Management Guidance, Best Practices, & Lessons Learned
Tips For Program Managers and Leadership
Below is some helpful lessons learned when working model design projects. To manage a team most effectively, we start by identifying everyone's roles and responsibilities. This helps us create a team of the right size and the appropriate amount of management oversite. Keeping trust as priority is essential to creating and maintaining a positive work culture which produces effective results.
The Scope of the Systems Engineer and Management: Where Their Paths Cross
The Venn Diagram will help explain the boundaries and interface points between personnel. For more information click here.
Optimal Team Size
Team Size & Model Structure
We estimate the optimal team size for developing a single model would be 3-5 contributors. Anymore than this and people will start stepping on each other within the model. While Teamwork Cloud (TWC) allows for multiple users to work in the same model, there is oftentimes issues where one contributor needs access to spaces locked by another contributor. Any less than 3 contributors and there is generally not enough people reviewing work which means that there is a good chance things are missed and the optimal architecture/design is not created. You need team collaboration and creativity to create the optimal solution.
Suggest Splitting Models
For example, if you have a team of 15 to model the system, it would likely make since to make some of the subsystems their own project and make the subsystems a project usage to the system model. Then you can assign 3-5 contributors to each model.
Note: It is absolutely possible for one person to model the whole thing but there is significant risk that he/she prioritizes tasks incorrectly which in turn wastes significant time and resources spinning his/her wheels modelling something that "doesn't matter". It is very difficult to maintain the high level vision while working in the weeds of the model.
How Managers Can Succeed with Systems Engineers
Trust Your Architect
"The manager himself must not second-guess the design." (pg239, The Design of Design: Essays from a Computer Scientist)
Basic Management Functions
The basic functions of engineering management are: planning, organizing, leading, and controlling (Engineering Management: Challenges in The New Millennium)
"Planning defines who will do what, how, where, when, and with which resources." (22)
Strategic Planning: sets the goals, purpose, and direction of the company. This is the "What we want/ what are our goals"?
Operational Planning: managers and directors define the specific tactics and action steps needed to accomplish the goals specified by top management. This is the "How we achieve the goals set"
Assign Problems, Not Tasks
"My boss gave us problems, not tasks". "After a period of time, the problems stopped coming from my boss. This is because he knew that by that point, I had developed to where I’d have fully fleshed out ideas about the way things might be. I started to present problems to my boss such as, “Let’s change our communications standard from RS-232 to CAN,”
Creating a Successful Workplace
A successful workplace is where one solved the problems of features, functions, needs, and behaviors—not tasks " "I believe that just such an environment—of direct experiential learning, gentle guidance while trusting one’s employees to innovate in the problem space, fostering collaboration among employees, and encouraging young employees to take initiative—is the best training for a systems engineer."- Steve Cash
Selecting Successful Systems Engineers
Successful Systems Engineers have "The ability to carry out “ back of the envelope ” calculations to obtain a “ sanity check ” on the result of a complex calculation or test is of inestimable value to the systems engineer. " -Systems Engineering Principles and Practice pg22
Successful SE Characteristics
enjoy learning new things and solving problems,
like challenges,
are skeptical of unproven assertions,
are open - minded to new ideas,
have a solid background in science and engineering,
have demonstrated technical achievement in a specialty area,
are knowledgeable in several engineering areas,
pick up new ideas and information quickly, and
have good interpersonal and communication skills.
-Systems Engineering Principles and Practice pg18
"Most good systems engineers are “T-shaped” people, with both a working knowledge of wider-system considerations, and a deep expertise in a relevant domain, such as aeronautical, manufacturing, software, or human factors engineering. " -SEBoK v2.6 pg42
Successful System Engineering Traits To Look For
Successful SE Traits
• a good problem solver and should welcome challenges
• well grounded technically, with broad interests
• analytical and systematic, but also creative
• a superior communicator, with leadership skills.
-Systems Engineering Principles and Practice pg25
SE Activities
Collaboration & Group Work
Collaboration Limits
Just as everything else, you must have the optimal amount of collaboration. Too little collaboration and there is too much work for too few people to complete. Too much collaboration slows the team down. "Many hands make light work-Often but many hands make more work-Always" (pg 68, The Design of Design: Essays from a Computer Scientist)
Brainstorming
During brainstorming, "“Focus on quantity,” “No criticism,” “Encourage wild ideas,” “Combine and improve ideas,” and “Sketch all of them where all can see." More minds mean more ideas. More minds stimulating each other yield lots more ideas. " (pg 68, The Design of Design: Essays from a Computer Scientist)
"Individuals perform at least as well as groups in producing quantity of electronic ideas, regardless of brainstorming duration. However, when judged with respect to quality along three dimensions (originality, feasibility, and effectiveness), the individuals significantly (p<0.05) out performed the group working together." (pg 74, The Design of Design: Essays from a Computer Scientist). Create a competition where everyone works individually rather than as a group to get optimal results.
Protect the Team from Extra Work and Distractions
"Design productivity requires flow, an uninterrupted mental state of high creativity and concentration. The modern organization has many hindrances and diversions to prevent flow: meetings, phone calls, emails, rules and constraints, staff bureaucracies and “service” groups, who make rules to simplify their own jobs, customers, professional visitors and journalists." (pg 250, The Design of Design: Essays from a Computer Scientist). If a lead, implement "quiet mornings".
Remote Work and Selecting the Collaboration Medium
Remote Work
Pro: "Rotation of the Earth enables work to be advanced around the clock by team members each working only day shift. Wide disparities in both cost of living and standard of living make common high-tech skills available at radically lower cost via outsourcing." (pg 90, The Design of Design: Essays from a Computer Scientist)
Con: "Face-to-Face Time Is Crucial!" (pg 93, The Design of Design: Essays from a Computer Scientist)
What Communication Method is Optimal When
Rule of thumb: Clean, not clunky, reliable interfaces is critical. Low tech often suffices.
Optimal for Most Cases: "Telephone-plus-shared document becomes vastly more powerful than either alone. The combination adds real-time interactions, which save a lot of written explanation and head off much misunderstanding."
Video conferencing is best when you are trying to kickoff a positive relationship with a new coworker, or one-on-one conversations but often it is not worth it if there is a chance of buffering issues or your face detracts from the shared document.
Times to videoconference
"• When screening stranger job applicants to select finalists
• When issues are vital to one or more participants
• When the participant at one end is quite insecure
• When organizational or national cultures are different " (pg 97, The Design of Design: Essays from a Computer Scientist)
