Quality Control System in Telecom System Engineering

Project Management Practices: An Exploratory Case Study in

Celcom Axiata (Malaysia) Berhad

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of

Master of Science

by

Mohamad Zamri Napiah

Masters Degree in Technology Project Management

Cardiff School of Management

Cardiff Metropolitan University, Cardiff

April 2013
 Declaration

I hereby declare that this dissertation entitled „Quality Control System in

Telecom System Engineering Project Management Practices: An Exploratory
Case Study in Celcom Axiata (Malaysia) Berhad‟ is entirely my own work and
it has never been submitted nor is it currently being submitted for any other
degree.

..........................................

(Mohamad Zamri Napiah)

Candidate

............................................

(Stuart McNeil)

Director of Studies

i
 Acknowledgement

Making a decision to pursue my master degree was another big step in

my life. As a mature student, it wasn‟t easy having to scarify so many things;
precious time with my family, handsomely paid job, friends and not to forget
the deliciously hot and spicy wife‟s cooking.

I owe a great deal to many people in completing the journey to

accomplish my master degree. It is a great pleasure to thanks everyone who
help me walked through to the end of my program. A special thank to my
supervisor, Stuart McNeil for the support and guidance throughout my
dissertation writing. Not to forget, Simon Thorne and Chris Russell from
Cardiff School of Management and all my colleagues who never stop
encouraging and lending a helping hand for me.

I am truly indebted and thankful to my beloved wife, Dr. Rudzidatul

Akmam and my three princesses, Syasya Afiqah, Syasya Afifah and Syasya
Aleesya who spent many days without me. I am sure it would have not been
possible without your love, sacrifices, understanding and unconditional
support. I love you all.

Finally, I would also like to thank my family, mum, dad and in-laws.
Your prayers and words keep me strong in moving to a better future. I‟ll never
be able to repay what you have given me.

ii
 Abstract

This dissertation thesis aimed at exploring Quality Control System

(QCS) in telecom system engineering project management practices. To
achieve this objective, an exploratory case study was conducted in Celcom
Axiata Malaysia Berhad. Interview and document review were selected for
data collection method to gain in-depth information from the organization.

Findings from this study were divided into two parts. The first part
deals with the context of QCS implementation in Celcom project management
practices. The results of the first part of the study discussed the introduction of
QCS in Celcom, hurdles and challenges in implementing the system,
advantages and disadvantages of the system, and the organizational support
for the implementation of the system. The second part of the study discussed
the significant impact of the system to the projects management practices.
The system is found to benefits the project by providing clear and smooth
project implementation and promotes accountability among the project team
members and stakeholders. Furthermore, QCS not only benefits the project
but also the people, organization, industry as well as the customers. However,
the study also concluded that despite numerous benefits, the organization is
also facing difficulties to introduce the system in the organization particularly
in the behavioural resistance to change from the team member.

Finally, system improvements were also identified and recommended.

The study concluded that awareness among the project team members
needed to be increased while support from top management in legal
endorsement of the system is required to strengthen the importance of QCS.

Keywords: Project Management, IT Project Management, Telecom Industry,

Quality Control System, Stage-Gate Model, Telecom System Engineering.

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 Table of Contents

1.0 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................... 1

1.1 Background ................................................................................................ 1

1.2 Aim, Objectives and Research Questions ................................................... 2

1.3 Motivation ................................................................................................... 2

1.4 Plan of Dissertation ..................................................................................... 3

2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW ........................................................................................... 5

2.1 Telecommunication Era .............................................................................. 5

2.2 Telecom Industry ........................................................................................ 7

2.2.1 Telecom in Malaysia ............................................................................ 7

2.2.2 Telecommunication System Engineering ............................................. 8

2.3 Project Management in Telecom System Engineering Services ................. 9

2.3.1 Standard Approach to Project Management in Telecom Industry ........ 9

2.3.2 Quality Control Problem ..................................................................... 10

2.4 Quality Control System in Project Management ........................................ 11

2.4.1 Overview of Quality Control System .................................................. 11

2.4.2 Strength and Benefits of Quality Control System ............................... 13

2.4.3 Hurdles and Challenges in QCS ........................................................ 15

2.5 Conclusion ................................................................................................ 16

3.0 METHODOLOGY .................................................................................................. 18

3.1 Introduction ............................................................................................... 18

3.2 Research Philosophy ................................................................................ 18

3.3 Research Approach .................................................................................. 20

3.4 Time Horizon ............................................................................................ 21

3.5 Data Collection ......................................................................................... 21

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 3.5.1 Interview ............................................................................................ 21

3.5.2 Design of Interview ............................................................................ 22

3.5.3 Profile of Respondents ...................................................................... 25

3.5.4 Document and System Review .......................................................... 25

3.6 Data Analysis ............................................................................................ 26

3.7 Conclusion ................................................................................................ 28

4.0 FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ............................................................... 30

4.1 Introduction ............................................................................................... 30

4.2 The Case Context – Celcom ..................................................................... 30

4.2.1 System Engineering Services ............................................................ 30

4.2.2 Project Management Methodology .................................................... 31

4.2.3 Stage-Gate Project Management Methodology ................................. 32

4.2.4 Online Stage-Gate System ................................................................ 33

4.3 Interview Discussion ................................................................................. 33

4.3.1 View of QCS ...................................................................................... 34

4.3.2 QCS in Practice ................................................................................. 35

4.3.3 Challenges in Implementing QCS ...................................................... 36

4.3.4 Advantages and Disadvantages of QCS ............................................ 38

4.3.5 Organizational Support to QCS.......................................................... 40

4.4 Findings and Results ................................................................................ 41

4.4.1 Impact to the Project .......................................................................... 42

4.4.2 Impact to the People (resources) ....................................................... 42

4.4.3 Impact to the Organization ................................................................. 42

4.4.4 Impact to the Industry ........................................................................ 43

4.4.5 Impact to the Customers .................................................................... 43

4.5 Recommendations for Future Improvement .............................................. 44

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 4.6 Conclusion ................................................................................................ 45

5.0 CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................... 47

5.1 Strength and Limitation of the Study ......................................................... 47

5.2 Recommendations and Suggestions for Future Research ........................ 48

5.3 Conclusion ................................................................................................ 48

List of Abbreviations ..................................................................................................... 50

REFERENCES ............................................................................................................ 51

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 List of Figures and Tables

Figure 2.1: Evolution of mobile and wireless technology. .................................... 6

Figure 2.2: Cooper‟s Stage-Gate Model ............................................................ 12

Figure 3.1: The Research „Onion‟ ...................................................................... 19

Figure 3.2: Creswell Model of Data Analysis ..................................................... 27

Figure 4.1: Motorola M-Gates Model ................................................................. 32

Figure 4.2: Celcom Stage-gate Model ............................................................... 33

Table 2.1: Mobile Phone Companies in 1995 ...................................................... 7

Table 2.2: Quality Management System ............................................................ 13

Table 2.3: ISO Quality Control Principles .......................................................... 14

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1.0 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background

A Quality Control System (QCS) in project management practices is

apparently becoming a developing area in service industry, particularly in a
telecommunication business in developing countries. Yaseen and El-Marashy
(1989) discovered that quality control in project management has been a
concern in developing country as early as 1980s. Comparing to manufacturing
and engineering industry in which the QCS were found to have high maturity
level and proven success (Ibbs & Kwak, 2000; Pennypacker & Grant, 2003),
project management in the telecom industry is similar to services industry with
the intangible nature of product make accomplishing quality control very
challenging (Donthu, 1991).

In 1980s quality has played a significant role in the project

management (Azzopardi, 2013). QCS has been an important undertaking in
the major project management methodologies such as North American‟s
Project Management Institute (PMI) in their Project Management Body of
Knowledge (PMBOK) (PMI, 2004), United Kingdom‟s Projects in Controlled
Environments (PRINCE2) (OGC, 2009) and Motorola‟s Six-Sigma. Motorola
for example, benefited the quality improvement from their Six-Sigma method
and gained more than $14 billion in cumulative saving (Ibusuki, 2005).

In the early 2000s, findings presented that high-tech manufacturing and

telecom organization score high in project management performance and
quality (Ibbs & Kwok, 2000). Furthermore, Cooke-Davies and Arzymanow
(2002) concluded that telecom organization excel in managing multiple
project. It is however believed that this result does not represent the project
management performance around the globe. Zwikael et al. (2005) found that
there are different quality performances in an inter-country comparison due to
differences in management style. Since then the telecom organization has
evolved into adopting a more standard project management approach where
most of the changes are brought by the telecom vendors and suppliers.

