Engineering Your Future The Professional Practice of Engineering
, by Walesh, Stuart G.Note: Supplemental materials are not guaranteed with Rental or Used book purchases.
- ISBN: 9780470900444 | 047090044X
- Cover: Paperback
- Copyright: 3/6/2012
Engineering Your Future focuses on the non-technical aspects of professional practice and is designed to be a valuable textbook for engineering and other technical program students, as well as a practical reference book for young technical professionals. With respect to students, this book supports the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET)s Engineering Criteria 2000, as well as ASCE's current BoK and ASME and AIChE's work on their own BoK's. This updated edition includes new coverage of presentation methods, marketing skills, team building exercises, business accounting, and quality control/quality assurance.
Stuart G. Walesh, PhD, PE, is an independent consultant who provides management, engineering, and education/training services to private, public, academic, and volunteer sector organizations. With over forty years of engineering, education, and management experience in the government, academic, and private sectors, Walesh has worked as a project manager, department head, discipline manager, author, marketer, sole proprietor, professor, and dean of an engineering college.
Preface to the Third Edition | p. xix |
Technical Competency: Necessary but Not Sufficient | p. xix |
Audiences: Students and Practitioners | p. xx |
Organization and Content | p. xx |
Additions and Improvements | p. xxi |
This Book and ABET Engineering Accreditation Criteria | p. xxii |
This Book and the Body of Knowledge Movement | p. xxiii |
Acknowledgments | p. xxvii |
Cited Sources | p. xxviii |
List of Abbreviations | p. xxix |
Introduction: Engineering and the Engineer | p. 1 |
The Playing Field | p. 1 |
Definitions of Engineering | p. 3 |
Leading, Managing, and Producing: Deciding, Directing, and Doing | p. 4 |
Leading, Managing, and Producing Defined | p. 4 |
The Traditional Pyramidal, Segregated Organizational Model | p. 4 |
The Shared Responsibility Organizational Model | p. 6 |
The Focus of This Book: Managing and Leading | p. 7 |
Leading Misconceptions | p. 8 |
The Seven Qualities of Effective Leaders | p. 8 |
Honesty and Integrity | p. 9 |
Vision: Reach and Teach | p. 9 |
Strategies and Tactics to Achieve the Vision | p. 12 |
Always a Student | p. 13 |
Courageous | p. 15 |
Calm in a Crisis and Chaos | p. 17 |
Creative, Innovative, Collaborative, and Synergistic | p. 18 |
The Engineer as Builder | p. 19 |
Concluding Thoughts: Common Sense, Common Practice, and Good Habits | p. 20 |
Cited Sources | p. 22 |
Annotated Bibliography | p. 23 |
Exercises | p. 24 |
Leading and Managing: Getting Your Personal House in Order | p. 27 |
Start with You | p. 27 |
Time Management: But First Roles and Goals | p. 28 |
Time is a Resource | p. 28 |
Roles, Goals, and Then, and Only Then, Time Management | p. 28 |
Time Management: The Great Equalizer | p. 30 |
Time Management Tips: The ABCs | p. 31 |
A Time Management System | p. 45 |
Key Ideas about Time Management | p. 46 |
Employment or Graduate School? | p. 46 |
Full-Time Graduate Study | p. 47 |
Full-Time Employment | p. 48 |
Learn From Potential Employers | p. 48 |
The New Work Environment: Culture Shock? | p. 49 |
No Partial Credit | p. 49 |
