Interview Assignment As an undergraduate student, we have many goals and challenges. Our main goal is to become a practicing certified engineer and on our way to this goal we find our strengths and weaknesses. As an engineer, we are required to work alone or as a part of a team. When put in a team environment, we are required to come together and utilize everyone’s strengths and work on rectifying individual weaknesses. We improve ourselves as engineers by this exercise in teamwork. This project will give us access to an engineer who has been raised to the level of a project manager and has years of experience in his chosen field. We will hear first-hand what challenges have been faced on his journey to become an engineer working at this …show more content…
He was not able to expand on projects currently underway as they are contracted by Defense Canada and much of their work is classified. The company does have a specialty in aeronautical engineering. John Doe uses team work in all of his company’s contracts as they are too large to be completed by an individual. When they are successful in a contract bid, they assign a team headed by a team leader. The team leader’s role is key to make sure the team stays on schedule and budget, is organised and remains on task. Generally, they use Microsoft Project to set up an overall project schedule. A custom database application is used that allows them to track the personnel hours expended to date, as well as all other expenses including equipment purchased, subcontractors, materials and vehicle expenses. This program generates an audit report that can be merged into the schedule to determine where they are with respect to the schedule and budget. Since they are a smaller company, each project also has an overall project lead who is responsible for keeping track of the budget and scheduling meetings when required with the rest of the project team to determine project progression as well as trouble shoot issues which could be detrimental to the project completion. Since they are a small company, …show more content…
The project teams may be comprised of various engineers and technicians from the disciplines of mechanical, aeronautical, structural, instrumentation, electrical, or chemical as well as any number of additional individuals with expertise in explosives, blast analysis or backgrounds specific for the project. Working effeciently and coherently as a team is essential for work to be successfully completed. Teams are often fairly small, and several individuals will often be working on multiple projects within various roles with the same team. An individual may be the team leader on one project yet on another project may be a team member overseen by a different team leader. In this way the team leader role is not static or set in stone, rather it can be assigned differently depending on the needs of the project and the team. John Doe feels Amtech Aeronautical Limited differs from other companies in this
Harnessing unique applications that formulate effective team competencies can be greatly beneficial when nourishing team dynamics. These necessary factors create high performance levels due to consistency and team cooperation. Performance appraisal is a great way to determine team dynamics due to summative evaluations that are executed during a practice. To obtain effective team dynamics it is important that each individual motivate one another in a positive manner, provide feedback and have an open mind. In conclusion, each member of the team should not be shy introducing any new ideas during the engineering, keep in mind that there is no wrong answer and diversity and innovation is always permitted. In a nut shell, Ocean’s Eleven depicts true signs of team work, leadership and the proper power and influence a leader should have to achieve his/ her goals in life.
Spokane Industries has contracted Franklin Electronics for an 18 month product development contract. Franklin Electronics is new to using project management methodologies and have not been exposed to earned value management methodologies. Even though Franklin and Spokane have worked together in the past, they have mainly used fixed price contracts with little to no stipulations. For this project Spokane Industries is requiring Franklin Electronics to use formalized project management methodologies, earned value cost schedules, and schedules for reports and meetings. Since Franklin Electronics had had no experience with earned value management, the cost accounting group was trained in the methodology in order to bid for the project. Franklin Electronics won the contract because they had the lowest price. They developed a work breakdown structure that consisted of 45 work packages with 4 of the work packages being delivered in the first 4 months. They also developed a simple status report consisting of the work packages due, budgeted cost for work scheduled, budgeted cost for work performed, actual cost for work performed, cost variance and price variance. When they deliver the first status report, the Franklin Electronics project manager is called into an emergency meeting because Spokane Industries vice president is unhappy with the progress. In this paper, we will discuss Six Sigma process improvement for tracking time and cost, recommendations on how Franklin Electronics can use project management principles to meet their goal of improving efficiency and empowering management to make better and informed decisions through the use of Earned Value Management, how an effective Earned Value Management System contributes ...
Organizational competence is reliant on each section, led by its director, performing its occupation as well as contributing to the accomplishment of the corporation. Thus the method in which a manager creates choices, delegate’s dependability as well as interacts with workers can influence the entire association in teamwork project .In Lockheed Martin teamwork project centre attention on equally raising its bottom line as well as being an excellent corporate
One function the project office can provide is assistance with resource availability for the project managers and project teams. As resource requirements and assignments are submitted to the project office, that information can be entered into an enterprise project database. This gives the project office the ability to not only track resource allocations for a single project but also determine the assignments and constraints of resources throughout the organization. Without this big picture, project impacts caused by resource constraints are difficult to determine.
We ensure that no in¬dividual Project Manager is working on too many accounts. And we will hold pe¬riodic meetings for all staff members to ensure that we efficiently share informa¬tion and data sources to al¬locate resources. A portion of our weekly management meetings is devoted to staff alloca¬tion and balancing multi¬ple projects for multiple clients. Finally, EYP’s ac¬counting system supports project cost accounting on Task Order contracts, and provides roll-up reports at any level required (e.g., for all projects under a partic¬ular contract, by agency).
A successful project requires time management, accountability, ability to understand and solve the problem, and communication. These are evident in all team environments. For example, as a project engineering intern, we faced deadlines. The challenge was adapting to unexpected changes to situations, also known as the ‘real world'. To successfully adapt, we had to have exceptional communication and accountability. In the Corps of Cadets, I have seen the best and worst. In summary, I have learned communication can always be improved.
