In The Trenches
by Gerard Fonte
The Business of Electronics Through Practical Design and Lessons Learned
In The Trenches
Project Engineering Tasks
There are a series of steps that
are usually followed in most
engineering development
cycles. It’s important to know what
these are and what they entail, and
this is especially true for the
new engineer or new engineering
business venture (independent
consulting). This month, we’ll go
over these basic steps and explain
what they consist of and why they
are important.
Being Professional
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NUTS & VOLTS
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There is always an expectation
of professionalism in any business
activity. Engineering is no exception.
Professionals do things in a particular way because it works best and
because that’s what the customer
wants. If you don’t provide what your
customer wants, you won’t be in
business very long. Also, if your
approach doesn’t work, well, that’s
bad, too.
Fundamentally, if you don’t act
like a professional, you won’t be
seen as a professional. If you aren’t
seen as a professional, you won’t
have credibility. If no one believes
you, it doesn’t matter how brilliant,
innovative, or original your ideas
are.
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It’s always important to remember that engineering is a creative
process. An engineer takes an idea
and makes it real. All good engineers relish any opportunity to
unleash their imaginations in their
designs. Being professional doesn’t
mean being conventional; it only
means that the ideas are presented
and built in a conventional manner.
The more believable you are, the
84
more likely it is that your idea will be
accepted.
All of this leads up to the
approach you should follow in working with clients and others when
developing a project. (Note that the
term “project” is being used here in
a business-engineering sense rather
than a hobbyist sense.) The
approach, detailed below, is pretty
standard. There are variations (and
some of these will be discussed),
but if you are building a space ship
or a better mouse trap, these steps
are important. Some people may
give different names to the steps,
but the steps and their order are fairly fixed.
Preliminary Design
Review
This is collecting information
about the project and deciding on a
general approach or solution. A
client may call up and say, “I need a
new front panel controller for my
exercise machine.” In this case, you
will sit down with the client and find
out, in detail, what he wants, when
he wants it, the price he is willing to
pay, and other necessary points.
The client may provide direction
about the solution he wants. “I want
an LED display, not LCD.” If he
does, ask him why. His reasons
will tell you about his level of
understanding. Also, they may be
based on inaccurate or outdated
information.
If so, you may want to gently correct him with something like, “With
the new products on the market
today, that’s not a big concern anymore.” If you think it’s important to
use the LCD instead of LEDs, find
out if there are conditions under
which the client will accept an LCD,
but never, never argue with the client.
Always remember that the client is
willing to give you money. Who else
is going to do that?
One objective of the
Preliminary Design Review is to
define a very specific goal. This
goal is something that can be
detailed objectively in a document
without dispute. There is nothing
worse that providing a “finished
product” to a client who says,
“That’s not what I wanted!” (This
happens much too often, especially
with startup consultants who don’t
follow these basis steps.)
Another objective is to determine which approaches are acceptable to the client. Obviously, it’s
best for the engineer if all approaches are acceptable. He is free to use
his full imagination. In reality, there
are always limits in cost, size, complexity, delivery, and other factors
(that the client may not even be
aware of).
Return for Quotation
Sometimes, with large companies and the government, the
Preliminary Design Review is written
and provided to the engineer in
some manner. Typically, this is an
RFQ or “Return for Quotation.”
This is a document that provides all the necessary details needed to complete the project. It
includes the goals and approaches
that are acceptable to the client. It
also includes information about
delivery schedule, size, etc. Pricing
APRIL 2005