1
1.2 Aim, Objectives and Research Questions

The key aim of this study is to explore and investigate the QCS in
project management practices of a telecommunication business particularly in
telecom system engineering services.

The objectives of this research are as follows:

i. To design research methodology using exploratory case study.

ii. To collect data using convergent interview and document/system

review and analyze data using Creswell Model of Data Analysis

iii. To discuss and present all findings based on the literatures and project
management knowledge.

iv. To identify then suggest any improvements in the quality control

system if necessary.

This research will primarily answer the question of how the QCS impacts in
the Project Management Practices in a Telecom Project, specifically in
Celcom Axiata Berhad, Malaysia.

1.3 Motivation

The globalization of the world economy has significantly raised the

level of organization competitiveness. The organizations are a rival among the
others in producing better products and services. In the service industry, in
particular, the organization has started to improve its quality of services (QoS)
by improving the business process in related services. The telecommunication
industry has taken a major step in improving their processes in order to
produce a better product at the possible shortest time to their customers,
which drives this research work to focus in the telecommunication business. It
is identified that the project management processes are one of the many
areas that requires a significant improvement in this service industry. In fact, a
study demonstrates that “project managers from the service sector achieved
the worst score in the quality management processes” (Zwikael and
Globerson, 2007).

2
 The quality control and management system has been implemented for
decades in the manufacturing and construction industry. In Japan, for
example organization started to realize the benefit of quality control as early
as 1950s (Dale et al., 2007). According to Philip B. Crosby, one of the quality
pioneers as quoted by Deming (2000), it has been proven that the quality
control has brought a massive improvement in the quality of the processes,
which will then result in better production of the products and services. There
are many benefits of implementing quality control system. According to UK
Department for Business Innovation and Skills (2012), QCS will enable an
organization to achieve goals and objectives, provide consistency and
satisfaction in term of methods, materials and equipments, thus ending with
increasing customer satisfaction. Finding regarding the project management
performance in telecom industry was ambivalent. In some study, the industry
scored lowest (Pennypacker & Grant, 2003) while in some other they scored
high (Ibbs & Kwak, 2000). The differences in the finding are believed to may
have caused by differences in management style especially in an inter-
country comparison (Zwikael et al., 2005).

I choose to conduct this study in Celcom Axiata Berhad Malaysia with

whom I used to work for and was personally involve in the project
management of the system engineering services. Previous experiences
showed that there was no industry standard QCS in place. The lack of
previous studies of this area in this country also increases my motivation to
conduct this case study to further explore and understand the current QCS
implemented in Celcom. I also hope to be able to identify and provide some
recommendations to Celcom on this subject matter as there is always room
for improvement in quality control of the project management processes.

1.4 Plan of Dissertation

Overall, the dissertation is planned to contain five chapters. Chapter 1

will briefly introduce the background of the quality control system in general;
outline the aim and objectives of the research. Chapter 2 will then discuss
the state-of-the-art related to the research subject, which will include literature
review of the quality control system, engineering services in a telecom

3
industry as well as the background of Celcom Axiata Malaysia Berhad.
Chapter 3 will explain in-depth the research methodology chosen in this
research. This chapter will further discuss the research philosophy, research
approach, research strategy and also the data collection method chosen for
this research. It is then followed by Chapter 4 that will present the detailed
data collection method and processes based on Robson (2003) suggestion
that a single case study research utilizing various data collection method such
as interview and document and system review. The chapter then will present
the findings and general recommendation for future improvement of the QCS.
Finally, Chapter 5 will conclude the investigation and evaluation of the
quality control system in Celcom particularly. This chapter will also include
some strength and limitation of the research as well as recommendations for
future research

4
2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW

Wireless mobile technology was introduced in the early 1940s.

Nevertheless, the growing demand for voice, video and data has dictated the
evolution of wireless data services. It is therefore appropriate to review a brief
history of the telecommunication industry in order to appreciate how such
industry is able to reach this far, as discussed in Section 2.1.

2.1 Telecommunication Era

In the 1980s, the commercial cellular networks was developed using an

analogue technology, which was often known as the first generation analogue
cellular network (1G) systems. It was deployed across the globe with some
developed countries independently developed their own mobile
communication technologies. Among the most brilliant successes were
Advanced Mobile Phone Services (AMPS) in the United States, Nordic Mobile
Telephony (NMT) in Europe and Total Access Communication System
(TACS) in the UK. Japan also introduced the Japanese Total Access
Communication Systems (J-TACS) which was also used in Hong Kong
(Lacohee et al., 2003). Nevertheless, several disadvantages in the first
generation system such as a poor battery life, bulky handsets, inconsistent
network and also phone cloning led to the development of second generation
systems (2G) (Kumar et al., 2010) in the late 1980s.

2G network which runs on a digital system provides higher network

efficiency, greater network coverage, better data services and more advance
roaming (Lacohee et al., 2003). In addition to voice call and Short Messaging
Services (SMS) in the 1G system, 2G system also provides Multimedia
Messaging Services (MMS) and Wireless Application Protocol (WAP)
browsing on the mobile phone. The introduction of 2G system has significantly
increases the number of subscribers and consumer around the globe. In the
UK for example in 2003 there are approximately 47 million mobile phones with
at least 65% of households have access to a mobile phone (Mobile Operators
Association, 2003).

5
 The introduction of third generation system (3G) in late 1990s has
made high-volume movement of data possible. 3G system with higher data
speed network enable network operator to offer subscribers and consumer a
wider range of more advance services such as wide-area wireless voice
telephony, video calls and broadband wireless data (Kumar et al., 2010). The
increasing growth of user demand for higher data speed services have
triggered network operators to come up with a comprehensive manifestation
of fourth generation system (4G) (Abdul Jalil et al., 2009). It is expected that
4G system will provide improved user experiences with high speed data
services (Mishra et al., 2004). Futhermore, Kumar et al., (2010) also suggest
that 4G system will provide subscribers and consumer the freedom and
flexibility to select desired services with reasonable QoS at affordable price,
anytime, anywhere. Figure 2.1 summarize the mobile telecommunication
network evolution from 1G system through to the 4G system.

Figure 2.1: Evolution of mobile and wireless technology.

Source: Connected Planet, 2005.

6
2.2 Telecom Industry

2.2.1 Telecom in Malaysia

In Malaysia, mobile telecommunication industry started in the same

year as the other developed countries, which was in early 1980s. The first
mobile phone, Automatic Telephone Using Radio (ATUR) was introduced in
1984 by Jabatan Telekom Malaysia, a Malaysian government agency. This
government agency held a domination power of the telecommunication
services over the whole of Malaysia during that time. In 1995, the telecom
enterprise was then privatized and there were at least seven mobile phone
companies providing basic services of phone call and SMS (Zita, 2005). Table
2.1 summarizes all the mobile companies involved.

Table 2.1: Mobile Phone Companies in 1995

Mobile Phone Company Parent Company Cellular Phone Licence

Mobikom Telekom Malaysia joint GSM 1800

venture with Sapura Holding

Celcom Technologies Resources 900 MHZ

Industries

Maxis Binariang 900 MHZ

Mutiara Swisscom Berjaya 900 MHZ

Sapura Digital Sapura Holding GSM 1800

Time Wireless Time Engineering GSM 1800

Source: Zita (2005)

Because of the economic and financial downturn in Malaysia and in fact

across the globe, the Malaysian government then encouraged these
companies to consider rationalization. After several businesses undertook
restructuring and consolidation in 2002, there were only three major players
left in the Malaysian telecom business and continue to compete with each
other until this day, these are Celcom Axiata, Maxis and Digi.

7
 As in the world mobile markets, the Malaysian mobile companies have
experienced significant market growth. In year 2000, the mobile phone user
penetration surpassed the fixed line users. In 2009, the Malaysian mobile
phone penetration has crossed 100% mark with 106.2% penetration with 30.4
million subscribers (MCMC, 2009). This fast-growing market has very much
contributed to the introduction of new services to complement the
conventional voice call and SMS. In fact, smart phone technology which
supports rich multimedia services such as MMS, mobile TV and web based
applications that can provide entertainments, financial services, info and
education services over the phone has further accelerated the mobile phone
business. A high data rate of mobile internet network using wireless
technology such as 3G, HSPA, WiMax and 4G has considerably brought this
industry to a new level (MobileMonday, 2012).

