Engineering Project Management

Neil G. Siegel, Ph.D. is the IBM Professor of Engineering Management in the department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Southern California's Viterbi School of Engineering. He was formerly the Vice-President and Chief Technology Officer of Northrup Grumman's Information Systems and Mission Systems sectors, and vice-president and general manager of the company's Tactical Systems Division. His honors and awards include election to the National Academy of Engineering, election of the National Academy of Inventors, the U.S. National Medal of Technology and Innovation, the IEEE Simon Ramo Medal, the TRW Chairman's Award for Innovation (3 times), and selection as a fellow of four professional societies, along with many other honors and awards. He holds nearly 50 issued patents worldwide.

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