Part 4 of 10-The Book that Most Impacted My Career-Excellence in Engineering

 

This is Part 4 of a blog about a book that most impacted my career -  Excellence In Engineering by W.H. Roadstrum, 1967, and relates it to Project Management Institute’s Project Management Book of Knowledge (PMBOK).

My design and construction project experience covered a full-spectrum of scope in the transportation industry including diesel locomotive procurement, rolling stock retrofits, abatement and remediation, control centers, signal and communications systems, power systems, and joint projects with Amtrak and Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.   

In Excellence In Engineering Chapter 6, Roadstrum writes about engineers solving problems as a standard process of engineering work.   Whether to ensure compliance with standards and codes or to create an extra-ordinary design to accommodate unique requirements, the engineer develops a standard approach for his work.

His approach can be conveniently broken down into six steps:

1. Define the problem.

2. List assumptions.

3. Consider available solution methods and select one or more.

4. Solve.

5. Check carefully, particularly the effect on assumptions on solution and vice versa.

6. Generalize and extend results.

In his book, Roadstrum  describes the Problem Solving process and the skills needed by engineers to succeed on projects and in their profession.    After “Be sure that your computer is your slave and not your master.” – the Chapter ends with the attributes for Problem Solving Practices:

Good Engineering Problem- Solving Practices

1. Recognize that the biggest part of an engineering problem situation is to decide what the problem, if any, is.

2. Look for the problem or problems involved in any situation that is out of the ordinary or disturbing.

3. By good judgment discover and attack problems at the right time-not before a solution is possible or useful, and not too late to reap maximum benefits from the solution.

4. Attack problems with a systematic approach.

5. Check problems to include a careful consideration of the effect of assumptions on the usefulness of the answer and the effect of the answer on the validity of the assumptions.

6. Solve problems by an iterative process which starts with an estimate and continues with successively more sophisticated solutions until the results required are obtained.

Poor Engineering Problem-Solving Practices

1. Confuse the scholastic examples used in teaching technology with real engineering problems, thus failing to recognize and attack a problem when it comes along.

2. Expect the boss to lay out the problem to be solved and to be satisfied with an academic answer.

3. Attack problems piecemeal, seeking only such information as is essential at the moment.

4. Neglect to make clear the assumptions under which the problem is solved, and to consider the effect of the assumptions in checking.

5. Fail to extend and generalize on the solution.

6. Assume that there is only one solution to a given engineering problem or one set method to attack it.

7. Use solution methods with far greater accuracy than is required or than is justified by the kind of data available.

8. Assume that an engineering career consists of looking for the types of problems that one has been trained to solve.

PMBOK -Fifth Edition also provided some guidance on decision making.

PMBOK Section 2.2.2:  Project Governance framework provides the project manager and team with structure, processes, decision making models and tools for managing the project, while supporting and controlling the project for successful delivery.

PMBOK Section 9.4.2.4:  Effective Decision Making.  This involves the ability to negotiate and influence the organization and the project management team.  Some of the guidelines for decision making include:

• Focus on goals to be served,
• Follow a decision-making process,
• Study the environmental factors,
• Analyze available information,
• Develop personal qualities of the team members,
• Stimulate team creativity, and
• Manage risk.

In PMBOK Appendix A1.6- Executing Process  Group, references the process for monitoring project metrics, developing corrective actions for variances, and for analyzing and implementing changes to improve project results.    During project execution, results may require planning and updates and rebaselining.   This can include changes to expected activity durations, changes in resource productivity and availability, and unanticipated risks.  Such variances may affect the project management plan or project documents and may require detailed analysis and development of appropriate project management responses.

PMBOK Appendix A1.6.5 regarding the process for managing the Project Team.    Manage Project Team is the process of tracking team member performance, providing feedback, resolving issues, and managing team changes to optimize project performance.    The inputs and outputs are: