EE14 (Management of Engineering Projects)

Course Overview

Companies considered engineering management as an essential requirement when

qualifying for a managerial position in any company at present. It regards as a core area
for the future of engineers, and there is nothing with that thought as well, because, this is
the type of professionals that are required to the organizations when they need to maintain
a healthy profit margin.

Today’s professional environment is highly competitive, continuously changing, and

difficult to manage. Employees rarely reach positions of leadership without managing one
or more projects or a project segment early in their career. The goal of this specialization
is to give you the tools to more effectively and successfully manage projects; to give you
a solid foundation of knowledge, skills, and confidence that sets you apart and gives you
a competitive edge as you move toward leadership positions.

This Project Management for Engineering Professional Specialization is designed as an

introduction to Project Management. It is targeted for engineers who are interested in
improving their project management skills in a new leadership position or in advance of
their first leadership position.

Technical engineering projects are complex and multidimensional undertakings,

demanding comprehensive procedures, integrative skills, discipline and a broad
management to do your job better.

Module 1: Engineering Management Principles

What is Engineering Management?

 Engineering Management is the application of the practice of management to

the practice of engineering.

 Engineering Management is a career that bring together the technological

problem-solving ability of engineering and the organizational, administrative, and
planning abilities of management in order to oversee the operational performance
of complex engineering driven enterprises.

 Engineering Management is the directing supervision of engineers and/or

engineering functions.

 Engineering Management is concerned with the design, installation, and

improvement of integrated systems of people, material, information, equipment,
and energy by drawing upon specialized knowledge and skills in the
mathematical, physical, and social sciences, together with the principles and
methods of engineering analysis and design to specify, predict, and evaluate the
results to be obtained from such systems.

What is a Function of a Manager?

The primary function of a manager is to ensure efficient operations within an organization,

department or team.

4 Commonly Accepted Roles of a Manager

1. Planning
Planning is the process of determining an organization's goals and how to achieve
them. In this phase, managers brainstorm different alternatives and then choose
the best course of action. They help in making strategic decisions that set a
direction for the company.
 Strategic Planning
Strategic planning is the foundation of a business and is under the
responsibility of top management. It entails creating and sharing a vision for
the future. It also involves creating goals for the entire company and
evaluating its strengths, weaknesses and threats. Strategic plans take a
minimum of three years to get implemented. These plans include values,
mission and vision.
 Tactical Planning
Tactical planning takes a year or less to implement the plan and achieve
objectives. It's mainly the responsibility of middle management, which
involves coming up with tactics or ways to achieve the set goals. Tactical
planning is for specific departments such as finance, production or
marketing.
  Operational Planning
This is the process of using tactical planning to achieve strategic goals and
plans. It sets realistic timelines for executing a portion of the strategic plan.
As opposed to strategic planning, which shares a vision for the future,
operational planning lays out the steps of achieving the set goals. It answers
questions such as what, who, how much and when, regarding the tasks.
 Contingency Planning
Contingency planning involves making plans for any unforeseen changes. In
senior management, it's essential to have a contingency plan to anticipate
changes. It may help in ensuring that nothing hinders you or your team from
achieving the set objectives.

2. Organizing
As a manager, it's important that you have organizational skills to help you plan
and improve your workflow. Excellent organizational skills help you reduce stress,
meet deadlines and stay on top of your work. In this phase, a manager organizes
people and resources to implement the set plans.

Organizing involves delegating tasks, keeping in mind your team's strengths and
weaknesses. It may also mean reassigning tasks or adding more team members to
achieve a specific goal. Having organizational skills ensures that goals get
achieved without any challenges or internal conflicts.

Some skills that may help stay organized:

 Scheduling
 Time management
 Goal setting
 Record Keeping
 Event coordination
 Deadline management
 Filling
 Project management

3. Leading
To achieve organizational goals, managers promote a teamwork environment that
fosters cooperation and loyalty. As a leader, it's important that you feel confident
and comfortable delegating tasks and following through to see that they achieve
the objectives. This involves projecting a sense of leadership and direction when
addressing employees or setting goals.

