As a manager, I would prefer a Y employee who is motivated but lacks some required knowledge rather than an X employee in this scenario. Motivation is harder to teach than technical skills. Someone who is motivated from the start…   Read more»

Understanding project management is useful even if you’re not the one leading the project. Engineers are still involved with working with timelines, budgets, and project goals. Having this knowledge allows you to see how your role as a team member…   Read more»

I think it’s less about people being more motivated, and more about feeling pressured to keep up. From what I’ve seen and heard from my peers, many employees are expected to take on workloads that aren’t realistic to complete within…   Read more»

The only industry experience I have so far is through my internship at a biotechnology company, however, this company made a strong effort to keep interns engaged. One of the things the company did was host weekly presentations on different…   Read more»

I don’t think job satisfaction is the most important factor for employee retention and engagement. People also stay for growth opportunities, team relationships, compensation, and benefits. I think what’s most important is to avoid demotivating employees. For example, there is…   Read more»

If I were a project manager in the medical device industry, I would focus not only on motivating my team, but also on avoiding things that would demotivate team members. I would recognize individual contributions, support their growth, and create…   Read more»

My first thought after reading this post is that a project manager could look to hire someone new to replace that person. However, hiring someone new can take longer than expected, especially with onboarding and training. Because of this, a…   Read more»

One way a project manager can handle an unknown budget is by setting aside a contingency reserve for risks and potential design changes. Even if the budget is unknown to the project manager, the PM would usually have rough estimates…   Read more»

I think the most important knowledge areas are scope, time, and cost management. Scope management is important because it defines the goals of the project and the work that must be done. If scope isn’t clearly defined, it can lead…   Read more»

Design verification focuses on testing if the device is built correctly according to design specifications and validation ensures that the “correct device” is built and meets the user needs or intended use. Most of the verification and validation activities take…   Read more»

There are many different factors that can impact schedule variance for a medical device project. For example, delays in regulatory approvals can add weeks or months to a schedule and lower earned value. Failing during verification or validation can cause…   Read more»

Since a lot of people have already shared many great companies on the East Coast, I wanted to share a few that I was particularly interested in when I was living in California. In Southern California there are a lot…   Read more»

I agree that returning to an earlier phase of a project does not necessarily mean the project is failing, however, in the case of medical device projects, this can be very costly and potentially derail a project. Because of this,…   Read more»

I think the most important phase in the project process is the planning phase because it establishes the foundation for the entire project. During planning, the project scope, timeline, and project team are clearly defined. For a medical device project,…   Read more»

I think that a project manager can be accommodating to their team members while also successfully managing a project through good communication and setting clear expectations. If team members understand project goals, the project timeline, and their responsibilities from the…   Read more»

I think that managers and stakeholders are both important to a project, however when it comes to completing a project promptly, managers play the more critical role. Investors provide the funding and resources needed to begin a project, while managers…   Read more»

Being prepared before a design review meeting is important to ensure the meeting runs smoothly and a decision about moving forward to the next phase of the design control process can be made. Before the meeting, I think it would…   Read more»

Balancing risk and reward is one of the biggest challenges in risk management. While minimizing risk is necessary, trying to eliminate every possible risk can slow down development and increase costs. It is best practice to focus on reducing risks…   Read more»

Slack is the amount of time a task can be delayed without delaying the project completion date. As others have stated, project slack is important because it gives a project manager flexibility. A project schedule without any slack would mean…   Read more»

Estimation failures in the planning phase of a medical device project can severely threaten the success of a project because cost, project timeline, and regulatory compliance are connected. If tasks in the work breakdown structure like verification testing or biocompatibility…   Read more»