2.2.2 Telecommunication System Engineering

Telecommunication industry is among the organizations that have been
aggressively involved in the use of Information Technology (IT). Attlainen
(2003) defines telecommunication as a technology concerned with
communicating from a distance. The fundamental of a telecommunication
service is how the useful information such as voice, video or data can be
carried over wireless networks (e.g. 3G, WiMAX, 4G) with a certain QoS. It is
very important for the network operator such as Celcom to guarantee the
required quality in order to boost the network traffic and hence to generate
high profits for the company. This is likely to be achieved if the quality control
system can be emphasized in the project management processes.

A telecommunication network is developed within broad engineering

services. Traditionally, the telecom engineering only occupied two main
segments: (i) transmission and (ii) signalling. The former is subject to the
delivery of electromagnetic signal between two different points (or distance)
while the latter provides an exchange of the communication establishment
and also a control of the communication circuit (Freeman, 2004).
Nevertheless, the telecom engineering had rapidly evolved from a mechanical
communication to an electrical communication over the past few years. As

8
 can be seen today, telecommunication services not only provide a medium for
a long distance communication but also become a „basic need‟ in everyday
activities for most mobile users. The introduction of the Internet Protocol (IP)
services has extremely transformed the landscape of the telecom engineering
into system engineering as the new services such as MMS, Internet browsing,
video streaming are offered to the users. IT system engineering has since
taking over the platform to provide mobile services. NASA (1995) defines
system engineering as the process of design, creation and operation of
systems to provide quality products and services to customer as per
requirements.

2.3 Project Management in Telecom System Engineering Services

2.3.1 Standard Approach to Project Management in Telecom Industry

As explained in the previous section, the telecommunication business

involves many system engineering projects. It may range from a new system
or network design, installation and configuration - data centre, data services
network, billing system, mobile content application, transmission control
centre and many more. These varieties of projects often require different user
requirements and project objectives (Desmond, 2004). These projects also
represent numerous different characteristics compared to project in different
industries. Hashem Sherif (2006) define some of the characteristics as
complex interfaces, international orientation, multidisciplinary activities, no
mass production, diversity of user requirements and relatively long planning
stage.

Telecom companies and vendors around the world have been adopting
various project management methodologies that best suit their project
requirements. Ericsson for example introduced and practiced project
management framework known as Project for Project Management (PROPS)
since 1979. PROPS supports manager at all levels in multi-project
organization (Dinsmore and Terence, 2006). The purpose of PROPS is “to
ensure a business-focused and efficient project management, resulting in high
quality project performance and shorten project lead-time” (PcManagement,
9
 2013). Chinese telecom giant, Huawei chooses to adopt PMBOK from PMI as
their project management methodology (PMI, 2012). PMBOK model is based
on the lifecycle with five processes namely initiation, planning, execution,
monitor and control (PMI, 2004). Alcatel-Lucent implemented Project
Management Support (PMS) developed by Sector Group which focuses on
deliverables as well as optimizing resources for the operational teams
(Alcatel-Lucent, 2007). PRINCE2 by the UK‟s Office of Government
Commerce (OGC) is broadly used by organization around the world since
1996. PRINCE2 is well known as a flexible approach and fits to diverse
projects (Bentley, 2005). APMG recognized PRINCE2 as “a de facto standard
developed and used extensively by the UK government and is widely
recognized and used in the private sector, both in the UK and internationally.
It embodies established and proven best practice in project management”.

2.3.2 Quality Control Problem

Adoption and implementation of proper project management

methodology has been recognized as an important factor to the success of
the project implementation (Miller & Floricel, 2004; Thieme et al., 2003). One
of the many benefits of a proper project management model is that it provides
a systematic approach on quality control (Rose, 2005). Quality control is vital
in the telecommunication project to meet user requirements, within budget,
during the time allocated and with the quality expected by the project
stakeholders.

There are many reasons that may contribute to the quality control issues in
project management. The following are some of the common causes of
problem in IT project that have similar attributes with the telecommunication
project (Kartam et al., 1999; McManus & Harper, 2007; Zhen, 2005; Yeo,
2002):

Incomplete user requirements. User requirements in IT and

telecommunication industry often change frequently. Incomplete and
changing requirement often affect delivery quality and sometime may
also impact the success of the project.

10
 Conflict among stakeholders representative such as between system
engineering services and procurement, sales, customer service and
technical support. Sometime project stakeholders carry different
interest in the project that may influence the quality of the project.

Roles are not clearly defined. As IT and telecom project are usually
involves multiple vendors and suppliers, roles of each party must be
clearly defined and well documented. Otherwise, it may lead to conflict
of interest and confusion which in the end affect the quality of the
project delivery.

Inadequate resources also contribute to project quality problem.

Complex IT and telecom project usually requires expertise from many
areas. Unable to secure project expertise will directly impact the
process and delivery of the project.

Unrealistic date line. Project manager who commit unrealistic date to

project stakeholders often cause havoc to the project team and as a
result compromise the quality of the delivery of the project.

2.4 Quality Control System in Project Management

2.4.1 Overview of Quality Control System

A project quality management entails several activities to ensure that

the project is successful. In many standard approaches, the project is
classified as a success when it meets the project scope, within the project
budget and timeline, and also meets the quality expectation of stake holders
(PMI, 2004; Bentley, 2005; Thomas & Fernandez, 2008). Quality in project
can be dated back to 1911 when Frederick Winslow Taylor, one of the quality
pioneers, changed the focus from worker to the process. He believed that
improving the process will improve the final product (Rose, 2005). The PMI
Standard Committee (1996) identifies the quality control as a process of
monitoring specific project results in making sure they meet agreed quality
standard and also identify ways to mitigate causes that impact performance of
the project. Nidiffer and Dolan (2005) in agreement with Chinni (2011) added

11
that the quality control system consists of certain tools and techniques to
measure the quality and to take corrective actions in eliminating errors and
problems. In some project management methodologies, the quality
management comprises a quality planning, quality assurance and quality
control processes.

There are various tools and techniques used to implement quality

management in different project management approaches such as cost-
benefit analysis, control charts, benchmarking, design of experiments,
statistical sampling, cost of quality, Six-Sigma, Stage-Gate system, ISO 9000
and many others (Rose, 2005). Six-Sigma for example, introduced by
Motorola in 1980s, represent advance quality management model using
method known as define, measure, analyze, improve and control (DMAIC)
(Zhang & Xu, 2008). Six-Sigma also has been recognized as successful
approach to quality management in many organizations (Pande et al., 2000).
Stage-Gate method, popularize by Cooper (1994) is a conceptual and
operational roadmap in developing a product starting from fresh idea to the
launching of the product (Product Development Institute, 2013). It separated
the effort and processes into distinct stages separated by management
decision as shown in Figure 2.2.

Figure 2.2: Cooper’s Stage-Gate Model

Source: Cooper (2013).

12
 Table 2.2 summarizes the suggestion of PMI in the quality
management inputs, tools and techniques and output.

Table 2.2: Quality Management System

Inputs Tools and Techniques Outputs

Work results Inspection Quality improvement

Quality Management Plan Control charts Acceptance decisions

Operational definitions Pareto diagrams Rework

Checklists Statistical sampling Completed checklists

Trend analysis Process adjustments

Ishikawa diagram

Flowcharting

Source: Ostendo Consulting Group, 2011

2.4.2 Strength and Benefits of Quality Control System

A well-managed quality control and management system aids the

organization to meet its organization goal and objectives. The quality control
system offers a consistency results throughout the project timeline from the
very beginning of identifying customer requirements, monitoring and
controlling its deliverables and also providing corrective actions if necessary in
avoiding diversion from its original objectives (Rose, 2005). Philip B. Crosby,
another quality pioneer explained that “quality does not cost, it pays. When
you improve the quality of a process, you reduce the defect that result from
that process. In the end bigger saving can be achieved (cited by Rose, 2005).

Rose, subsequently summarize the benefits of quality control in project

management as follows:

A quality project will produce quality products, and in the end

will increase customer satisfaction. A satisfied customer tent to
engage the next project with the same project team.

13
 A quality project contributes to overall cost reduction. This can
be achieved through quality process with improved efficiency,
reduced waste and improved supplies.

Better products and projects with lower costs can ultimately

translate into increased competitiveness which will directly
contribute to company profits.

