Having recently earned my Six Sigma green belt from IISE (Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers), I can say that my initial impression is that it is a very useful skill to have in industry. Six Sigma centers around DMAIIC (define, measure, analyze, improve, implement, control) as Hiren Rana previously touched upon, which are the basic…[Read more]

If I was a project manager, some of the ways I would motivate my team would be through monetary incentives, public recognition, and a simple small reward system. In regard to the monetary incentives, I would definitely employ overtime hours and baseline incentives for simple goals reached. Although small, these mini milestones would serve to show…[Read more]

I harbor that innate desire to make products for those less fortunate and to know I’ve made a positive difference in somebody’s quality of life. The main source of my motivation stems from my childhood. I grew up around my grandfather who was a pedorthist by trade and was regularly exposed to his clients. He made shoes for individuals with…[Read more]

In general, I am not surprised by the results gathered in this study. This is mainly due to working in industry for a number of years and getting to personally know a wide range of individuals holding a variety of jobs. The one thing that most individuals had in common was their inherent love of the stimulation their job offered them along with…[Read more]

I experience scope creep firsthand almost every day at work when quality testing premarket immunoassay instruments. After a particular instrument is built by hand in an assembly line like fashion, my team is tasked to test verify and validate that the instrument works and will meet the customer’s needs. During the testing, which takes around 18 h…[Read more]

At my current job, I have experienced a situation where a vital team member was temporality taken from my quality group to work in another project within the company. The individual chosen happen to be the most senior member of my group who everyone turned to when there was an issue; my manager quickly learned that losing him was a big deal.…[Read more]

In my undergraduate drug discovery research laboratory, I often experienced situations where integration of two (or more) projects was required. When synthesizing relatively large, pharmaceutically active compounds, they would be occasionally be made in pieces. Each segment of the final molecule had to be made with purity, concentration, and…[Read more]

In one of my projects at NJIT, my group member and I were tasked to come up with an innovative medical device as a final project. What we had decided on was a wearable device that had the ability to measure blood-glucose levels while relaying the obtained data to a mobile app on the patient’s phone. In the beginning, were very confused on what c…[Read more]

At my current job, the Project Management processes of Initiating, Planning, Executing, and Closing were both generally not easy to follow and generally not as clear cut as I had originally thought. Occasionally, one of these phases would be considered completed by upper management and have to be revisited if a critical design change or problem…[Read more]

In my current experience within a biomedical instrumentation company, the design review process was a pretty open and inclusive process in respects to suggestions to improve the product. A little over a week beforehand, a series of documents was sent out to all managers, supervisors, and critical personal within the company asking for suggested…[Read more]

At my current job validating and verifying medical devices, it is extremely important to keep an accurate detailed notebook of everything down in the laboratory. This is critical because the devices take upwards of 14 hours to pass all the testing required for them to meet specifications and be deemed fit for hospitals and analytical laboratories.…[Read more]

In my time as an undergraduate research assistant, I was charged to create, oversee, and execute my part in a much larger drug discovery and development project. Similar to what Roberto said, I was not aware of the terminology “planned value, actual cost, and cost variance” at the time. I only knew that I was either under or over budget at any one…[Read more]

Similar to the experience of Hiren stated above, I had an opportunity in industry to listen in on one (of many) design review meetings my company held on their new product. Normally, such meetings are exclusive to the upper level management and department heads. However, I had previously expressed interest in the product lifecycle to my…[Read more]

In agreeance with all the above responses, the project manager has a lot of important responsibilities. I believe, however, that all these responsibilities fall under the single biggest challenge a PM faces which is effective communication among all the departments working together on the project. The need for this transparency is critical to the…[Read more]

As a PM, my approach to the management of personal resources (both available workable hours and work collaboration) would be to employ a system that informs all employees of everyone’s general work schedule in addition to being physically present on site. By making this planned time off public, both management and employees can visually see p…[Read more]

While I see the area for confusion when considering the appropriate time to consider source selection for a particular project, I believe this process generally falls under the excitation phase. Having said this, I believe a good project manager should consider the source of materials earlier in the project’s life cycle such as in the planning p…[Read more]

I 100% agree with the two previous comments that this course is by far the most useful and applicable course I have taken here at NJIT. Before this course, I only had a brief background of what the FDA was and all the different area it regulates from Dr. Collins 672 Biomaterials class along with personal research. Now, I am starting to realize all…[Read more]

I believe that some of the methods a project manager can utilize would be to install smaller milestones/goals at various parts throughout the project. This would serve to give his/her employees a better understanding of what needs to be done by what date and would serve as an early warning if the project were to start lagging behind schedule.…[Read more]

From how I am understanding the question, I believe that it is never good to miss a major milestone of a project. Having said this, the missed milestone is definitely a wakeup call to everyone in the project team that their planning and execution ideals are not in sync. This missed milestone must be assessed and addressed internally and a…[Read more]

In my time as a research assistant at a drug discovery & development laboratory, Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) was utilized to effectively break up the different tasks required to publish a new drug compound. The task breakdown included R&D, Drug Design, Chemical Synthesis, Assay Testing, and Publishing. In this case the project was broken down…[Read more]