The sole purpose of this interview paper is to help us as future teachers, identify the cultural capital that diverse students bring to the schooling or classroom setting. This information will help serve as an aid for identifying cross-cultural communication and teaching strategies, which will allow us as teachers to better accommodate and facilitate student success in school. My Interviewee is an African American male who has moved and lived around the world and was not born in America. He is 21 years old and attends school here in Central Washington University.
Inside informatics class, I worked in a four-man group to design theoretical product over the course of a quarter. At first, I had trouble getting the cooperation of my classmates. We all came from very different walks of life and developed different views of approach. None of us, however, were incompetent. I learned several lessons from working in that group. First, sacrifice works well to create unity in a group. By spending a night working on the first group assignment by myself when nobody else could, I built loyalty in my team. Second, I have to work on my leadership. I didn’t have a strong enough vision to guide my team through a few checkpoints. In hindsight, the engineering method pairs well with informatics. Finally, I have to improve my speaking ability. My social anxiety has to come under further control so that I can speak with more conviction.
Teamwork plays the critical role, as “[n]othing of significance is ever achieved by an individual acting alone.” (Landis 2013, pp. 192). In fact, group work will allow the team to work faster and more productive. This also applies in both engineering students’ life and their future. As part of conducting teamwork, I have done the peer assessments, where I give the ratings to myself and my team members. I have obtained the feedback this week and I must say the results are quite impressive. As for ratings from my peers, I scored well on the ability to organise, perform, manage, evaluate and work at a high standard. This score reflects on my behaviour and actions for my team. I realise that being open-minded and honest about my ideas is better and it also sends the clear message. I feel that our group has become more confident and as a result, we seem to work effectively. Moreover, our group may be interpreted as the system with increasing dynamic and chemistry. However, there are some factors which need to be improved. These cases include developing ideas, broader analysis and more contribution. From the required cases, I can change how I act with the team and try to produce better teamwork throughout the
In the field of construction, the success of a project depends on how well the employees preform. On any given construction site, one will find different trades people working to fulfil a common goal. Teamwork is a big part of worker performance, and depending on how well one gets along with their co-workers will decide the fate of the construction project the are working on. As a construction worker, especially an electrician, the job takes immense focus, and any distraction can cause one to make a mistake that could make the project a failure.
Several lessons have been learned through the beginning of the senior design project. We have learned team building lessons, including team interaction, organization and team roles, through many trial and error situations. Issues of project management also have taught me very important lessons that will help me in the real world when I must deal with administrative authority.
Working in teams provides an opportunity for individuals to come together and establish a rapport towards others within a group. Teamwork is classified as people with different strengths and skills who work together to achieve a common goal. When a team works well, specific objectives are fulfilled and satisfied. Teamwork plays a crucial role in implementing and fulfilling a common goal in a team project. Each member plays a role and takes on different responsibilities combined together. In different stages of teamwork, conflicts and arguments may occur for as members have different standpoints which need to be harmonized within the team. The key to having an effective teamwork is to explore each member's unique abilities to motivate them.
Team members in effective teams know what is expected, what is most important and how their performance will be evaluated. The roles of each individual must be clear or effective teamwork may be difficult to achieve (NBRII, 2015). The characteristics of an effective team include clear understanding of the purpose, respect, trust and support, honest, good communication skills, respect and the ability to manage conflicts (University of Texas, 2015). In planning, the Belbin team theory categorises each individual into their team roles. Meredith Belbin identified nine roles: implementer, co-ordinator, shaper, plant, resource investigator, and monitor/evaluator, team worker, completer/finisher and specialist which was added in 1988 (Johnson, 2015). The strengths and weaknesses of each role are in Figure 1. Thus, according to Belbin, effective teams should include all or most of the nine roles. This categorisation ensures that all aspects within planning are being met and therefore, the best outcome of the project can be
Group work can be one of the most emotional times a student’s life. Students can face challenges working with people whose personalities they are unacquainted with. Perhaps because their past experiences with group work has led them to fear outcomes of upcoming group projects. It is possible that some students take on more work than others or that some students are often not heard. It is also possible that some students compete for prestige with other students or that some students take advantage of leadership roles. Whatever the problem is, assigned group work can conjure unpleasant musings for students. But what if students who were assigned into groups approached the idea of “two heads are better than one” and applied it to their assignment as they established group expectations. Not only will that inspire a change in perspective, but it will allow students to share different skill sets as they work together to reach a common goal. When group members share their knowledge and look at their different skill sets as an opportunity to thrive, the possibilities of achieving a successful project are endless. As the spark of one idea ignites into a group’s central mission, the opportunity for students to learn about team dynamics opens the doors for their abilities to grow. As our Service Learning Project officially comes to end, I realized that it was teamwork that had brought upon the successful completion of our project. Through my Service Learning experience, I will demonstrate the importance of effective group work.
Team approach shrinks a large complex issue or opportunity into several smaller parts where it can be solved in parallel. Once fall fragments into individual tasks, and are appointed for individuals to carry out assigned tasks, but where are the systems in place to keep track of the work done by the members of the team mode. This approach will allow the project manager to focus on the project as a whole and ensure that all tasks are being integrated