Engineers' Bootcamp (2-day class)
Overview:
One of the best investments a company can make is to teach engineers how to get projects done on time and within budget. Why? There is a world of difference between “engineering” products or systems and making projects come out as desired, especially when projects involve coordinating multiple people. A negative outcome is certain when good engineers are put into positions of responsibility without the range of competencies necessary for achieving excellent results.
This workshop guarantees to increase project success by improving leadership, planning, estimating, collaboration, and communication competencies. The powerful results from this course are based on the instructor’s direct experience on engineering projects and experience.
Case studies, real-life examples and exercises are used extensively to illustrate how the principles apply on the job. The case studies are drawn from a broad range of product development team environments at small, medium, and large companies serving many industries.
Each participant leaves with a comprehensive workbook and a personalized action plan that will immediately benefit their respective organizations.
How You Will Benefit:
This workshop enables participants to:
- Effectively lead engineering projects and teams
- Increase the level of buy-in and commitment to project schedules
- Develop key interpersonal and business competencies
- Use matrixed management effectively
- Improve the accuracy of project estimates
- Assess the effectiveness of project lifecycle models used at work
- Improve project-related communication
- Become more influential
- Identify leadership development goals specific to individual needs
Course Outline:
Day 1
- Overview of Essential Skills
- Balancing technical and non-technical skill development. The importance of “soft” skills:
- Developing Interpersonal Competencies
- Conversation tips
- Deciding which technology to use for communication
- The art of listening
- Teamwork
- Building rapport with business associates, helping others to see your view
- Integrating your ideas with surrounding influences and business objectives
- Presentations Tips
- Presenting to groups, both small and large
- Length and detail of presentations
- Tips for using PowerPoint or other visual aids
- Customer Service
- Satisfying the needs of both internal and external customers
- Commitment: The ultimate customer service tool
- Managing Many Priorities
- The challenges inherent in several top priorities
- Separating real priorities from everyday fi re drills
- Organizing skills: Eliminating your time-wasters
- Project Planning Overview
- Project planning competencies and tasks
- Integrating a high level of commitment into plans
- Project Planning Details
- Project lifecycle, pros and cons of standard lifecycle models
- Examples of good planning and poor planning
- Dealing with ambiguity and uncertain resource availability
Day 2
- Project Leadership and Project Management
- Overview of necessary leadership competencies
- Opportunities to distribute project leadership and management responsibilities
- Case study: Sharing of Project Leadership and
- Management Responsibilities
- Project Estimating
- Estimation challenges, prerequisites for estimation
- Comparison of estimation methods
- Estimation steps
- Scheduling Practices
- Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
- Scheduling tools, Gantt and PERT charts
- Commitment based scheduling, cost of delay
- Detailed Design Plans
- Planning steps, defining roles and responsibilities
- “Success” criteria
- Balancing planning with prototyping
- Design Review Practices
- Critical design reviews and milestones
- Formal and informal design reviews
- Preparation for reviews and accountability
- Making tough decisions related to design review findings
- Engaging experts from outside the team
- What is Leadership?
- What leadership is, and what leadership is not
- Why leadership skills are important for engineers and technical professionals
Who Should Attend:
- Electronics and Electrical Engineers
- Software Engineers and Developers
- Mechanical Engineers
- Structural Engineers
- Project Leaders
- Engineering Supervisors