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on Leadership & Career

A listing in reverse chronological order of articles by:



  • Katie Switzer — Advanced Engineering Culture series

  • Ash Norton — Engineering Leadership series

  • Tim Rodgers — Managing in the 2000s series

  • Rob Allen — Product Development and Process Improvement series

by Robert Allen Leave a Comment

The Project Approval Committee

The Project Approval Committee

A project approval committee can be an effective way to enable business decision-making and ensure projects are successful.

Committees may be known as a project review or steering committee; however, consider the following (proposed) objectives as follows:

  • Approve new projects (and project resources)
  • Approve project phase (phase gate) completion
  • Approve project go-forward plans (including resources)
  • Cancel projects that no longer make business sense
  • Prevent rogue/unapproved projects from consuming resources
  • Direct / redirect projects to complete key tasks or deliverables before moving forward
  • Enforce project management planning and execution

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Articles, on Leadership & Career, Product Development and Process Improvement Tagged With: customer value, lean product development, Lean Project Management, New Product Development, portfolio analysis, project approval committee, project governance, Project Management, requirements management, resource management

by Ash Norton Leave a Comment

Cardboard and Duct Tape: Lessons in Engineering, Leadership and Life

Cardboard and Duct Tape: Lessons in Engineering, Leadership and Life

As part of the 35th Anniversary of the Governor’s Scholars Program in Kentucky, I was invited to participate in their Alumni Day at Northern Kentucky University.  So naturally, I shared with this year’s Scholars what my experience taught me about engineering leadership and life!

Below are the slides and lessons learned that I shared.  [Read more…]

Filed Under: Articles, Engineering Leadership, on Leadership & Career

by Robert Allen Leave a Comment

Statement of Work Fundamentals

Statement of Work Fundamentals

In my last article, we reviewed a proposed Product Life Cycle process, which starts with a “Define” phase.  In the “Define” phase, we are defining the project as well as the product.

We previously discussed the ‘technical leg’ of this process with the market analysis, identifying customer needs, product requirements, verification and validation, etc. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Articles, on Leadership & Career, Product Development and Process Improvement Tagged With: agile product development, customer value, Design for Six Sigma, design value chain, lean product development, Lean Project Management, New Product Development, portfolio analysis, product life cycle, product life cycle process, project governance, Project Management, requirements management, resource management

by Robert Allen Leave a Comment

A Proposed Product Life Cycle Process

A Proposed Product Life Cycle Process

In my previous article we covered the advantages of a phase and gate structure for new product development.  Now we can discuss some proposed phase names for a new product development or product life cycle (PLC) process.

An organization may have an existing PLC process ‘baked-in’ to their culture and process documentation.  Accordingly, there’s a wide range of PLC phase names, all of which are likely acceptable and based on solid reasoning.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Articles, on Leadership & Career, Product Development and Process Improvement Tagged With: agile product development, customer value, Design for Six Sigma, design value chain, lean product development, Lean Project Management, New Product Development, portfolio analysis, product life cycle, product life cycle process, project governance, Project Management, requirements management, resource management

by Ash Norton Leave a Comment

Are You an Indispensable Engineer?

Are You an Indispensable Engineer?

#AskAsh – 004 – How to become an Indispensable Engineer

Question

Hi Ash,

What are your best tips for safeguarding your job, but also rise to the top to score your dream position?

As a recent graduate, I have this fear that if the economy turns or my company starts doing poorly that I’ll be the first one cut. What can you do to be indispensable at work?

Thanks,

Erica, New York

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Articles, Engineering Leadership, on Leadership & Career

by Robert Allen Leave a Comment

Phase and Gate Structure for New Product Development

Phase and Gate Structure for New Product Development

In previous articles we defined an element of lean as a phase and gate structure for new product development.  This assumes a waterfall approach to the project (versus agile product development).

A new product life cycle phase gate structure might entail, for example: “Definition, Concept, Design, Verification, Qualification, Production and End-of-Life”.  (Your organization might decide on different phase names.)

There’s an apparent contradiction in using a waterfall project approach and calling it lean project management, however.  A goal of any lean process is to work toward ‘single piece’ or continuous flow: agile product development is more like ‘single piece flow’ of information, versus waterfall which is more like ‘batch processing’ of information.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Articles, on Leadership & Career, Product Development and Process Improvement Tagged With: agile product development, customer value, Design for Six Sigma, design value chain, lean product development, Lean Project Management, New Product Development, portfolio analysis, project governance, Project Management, requirements management, resource management

by Robert Allen Leave a Comment

Lean Project Management for Product Development

Lean Project Management for Product Development

My last article covered a scalable model for lean product development depending on the number of projects and technical objectives.

Let’s start with the foundational elements from this model:

 

  • Facilitate a lean project
  • Understand customer needs (requirements validation and/or agile product development)
  • Maximize customer (product) value (product value estimation)

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Articles, on Leadership & Career, Product Development and Process Improvement Tagged With: agile product development, customer value, Design for Six Sigma, design value chain, lean product development, Lean Project Management, New Product Development, portfolio analysis, project governance, Project Management, requirements management, resource management

by Ash Norton Leave a Comment

What is the Best Approach to Negotiating Salary?

