive a shipment of equipment at the site or to attend an important meeting with the vendors or even to finish a work that had to be started after office hours, you gotta be on time next morning. Even if you see your weekends and holidays have just disappeared because of this project, don't let your fatigue disrupt your office timing. Schedule all your appointments, apply and preserve your energy accordingly. Just never let this department raise any objection against you. This may also include attending departmental training sessions and exams and passing them with satisfactory marks. It doesn't matter if you had to attend vendors and do some critical analysis of the project just before, just after or even in the middle of your exam.
Fun !!! , isn't it !!!?
......
Exactly it is..!! 'Fun at work at its best' or should I say 'Fun in'
or 'Fun from' work !!?.... Coin it as you like but, that should be a
sign of your staying equal to the task and never giving up till the
end.Because, once the project is up and you are back to your regular duties, it's not guaranteed that your records will be treated as a project time special case. Besides, at any moment there can be a change in the HR department. Change can occur as far as in the entire management.
" There are managements and business owners who do draw such dramatic changes when setting-up projects are over. "
In that case, under a new management, you'll see the possibility of you being treated by your HR records, not by your project involvements, increases staggeringly. Hence, stay clean in HR's book.
Track your contributions and fruitful self development along with effective project progress in a daily basis. Maintaining coordinator's own tracking and observation of the project progress all the way, is a very useful practice. Keep a careful watch on technological risks and advantages of all the systems being designed and implemented by the vendors as per SLA ( Service Level Agreement ). It's crucial. Remember, this may not be instructed from the management. But, it is undoubtedly a very useful practice to maintain your personal tracking and evaluation of the project. This could simply be a few lines about the project on your personal diary every night. By the Rahmat of Allah, it offloads your head, lightens your heart and cuts down your struggle on the bed to fall asleep.
Start your day with the first ray of the sun. Do your household chores yourself. Establish your command on your day proceedings.
If this sounds pointless to you, then let me remind you that as the project coordinator you are dealing with loads of challenges every day at the project site. To name a few:
- Dealing with various vendors, their offers of solutions, their rates, providing the precise vendors' comparison sheet to the procurement and bringing out the optimal service from them.
- Ensuring a flawless installation of various systems by the selected vendors as per SLA and not letting them to raise any objection or complain or lack of cooperation from your side.
- As a regular employee complying to all your HR requirements, code of conducts, rules and instructions.
- Never letting any vendor or anybody involved in the project to do anything with the project that might oppose the instructions of the Telecom Regulatory Authority.
- In case of any disaster, finding out the quick and optimal recovery. ( In such cases, a crosscheck of the root cause and of the proposed remedial plans is necessary. Because, it is not guaranteed that all the vendors will provide the honest feedback all the time. )
- Informing the management about all the proceedings and the overall phase of the project time to time.
5. Never hesitate to communicate. Specially, with other engineers, detecting any flaw or just to resolve a confusion. For example, there might be a separate department or another guy taking care of the power system installations for the entire project. This system more or less consists the AVR (Automatic Voltage Regulator), power generator, transmission lines, PDF (Power Distribution Frame) , grounding system, backup UPS, battery bank setup, power lines to the precision air-conditioning system etc. You need to stay always in close ties with that department or with that person(s) to ensure the installation of a safe power supply. Because, the last thing you need is an unexpected voltage spike or an upsurge damaging your core business equipment. Talk to all the vendors about it and seek a special attention of the management before commissioning the entire power distribution and backup system. Remember, the procurement or anybody with high level authority may approve comparatively chipper equipment for the power supply system. But, when such a disaster strikes, it obviously affects the entire project and everybody in every department.
Another example could be the case of getting the equipment safely to the project site. If the core technology vendor is supplying the core equipment from overseas, you need to make sure that doesn't get stuck anywhere because of custom clearance or for any other reason. This can very well cause mishandling and damage to those. It's not at all surprising to find the packed equipment submerged under trapped rain water opening the big wooden boxes. That's because, the business owner or the procurement left those boxes stuck in the port yard for months. Tell you what !! opening those boxes it could very well appear as if, those Next Generation Network (NGN) equipments for your telecom project have turned into decorations of possibly some third generation aquariums!!
" In such cases the best way to absorb the shock is by making a guess that a rare gold fish collection must be on the way. "
Drawing continuous feedback from the vendors, the coordinator should take initiatives talking to the management to avoid undue and unexpected delays in equipment acquisition. He or she should make the management alert about such possible disasters. " The more you communicate, the more you learn and eliminate chances of severe blunders in the project."