Little Tolerance for Tardiness | p. 49 |
Assignments are Not Graded | p. 50 |
Schedules are More Complicated | p. 50 |
Higher Grooming and Dress Expectations | p. 50 |
Teamwork is Standard Operating Procedure | p. 51 |
Expect and Embrace Change | p. 51 |
The First Few Months of Practice: Make or Break Time | p. 51 |
Recognize and Draw on Generic Qualities | p. 52 |
Guard Your Reputation | p. 53 |
Learn and Respect Administrative Procedures and Structure | p. 53 |
Complete Assignments in Accordance with Expectations | p. 53 |
Get Things Done | p. 54 |
Trim Your Hedges | p. 54 |
Keep Your Supervisor Informed | p. 55 |
Speak Up and Speak Positively | p. 55 |
Dress Appropriately | p. 56 |
Hone Communication Ability | p. 57 |
Seize Opportunities for You and Your Organization | p. 57 |
Choose To Be a Winner | p. 57 |
Summing it Up | p. 59 |
Managing Personal Professional Assets: Building Individual Equity | p. 59 |
Personal Professional Assets | p. 59 |
Annual Accounting | p. 60 |
Careful Management of Personal Professional Equity | p. 60 |
Continuing Education | p. 61 |
Involvement in Professional Organizations: Taking and Giving | p. 61 |
Licensing | p. 64 |
Concluding Thoughts: Getting Your Personal House in Order | p. 67 |
Cited Sources | p. 68 |
Annotated Bibliography | p. 69 |
Exercises | p. 70 |
Communicating to Make Things Happen | p. 73 |
Five Forms of Communication | p. 73 |
Three Distinctions between Writing and Speaking | p. 75 |
Single-Channel versus Multi-Channel | p. 75 |
One-Directional versus Two-Directional | p. 76 |
Conveying versus Convincing | p. 76 |
Listening: Using Ears and Eyes | p. 77 |
Be Attentive | p. 77 |
The Value of Facts and Feelings | p. 78 |
Body Language: The Silent Messenger | p. 78 |
Verify Understanding | p. 80 |
Use What Is Learned | p. 80 |
Writing Tips: How to Write to Make Things Happen | p. 80 |
Define the Purpose | p. 80 |
Profile the Audience | p. 81 |
Structure the Document to Reflect the Audience Profile | p. 82 |
Ask About Document-Writing Guidelines | p. 84 |
Start Writing on "Day 1" | p. 84 |
Get Started: Overcome Writer's Block | p. 85 |
Avoid Tin Ear | p. 87 |
Retain Some of the Outline in the Document | p. 88 |
Write Major Documents in Third Person: Mostly | p. 88 |
Employ a Gender-Neutral Style | p. 89 |
Write in an Active, Direct Manner Rather Than a Passive, Indirect Manner | p. 89 |
Recognize that Less Is More | p. 90 |
Apply Rhetorical Techniques | p. 92 |
Adopt a Flexible Format for Identifying Tables, Figures, and Sources | p. 93 |
Use Lists | p. 94 |
Design a Standard Base Map or Diagram | p. 94 |
Compose Informative Titles | p. 94 |
Establish Milestones | p. 95 |
Produce an Attractive and Appealing Document | p. 95 |
Cite All Sources | p. 95 |
Read One More Time | p. 96 |
Speaking Tips: How to Speak to Make Things Happen | p. 97 |
Conquer Reluctance to Speak: Commit to Competence | p. 98 |
Prepare the Presentation | p. 99 |
Deliver the Presentation | p. 111 |
Follow-Up the Presentation | p. 116 |
Concluding Thoughts about Writing and Speaking | p. 118 |
Cited Sources | p. 118 |
Annotated Bibliography | p. 120 |
Exercises | p. 121 |
Developing Relationships | p. 123 |
Taking the Next Career Step | p. 123 |
Personality Profiles | p. 124 |
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs | p. 125 |
The Hierarchy | p. 125 |
Application | p. 126 |
Theories X and Y | p. 127 |
