I feel that this course & Dr. Simon’s other course should be taught in undergraduate BME curricula. A lot of this information would be gold to those looking to enter industry. The most important item I’d take away from this…   Read more»

As much as we value the salaries that our higher education affords us; it does come with the caveat mentioned in this week’s lecture. Money is a short-term goal. Once the pay check hits, what else is there to strive…   Read more»

Depending on the motivations & SOP of the company; yes and no. Obviously all companies should strive to keep as much of their testing & research in house as its the “home turf”. A company needs to decide what works…   Read more»

HAHA! Every day at my workplace. As I work at a small company, we are often at the whims of the CEO when it comes to new projects. Scopes can change depending on their desire or vision for the company’s…   Read more»

I see how it may be tempting for companies to implement cost saving policies in favor of creating a diverse vendor base. However important they may deem the bottom line, in the long run, more supplier diversity can save the…   Read more»

This is a complex ethics question that doesn’t have a simple answer. On one hand, transparency is important for building trust with stakeholders and ensuring accountability; on the other, there may be situations where disclosing certain information could harm the…   Read more»

Stakeholders have significantly big impacts in the opening and closing phases of the project. They set the product goals, definitions, and product inputs. During the closing phase of the project, they ensure that project deliverables are met. During the project…   Read more»

In my opinion, a project manager should be well versed enough to move in and out of conversations between all project members. That way, they can provide advice and direction without taking away time from project members in order to…   Read more»

There is a benefit to both methods of project management; I have dealt with both of these in my short career. The freeform change control methodology at my current workplace is conducive to creativity & allows for quick lead times…   Read more»

I agree with the other posters here about the dangers of micromanagement when it comes to ensuring the quality of a product/project. Oftentimes well-meaning PMs cause more harm than good in their attempts to verify & validate that deadlines are…   Read more»

A project manager should be someone who has a broad variety of experience to bring to the table. The job of the PM is to interface with all the aspects of the project; having the background knowledge to speak to…   Read more»

While I agree with the posters here that striking a balance between making project members happy and stakeholders happy is important. I do think that the happiness of the project members, at least outside of day to day working conditions,…   Read more»

As others have said, it depends on the severity of the “transgression”. As it stands, handing out punishments for bad behavior is a bit unprofessional. The goal of employee discipline should be to increase productivity and decrease the factors that…   Read more»

When managing a project, as important as it is to know the theory and science behind the enterprise; it is much more important to know the strengths and weaknesses of your team. As a PM, the goal is to leverage…   Read more»

Risk management does not need to be a complicated process. Depending on the application, over engineering something may be the best way to mitigate risk. A certain factor of safety is always included when creating any medical device, especially one…   Read more»

While everyone here has mentioned the main positives of a Gantt chart; I’d like to point out another important aspect of the chart that is supremely useful. The breakdown of a gantt chart is created as such as to show…   Read more»

This is unfortunately something I’ve had to deal with at all my workplaces since I was 16. :(. Anyways, the point is people are fickle and oftentimes have hard times dealing with one another. There can be issues that shouldn’t be…   Read more»

I have to do this often in my day to day at work. It is a difficult issue to handle, especially when I first started. Often, I’ve had my boss temper my wild ideas, but as time goes on and…   Read more»