International Organization for Standardization (ISO) elaborates the key

benefits of quality control into eight principles, as described in Table 2.3:

Table 2.3: ISO Quality Control Principles

Principle Key Area Key Benefits

Principle 1 Customer Focus Increased revenue and market

share through fast response to
market opportunities
Increased resource effectiveness
to enhance customer satisfaction
Improve customer loyalty leading
to repeat business
Principle 2 Leadership Mutual understanding towards
organization‟s objectives
Activities are evaluated, aligned
and implemented in a unified way
Minimize miss communication
Principle 3 Involvement of Motivated, committed and involved
members
People
Accountability for involvement
Eager to participate and contribute
to continual improvement
Principle 4 Process Approach Lower costs and shorter cycle
times through effective use of
resources
Improved, consistent and
predictable results
Focused and prioritized
improvement opportunities

14
 Principle 5 System Approach to Integration and alignment of the
processes
Management
Ability to focus effort on the key
processes
Principle 6 Continual Performance advantage through
improved organizational
Improvement
capabilities
Alignment of improvement
activities
Flexibility to react quickly to
possibilities
Principle 7 Factual Approach to Informed decisions
Decision Making Ability to demonstrate the
effectiveness of past decisions
Increased ability to review,
challenge and change opinions
and decisions
Principle 8 Mutually Beneficial Increased ability to create value for
both parties
Supplier
Flexibility and speed of join
Relationship
responses
Optimization of costs and
resources
Source: Adopted from ISO (2012)

2.4.3 Hurdles and Challenges in QCS

Despite many advantages, there are also hurdles and challenges in

implementing total quality control in the project management. The following
lists are some of the hurdles and challenges described by Chinni (2011) and
Rose (2005) in implementing a full quality management:

The quality variables must be defined and agreed in order for the
quality to be measurable and controllable. This, however, will require
additional tasks, costs and time for the project. These extra efforts
might not deem necessary particularly for a small project.

15
 Stakeholders and a project management team might have inadequate
level of knowledge to handle the quality control system. The
organization thus needs to provide some training or acquire an external
third party to handle the quality control section of the project.

An extensive amount of documentation must be produced to enable

the quality control team to measure all the project deliverables. Every
plan, activity and deliverable must be documented and agreed by the
stake holders before the project implementation. Some big and mega
projects might end up with immense amounts of documentation, which
will be highly complex to process.

When an organization decides to adopt a certain quality control system

in their project management processes, they have to follow and provide
all the requirements that come within the quality control system. For
example, in order to use the quality control tools and techniques, the
project member must provide all the inputs such as quality
management plan, quality metrics, process improvement plan, change
request, approved change request, implemented corrective actions,
implemented defect repair and many more.

Past result of improvement effort failures may affect the project team
member‟s acceptance and cooperation in venturing into new
improvement.

A common mind-set that improved quality costs more is still widely

exists in organizations. Until this mind-set is broken, it is difficult to
introduce new improvement processes.

Comfort with the status quo leading to resistance to change and fear of
the unknown. This behavioural challenge has to be approached very
carefully.

2.5 Conclusion

This chapter discussed the literatures on the development of

telecommunication industry. Brief history and general concepts of

16
telecommunication services in the world and in Malaysia as the research
subject were presented. The chapter then discussed project management
approaches and quality control issues in telecom system engineering
services. Finally, the chapter discussed in more details about the concept of
quality control and highlighted the benefits and challenges in implementing
QCS in project management.

17
3.0 METHODOLOGY

3.1 Introduction

This chapter will elaborate the research methodology adopted for this
case study. The chapter will discuss the research philosophy and the
research approach of the study. The dissertation plan and data collection will
also be presented, which then conclude with how the data will be analyzed.

For this research, a single case study has been conducted at the
selected organization, in this case Celcom Axiata Malaysia Berhad. A case
study for the strategy is chosen to allow for an extensive examination through
multiple in-depth data collection methods (Yin, 2009). Case study also allows
intensive study through qualitative interviewing in an organization (Bryman,
2008). The varied and richness of the data will help discuss and interpret the
findings in the context of the literature review. The case study research
method is also known to be the most widely used qualitative research method
in information system research (Orlikowski & Baroudi, 1991; Myers, 1998).

3.2 Research Philosophy

Saunders et al. (2009) explain research philosophy as “… the

development of the knowledge and the nature of that knowledge” (p. 107).
This research will adopt research philosophy as presented by Saunders et al.
(2009), known as The Research „onion‟ to ensure that all critical process are
addressed, namely: research philosophy, research approach, research
strategy, time horizon and data collection method as shown in Figure 3.1.

18
Figure 3.1: The Research ‘Onion’

Source: Saunders et al. (2009)

This case study adopted a realism research philosophy due to its

subject is in relation to the underlying structure and mechanism of a quality
control system. This is in agreement with Sobh and Perry (2006), suggested
that this type of research tend to use a qualitative data collection method.
Sobh and Perry further explain that realism approach is becoming popular in
this area of management study.

In realism research, the reality presents independently from the

researcher mind (Harre & Madden, 1975; Bhaskar, 1978). According to Riege
(2003), the differences between the real world and their particular view are
acknowledged and later used to construct various views. Sayer (1992) on the
other hand presented the following characteristic of realism:

The world exists independent of our knowledge.

Our knowledge of the world is fallible and theory-laden.

The process of developing knowledge is a simultaneous and

universal change in concepts.

19
 There is necessity in the world.

The world that consists of events and objects is stratified and

differentiated.

Social phenomena are concept-dependant, and researcher has to

explain, understand and interpret what they mean.

3.3 Research Approach

Saunders et al. (2009) has divided the research approach into an

inductive research and a deductive research. In general, the inductive
research developed a theory based on the collected data. On the other hand,
the deductive approach initially developed a theory and hypothesis, and after
that followed by designing a research strategy to test the hypothesis.

This research work will be based on the inductive research approach

where the research theory is driven by the results of the research data. This
approach is aligned with the main research objective that is to understand the
human interpretation of the QCS, and to study the implementation of the
quality control in different areas of the organization, which is Celcom in this
case. The sample of the data will be collected using in-depth semi structured
interviews and document/system review, and is likely to be a small data size.

The inductive research approach realizes the importance of social

sciences in which it seeks to understand the way human interpret their social
world. This approach attempts to understand the context of QCS
implementation and in this case the researcher can also be considered part of
the research subject with having previous experience as the project member
in this organization. According to Thomas (2003), the primary approach of
inductive research is to allow research findings to emerge from the data
collected. The sample of data is relatively small for this research and
generally based on the qualitative data by using a variety of data collection
methods such as in-depth interviews and document and system review, so
that different views can be developed as suggested by literature (Saunders et
al., 2009; Strauss & Corbin, 1990; Miles & Huberman, 1994; Backett &

20
 Davison, 1995). This approach is also suitable for the study where limited time
for dissertation is one of the main constraints.

3.4 Time Horizon

The time horizon represents how this study can be competently

conducted. Saunders et al. (2009) categorize the time horizon into a cross-
sectional study and a longitudinal study. The longitudinal study is a study or a
research that is conducted within a period of time where the time is not a
constraint. This kind of study is usually used in the survey or experiment
strategies where the researches, for instance, keen to explore the changes or
behaviour of the subject matter over the period of time. This research
however adopted a cross-sectional study on a specific phenomenon, in this
case to provide the „snapshot‟ of the QCS in Celcom at a particular time. This
type of study was adopted in the case study strategies due to the limitation of
the available time to perform the study for the dissertation. Although Saunders
et al. (2009) suggest that the study may use both quantitative and qualitative
data collection methods, this study however was conducted using only
qualitative data from in-depth interviews and document and system review.

3.5 Data Collection

Patton (2002) explains that the most common sources of qualitative

data include interviews, observations and document reviews. In agreement
with Yin (2009) that a good case study uses multiple sources of evidence, the
source of data collection for this study were interview and document and
system review.

3.5.1 Interview

Since this research is based on a qualitative research, an interview

session is found to be the best data collection method. The interviews are
particularly useful and important to access the actual story from the
participant‟s experiences. According to McNamara (1999), by having an
interview in the research study the interviewer can pursue in-depth
information around the topic. In fact, the qualitative research interviews are

21
 able to understand the interviewees‟ point of view and also to uncover the
meaning of their experiences (Kvale, 1996). It is also regarded as one of the
oldest and most widely used research technique in the social science
(Coleman & Briggs, 2007).

Generally, the interviews can be divided into two categories: unstructured

interview and semi-structured interview. The unstructured interview uses
open-ended questions with the management respondents, so that they are
able to critically respond and express their ideas related to the QCS in
Celcom. In this research study, in-depth interviews also known as convergent
interview (Dick, 1998) were conducted with a small number of respondents to
explore and reveal their perspective and personal experiences within the
research area (Boyce & Neale, 2006). This approach of interview allows
respondents to have a more friendly conversation than structured data
gathering interview (Seidman, 1991). On the other hand, the semi-structured
interview uses more close-ended questions with the technical respondents.
For a comparative study between the management and the technical point of
view, some open-ended questions used in the unstructured interview are
included in the semi-structured interview.