Definitions | p. 127 |
Applications of Theory X and Theory Y Knowledge | p. 127 |
Dominance of Theory Ys | p. 128 |
Delegation: Why Put Off Until Tomorrow What Someone Else Can Do Today? | p. 129 |
Reasons to Delegate | p. 129 |
Reluctance to Delegate | p. 131 |
Delegation Isn't Always Down | p. 133 |
Delegation Tips | p. 133 |
Three Possible Outcomes | p. 134 |
Orchestrating Meetings | p. 135 |
Reasons to Meet | p. 135 |
When Not To Call a Meeting | p. 136 |
Tips for Successful Meetings | p. 136 |
Additional Meeting Thoughts | p. 145 |
Working with Technologists, Technicians, and Other Team Members | p. 145 |
Essential Members of the Organization | p. 146 |
Challenges Unique to Working with Varied Team Members | p. 147 |
A Dozen Tips for the Entry-Level Technical Person | p. 148 |
Selecting Co-Workers and "Managing Your Boss" | p. 150 |
Carefully Select Your "Boss" and Co-workers | p. 150 |
Seek a Mutually-Beneficial Relationship | p. 150 |
Avoid Being a "Yes" Man/Woman | p. 151 |
Caring Isn't Coddling | p. 151 |
Coaching | p. 152 |
Coaching Tips | p. 152 |
Concluding Thought | p. 153 |
Teamwork | p. 153 |
Three Teamwork Essentials | p. 154 |
Creating a Team | p. 155 |
The Forming-Storming-Norming-Performing Process | p. 157 |
Closing Thoughts about Teams | p. 157 |
Effective Professional Meeting and Conference Attendance | p. 158 |
Learning about the Conference | p. 158 |
Before the Conference | p. 158 |
At the Conference | p. 159 |
After the Conference | p. 162 |
Looking Ahead | p. 163 |
Concluding Thoughts about Developing Relationships | p. 163 |
Cited Sources | p. 164 |
Annotated Bibliography | p. 165 |
Exercises | p. 166 |
Project Management: Planning, Executing, and Closing | p. 167 |
Project Broadly Defined | p. 167 |
Project Management Defined | p. 168 |
The Centrality of Project Management | p. 169 |
Relevance of Project Management to the Student and Entry-Level Technical Person | p. 172 |
Planning the Project | p. 173 |
All Projects Are Done Twice | p. 173 |
The Project Plan: | |
Introduction | p. 174 |
Consequences of Poor or No Planning | p. 175 |
The Project Plan Avoidance Syndrome | p. 175 |
Preparing the Project Plan | p. 176 |
Principal Project Plan Elements | p. 177 |
Objectives - What Do We Want to Accomplish? | p. 178 |
Scope - How Are We Going to Do It? | p. 178 |
Risks - What Could Go Wrong? | p. 178 |
Deliverables - What Will We Provide to the Client/Owner/Customer? | p. 181 |
Milestones/Schedule - When Will We Provide the Deliverables? | p. 181 |
Tasks - What Tasks Need to be Done and in What Order to Provide the Deliverables? | p. 182 |
Resources/Budget - How Much Will the Project Cost? | p. 183 |
Directory - Who Will Participate? | p. 184 |
Communication Protocol - How Will We Collaborate? | p. 185 |
Monitoring and Control Procedure - How Will We Know How We Are Doing Relative to the Project Plan? | p. 185 |
Ten Possible Additional Project Plan Elements | p. 186 |
Project Planning Versus Project Doing | p. 187 |
Executing the Project | p. 188 |
Keep the Project Team on Track | p. 188 |
Interact With Client, Owner, or Customer | p. 188 |
Communicate With Stakeholders | p. 188 |
Monitor Project Progress and Take Appropriate Actions | p. 189 |
Closing the Project | p. 190 |
Seek External Input | p. 190 |
Conduct Project Team Meeting | p. 191 |
Leverage the Just-Completed Project | p. 191 |
