Engineering Project Management

About the Author xv Acknowledgments xvi About the Companion Website xviii Introduction xix 1 The Role and the Challenge 1 1.1 Introduction 1 1.2 The Project 5 1.3 The Project Manager 11 1.4 Engineering Processes Can Help You 17 1.5 The Engineering Project Manager Mind-Set 18 1.6 Next 20 1.7 About Facilitated Lab Sessions and Practical Exercises 21 1.8 This Week’s Facilitated Lab Session 21 2 Performing Engineering on Projects (Initial Portion) 27 2.1 The Systems Method 27 2.2 Requirements 43 2.3 Design 52 2.4 Interaction of the Requirements and Design Processes with Project Management Processes 67 2.5 Your Role in All of This 67 2.6 Next 71 2.7 This Week’s Facilitated Lab Session 71 3 Performing Engineering on Projects (Concluding Portion) 73 3.1 The Remaining Stages of the Project Life-Cycle 73 3.2 Next 95 3.3 This Week’s Facilitated Lab Session 95 4 Understanding Your Users and Your Other Stakeholders 97 4.1 The Four Steps to Understanding Your Users and Your Other Stakeholders 98 4.2 Case Study About the Value of Using the Customer’s Coordinate System of Value: Role-Based Processing 108 4.3 Special Topic: Designing the User Experience 111 4.4 Summary: Understanding Your Users and Your Other Stakeholders 116 4.5 Next 116 4.6 This Week’s Facilitated Lab Session 116 5 How Do Engineering Projects Get Created? 119 5.1 Engineering Projects Are Created in Response to a Need, or a Vision 119 5.2 How to Win 122 5.3 A Case Study in Proposal Preparation 140 5.4 Your Role in All of This 144 5.5 Summary: How to Win 145 5.6 Next 146 5.7 This Week’s Facilitated Lab Session 146 6 Organizing and Planning 147 6.1 The Work-Breakdown Structure 147 6.2 The Statement of Work 154 6.3 The Organization Chart 157 6.4 The Project Plan 161 6.5 Your Role in All of This 166 6.6 Summary: Organizing and Planning 167 6.7 Next 167 6.8 This Week’s Facilitated Lab Session 167 7 Creating Credible Predictions for Schedule and Cost: The Activity Network 169 7.1 Setting the Stage 169 7.2 Estimating the Schedule for Your Project 172 7.3 Estimating the Cost of Your Project 180 7.4 Injecting Realism Into Your Estimates 182 7.5 Cost Versus Price 187 7.6 Your Role in All of This 188 7.7 The Intersection with Engineering 189 7.8 Next 189 7.9 This Week’s Facilitated Lab Session 190 8 Drawing Valid Conclusions from Numbers 191 8.1 In Engineering, We Must Make Measurements 191 8.2 The Data, the Analysis, and/or the Conclusions Are Often Wrong 192 8.3 What Engineering Project Managers Need to Measure 216 8.4 Implications for the Design and Management Processes 217 8.5 Beware of Trying to Predict or Forecast! 225 8.6 Your Role in All of This 226 8.7 Summary: Drawing Valid Conclusions From Numbers 226 8.8 Next 227 8.9 This Week’s Facilitated Lab Session 227 9 Risk and Opportunity Management 229 9.1 Things Can Go Wrong with Our Project: How Do We Cope? 229 9.2 The Steps of Risk Management 233 9.3 Two Special Types of Risks 244 9.4 Focus on Ranking the Risks by Their Potential Impact, Rather than by Their Likelihood 248 9.5 Lessons Learned From Risk Management 252 9.6 Your Role in All of This 253 9.7 Summary: Risk and Opportunity Management 253 9.8 Next 254 9.9 This Week’s Facilitated Lab Session 254 10 Monitoring the Progress of Your Project (Initial Portion) 255 10.1 Monitoring Progress Via Updated Predictions to Schedule and Cost 255 10.2 Making the Updated Predictions 258 10.3 Using the Updated Predictions 265 10.4 The ABCs of Finance, as They Apply to Engineering Project Management 270 10.5 Preview: Financial Measures About Which Your Company Will Care 281 10.6 Your Role in All of This 283 10.7 Summary: Monitoring the Progress of Your Project (Initial Portion) 283 10.8 Next 284 10.9 This Week’s Facilitated Lab Session 284 11 Monitoring the Progress of Your Project (Concluding Portion) 287 11.1 How the Manager of an Engineering Project Ought to Allocate His/Her Time 287 11.2 A Big Claim on Our Time: The Periodic Management Rhythm 288 11.3 The Steps of the Periodic Management Rhythm 292 11.4 The Social Benefits of the Periodic Management Rhythm 299 11.5 Your Role in All of This 300 11.6 Summary: Monitoring the Progress of Your Project (Concluding Portion) 301 11.7 Next 301 11.8 This Week’s Facilitated Lab Session 301 12 Four Special Topics 303 12.1 Starting Your Project 303 12.2 Systems and Projects with Large Amounts of Software 311 12.3 The Agile Software Development Methodology 317 12.4 Ending Your Project 320 12.5 Your Role in All of This 322 12.6 Next 322 12.7 This Week’s Facilitated Lab Session 322 13 The Social Aspects of Engineering Project Management 323 13.1 Dealing with People, Becoming a Leader 324 13.2 Alignment 324 13.3 The Sine Qua Non of Leadership 327 13.4 Motivating Your Team 328 13.5 Recognizing and Resolving Conflict 331 13.6 Siegel’s Mechanics of Project Management 338 13.7 Dealing with Special People 340 13.8 Your Career as an Engineer 344 13.9 Change on Your Project 347 13.10 Coping with Career Change 348 13.11 Getting Ahead 351 13.12 Three Special Topics 356 13.13 Summary for the Social Aspects of Engineering Project Management 359 13.14 Next 359 13.15 This Week’s Facilitated Lab Session 360 14 Achieving Quality 361 14.1 Defining the Term Quality 361 14.2 One Motivation for Quality: A Good Reputation 362 14.3 Quality Initiatives 363 14.4 Processes for Engineering and for Project Management 370 14.5 Procurement and Subcontracting 371 14.6 The Effects of Quality 372 14.7 The Bill of Materials 373 14.8 Financial Measures that Will Be of Interest to Your Company 374 14.9 Your Role in All of This 417 14.10 Next 417 14.11 This Week’s Facilitated Lab Session 417 15 Applying Our Ideas in the Real World, Ethics in Engineering 421 15.1 Applying Our Ideas in the Real World 421 15.2 Ethics in Engineering 423 15.3 Thank You 430 Index 431