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. | 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 have 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 246 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
