All the above make good points about the soft & hard skills a PM will need to effectively manage a group of people, as well as keep them on track for deadlines. A PM needs to be an effective commu...

We've all been in teams in which we've wished for a larger (or smaller) say in the direction of the project. Depending on the project size, importance, & scope; an individual's contribution will c...

I wholeheartedly agree with this comment. Consistency above all is the most important skill that one needs to effectively manage a project. Once the outline is set, and the relevant members have their...

At my new job, I've had to adopt the pseudo-job of managing the machinists in the shop while our CEO is gone. Delegation is the most effective tool for keeping your mental map of the day clear. As we ...

The best way to motivate people in my opinion is to give them a nagging personal responsibility and hold them accountable for that responsibility. Ideally, a project manager will assign each member a ...

I think that the bias towards raw technical knowledge that is described here is a damaging trend. Nobody wants to work with an asshole; excuse my language. Systemically, a lot of the toxicity in engin...

The primary purpose of the NDA is yes, to ensure that trade secrets are not directly divulged to the public. However, as a secondary feature of the NDA; it serves as a paper trail for any subsequent l...

At my current position, I do a lot of consulting work with companies working on projects that are still in process. As such, most of the info I am privy to is somewhat protected. Usually, under respec...

First of all, thank you so very much for creating this invaluable resource for us budding BMEs. A lot of this information is conveniently left out during our undergrad, and I am so glad I took this cl...

As I mentioned last week; a matrix type organization seems to be the best fit for me. I also just enjoy the free-form nature of a matrix organization. The ability for different skill-sets from the ent...

Matrix organizations would be my favorite type of project management structure. The breakdown of project teams is much more conducive to a well-controlled development environment. The fact that each s...

In general; functional organization serves to remove this issue, as others have mentioned. Human beings are not as simple as a flow chart unfortunately. In order to avoid these issues of personal/comp...

For me, direct intervention and hands on work is what I'm all about. Upper management seems like more of a hands-off set of responsibilities; with direct intervention at the necessary moments. However...

At my current position, I work for a small industrial manufacturer in NJ. Due to the relatively small scale of our operations, we mostly deal with risk mitigation in two ways: Field Correction & I...

Risk analysis may not even just pertain to the physical interactions with the desired patient. Will the product more marketable than others? Will the product cause some type of extreme aversion due to...