Closure: Common Sense and Self Discipline | p. 192 |
Cited Sources | p. 192 |
Annotated Bibliography | p. 193 |
Exercises | p. 194 |
Project Management: Critical Path Method and Scope Creep | p. 195 |
This Chapter Relative to the Preceding Chapter | p. 195 |
The Critical Path Method | p. 196 |
Introduction: The Four Schedule Questions | p. 196 |
Alternative Scheduling Methods | p. 197 |
Network Fundamentals | p. 199 |
Critical Path Method Steps | p. 200 |
Example Application of the Critical Path Method | p. 201 |
Tips for Determining Tasks | p. 207 |
Some Observations about the Critical Path Method | p. 208 |
Review of Earlier Schedule Questions | p. 209 |
Closing Thoughts about the Critical Path Method | p. 210 |
Scope Creep | p. 210 |
Two Types of Scope Creep | p. 210 |
Consequences of Uncompensated Scope Creep | p. 212 |
Drivers of Uncompensated Scope Creep | p. 213 |
Doing Something Extra: The Platinum Rule | p. 215 |
Relevance to You as a Student | p. 215 |
Preventing Uncompensated Scope Creep | p. 216 |
Resolving Uncompensated Scope Creep | p. 223 |
Ideas for Clients, Owners, and Customers about Avoiding Uncompensated Scope Creep | p. 225 |
Closing Thoughts about Scope Creep | p. 227 |
Cited Sources | p. 227 |
Annotated Bibliography | p. 228 |
Exercises | p. 228 |
Quality: What Is It and How Do We Achieve It? | p. 231 |
Everyone Is for It! | p. 231 |
Quality Defined | p. 232 |
Quality as Opulence | p. 232 |
Quality as Excellence or Superiority | p. 233 |
Quality as Meeting All Requirements | p. 233 |
A Caution for Engineers and Other Technical Personnel | p. 235 |
Quality Control and Quality Assurance | p. 236 |
Suggestions for Developing a Quality Seeking Culture | p. 237 |
Strive to Understand Client, Owner, and Customer Wants and Needs | p. 238 |
Define the Other Project Requirements | p. 242 |
Assess and Manage Risk | p. 242 |
Think Upstream, Not Downstream | p. 242 |
Create, Use, and Continuously Improve Written Guidance for Repetitive Tasks and Processes | p. 243 |
Expect Each Person to Check His or Her Work | p. 248 |
Arrange for External Reviews | p. 249 |
Reduce Cycle Time | p. 249 |
Tools and Techniques for Stimulating Creative and Innovative Thinking | p. 250 |
The Need for and Value of Tools and Techniques | p. 250 |
Create and Innovate Defined | p. 250 |
Brainstorming | p. 251 |
Mulitvoting | p. 252 |
Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats | p. 252 |
Stakeholder Input | p. 253 |
Process Diagramming | p. 253 |
Fishbone Diagramming | p. 254 |
Pareto Analysis | p. 254 |
Problems-First Meetings | p. 256 |
Mind Mapping | p. 256 |
Ohno Circle | p. 258 |
Metrics | p. 259 |
Freehand Drawing | p. 260 |
Take a Break | p. 263 |
Closure: Commit to Quality | p. 264 |
Cited Sources | p. 264 |
Annotated Bibliography | p. 266 |
Exercises | p. 267 |
Design: To Engineer Is to Create | p. 269 |
The Root of Engineering | p. 269 |
This Chapter's Approach | p. 270 |
Design in the Context of Major Engineering Functions | p. 271 |
Four Engineering Functions | p. 271 |
Interaction | p. 271 |
"Back-of-the-Envelope" Sketches and Calculations | p. 272 |
Design Phases | p. 273 |
Hard and Soft Results | p. 274 |
The Disproportionate Impact of the Design Function | p. 274 |
Design in Terms of Deliverables | p. 274 |
Drawings | p. 275 |
Technical Specifications | p. 276 |
Non-Technical Provisions | p. 277 |