6. Keep calm if a misunderstanding or a conflict arises with your colleagues that you think totally uncalled for. Don't just start running to the management with a bucket full of complains right away. You certainly don't want your management or HR to mark you a whinny baby, do you !!? Remember, all your colleagues may not be engaged to the project the way you are but the project itself may have equally important impact on all of 'em. The management may have chosen you from all your colleagues to play the role of the project coordinator because, at-least once they relied more on you than on any other to carry out this particular responsibility. So, some really baseless 'feelings of complex' like frustration, insecurity, inferiority are very much possible to occur temporarily among your colleagues.
" This sort of theatrical entertainments ( if you are sensible enough to deal with it) are almost inevitable when HR recruits a bunch of too less experienced executives or fresh graduates for a highly intensive international telecom business setup project and makes a mess of the ranks. "
Now, you are the one to not let the management down. Play a mature role. Prevent those temporary complex feelings turning into permanent clashes. Sit with them, talk to them, talk to the management if needed. If they are available, try sharing your coordination responsibilities with them drawing an watchful eye of the management. Utilize their skills and talents, make them feel actively more involved in the venture. Just make a sincere and effective effort to resolve these conflicts. Don't say that you don't have time to fill up alarming gaps with your colleagues when you are always available to the vendors. That's an integral part of a project coordinator's job.
Here, I'd also like to talk about similar brazened confrontation that you face particularly in the regular project phase reporting and analysis session or at the periodical meeting of all the coordinators taking care of different sides of the projects. Now, see if my words matches with what you experience in such situations.
"This is just bullshit !!!"," What've you done !!!?, "Don't you have the bloody sense how your action is affecting the whole project !!?" "Just how did you get that bloody audacity of not consulting with us before taking that bloody action !!?" "Did you by any chance forgot to windup your mechanical brain that morning !!? "................................. Your fellow coordinators and your Project Manager / CEO/ CTO/COO are just tearing you apart with harsh criticisms finding a blunder ( doesn't matter how small and recoverable it is) that you've just conceded...!!!?............ Keep calm !!........... Don't be too shocked or too surprised that either gets you start mumbling or makes you loose it completely and start shouting back. Despite all your dedication, calculation, precaution and hard-work, blunders do pop up almost out of no where in such intense projects. That doesn't mean you are failing to keep up with the pressure. With a calm but strong and clear voice, admit that it could have been done in a better way avoiding that blunder and apologize for it and In Shaa Allah, you are through.... That's the way you are supposed to tackle that 'not friendly' situation, take lessons from it(deal with it and get used to it) and when your turn arrives, you can show how smartly, graciously and effectively an active hard-worker can be corrected / helped with constructive criticism. After all, there is a very common saying "Attitude is everything." Stick it on your desk in small fonts and have a look at it before walking to the meeting room.
7. Keep a careful eye on the regulatory affairs. In case of a telecommunication project where there are some regulations regarding the specific business license and 'Go Live' timelines fixed by a 'Telecom Regulatory Authority of the Land', you just cannot afford to exceed the timeline or go beyond their instructions by any means. Because, doing that you might have to face huge amount of penalty, enlistment as a defaulter in a highly competitive market and even the cancellation of license. Hence, having a 'Regulatory Compliance Check' of every new action that deems necessary is an unavoidable obligation (As good as it is having a periodical analysis of the phase and pace of the project considering the possibilities of disasters and their recovery time) .
8. Maintain your integrity all the way. There might be one or more cross-roads on your way. There, you may be provoked to be benefited sacrificing your honesty or integrity. You know, by compromising your professional commitment, cutting loose on your dedication, making some undue favors to any party to get benefited risking the project etc. But remember, this is your career and how you deal with your project will define it.
( And a bonus 9th point ! ) Be ready for surprises. Don't get carried away , don't get too excited and please don't be shocked.....
"It's very natural for a 'coordinator for the first time' to be unmindful about the time (if and when it arrives) to take the horse ride out of the merry-go-round "..... So, don't let any surprise take your feet off the ground or just leave you totally disgruntled. Neither is good for your career. Well, there is nothing more to explain on this point, is there !!?
Now, if you are still awake or at-least haven't yet started snoring, let me draw a conclusion summarizing what I actually wanted to say.
There are basically four official (man-made) factors playing key roles behind the success or the failure of the project coordinator in such a Telecom business setup project:
- Management
- Procurement
- HR
- and the Coordinator himself or herself.
"Coordinator-ship of an intense telecom business setup project itself is a gifted chance for you to prove that character or to test it for yourself or to build it or may be just to cut off the rough edges (Finding out and getting rid of the 'not helping' traits of your character)."
In the end, everything is an achievement for you In Shaa Allah, by the grace of Allah if you have given it your everything smartly and wisely. - Engr. Mainuddin Ahmed
