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Ravi Jain

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Ravi Jain

Assistant Project Manager

BMM ISPAT LTD

Brief description about me

My name is Ravi Jain. I am a B.E. from BITS-Pilani and have an MBA from GITAM School of International Business. I have been working as an Asst. Manager - Projects in BMM ISPAT LTD. for the past 2 years. We are setting up an Integrated Steel Plant of 2 MTPA capacity which will make us the 2nd largest Steel Plant in South India.

I work here in the Project Planning & Monitoring Team. The primary responsibility of my team is to plan & monitor the Engineering, Procurement, Supply & Construction Deliverables of a Project. I manage 7 people under me in the planning, design & implementation of our in-house monitoring tool - BMM INFOCENTER.

Challenges in job

Project Management in India is a very nascent concept. It is based only on the Project Manager's experience. PMBOK guidelines are not known and not followed. No standard guidelines or rules or policies exist. Monitoring Plans are not clearly defined and there is a lack of trained professionals. Even, standard software packages like PRIMAVERA P6 or MS Project are not used efficiently. There is no proper resource or budget planning.

The major challenges I face arise due to the above stated facts. People are hesitant to embrace standard Project Management Guidelines. They are afraid of change. So, creating awareness about the advantages of our work, making people accept them and extracting their support is the major challenge my team faces.

Job made easy

1. PMBOK has a very clearly defined framework and can be applied to any type of project. This makes my planning easier.

2. PRIMAVERA is a very extensive software package and PERT/CPM, Resource Planning, Budgeting are made very easy using this. It is expensive though.

3. My team has evolved a lot over the past 2 years and I can proudly say that none of my guys have left the company in the last two years. So, I need not train new people every few months and it helps me to use my time for other productive works.

Upcoming Trends

1. Increased awareness about Project Management education & certification and PM as a career.

    2. Increasing costs has forced Project Managers to embrace new tools for Schedule & Budget Management.

    3. PM has always been looked upon as having triple-constraints - Time, Cost, Scope. This is slowly changing. Project Managers are understanding the importance of Risk Management & Communications Management in a Project.

    4. Technical Expertise was always considered a must for Project Management. This is slowly changing as need is arising for more people with HR, HSE & Finance professionals.

My point of view

I don't believe that India is booming with technical talent. I would not consider a person working for a software company to be technically talented. Yes, we have talent but in little numbers. The major work being done in IT companies is QA or Testing. I would say the problem lies in our course curriculum. Students are still taught very primitive technologies in college. There are no courses on recent R&Ds or advancement in technologies. We use a touch-phone but don't know the technology behind it. We need 3G/4G connections but never understand what they actually are. We are still stuck up with C or C++ or Java codes.

In the non-IT sector, comes the same problem. Students are taught that water is converted to steam and power is generated but they are never taken to visit Power Plants. The technology of a Power Plant is not that simple. It can't be explained using a text-book. I don't think even 25% of Mechanical/Civil/Electrical graduates land in their core jobs. They mostly end up in IT.

My goal

I want to be an expert in the field of Project Management in the next 5 years. My ambition is to have a Ph.D in Project Monitoring Techniques.

family background

I am a native of Ratangarh, Rajasthan but I've spent my entire life in Srikakulam, Andhra Pradesh which I call my Home-town. My father Mr. Sushil Kumar Jain is a trader in Steel & Cement and my mother, Anju Jain teaches Professional English. I have two siblings Akash & Disha.

Advice to professionals

Project Management is very new field in India. You may learn PERT or CPM or GANTT charts but that is not the entire PM even though you may be forced to believe so. Read the PMBOK by PMI and follow the framework wherever you can. Keep yourself abreast with the latest trends & development in the field. Plan for certifications like CAPM, PMP etc. Even though you may be a technical guy make your financial concepts good and be a good salesman of your ideas.

Advice to students

Be serious about the case-study teaching. Concentrate particularly on Finance courses even though they may be boring. Read lots of Newspapers. Follow the country's macro-economic indicators. Learn about new tools & techniques. Apply for memberships of Associations because student memberships are considerably cheaper. Build-up your network of friends and acquaintances.