Pipeline management and Efficiency in R&D

Description of unit
The thesis will be carried out at the project office at the product development unit WCDMA RAN. This part of Ericsson works with development of WCDMA. WCDMA is a wideband spread-spectrum 3G mobile telecommunication air interface and also refers to a standard for 3G cellular network. WCDMA provides new service capabilities, increased network capacity and reduced cost for voice and data services. The project office consists of project managers, project administration and project development unit support

Purpose/background
The area of efficiency and pipeline management is of high priority at Ericsson. There are corporate goals but each unit also sets up ways to measure their own activities. At WCDMA pipeline management has been considered to be to manage the constraints most effectively in order to maximize the throughput. The wanted result is to identify and highlight main obstacles and to propose preventive measures. In our efficiency plan we have a roadmap to monitor efficiency activities.

The focus of the study is on larger systems in telecom and projects that mainly concern software development. The thesis is needed to get a better understanding of the different concepts, how they are used in industry and what is the best practice for WCDMA.

Thesis description
The Thesis includes the following areas:
• Overview/Classification of literature in the area
• Overview of the pipeline management models used in Telecom/Datacom industry
• Efficiency awareness/maturity in Telecom/Datacom industry
• Best practices in Efficiency KPI’s and software productivity

Competence
The thesis is a Master’s degree project. The applicants should have a M.Sc. in Industrial Engineering and Management or another technical background (Electrical, Software Engineering) with management specialization.