Design as Risky Business | p. 278 |
Design as a Personally-Satisfying and People-Serving Process | p. 279 |
More Than Applied Science | p. 279 |
Aspiring to Creativity and Innovation | p. 280 |
The Words "Engineer" and "Create" | p. 280 |
Closing Thoughts About Design | p. 281 |
Cited Sources | p. 281 |
Annotated Bibliography | p. 282 |
Exercises | p. 282 |
Building: Constructing and Manufacturing | p. 283 |
The Engineer as Builder | p. 283 |
Constructing | p. 285 |
Importance of Constructing | p. 285 |
What Gets Constructed and How? | p. 286 |
Roles of Engineers in Constructing | p. 287 |
Trends in Constructing | p. 289 |
Manufacturing | p. 290 |
Importance of Manufacturing | p. 290 |
What Gets Manufactured and How? | p. 291 |
Roles of Engineers in Manufacturing | p. 292 |
Trends in Manufacturing | p. 293 |
Differences between Constructing and Manufacturing | p. 294 |
Closing Thoughts about Constructing and Manufacturing | p. 294 |
Cited Sources | p. 295 |
Annotated Bibliography | p. 295 |
Exercises | p. 296 |
Basic Accounting: Tracking the Past and Planning the Future | p. 299 |
Relevance of Accounting to the Engineer | p. 299 |
The Balance Sheet: How Much Is It Worth? | p. 300 |
Personal Balance Sheet | p. 301 |
Business Balance Sheet | p. 302 |
The Income Statement: Inflow and Outflow | p. 304 |
Personal Income Statement | p. 305 |
Business Income Statement | p. 306 |
Relationship between the Balance Sheet and the Income Statement | p. 308 |
Accounting for Your Future | p. 309 |
Estimating the Necessary Net Worth at the End of Your Earning Phase | p. 309 |
Accumulating the Necessary Net Worth by the End of Your Earning Phase | p. 312 |
Is This Overkill? | p. 314 |
The Impact of Time Utilization Rate and Expense Ratio on Profitability in the Consulting Business | p. 314 |
Utilization Rate and Expense Ratio | p. 314 |
Analysis of a Consulting Firm's Income Statement | p. 315 |
Sensitivity of Profit to Time Utilization and Expense Ratio | p. 316 |
The Multiplier | p. 319 |
The Multiplier as an Indicator of Cost Competitiveness? | p. 319 |
Reducing the Multiplier | p. 320 |
Caveat about Cost and Consultant Selection | p. 320 |
The Income Statement as Part of the Business Plan for a Consulting Firm | p. 320 |
Project Overruns: Implications for Profitability and Personnel | p. 321 |
Concluding Thoughts about You and Accounting | p. 324 |
Cited Sources | p. 324 |
Annotated Bibliography | p. 325 |
Exercises | p. 325 |
Legal Framework | p. 329 |
Why Law for Engineers? | p. 329 |
Legal Terminology | p. 332 |
Changing Attitudes: Forewarned is Forearmed | p. 334 |
Liability: Incurring It | p. 334 |
Liability: Failures and Learning from Them | p. 336 |
Collapse of Hotel Walkway | p. 337 |
Other Failures | p. 338 |
Liability: Minimizing It | p. 339 |
Insurance: Financial Protection | p. 339 |
Organizational Preventive Practices | p. 339 |
Personal Preventive Practices | p. 340 |
Maintaining Perspective on Liability Minimization | p. 344 |
Legal Forms of Business Ownership | p. 344 |
Sole Proprietorship | p. 345 |
Partnership | p. 346 |
Corporation | p. 346 |
Closure | p. 347 |
Concluding Comments about the Legal Framework | p. 347 |
Cited Sources | p. 347 |
Annotated Bibliography | p. 349 |
Exercises | p. 349 |
Ethics: Dealing with Dilemmas | p. 353 |
Inevitable Ethical Dilemmas and Decisions | p. 353 |
Defining Ethics | p. 355 |
Definitions | p. 355 |