Leadership skills manifest in many ways, including recognizing when employees

need praise or rewards to boost their morale. It also gets manifested in how you
handle conflicts between team members. To lead efficiently, be sure to practice
what you expect your team to do.
 Several approaches to leading:
 Coaching: This method allows employees to pitch their ideas to the
manager. The manager is receptive to their ideas, which creates trust and
boosts confidence among employees.
 Directing: The manager leads with little input from employees. It's quite
effective when dealing with new employees who need a lot of training and
direction.
 Supporting: This mainly focuses on building solid relationships within the
team, and the manager is receptive to employees' ideas and contributions.
This leadership style is effective if employees have developed skills but are
inconsistent in their production or performance.
 Delegating: The manager delegates tasks to employees and avoids
interfering unless the employee needs help or guidance. This approach is
practical when dealing with professionals who can work effectively without
supervision or guidance, and this allows the manager to focus on other
crucial projects or tasks.

4. Controlling
Managers consistently monitor whether a team meets organisational objectives.
They may do this by controlling every stage from planning to execution. As a
manager, it's crucial that you monitor employees' quality of work, performance and
use of resources. You can do so by conducting performance reviews and giving
feedback on areas that may need improvement.

Controlling involves taking the necessary action to ensure that the company
achieves its goals and objectives. If the project is going differently from planned,
the manager can make adjustments. Typically, controlling pursues that everything
works efficiently.

Some of the adjustments may include:

 Staffing adjustments
There are times when objectives may not get achieved because one
employee or more is underperforming. In these cases, it is the role of the
manager to understand why this is happening and to find a solution.
Sometimes, it may be because the employee is de-motivated or because the
assigned task is beyond their knowledge or skills.

As management, it's essential that you evaluate the issue and then decide
whether to reassign the employee to a different task or add another
employee to your team. Note that to add an extra employee, you may
require more funding.
 Budget adjustments
Mangers must also ensure that resources get used effectively. If you notice
that you're going over the set budget, you can take a break and check what
is causing the excessive spending. Going over budget may be because one
department is overspending or the plan is working differently, forcing team
 members to use a plan with high budget needs. Once you identify the cause
of going over budget, you may require curbing the overall spending.
Depending on the situation, you can also consider consulting with your
supervisor to see if it's possible to get extra funding.

What do engineering managers do?

Engineering managers are technical and methodical by nature. They balance a variety of
responsibilities including directing, planning, and coordinating activities, while supervising
a team of engineers through research and development.

One of the most important skills that engineering managers possess is the ability to
delegate tasks effectively. Additional roles and responsibilities include:

 Leading projects
 Hiring employees
 Hosting team meetings
 Delegating tasks to teammates
 Managing a team of engineers
 Writing the engineering playbook
 Communicating with other managers

6 Principles of Engineering Management

1. Quality Planning and Decision Making and Project Management (Best Practices)
2. Risk and Value Management
3. Tools and Concepts Usage
 Total Productive Management (TPM)
 Quality Engineering Management Systems
 Project Management Systems
 Service Management Systems
 Assets Management Systems
4. Leadership and Best Engineering Practices (Operational Excellence)
5. Controlling and Decision making
6. Human Resource Management in Engineering Management
 Qualities of Manager should possess;
 A good communicator
 A Flexible individual
 Committed to the cause
 Trustworthy in every way

12 Principles of Successful Engineering Management

1. Host productive one-on-one meetings

Hosting productive one-on-one meetings is an excellent way to form strong
relationships with your direct reports.
 To host productive one-on-ones, you will want to leverage a meeting management
tool like Fellow, because Fellow makes it possible for you to facilitate product team
meetings and meaningful one-on-ones. You can build a collaborative meeting
agenda for your next one-on-one, record key decisions, and keep your direct
reports accountable so you can become a Super manager. Leveraging
this meeting agenda template will ensure your next one-on-one runs smoothly.

2. Foster trust
A large part of being a successful engineering manager is fostering trust. Not only
is it important to foster trust between yourself and your direct reports, but it’s also
important to foster trust amongst your team. Building trust within organizations can
be hard, especially in manager-employee relationships. Creating an open dialogue
and fostering a safe environment where everyone can listen and share their
feedback without judgment is a great way to build working relationships that are
founded on trust and transparency. Teams that trust each other are more inclined
to collaborate and meet company goals together.

3. Be an engineering mentor
Becoming an engineering mentor is an excellent way to demonstrate that you’re
an ally. Not only are you able to empower budding engineers, but becoming an
engineering mentor also provides you with a unique opportunity to hone in on your
own skills. Skills used in a mentor-mentee relationship are all transferable and can
be used to lead an engineering team down the road.

