IT Project Management for Aviation & Tourism Industry

CityU EngD cohorts were honor to be invited by Dr. Walter Fung (Former vice-chairman, CityU EngD Society) to attend the Forum named "IT Project Management for Aviation & Tourism Industry from Managerial Perspective". The Forum was organized by Department of Computing, PolyU and PolyU-Yonyou Joint Laboratory on Smart Cloud Computing (PYSCC); and supported by School of Hotel & Tourism Management, PolyU on 27 July 2013. Most of cohorts and supervisor attended to support this Forum and I would like to share the summary below.

In the beginning of the forum, Dr. Walter Fung introduced all guest speakers to us.

Then, Dr. Hareton Leung (Director of PolyU-Yonyou Joint Laboratory on Smart Cloud Computing, COMP, PolyU) gave an opening speech.

Group photo was taken.

The first speaker was Mr. Louis Lee (General Manager, Amadeus HK) and his presentation entitled "Behind the scenes - Transforming IT for Hong Kong's Travel Industry". Mr. Lee introduced Amadeus transaction-based business model. Amadeus technology was covered the entrie Journey included Trip planning & pricing → Booking & ticketing → Change ticketing → Check-in & boarding → On the move → Post-trip.

Then Mr. Lee mentioned their 5 core concepts. There were "Community-based platform", "Single data source", "Customer centric", "Automated and flexible" and "Modular designed for change". They aimed to provide a Common Platform for Airlines and Travel Agents as so to shared data such as booking, fulfilment & servicing. Finally, Mr. Lee briefed their consultative and Collaborative approach for continuous improvement.

The second speaker was Mr. Richard Reed (General Manager, HAECO ITM) and his topic named "Passenger Services Systems (PSS) Project Management". Mr. Reed said PSS is not just a system replacement programme, it is also a business transformation programme.

Mr. Reed introduced his project management through the following flow: Scale & complexity, Countdown Timeline, Readiness, Governance, Cutover & Early Life Support and Lesson study. There were five dimensions to be considered in the project scale and complexity included People, Process, Technology, Data and Products.
In the countdown plan, Mr. Reed said it needed to ensure the right progress toward meeting the go-on-go criteria for cutover. It also mentioned the triage management to monitor and facilitate speedy resolution of project issues.

Mr. Alfred Kam (Chief Operating Officer, Travel Expert) was the last speaker and his topic was "People Oriented IT Project Management". He discussed the difference strategies in between Methodology and People.

IT Project Management had four elements included Time Resource, Monitoring and Reporting. Moreover, Mr. Kam reminded that it should review all objectives before every meeting. After that he briefed the change management tips included Early Disclosure of Change, Training needs of Different Levels, Process Change & Document Change, Conference Pilot vs Pilot Test, On-site Support, Problem Resolving Mechanism, Communication Channel, Phase Change vs Big Bang Changeover, and Continuous Review & Improvement. Finally, Mr. Kam introduced his 80/20 rule. Technical issues are only 20% of the project and remaining 80% is due with people issues.

Q&A session was at the end.

Reference:
CityU Engineering Doctorate Society - http://www.engd.org/
Department of Computing, PolyU - http://www.comp.polyu.edu.hk/en/home/index.php
School of Hotel & Tourism Management, PolyU - http://hotelschool.shtm.polyu.edu.hk/eng/index.jsp