I agree it’s not always better to terminate an employee for consistently poor performance. Many times, a company will want to determine why an employee is performing poorly before they decide what actions to take. For example, maybe the expectations…   Read more»

I believe that a positive vendor relationship will primarily result from effective communication and an equal level of respect. The simulation appears to show that a number of problems occur due to undefined expectations. Having a well-defined contract will certainly…   Read more»

If I worked as a project manager in a medical setting, I believe I would spend my time mostly encouraging the team to remember just how much their efforts matter. Because of the impact both positive and negative that your…   Read more»

I think your comments regarding lack of resource at small companies are valid, however I do believe there is another large reason why clinical trials are often outsourced. Experience is another very important reason clinical trials are outsourced. Clinical trials…   Read more»

If I were a Project Manager working in medicine, I would encourage my team to remind themselves how important their role is. In medicine, your actions directly affect people’s lives as I believe this helps to maintain focus. To create…   Read more»

I believe that job satisfaction is very important, however it is not the only factor. When an individual enjoys their job and has a positive working environment; there is a much higher likelihood for them to remain employed with this…   Read more»

When considering which vendor to work with, I believe the best place to begin is to clearly understand your needs for the project. Once you have a solid understanding of those, comparing vendors will be much easier. Next, I think…   Read more»

While making sure that all the teams understand what the others are working with may seem to add to the overall time needed for the project, it will likely reduce the need for fixing problems which could have been avoided…   Read more»

First, I believe we need to determine what impact the missed task will have on our project. If it has significant importance, then we need to move as quickly as possible to complete the task before other tasks are impacted.One…   Read more»

Honestly this is a very typical scenario. Often times projects are dependent upon factors beyond the team’s control such as suppliers and equipment. Although it may not be the team’s fault for the delay I believe that being adaptable and…   Read more»

I agree with you that both team members and stakeholders are important in making sure a project meets its objectives. However, I believe that stakeholders generally have a lot of power when it comes to the end result of the…   Read more»

I believe if a product has passed internal validation and verification but failed after being tested by an outside contractor, it’s likely due to inconsistencies with testing techniques. Testing internally, the company may utilize somewhat different testing parameters, assumptions or…   Read more»

I believe that we need to find the right balance between communication and being able to accomplish our job duties. While there are definite benefits to having too many meetings, having too little communication by only using email can result…   Read more»

Teams may need to make decision-making decisions that take into account some level of risk rather than complete agreement when team members cannot reach an agreement on key elements of a project due to time limitations and lack of discussion….   Read more»

Gantt charts are especially useful in the medical device area due to the complexity of the overall process and the fact that this process is broken into various stages; design, prototyping, testing and obtaining regulatory approval. Many of the stages…   Read more»

I believe the ideal approach for managing communications is to strike an appropriate balance between meetings and written communication. There are certainly advantages to meetings as long as team members are working out issues, making decisions collaboratively, or trying to…   Read more»

I believe that there is no single phase of a project as important as the planning phase. It is during the planning phase that the project team identifies objectives of the project, develops a project timeline and designates roles and…   Read more»

The first example that comes to mind for a project is a group lab project. We had to meet multiple deadlines such as completing background research, preparing an experiment, collecting data, and producing a final report. Although we did not…   Read more»

The primary distinction between project management and design control relates to scope as project management manages the entire project, whereas design control addresses the specific steps or processes of document preparation necessary to appropriately develop a medical device. Project Management…   Read more»

I believe the most effective way to capture and share lessons learned is through a common digital resource which every member of the team has access to. Examples include a shared digital project management tool or a common company database…   Read more»