3.5.2 Design of Interview

This study used unstructured convergent and semi-structured interview

as the one of the data collection methods. Stakeholders or respondent
represent the management, executive and technical staff who involve in the
cycle of the project management processes were selected. They were
selected from managers and executives in the Project Management Office
(PMO), managers from Network Planning and Implementation Department
(NPI), managers and engineers from Network Product Support Department
(NPS) and manager, engineers and technicians in the Value Added Services
Operation Department (VAS).

As part of the procedure in conducting this research, ethic approval

was obtained from the Ethic Committee. The ethic approval outlines the title
and purpose of the study, plan of the study, confidentiality plan and risk
planning together with the invitation email and respondent information sheet.

22
Hammersley & Traiarou (2012) describe commonly recognised principles of
ethic as to minimize harm, respecting autonomy, protecting privacy, offering
reciprocity and treating people equitably during the research.

The invitation email (approved by the ethic committee) was sent to the
Human Resources Department (HRD) requesting to conduct a case study.
The HRD then provided relevant respondents according to the expertise and
availability on the proposed schedule. The ice-breaking session then been
organized to introduce the research and also to show gratitude to the
respondents for their cooperation and time. During the session, respondents
were told that the purpose of the study is to explore and understand the QCS
in project management processes in Celcom‟s system engineering projects.
All respondents will be kept confidential and the interview responses will only
be shared with the module leader and the examiners. All the responses given
will not be shared with other parties without prior consent from the
respondents. nt – All respondents were then requested to sign off the
interview consent form should they agree with all the conditions.

Each interview session last between 40 minutes and an hour. The

interviews were conducted in face-to-face individual session at multiple
locations. One of the interviews was conducted over lunch, one was in the
comfort of his own house while other interviews were conducted in the
reserved meeting room in Celcom‟s office. This method was chosen base on
the respondent preferred location. It has embarked the freedom of discussion
for all of the respondents and also reduced the barrier between the
interviewer and the respondent. The interview sessions were recorded on two
different audio recorders (for backup purpose, in case one of the recorders
went wrong), while the interviewer also making a short note. The respondents
were encouraged to have free conversation, so that the interviewer will not
miss any critical information. The sessions were conducted in a very relax,
informal environment which allowed respondent to freely express their
emotion as well as answering the question at their own pace and style. For
the benefit of the respondent, interview sessions were conducted on their
preferred language and in this case most of them preferred Malay language,
while some opted for a mixture of Malay and English. Respondents were

23
allowed to ask any questions for further clarification during the interview
session.

Interview questions were design to gain in-depth information about the

QCS practice in Celcom. The questions were centred on the involvement of
QCS in the project management, challenges of implementing QCS,
organization support for QCS, the benefits of QCS, impact of QCS and to
identify any future improvement of QCS. To obtain these information, basic
question were designed as a guide. By using convergent interview, open-
ended questions were supported by additional questions during the interview
session whenever required to gain additional information from interviewee.
Below are the basic questions prepared for the interview session:

 Can you explain your involvement in project management?

 What is your view of QCS in project management?
 Do you have QCS in your project management processes? Can
you further explain QCS method adopted by your organization?
 How do you implement QCS in your project management?
 What challenges do you have in implementing QCS in project
management?
 How do you make sure that QCS setup by the organization is fully
implemented by the project management team?
 What benefits do you think you may have gained from implementing
QCS in project management?
 How do you think the current QCS helps improve your project
management processes and project implementation?
 Do you have support from your organization in implementing QCS
in project management?
 Do you think that your current QCS need to be improved? If so,
what improvement will you suggest?

These interview questions were design to gain information about the

QCS implemented in Celcom, then obtain information that will contribute to
conclude the benefits and impacts of QCS in the project management
practices.

24
3.5.3 Profile of Respondents

Respondents were selected by HRD based on the criteria defined in

the invitation email. Selected respondents represent Celcom‟s employee who
directly and indirectly involve in the project management activities. Due to the
small department size, only one manager was selected to represent PMO.
PMO provide external support to the project team in term of advice, additional
support, control and monitoring as well as the project regulatory body. One
manager and one senior engineer were selected from NPI department. This
department dealt with initiating, implementing and monitoring the project. One
manager, three senior engineers were selected from NPS department. This
department dealt with managing projects from the implementation point of
view. Finally, one manager, one senior engineer and two operation
technicians were selected from VAS department. This department dealt with
the day-to-day operational system matters.

3.5.4 Document and System Review

To support the exploratory research method, document and system

review has also been done to further understand and verify data collected
from interview sessions. It is also served to ensure the trustworthiness of the
interview (Glesne, 1999). Selected documents related to project
implementation and quality control has been examined. These documents
provided additional information on the QCS as well as procedures and project
management activities related to QCS. Some of the documents are as
follows:

Stage-Gating system document: Document that review the project

management method for Celcom.

Project log book: document that review project activities.

Handover document: document that review handover activities from

PID and NPS to VAS department.

In addition to the document review, system review has also been done.
Celcom are using online Gating System to control and track all gate

25
 processes and activities. This online system also acts as the quality control
mechanism for the implementation of a project.

Due to the organization policy and request from respondents, copies of

document and system review will not be included in this dissertation.
However, references will be provided for any citation.

3.6 Data Analysis

Sikes (2001) summarize data analysis as a means of making sense of,

or interpreting the data. It is also an activity to search for patterns in data
(Neuman, 1997). Qualitative case study as in this research usually consists of
multiple resources of data. During this stage, data from multiple resources are
than converged in the analysis process rather than handled individually
(Baxter & Jack, 2008). Data analysis, according to Yin (2009) consists of
examining, categorizing, tabulating, testing or otherwise recombining both
quantitative and qualitative evidence to address the initial proposition of a
study. Creswell (2009: p.183) describe the data analysis process as “making
sense out of text and image data”.

As for this study data analysis were conducted using Creswell model
as shown in Figure 3.2.

26
Figure 3.2: Creswell Model of Data Analysis

Source: Adopted from Creswell (2009)

Using Creswell model, interview data and Celcom‟s internal documents

were processed in following steps:

Step 1. Organize and prepare data for analysis. At this stage, collected
documents were selected and numbered. Interview audio were transcribed
and translated into English and save into word document. Field notes were
also typed into word document.

Step 2. Read through all the data. The next step was to read all data from
different sources identified in the first step. This was to get the general idea of
what the interviewees were saying and critical information from related
documents. In this step, data collected from interview sessions were cross

27
 referenced against the internal documents and system to validate the
information.

Step 3. Coding process. The interview transcriptions, field notes and selected
documents were coded and segmented using Nvivo as recommended by
Sloan (2011). For example the first interview with NPS manager was coded
as “180213/INT/Int01”. This coding of categories is absolutely critical for
reliability and generalizability of research finding (Schachter & Gass, 1996;
Polio & Gass, 1997).

Step 4. Generate themes and Description. Two themes were created using
the pattern matching method (Yin, 2009) across the interview data from
different groups with different functionality in Celcom. The themes then were
cross referenced with the documents review for better triangulation of data.
The two themes, namely aspect of QCS and the impact of QCS were then
used to answer the main research question.

Step 5. Interrelating themes and description. Based on the two themes

identified in the above step, a narrative passage of discussion was created to
convey the finding. Aspect of QCS contains discussion about the view of
QCS, challenges in implementing QCS, advantages and challenges in
implementing QCS and organizational support for QCS. The impact of QCS
contains discussion about the impact of QCS to the project, people,
organization, industry and customers.

Step 6. Interpretation of the meaning of themes. In the final step, result of the
finding were discussed to the relevant theory and literature presented earlier
in the dissertation. The discussion also concluded some recommendation
identified during interview sessions.

3.7 Conclusion

This chapter presented the approach and philosophy selected for the
research. The Research Onion by Saunders et al. (2009) was chosen in
designing the research. Data collection using interview and document review
were also explained in detail. Finally, the chapter discussed the data analysis

28
method and model in which this research adopted Creswell (2009) Data
Analysis Model.

29
4.0 FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

4.1 Introduction

The previous chapter discussed and reviewed research methodology,

research philosophy and research plan. An exploratory case study with data
collection using convergent interview and document/system review was
selected for this research.

This chapter reports and interprets finding from the analyzed data. As a
starting point, the context of the organization is discussed, and then the
findings related to the implementation of QCS in system engineering project
management processes are presented and discussed. Finally, this chapter
concludes the findings by answering the research question and discussing
some of the general recommendations on the opportunities for improvements.