4. Invest in yourself
While building up your team should be a priority, investing in yourself is equally
important. If you don’t take the time to invest in yourself, you won’t have the skills
you need to be able to put anything into anyone else. Refining your skills, working
on your leadership capabilities, and striving to be the best version of yourself are all
things you can do to become a better engineering manager.

5. Build genuine relationships with your team

Many managers fail to get to know their teammates outside of work, which makes it
nearly impossible to build genuine relationships. Taking the time to learn about
your teammates’ dreams, aspirations, and goals is an excellent way to build more
genuine relationships. During your one-on-ones, take the time to dig a little deeper
and ask questions that don’t pertain to work. You may be surprised by where your
conversation leads.

6. Give and ask for regular feedback

It’s important that feedback acts as a two-way street. As an engineering manager,
you should prioritize providing your direct reports with constructive feedback while
simultaneously creating an environment that prompts them to do the same. By
providing valuable feedback, you’ll help your direct reports learn, grow, and
flourish; by hosting frequent one-on-ones, you’ll provide your direct reports with the
opportunity to provide you (as the engineering manager) with feedback as well.
 The most successful leaders are those who listen to their peers and seek outside
expertise, which is important to create a culture of continuous feedback. Creating a
tasks list in Fellow and seeking peer feedback is an excellent way to introduce this
practice as the new norm. Having open and honest conversations with your
teammates will provide you with guidance in terms of where you should start and
how you can create a culture of continuous feedback.

7. Give team members credit and accept the blame

Effective leadership is all about being thoughtful. One of the easiest ways to
demonstrate gratitude is to celebrate the wins, no matter how big or small. Taking
the time to reward excellent teamwork or individual contributions amongst your
team is a great way to support your team. Make note of it and reward their
behavior! If you don’t recognize your teammates’ success, they’ll leave and go
where they feel more appreciated. A simple shoutout goes a long way!

As an engineering manager, it’s also important to accept blame when something

goes awry. Singling out a teammate or passing the blame off to a group of team
members will only result in hurt feelings and a broken team. As a leader, it’s your
responsibility to step up and accept responsibility for your team members’ actions.

8. Create a psychologically safe environment

A psychologically safe workplace is one in which every effort is made to take
employees’ mental health and well-being into consideration. Psychological safety is
imperative in the workplace, and as the engineering manager, it’s your job to foster
this healthy, safe environment. When employees feel psychologically safe, they
don’t feel threatened and are typically more motivated and open to collaboration.

Ways you can foster psychological safety at work include:

 Listening intently
 Expressing gratitude
 Being open to feedback
 Championing your teammates
 Avoiding blame and taking responsibility
 Including your team in the decision-making process
 Considering everyone’s feelings, thoughts, considerations, and opinions

9. Understand your team members’ career goals

Understanding your team members’ career goals is imperative. As an engineering
manager, you need to not only help your employees excel in their current careers,
but also provide them with what they need to excel in the future. The engineering
managers who will stand out to their employees are the ones who will impact them
for years to come.

10. Delegate tasks

Delegation - is key—not only for engineering managers, but for all managers also.
If you try to take on everything yourself, you’ll start drowning and become
overworked, and you may even burn out. Furthermore, you should make a point of
surrounding yourself with skilled teammates you can trust to do what they do best.
Delegation and trust are both key when fostering strong working relationships.
 Delegating effectively helps engineering managers save time and progress as
leaders. Not only that, but delegation also fosters trust and helps to develop other
team members. As an engineering manager, you’ll be more prepared to manage
larger teams—while inspiring your employees and team members to perform
better—if you delegate.

11. Help your team problem solve without giving them the answers
As an engineering manager, you may feel as though you need to take on
everything on your own when in reality, collaborating with your team to problem
solve is much more efficient. Sometimes it can be difficult to strike a balance
between supporting your direct reports and giving them the answers. While you
may have the experience necessary to provide answers, it’s important to be mindful
of the learning opportunities at hand. Empowering your team members to solve
their problems on their own will boost their confidence while ensuring they have the
knowledge and tools necessary to solve a similar problem next time something
comes up.

12. Set clear expectations

If you fail to provide your engineering teammates with clear expectations, they
won’t be able to perform to the best of their abilities. It’s important that you break
down the task or plan and explain exactly what is needed upfront so your
teammates don’t waste any time. Don’t beat around the bush, and let your
teammates know exactly what’s expected from them as soon as you have the
chance. Setting clear expectations will decrease the chance of miscommunication
while ensuring your teammates have what they need to succeed.

