Simplify teamwork
Making teamwork less complex may seem too obvious unless
you've ever attended public meetings—too many opinions and too many "wannabe" doers. Nothing gets done, and when it does, it's always by the same handful
of dedicated people.
"My only solution is to keep the number of workers down by using more experienced, more capable engineers," says Kenneth A. Falcone, president of Bedford Signals Corp. "This allows fewer engineers to do the job, with less time in meetings and fewer communication problems."
"Provide teamwork across engineering groups," says John Balogh, senior systems engineer at Penn State University. "Specialized personnel talents allow a lead systems engineer to break the project up into parts that can be completed and assembled quickly."
"The best way to simplify complex projects is to have smaller design teams,"
says Justin Kozlowitz, test engineer at Aspen Test Engineering. He notes that
many companies assign separate design engineers to each aspect of a project,
like power supply, interface, program, and layout. But this can create problems
when it's time to integrate all of these individual designs and debug the prototype.
On the other hand, a small team that works closely together can minimize the issues of coordinating different aspects of a project. The challenge is finding good multidisciplined engineers to handle more than one aspect of a design.
Distributed design teams
CEO George Forrester of EkaTetra, a small company
that designs and builds new devices, says the Internet is key to developing
a product when participants are scattered (distributed) around the world. Voice
over Internet Protocol, e-mail, and file transfers make it possible for him
to confer with designers and engineers across the U.S. and New Zealand.
Where time was once spent in travel, engineers can now invest more in product design. Jamie Benner, VP of Benner Data Services, says that using the Internet for e-mails, spreadsheets, and digital photos replaces the fax machine and provides a level of communication to move designs around the world instantaneously.
Distributed design teams have worked very well for David Cocco, product manager and advanced manufacturing engineer at Tyco Fire & Security/RFID. Having a qualified engineering staff where necessary is crucial. Also, video conferencing makes it practical for his group to collaborate remotely. With networking, it's possible to move schematic captures and designs all over the world.
Not anticipated at first, time zone differences will affect every company that practices worldwide distributed design. Yet Cocco has found an easy way around this challenge. He gives some of the engineers time off during the day so they can come in some time in the afternoon or evening and be in sync with engineers working on the other side of the world.
When working with Chinese contract design engineers, Cocco recommends stationing
the engineers in your Chinese office to minimize IP issues. Also, Chinese contract
manufacturers—even for the Chinese market—should work under a nondisclosure
agreement. Then, hold them to it.
Sphere Research's Shawlee, who routinely works with people all over the planet, finds that distributed design teams make sense for obvious and not-so-obvious reasons. With phone, email, and overnight delivery, anything can be accomplished. But physical separation allows for a sense of privacy, experimentation, and contemplation that isn't possible when all of the designers are compressed into one office, constantly peering over each other's shoulders. If this working arrangement suits the personalities of all involved, things work out well—but not if hourly micromanagement is necessary.
According to Burrows, distributed design teams can be effective if there are
no political agendas and if all team members work for one goal—making
the best product with the least amount of effort. His experience, though, has
been mixed. Teams working within the same country tend to work well. But when
several countries are represented, politics can overwhelm common sense and team
spirit.
According to Joe W., a senior engineer with a large computing company, distributed teams can work well, especially if there's a freeze on travel. But everything is a little bit more challenging.
"You can hold a Web meeting, understand each other, and reach decisions," he says. "But the meeting will take more preparation and time than if you were all in the same room and knew each other better because you saw each other every day. In this case, creating a distributed team is a way to balance workload using existing, regular employees in different locations. I view this as a good thing."
Stoehr says that working successfully in a distributed design team requires clear and frequent communication. He works in one of many design centers and feels distributed design sites will be the heart of the future work force. With adequate communications and tools, projects can be accomplished with team members anywhere in the world. Based in Colorado and with designers in Oregon, California, Massachusetts, and Japan, Stoehr says he would forget they were so spread out if it weren't for the time zone differences.
While Diffraction's Douglass George would rather work with everybody at one
location, he realizes it's no longer essential. But one thing can make a project
go more smoothly—getting everybody together at the beginning so they can
get to know each other and put a face and personality to a name. This makes
working remotely with people much easier and friendlier.
Engineering designs have taken on short lifecycles, just as products have.
Today's tools make it possible to collaborate on projects with design, engineering,
manufacturing, sales, and marketing teams all over the world, turning the global
village into reality. But while corporations try to maximize profits across
vanishing borders, competition will remain keen for engineering jobs, and complacency
will put you on the sidelines rather than in the game.
For more on managing the shifting design cycle, see "Overwhelming Complexity,"
Drill Deeper 11222, and "Are The Tools Better?" Drill Deeper 11223.
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