4.2 The Case Context – Celcom

Celcom is the oldest and one of the largest telecommunication service

providers in Malaysia. Formerly known as Celcom (Malaysia) Berhad, Celcom
is now a subsidiary of Axiata Group, one of the largest telecommunication
companies in Asia. Celcom provide most of the mobile services such as
mobile voice services (both postpaid and prepaid), mobile broadband,
enterprise solution, m-commerce and bulk wholesale services.

4.2.1 System Engineering Services

The context of this research is limited to the system engineering

services which consist of product development and network division. These
two divisions are the main divisions involved in developing system
engineering to provide platform for products and services in Celcom. Based
on recommendation from HRD, representatives from the following
departments were selected to be involved in the study:

Network Planning and Implementation Department (NPI) – This

department is responsible for transforming a service request from product
division into a service platform that provide services to customers. As the

30
 owner of the project, this department are responsible in designing and
implementing system engineering services according to requirements
provided by the user.

Network Product Support Department (NPS) – This department is

represented as the „middleman‟ between NPI and VAS department. The
main responsibility of this department is to provide technical support and
knowledge to the NPI throughout project implementation. Additionally,
NPS is also responsible to ensure that operational requirements from VAS
are incorporated into the development specification of the system.

Project Management Office (PMO) – This department involves in providing

organizational support and project monitoring to the project management
team. PMO will be monitoring the project management processes through
an online gating system to ensure that all processes comply with the
organizational project management methodology.

Value Added Services Operation Department (VAS) – This department will

be the „care taker‟ of the system developed by the NPI and NPS. VAS is
responsible for the day-to-day operational support activities of the system.
Additionally, VAS is also participating to assist NPS in project
implementation by providing operational knowledge and support.

4.2.2 Project Management Methodology

For many years Celcom had been using internal project management
method for the development of system engineering services. Project manager
were given total control over the project. Alternatively, there were also
projects implemented using third parties or vendor specific project
management methodology. In early 2000 Celcom started to adopt Stage-gate
system into their project management. Due to a lack of knowledge and
awareness about the methodology, responses were very poor. Project
managers were found to avoid implementing the method or selectively
utilizing some of the stages while missing others out completely. In the fourth
quarter of 2010, after realizing the importance of having an organization-wide
standard for project management methodology, Celcom has re-evaluated the

31
 Stage-gate system and has given serious consideration to employing the
methodology in all projects throughout the organization.

4.2.3 Stage-Gate Project Management Methodology

Stage-gate model in Celcom was adopted from Motorola‟s M-Gate

model. Embracing Six-Sigma philosophy, Motorola introduced 16 gates
method, grouped in 5 phases named M-Gates Model. Figure 4.1 summarize
Motorola‟s M-Gate Model.

Figure 4.1: Motorola M-Gates Model

Source: Motorola (2013)

Celcom is one of Motorola‟s customers that benefited from M-Gates

model. Following the successful implementation of projects using M-Gates
method, and clear benefits of the method such as shorter times to lunch,
fewer mistake, less recycling and rework in the process (Cooper, 1990) and
better control has triggered Celcom to look into extending this method in other
projects. A committee to oversee and further explore the method has been set
up. The method then was improvised to integrate with their existing in-house
method and finally introduced Celcom 9 stages Stage-gate model (Celcom,
2010). Figure 4.2 represent Celcom‟s 9 Stages Stage-gate Model.

32
 Figure 4.2: Celcom Stage-gate Model

Source: Adopted from Celcom (2010)

4.2.4 Online Stage-Gate System

Celcom‟s Stage-gate system was a fully manual system when it was

introduced. All processes in every gate were documented in a hardcopy,
paper based system. All approval and comments were processed on the
paper based documents. This document then travelled across the
organization during the approval process.

Realizing the complexity of paper based system, Celcom then

introduced online Stage-gate system in the first quarter of 2011. The
introduction of online system was aimed to overcome the challenges in the
manual system. In addition to digitization of the model, additional functionality
such as centralized documentation, resource management and online project
control has been added into the model to improve the quality of the project
processes. The online system also represented as the QCS for the Stage-
gate system.

4.3 Interview Discussion

The previous section discussed the context of the study. More details
about the organization structure and people involved in this study are
explained. In this section, the aim is to provide an interpretation of the data
collected using interviews and document and system review.

33
4.3.1 View of QCS

When participants were asked about their view and understanding

about QCS in project management there were mixed responses between the
management and technical employees. All four management participants
demonstrated similar understanding of QCS in project management. One of
the managers describes the QCS in project management as:

“... QCS in this case should be how do you control and make
sure all of your project management activities, or some people may call
it all project management processes are being implemented or being
executed as it should be and according to what has been agreed and
documented”.

In contrary, QCS may seem to be a new knowledge area to the lower

level staff due to the level of involvement in the quality control activities. One
of the respondents was unable to response to the question about QCS, while
the other respondent demonstrated the understanding of QCS as:

“I think QCS is something to do with quality control. But, since

we do not involve in this QCS, I don’t think we really need to know
more detail about this. At our level, we just do what is told to be done.
QCS usually, I believed should be done and handle by Quality
Department.”

The middle executive however provided better understanding about

QCS in project management processes. Their understanding however
seemed to be more of an interpretation of quality control activities such as a
response from one of the executive:

“I know QCS is all about quality control. It’s how you do your job,
in this case project management as what are being told to do. There
must be someone or system that controls the activities and makes sure
this is happening”

This response is due to the fact that these middle executives are so
called the executor in the project management team. They are also directly
involved as the subject matter for the QCS activities. These mix responses

34
 are in agreement with Chinni (2011) and Rose (2005) that stakeholders might
have inadequate level of knowledge about QCS.

4.3.2 QCS in Practice

Most of the participants somehow believed that quality control exist

within the project management in every project they have implemented. It is
however, difficult to measure the extent of quality control applied in the
previous projects when there were no specific or standard QCS in place. All
quality control activities are managed by the project manager. According to
one of the participants:

“...it is part and parcel of the project. Some team member does not
aware of the quality control activities, but the project manager usually does. It
is may be that there were no specific or documented QCS if you would like to
say exist. Everything is control by the project manager. Sometimes we are
just did not realize it, but it is happening, I mean the quality control.”

70% of respondents agree that since the implementation of the Stage-

gate system, the quality control can be clearly seen from the project
management activities. The subsequent 30% were unable to agree as their
involvement are only in the project management activities, and are not in the
quality control activities. In fact, one of the technical respondents, agreed on
the existence of QCS in Celcom project. At the lower level process,
technicians may not see the quality control activities as a specific system as
one says:

“We have to follow the checklist, not only follow them but also have to
record everything and report them to the project management team. Some
time we were called into the meeting to verify certain information we recorded.
This must be to control the quality of implementation.”

When the online Stage-gate system was introduced, the QCS is now
embedded into the system. The online system has become the official QCS in
every project implementation. The approval for each stage has to be done
through the online system. The system will not allow the project to move to
the next stage without approval from every process owner in the current

35
 stage. The approval process also has been made stricter when project owner
has to submit and endorse every activity online before they are able to
approve their process in any particular stage. This online system has made
every process owner fully responsible for their processes. They have to make
sure that all activities in their processes is done according to specification
documented in the system as these activities can also be viewed by other
process owner in the system.

This online system also allows Stage-gate committee and PMO to

monitor and control the project. They will „red flag‟ any of the processes that
do not meet project requirements. Red flag is also given when the process
does not meet the agreed timeline (Celcom, 2010). This red flag will be seen
by all process owners. According to one of the participants:

“You have to be fully alert of the red flag. When you got red flagged,
everybody will know that it is you the culprit in the project. You better be fast
to resolve the issue before it goes up to the next level”.

4.3.3 Challenges in Implementing QCS

As the QCS is considered a built in system in the Stage-gate project

management methodology, the challenges of implementing QCS lies in the
challenges in implementing the Stage-gate system itself.

During the initial stage of implementing the Stage-gate system, when

everything was done using the paper based system, QCS is found to be very
hard to be implemented. System engineering project involves many
departments with hundreds of processes. As all the participants agreed that it
was almost impossible to employ the same standard of quality in a project
with the involvement of multiple departments, as one interviewee says:

“...you know that for example in one project we will usually involve
people and processes from many departments; planning, operation, customer
service, network operation, product development and a few more. How could
do you think is possible to maintain the same quality among them. It is not.
Always it is depend to the process owner how to implement and control the
quality of the execution on their own part. Project manager often does not

36
know and sometime does not even want to know how they control their
quality. Even if they wish to control, most of the time they can’t. It’s not his/her
department, and not his/her people.”