What is the Best Approach to Negotiating Salary?

#AskAsh – 003 – How to Confidently Enter a Job Offer Negotiation?

In this article, I answer one engineer’s questions regarding how to squash his nerves with a job offer negotiation.  His question specifically asks about salary negotiation. However, as you’ll read in tip #6 below, it is better to focus on the whole package and consider other aspects of the offer that might be more important to you.  [Read more…]

Filed Under: Articles, Engineering Leadership, on Leadership & Career

by Ash Norton 2 Comments

Engineering Manager – The Sasquatch of Leadership?

Engineering Manager – The Sasquatch of Leadership?

“[They] aren’t just hard to find — they don’t exist”

Think this was written about the elusive Sasquatch?  Loch Ness monster, maybe?  What about the abominable snowman?

Nope, nope, and nope.  This was referring to good engineering managers.

In his opinion piece, Juan Pablo Dellarroquelle argues that engineers that are good at their jobs have little incentive to move into a managerial role because they are already influential leaders in an individual contributor role.

Alternatively, he argues, engineers who are weak technically are promoted to managers because of their organizational skills.

While this may be the case in some circumstances, in general – I disagree.   [Read more…]

Filed Under: Articles, Engineering Leadership, on Leadership & Career

by Robert Allen Leave a Comment

A Scalable Model for Lean Product Development

A Scalable Model for Lean Product Development

In my previous article we established the lean product development goal statement as:

Develop products that maximize customer value and minimize product cost, in the least amount of time, and at the least amount of product development cost.

We then derived high-level objectives as follows:

  • Better understand the customer (maximize customer value)
  • Do the right projects (product, project and portfolio value analysis)
  • Do projects right (minimize redesigns, waste and rework)
  • Level load the organization (minimize bottlenecks and resource constraints)
  • Create and re-use artifacts (standardize and sustain best practices)

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Articles, on Leadership & Career, Product Development and Process Improvement Tagged With: agile product development, customer value, Design for Six Sigma, design value chain, lean product development, Lean Project Management, New Product Development, portfolio analysis, project governance, Project Management, requirements management, resource management

by Robert Allen Leave a Comment

What is Lean Product Development (Part III)

What is Lean Product Development (Part III)

 

In my previous article, we established some high-level objectives for lean product development as follows:

 

 

  • Better understand the customer (maximize customer value)
  • Do the right projects (product, project and portfolio value analysis)
  • Do projects right (minimize waste and rework)
  • Level load the organization (minimize bottlenecks and resource constraints)
  • Create and re-use artifacts (standardize and sustain best practices)

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Articles, on Leadership & Career, Product Development and Process Improvement Tagged With: agile product development, customer value, Design for Six Sigma, DFSS, lean manufacturing, lean product development, manufacturing value stream, New Product Development, portfolio management, project governance

by Ash Norton Leave a Comment

Should I get my Professional Engineer License?

Should I get my Professional Engineer License?

#AskAsh-002 – Should I get my Professional Engineer License?

Question:

Hi Ash,

Several managers at my company have told me they think I should pursue getting my Professional Engineer license.  While I am not opposed to getting it, I am just not sure it will be worth it.

What do you think?

Thanks,

-Anonymous, Cincinnati, OH

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Articles, Engineering Leadership, on Leadership & Career

by Robert Allen Leave a Comment

What is Lean Product Development? (Part II)

What is Lean Product Development? (Part II)

In my last article the high level goal of lean product development was established as follows:

Develop products that maximize customer value and minimize product cost,  in the least amount of time, and at the least amount of product development cost.

Let’s analyze this goal statement and establish some high-level objectives. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Articles, on Leadership & Career, Product Development and Process Improvement Tagged With: agile product development, customer value, lean manufacturing, lean product development, manufacturing value stream, New Product Development, product life cycle

by Robert Allen Leave a Comment

What is Lean Product Development (Part I)?

What is Lean Product Development (Part I)?

Lean product development might mean different things to different organizations, but let’s start with the 5 principles of lean manufacturing and see how it can be applied to the product development process. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Articles, on Leadership & Career, Product Development and Process Improvement Tagged With: customer value, lean manufacturing, lean product development, manufacturing value stream, New Product Development, product development

by Ash Norton 1 Comment

Should I Stay or Should I go?

Should I Stay or Should I go?

#AskAsh – 001 – Should I stay in my engineering job or search for another?

Question:

Hey Ash,
I have a question about whether I should stay in my current engineering job or pursue other options.

I work for an engineering firm that does contract work for other companies. We have recently lost a big contract. With this lull, I have been told that much of my work over the next several months will basically be document control.

As a new engineer, I am concerned that I will be missing out on valuable experience if I am not working on strong engineering projects.

So my question is, should I stick it out or look for another job?

Thanks,
-Anonymous

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Articles, Engineering Leadership, on Leadership & Career

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