7 Areas of Engineering Management

1. Product Development
2. Manufacturing
3. Construction
4. Design Engineering
5. Industrial Engineering
6. Technology
7. Production
Engineering Management Domain

What is Engineering Project Management?

Engineering Project Management is a type of project management that focuses solely

on engineering projects. It uses all of the same standard methodologies and processes
as any other type of project management. This specialization is likely to appeal to anyone
with an engineering background who wants to get into the field of project management.

Engineering Project Management vs. Engineering Management

Engineering Management is centered on managing engineers and engineering tasks

that have the following characteristics”

1. Tasks are routine.

2. Processes are repeatable.
3. Work is ongoing, with no defined end.
4. Task are part of regular business operations.

Engineering Project Management is focused on managing engineering projects. An

example may be a project to design a new office building.

One key difference is that Engineering Project Management requires the management of
all aspects of the project. Not just management of the engineers or the engineering work.
Why Engineers Need to Care About Project Management Skills?

Project management skills were learned through on-the-job training or OJT. Most
engineers who move into project management roles get there via the OJT path.
Engineers who think they don’t need to care about developing their project
management skills will one day run into a situation where technical and rational
means of solving a problem won’t work.

The technical/rational skills of engineers are useful for solving technical or rational
problems on engineering projects, such as cost estimation and adjustments,
forecasting, quality assurance or scheduling. However, when dealing with problems
linked to project team members or stakeholders.

Benefits of Developing Project Management Skills

1. Improved Efficiency
2. Enhanced Effectiveness
3. Can Help Replicate Success
4. Helps to Learn Leadership and Communications
5. Common Operating Language and Picture

Engineering Project Manager vs. Project Engineer

An Engineering Project Manager is the project manager on an engineering project. A

Project Engineer is an engineer that works as part of the project team, but is not the
project manager. For example, a design engineer may be part of a project for designing
a building. This person is a project team member and possibly evens a subject matter
expert, but not the project manager. Sometimes a lead project engineer may be assigned
to a project. Their job is to oversee and approve the project’s technical engineering
components. This usually happens when the project manager does not have an
engineering background.

The requirements may vary depending on the industry, company, and project. However,
it is possible for a person to successfully manage an engineering project without an
engineering background. The key is to have a project management background and to
have engineering subject matter experts on your team. Is a special degree required for
engineering project management?

There are university courses offered in engineering project management. However, the
fundamentals of project management are the same for other projects. Education in
engineering can be beneficial for gaining a job in this field. But, as mentioned before it is
not necessarily a requirement. Sound knowledge of project management best practices
is more critical to success in this role.
Roles and Responsibilities of Engineering Manager

Roles and responsibilities of an engineering manager and the interaction between the
engineering manager and the project manager.

 Project Manager: The project manager is overall accountable for the project
outcomes and is specifically responsible for meeting the schedule and cost
objectives. Within these overall objectives he needs to focus on the overall
project execution strategy and plan, the contracting strategy, project commercial
and legal issues as well as schedule, cost and change management. Safety,
environmental and quality issues during the project execution is also of extreme
importance.

 Business Manager: The business manager is responsible for business

activities that includes for example overall business plans, business viability and
economics, marketing, sales and all other support functions including legal,
financial and business commercial issues. An issue that is also gaining
prominence is product stewardship over the total logistics chain from raw material
supply to final product delivery to customers.

 Operations Manager: The operations manager is responsible for operations

activities. This includes both operating and maintenance aspects. Operations
personnel requirements, recruitment and training, variable and fixed operating
costs, commissioning, operability and maintainability, operational safety and
environmental compliance of the final facility are some examples within his area of
responsibility.
  Engineering Manager: The engineering manager is responsible for the
overall technical integrity of the project. As such this would include a facility
scope that meets the business needs. An overall integrated technical solution
requiring management of interfaces as well as management of
technical/engineering quality of deliverables be it design deliverables or actual
hardware like vessel, pipes or even control and IT systems. The execution of the
engineering work in support of the overall project execution plan is also important.

Specific Responsibilities of the Engineering Manager

 Integration Management
 Scope Management
 Schedule Management
 Cost Management
 Quality Management
 Communication Management
 Resource Management
 Risk Management
 Procurement Management
 Stakeholder Management