Most of the participants agreed that the biggest challenge is the

knowledge of the Stage-gate system itself. As a newly implemented system,
awareness is always the main issue. Even though a series of workshops had
been organized to increase the awareness of the system, many departments
show a lack of both understanding and desire to follow the process. Some of
them are not ready to use the Stage-gate system. They seemed very
comfortable with the status quo despite facing many difficulties. Sometime the
demand of the project and the number of project does not allow them to risk
trying a new system. Past efforts at improvement with unexpected result also
contributed to the resistance. These concerns are also shared by Rose
(2011).

The other challenge pointed out by the participants is, the new Stage-
gate system has yet to be enforced as a mandatory project management
method across the organization. Without the enforcement, people have the
choice to adapt or reject the system. This situation has sometime caused a
big issue for the project manager. One interviewee quote:

“In a certain situation, a project manager could has a project

implemented using different methods. He/she might be using Stage-gate
method on his/her end, but might be having different method on the other end
by different process owner. As a project manager you cannot enforce other
department that involve in your project to use the Stage-system if they are not
willing to do so. So, when this happen, it is become more difficult to control
the quality of the project when they are being implemented using many
different project management style. It is very much depending on the process
owner on the other end to control its own quality of their processes.”

In realizing these challenges, the Stage-gate committee proposed the

development of online Stage-gate system. The implementation of the online
system with the embedded QCS has significantly increased the quality of
project implementation. The system awareness program to increase the

37
 knowledge and support also contributed to the success implementation of the
system. The various benefits of using this online system have also
encouraged many new project implementations moved into using the Stage-
gate system as their project management method. At the time this study was
conducted, the benefits of the Stage-gate system have been spreading
throughout the organization and up to top management, and the method is
believed to be soon rolled-out as the mandatory project management method
across the organization.

4.3.4 Advantages and Disadvantages of QCS

All of participants agree that Stage-gate system (with embedded QCS)

present more advantages over disadvantages. In general, they concluded that
project with Stage-gate system are much more manageable compare to
project without it.

Participants agree that accountability is the key benefit of the system.

By using this online system, all process owners‟ responsibility is recorded and
monitored online by the gate committee as well as the PMO. Each process
can easily be traced to the process owner at any point of time during the
project life cycle (Celcom, 2010). This in the end, will provide the
accountability to the overall project not only its own process as stated by one
of the respondent:

“Accountability, that is the key word. So, when there is sign off that’s
mean the bosses are also responsible, as well as the working level,
because the sign off is from the top all the way to the deployment team.
So, there is no such things as if there is anything happen for example
you said the forecast is x amount, x million dollars when we launch the
project, but in reality when we review at the gate 3, the performance is
such and such, why? With the online gating system we can track
whose failure...”

Online Stage-gate system provides clear and better process and

people management. Every process is clearly defined at every stage. This
process will then be mapped or assigned to the responsible process owner in
the system. All activities for every process will be linked to the processes.
38
Tracking and tracing are much easier using this online system. Project sign off
represent an agreement of responsibility between the process owner and the
project team. PMO and gate committee are able to easily trace an activity, a
process or an owner via the system. With a few clicks, they are able to find a
failed process and the responsible owner (Celcom, 2010). Project audit is also
made easier with this clearly define process and people. This feature also
helps project the manager to easily establish project management team. The
system provides the ability to search and assign project team members using
pre-registered database of expertise.

Online Stage-gate system provides extensive project documentation.

One of the key benefits in this area is the shared documentation. In the
previous method documentation is handled individually by every process
owner, except for the master project document held by the project manager.
By using this online system, every document that relates to the project in
every stage, process and activity will be registered into the system. All users
are able to access the document depending on their access level granted by
the gate committee. However, there are interview participants that pointed out
the disadvantage of the level of documentation in the system. They believed
that the system caused excessive documentation particularly in small projects
as quoted by one of the interviewee:

“Sometime I think in certain projects it seems that documentation is

much more important than completing the project in time. Sometime I
spent more time preparing and completing the documentation than
executing activities and processes”

In contrary, another interviewee said that the level of required

documentation is controlled by the project team during project initiation stage.
They have to make the right decision on the level of required documentation
depending on the project requirements.

Interview participants provided mixed responses about the project

duration using the online system. For a big and complex project, this system
helps to improve overall implementation duration significantly. This is due to
the complexity of the project in term of requirements, people and

39
 documentations are being handled and established at the beginning of the
project. Once the project has been signed off, everyone is responsible to
execute the process and schedule agreed in the system. Problems or
deviation during the implementation will be monitored and controlled by the
gate committee and PMO using the automatic alarm functionality. Respondent
however pointed out that for some of the small projects, this system has
caused project delay. The time spent on requirement and documentation is
believed to be inappropriate especially for the add-hock market demand
project where project duration is the priority over the processes. The project
has to be ready in a certain time to cope with the market demand or to win
over the customers against the competitors.

Collectively, all respondents agreed to conclude that online gating

system is the way to move forward based on various advantages to the
project. One interviewee summarized the advantages of online Stage-gate
system as:

“As I mentioned earlier, project using gating system are very

clear and clean. Accountability and tracking using online system is
easy. Now everyone is aware of the project. Transition of the
processes is much better. Support from the stakeholders is also much
better. All in all, it is a bit rigid at the beginning, but once you get
everyone in place, implementation is much better. It’s well
documented, and everyone is on the same page. Online approval
saves lot of times, less face-to-face meeting and also more paperless.”

4.3.5 Organizational Support to QCS

In agreement to Liu et al. (2010), respondent agreed that

organizational support to project performance is vital and as support for QCS
at this point of time is very positive. They however believed a lot more need to
be done to get the full support from top management to endorse the online
gate system as the mandatory project management method across the
organization. Almost all top managements are aware and realized the benefits
of having the online system. They however believed that the awareness
program as well as education and training need to be increased to spreading

40
 the knowledge of the system prior to the endorsement as recommended by
Brown et al. (2007). In the telecommunication industry with very high demand
for fast moving projects, management are reluctant to introduce a new system
into the organization without a proper transition and risking losing their
customers.

At the time this study was conducted, the gate committee are still
running the online Stage-gate system awareness program a cross the
organization. Current project commitment and limited resources are however
believed to be the stumbling block to the success of the awareness program.

4.4 Findings and Results

The previous section interprets and presents the results based on the
data collected from interview sessions and document/system review. This
section will present the researcher‟s findings on answering the primary
research question on the impact of QCS in the project management practices.
This exploratory study has managed to explore the implementation of QCS in
system engineering project, particularly in Celcom Axiata (Malaysia). Overall,
the findings of this study acknowledge the significant impact of QCS in the
project management practices in Celcom.

In the previous section, the study presented that QCS in Celcom does
not exist as a standalone independent system. It is a built-in system
embedded with the Stage-gate project methodology. Contrary to the
conventional QCS where quality control activities are part of the processes in
the project management (Eisner, 2008), Celcom has move one step forward
by introducing online QCS that embedded project management method. All
project activities and processes are registered online into the system.

Although the QCS is still considered as a new and in the early stage of
implementation, positive responses from all research participants has itself
demonstrated the level of acceptance of the system in the organization. They
have seen various benefits since the introduction of the online Stage-gate
system. It has been accepted at all levels that the online system has provided

41
 a clear, smooth and faster project implementation, and is in line with the
purpose of QCS.

Base on the previous discussion on the implementation of QCS, it can

be concluded that QCS has brought significant impact into the project
management practices in Celcom. It does not only improve the process in the
project but also present positive impact to the people involved in the project,
the organization, industry and in the end the customers.

4.4.1 Impact to the Project

As discussed earlier, QCS has significantly improved project

implementation. Setting up a project team has been made much easier for the
project manager. It can be done by selecting all team members for respective
process owner directly from the system which has pre-registered specialists
from across the organization. The system provides clear and precise step-by-
step processes through the Stage-gate method. Approval is also made easy
and faster with online approval process as well as online documentation for
quicker review and tracking. The use of „red flag‟ mechanism as the alarm to
the process owner has proven to increase awareness among the process
owner.

4.4.2 Impact to the People (resources)

QCS has also proven in fostering the effective usage of resources

(people) in the project and in the organization. Based on the data collected,
managing resources is no longer the burden of the project manager alone.
Finding the right people for the right processes can now be done online
without having the project manager going around the organization looking for
project team members. Resource management by the top management can
also be done via this system. Stakeholders are able to manage the resource
utilization, resource movement as well as resource requirement with this
online system.

