Having tunnel vision can be detrimental in situations in which the root cause of a problem must be found, like in the simulations. With tunnel vision, someone does not consider all aspects of a problem, and instead focuses on one…   Read more»

Based on the survey, one overarching goal of mine has always been to help others. As cliché as it sounds, I have always wanted to do something meaningful that would have a direct, positive impact on patients. I think this…   Read more»

Like many others, I have always had this idea that I would want to work as an engineer for a few years before transitioning to a more management-based position. However, I am not completely sure anymore about how quickly I…   Read more»

Project managers play a major role in impacting team motivation. Based on attitude and character, a project manager has the capability to either help the team’s motivation or hurt it. A good project manager should provide affirmations to the team…   Read more»

Although it is not a skill, one of the best things I obtained from this class was the importance of interpersonal skills. After the lecture in which Dr. Simon emphasized the importance of interpersonal skills in comparison to technical skills,…   Read more»

My motivator has changed quite a bit over the years. Before college, I would say that my biggest motivator was competition. I enjoyed competing against my friends to see who could do better and it worked well. Once I had…   Read more»

Like many others, my most prominent experience with scope creep was through my senior capstone project. The project that my team thought of was to create an assistive communication device for patients with motion and speech impediments. Through a combination…   Read more»

Communication is vital for the successful completion of a project. To answer the first question, I agree with many others who think that the project manager is ultimately responsible for most of the communication that takes place during a project….   Read more»

In a past internship of mine, I was working in a small group of people to rollout training material for a new overarching company software. My team was very small and to complete all the training material, we each had…   Read more»

There will always be occasions in which milestones may be missed, and this could occur for a variety of reasons. Milestones are essentially “checkpoints” to make sure that the project is moving forward well and that the entire team, or…   Read more»

Scheduling a project is a difficult task, especially when coordinating the availability of resources and team members. As discussed in the lectures, planned absences or vacations should be notified to the project manager well in advance such that this can…   Read more»

Gantt charts are extremely useful in portraying a projects schedule, milestones, and dependencies. Based on task dependencies, certain tasks may have to be completed in a particular order. Using the example of building a shed from the lectures, a shed…   Read more»

There are multiple factors that can cause a project to fail, many of which have been discussed in this topic already. Personally, I believe the two biggest factors that can cause a project to fail is inadequate planning and poor…   Read more»

The closing phase is imperative to any project as it ensures all aspects of the project have been completed as desired. As discussed in the lecture, there are many different processes and tasks that must be completed in this phase…   Read more»

Like @sts27, I struggled with logging work well during my undergraduate studies. I never enjoyed doing so, and therefore, the details of any logs I had done were always lacking. This especially affected me during a research experience I had…   Read more»

I believe that creating a well-defined, specified scope will help prevent scope creep. Although the project scope should not be too “narrow”, it is important to limit how expansive a project can be. More than this, by taking plenty of…   Read more»

Validation is extremely important as it tests to see if a product works. With any project, there will always be someone who should benefit from this project. The user or customer needs should be considered since the success of any…   Read more»

I agree with others who stated that shortening the time frame, especially for an animal study, is not worth increasing the project risk. Almost any product with an animal study will need FDA approval, and not having sufficient or valid…   Read more»