As someone who has been working in the medical device industry for a few years now, I found the material in this course to be very relevant to my day-to-day life, much more so than any other course I took…   Read more»

I also agree that the motivation level of the project manager can definitely have a significant impact on the team’s motivation. However, this motivation has to show through the project manager’s actions rather than just their words. The project manager…   Read more»

I can see how there is a relationship between having exciting and challenging work, and being recognized for that work. It makes sense that someone who has had many opportunities to tackle new, challenging projects for the company receives more…   Read more»

One of the biggest motivators in my career has been the people I work with. I’m fortunate to be working on a team of very passionate, hardworking individuals who I get along with well, which motivates me to put in…   Read more»

A company can encourage employee retention by addressing the factors that motivate employees to stay at their jobs, as we discussed in this week’s lecture. The most influential of these factors are exciting and challenging work, opportunities for career advancement,…   Read more»

I think that whether working overtime is associated with more or less motivation depends on why the individual is working longer hours. If they are genuinely passionate about their work and strive to go above and beyond, then it can…   Read more»

It is important during a project that all members of the team are aware of what communication is expected of them, and how often, and this can definitely depend on the company’s organization. For instance, during a project I worked…   Read more»

Quality Assurance involves performing activities necessary to ensure quality is being continuously maintained and improved on, and Quality Control involves actually identifying and measuring quality, but both are part of the overall Quality Management System within an organization. Within a…   Read more»

I am also in agreement that a new employee should not be hired in this case. Interviewing and selecting a good candidate, then having to train them on the job all to cover just a 3 month absence is counterproductive…   Read more»

Many of the insulin therapy products used by individuals with diabetes can be considered combination products. The insulin itself is considered a drug, since it has the metabolic effect of lowering blood sugar, and the mechanism of administering the insulin…   Read more»

On several occasions during projects I’ve worked on, our project manager created a spreadsheet listing all the team members and when they were planning on taking PTO. This was located in the shared file drive, so every once in a…   Read more»

I worked on a project at my company involving a product that varied in design depending on the hospital’s preferred configuration, so there were hundreds of components in our catalog for this product. Several times during the course of the…   Read more»

As a few of the posts above have stated, while the design team is working on the product development project, there should be a production team working in conjunction to ensure that production is ready to manufacture the product once…   Read more»

I think that since hazards are undesirable to come across in your project, then by definition a risk has a negative connotation, but the process of risk management is very beneficial and should be viewed in a positive light. Identifying…   Read more»

Change Control is implemented as part of the Monitoring & Controlling process of a project, and occurs throughout the entirety of the project. It basically entails measuring the current state of the project against the baseline that was established during…   Read more»

As the posts above have stated, metrics are crucial in order to obtain the quantitative status of a project. Because of this, knowledge of software that can be used to track metrics is a useful skill for a project manager…   Read more»

From my experience, at my company the WBS is integrated into the project’s Gantt Chart. The highest level of the Gantt Chart will consist of the product development phases (Planning, Design and Development, etc.), which are each broken down into…   Read more»

As someone who is currently working in the medical device industry, I find the information discussed in this course to be very relevant to my day-to-day job. Even if you are an engineer, like myself, and not a project manager,…   Read more»

At my company, we manufacture heart lung machines and disposible tubing kits to be used with the machines. These tubing kits are customized depending on the components and configuration desired by the hospital, so the customer’s input is directly translated…   Read more»

As many of the posts above stated I agree that a lack of communication within a project team can be detrimental to the team’s progress. That’s why I also agree that establishing the expectations for communication in the beginning of…   Read more»