4.4.3 Impact to the Organization

The data collected shows a very clear impact of the online QCS to the
organization. Even though the system has only been fully implemented on a
42
 number of projects, the top management has started to see the benefits and
are taking a serious consideration in turning the system into a mandatory
project management methodology. Commitment from senior stakeholders in
getting involved in the improvement of the system itself represents a positive
move in supporting the implementation of the online QCS. This finding is in
agreement with many previous studies which suggested that top management
support to be most important for project success (Young & Jordan, 2008;
Garrity, 1963; Markus, 1981; Schmidt et al., 2001). All in all, a better project
implementation with better resource management will allow organization to
carry out more projects which in the end leads to increase number of services
offered to the customers. As a result, this will greatly contribute to the
increase of revenue for the organization.

4.4.4 Impact to the Industry

. The successful implementation of QCS in Celcom may perhaps

provide additional input to the impact of QCS in telecom project management,
particularly in Malaysia. However, this single case study with a small sample
size, caution must be applied, as the findings might not be able to be used to
generalize the impact to the telecom industry. Further study in this area with
multiple cases within different telecom organization may provide better
conclusion on the impact to the industry.

4.4.5 Impact to the Customers

Customers represent the end of the chain reaction impact of the QCS
in telecom system engineering project. An improved project always produces
a better system which in the end will provide better services to the customers.
Base on the response from the research participants, there are many cases
where customers have had to migrate to another provider due to poor
services. Poor services are always believed to be a representation of poor
product from a poor project. In the telecom industry as similar to other service
industries, customer satisfaction is always a representation of a good product
that comes from good project.

43
4.5 Recommendations for Future Improvement

In the previous section the findings has been presented based on the
result of the study to support the literature review discussed in the earlier
chapter. In this section, some general recommendations are made based on
the result of the study and input given by the respondents. As a newly
implemented system, QCS has yet to reach it maturity and still require some
fine tuning to conform to the organization expectations. The gate committee
are also extensively looking into improvement of the system. Various activities
are currently running and have been planned in the process.

According to the interviews and document/system review, it is found

that the process owner holds full responsibility on processes. At this time, only
the process owner has access to the system. The process owner is not only
responsible to approve the processes at the stage but also liable to review
every activities in that particular process as well as to provide and upload all
necessary documentations into the system to support the approval process.
This process however can be improved to reduce the workload of the process
owner. Access to the system could be extended to the project team member
of a particular process to support the process owner in the approval process.
For example, document review and upload could be delegated to the team
members from time to time once the activity has been completed. This will not
only reduce the workload of the process owner but also help to expedite the
approval process.

During the study it was discovered that there were no sufficient

documentation about this online system. The fact that the online QCS system
is an internal development system may have cause the management to
overlook the important of having proper system documentation. It is
recommended that the complete documentation of the system to be produced
and made available and easily accessible by the members of staff. The
documentation and the awareness program will help improve the knowledge
of the system among the team members.

Another area of improvement identified is to increase the flexibility of

the system. Base on the interview results, the system flexibility is required to

44
 match the complexity of the project, so that the system can be used for both
high complexity projects as well as for the small and fast moving projects. At
the time of this study, the online system also has yet to cover processes for
stage 3 to stage 1, which involve post project review. At this part, it is believed
that some artificial intelligent (AI) is needed to be incorporated into the system
for the decision support process. During this stage, a system performance
and market review will be done to provide data for management to decide on
the future of the project.

It is also highlighted that the committee still needs to improve and

decide on the empowerment process between the gate committee, PMO and
project management team. On the organization level, the gate committee
should be working hard to convince the stakeholders and top management to
endorse this online QCS as a mandatory project requirement across the
organization. Currently, some departments and divisions are reluctant to use
this online QCS for their project on the basis of insufficient knowledge and
unwillingness risking their projects with this new system. The awareness
program has to be carried on while continue to promote the benefits of the
system to the top management by highlighting the success stories of projects
successfully completed using the online QCS.

4.6 Conclusion

This chapter presented the discussion of collected data, findings and

conclusions. The results of the study are also discussed in comparison to the
literature review in the earlier chapter. The chapter then concluded that QCS
is still considered new in the telecom project management, particularly in
system engineering project implementation in Celcom. Various benefits have
been identified throughout the life cycle of the project. Despite a great deal of
benefits, organizations are also facing numerous hurdles and challenges to
introduce the system mainly due to the behavioural resistant and status quo.
Due to the limited availability of such system in the industry, Celcom has
taken its own initiative to develop an in-house online QCS and has
successfully implemented it in a number of new systems engineering project

45
implementation in the past two years. Finally the chapter conclude with some
general recommendations to improve the system.

46
5.0 CONCLUSION

The previous chapter interpreted and presented findings based on the

results of the data collection. Some general recommendations were also
made on the possible improvement for the online QCS. This chapter will
provide an overall conclusion of the study in reflection to the research
question and the literature review. This chapter will also highlight some
limitation and strength of the study. Finally, recommendation and suggestion
for future research in this area will be discussed.

5.1 Strength and Limitation of the Study

In the industry where QCS is perceived as a new process in the project

management, this study produced results which corroborate the findings of a
great deal of the previous work in this field by Yaseen and El-Marashy (1989)
that QCS is still a developing area in telecom industry. This study,
incorporated convergent interview and document/system review provides an
insight in-depth of the QCS practices in the organization. This study has also
proved that a good QCS with a proper implementation can significantly
improve the project management practices. In the end, it will help achieve the
project goals: to complete a project as per requirements, at a given time,
within the allocated budget to the expected quality. The result of the research
may also provide some ground information for future study in this area,
particularly in Malaysian telecom industry.

Finally, a number of important limitations need to be considered. The

most important limitation lies in the fact that this is a single case study,
findings are limited to only one organization and the result cannot therefore be
generalizeable to represent the whole telecom industry. The other limitation is
the available time to perform this study is less than six months. More detail
research with various methods as recommended by Yin (2009) and Saunders
et al. (2009) could not be done within the limited available time.

47
5.2 Recommendations and Suggestions for Future Research

The limitation of this study together with difficulties in finding previous

research in this industry in Malaysia has widely opened the windows for future
research in this area. Multiple case studies in organizations within the
industry will provide better conclusion and generalization of the subject
matter. On top of that, this study could benefit from additional sources of data
by using personal observation during the project implementation to verify the
data collected from interview and document/system reviews. Observation
provides real production data and less bias compare to interview which is
based on the participant knowledge and interpretation.

5.3 Conclusion

It has been proven that QCS helps significantly improve the product
quality, particularly in manufacturing industry (Dale, et al, 2007). Meanwhile,
in the services industry QCS is still considerably new with limited choices of
standardized system in the market (Zwikael and Globerson, 2007). Telecom
industry as suggested in the literature review is also part of the services
industry that is looking into QCS to produce a better product and services to
their customers.

Findings from this study are very much in line with the literature review.
It is concluded that Celcom is implementing online QCS to support their
Stage-gate project methodology. Although the system was only implemented
two years ago, results from collected data show that QCS has brought a
significant impact into system engineering project management practices.
Furthermore, the study concluded that QCS presented various benefits to the
people, organization, industry as well as the customers as the end users
despite considerable hurdles and challenges.

This study explored that QCS, particularly in complex and big projects
implementation produce better products (projects) by providing clear and
smooth projects execution. Embedded with the Stage-gate method, QCS
provides the benefits of better requirement study, easier project team
establishment, fast and efficient online approval, extensive documentation,
48
better control and monitoring and the most important of all provides
accountability among the project team as well as the stakeholders. However,
it is also concluded that despite various benefits of the system, the
organization are going through numerous hurdles and challenges in
implementing QCS particularly in the behavioural concerns toward the new
system.

49
List of Abbreviations

1G First Generation Cellular Network

2G Second Generation Cellular Network
3G Third Generation Cellular Network
4G Fourth Generation Cellular Network
AI Artificial Intelligent
AMPS Advanced Mobile Phone Services
ATUR Automatic Telephone Using Radio
HRD Human Resources Department
ISO International Organization for Standardization
IT Information Technology
J-TACS Japanese Total Access Communication System
MMS Multimedia Messaging Services
NMT Nordic Mobile Telephony
NPI Network Planning and Implementation
NPS Network Product Support
OGC Office of Government Commerce
PMI Project Management Institute
PMO Project Management Office
PMS Project Management Support
PRINCE2 Project in Control Environment
PROPS Project for Project Management
QCS Quality Control System
QoS Quality of Services
SMS Short Messaging System
TACS Total Access Communication System
VAS Value Added Services
WAP Wireless Application Protocol

50
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