@jjp93 I completely agree with the same interest in CRAs as I find value in performing and monitoring trials that related to medical research. It’s really interesting consolidating the data and analyzing it to manufacture better applications that can be…   Read more»

Posted by: @talha-chaudhry For the lecture this week, I was fascinated by the results of the study Dr. Simon referenced. The study asked employees why they stayed and worked at the company they are employed at. What motivates them kind…   Read more»

Sponsors are an integral part of the project as they provide much for the resources required for the project to run. Thus, it is necessary to maintain strong ties and connections to sponsors or else essential funding/capital would not be…   Read more»

Posted by: @ama59 People leave work because of “limited recognition and praise” but they stay for “exciting, challenging work.” If the work is interesting but there is no recognition, will people leave? If the work is uninteresting but they are…   Read more»

A large part of the reason why Americans put in substantially more work hours compared to other countries is due to the individual company cultures that the workers are situated in. This also varies from industry to industry,  but generally…   Read more»

I would be an engineer for a few years to gain the technical experience necessary to understand the ins and outs of the industry. However, my true goal is to work with people so I would want to move into…   Read more»

I think it is important to be positive and exude an encouraging and enthusiastic demeanor in order to motivate one’s team mates as a project manager. Nurturing a positive work culture and atmosphere can decrease workers’ stress and thus enable…   Read more»

Posted by: @ih37 A non-conforming material report (NCMR) is something that must get taken up with the current vendor to prevent the incorporation of defective equipment into a medical device project. An NCMR is generated by either the quality department…   Read more»

There are certainly benefits to employee retention mentioned above such as decreasing resources dedicated to employee training and recruitment costs. Other ways not mentioned is the benefit of preventing competitors from accessing the same knowledge base and talent that you…   Read more»

@gy66 I think that a thorough onboarding process when hiring a new member to fill a spot that is vacating is especially important. If this is not done well, then there can be clear gaps in knowledge that will affect…   Read more»

@ka234 Additionally, I find that in some companies, it falls on certain departments to take on the reactive, “firefighter” issues that are caused by other departments within the company. While working at Johnson and Johnson, I found that my manager…   Read more»

Like someone else said in this thread, if there are other members of the team that have skills that overlap with the one that is on maternity leave, they could take on some additional work load at the appropriate level…   Read more»

While problems in a project’s lifecycle are inevitable, it is vital to have lanes of communication between all members on the team so that they can deal with such problems. A PM can do his/her best to estimate the duration…   Read more»

@shuhrah-chowdhury As you mentioned its imperative for the PM to take into account the level of involvement their team members are in other projects. In this way, they can control scope creep and the workload that should be distributed to…   Read more»

@shuhrah-chowdhury I agree with the statement saying that too much detail and being too specific can sometimes be a pitfall in the planning phase for a project. It is important for all members of a project to understand how tasks…   Read more»

Posted by: @ak977 Design Verification entails that the product you put out is what was actually requested and what the FDA has said is acceptable.Let’s say that the customer wants a product that addresses issues A, B, C, and D….   Read more»

Customer input and managing the expectations of project deliverables are very similar in that it is important for the customer to understand the limitations and boundaries within a project. If they do not understand this on a fundamental level, then…   Read more»

I have seen the problem with scope growth in my limited experience working at Johnson & Johnson. While at Ethicon, some individuals on my team get pulled from their normal day-to-day tasks to take on other assignments that other project…   Read more»

At where I work, Johnson & Johnson, one of the many organizational process assets we have are task and approval matrices where we document the order/timeline of a task if it undergoes any important timeline changes or description changes. We…   Read more»

According to the lectures from Dr. Simon, a risk is the probability of a hazard which (which is an undesired consequence) of occurring. They are important to discuss when managing a project as it can affect the timeline and the…   Read more»