Distilling the Definitions | p. 356 |
Teaching and Learning Ethics | p. 356 |
Legal and Ethical Domain | p. 359 |
Codes of Ethics | p. 362 |
Introduction to Codes: What They Are | p. 362 |
Engineering Society Codes of Ethics | p. 363 |
Ethics Codes for Other Professions | p. 365 |
Business Codes of Ethics | p. 366 |
Government Codes of Ethics | p. 367 |
University Codes of Ethics | p. 369 |
Codes Cannot Anticipate All Circumstances | p. 370 |
Dealing with Ethical Dilemmas: Using Codes and Other Resources | p. 370 |
Ethics Codes | p. 371 |
Advice of Experienced Personnel | p. 371 |
A Nine-Step Individual or Group Process | p. 371 |
A Systematic Group Process | p. 372 |
Application of Moral Imagination | p. 373 |
Case Study: Discovering a Major Design Error after Construction Is Complete | p. 374 |
Design and Construction | p. 374 |
Post-Construction Discovery | p. 374 |
The Engineer's Actions | p. 375 |
What Happened to LeMessurier? | p. 376 |
Concluding Thoughts: Seeing Sermons | p. 376 |
Cited Sources | p. 377 |
Annotated Bibliography | p. 378 |
Exercises | p. 379 |
Role and Selection of Consultants | p. 381 |
Consultant Defined and Why You Should Care | p. 381 |
The Meanings of Consultant | p. 381 |
Why You Should Care | p. 382 |
Why Retain a Consultant? Let's Do It Ourselves! | p. 383 |
Characteristics of Successful Consultants | p. 385 |
Consultant Selection Process | p. 387 |
Cost Versus Quality | p. 387 |
Price-Based Selection | p. 388 |
The Ideal Selection Process | p. 389 |
Qualifications-Based Selection | p. 390 |
Steps in the Selection Process | p. 391 |
Welcome Exceptions | p. 396 |
Summing Up the Consultant Selection Process | p. 396 |
Price-Based Selection: Three Costs to the Consultant | p. 397 |
Offering Less Than We Could | p. 397 |
Further Reduction in Profit | p. 398 |
Damaged Reputation | p. 398 |
Closing Thoughts | p. 399 |
Conclusions about the Role and Selection of Consultants | p. 400 |
Cited Sources | p. 401 |
Annotated Bibliography | p. 401 |
Exercises | p. 402 |
Marketing: A Mutually-Beneficial Process | p. 403 |
Consider Your View of Marketing: Are You Carrying Some Baggage? | p. 403 |
Chapter's Scope | p. 404 |
The Economic Motivation for Marketing Professional Services | p. 405 |
Marketing and Selling: Different but Related | p. 406 |
A Simple, Powerful Marketing Model | p. 409 |
The Model | p. 409 |
Applying the Model | p. 410 |
Caution: Respect the Order and Invest Time Wisely | p. 411 |
Marketing Techniques and Tools | p. 412 |
Create a Personal Marketing Plan | p. 412 |
Learn the Marketing Language | p. 414 |
Schedule Marketing Tasks | p. 416 |
Find Common Ground | p. 416 |
Earn Trust | p. 418 |
Ask-Ask-Ask: The Power of Questions | p. 419 |
Talk to Strangers | p. 422 |
Stress Benefits, Not Features | p. 422 |
Focus on Existing Clients, Owners, and Customers | p. 423 |
Help to Establish Multiple-Level Links | p. 424 |
Proactively Establish the Next Step | p. 425 |
Selectively Share Data, Information, and Knowledge | p. 426 |
What Works and What Doesn't Work | p. 426 |
Marketing Concluding Comments | p. 427 |
Cited Sources | p. 428 |
Annotated Bibliography | p. 429 |
Exercises | p. 429 |
The Future and You | p. 431 |
What Does the Future Hold? | p. 431 |
The World You Will Work In: Same Role but New Stage | p. 432 |
After the Knowledge Age, the Conceptual Age? | p. 433 |
After The Knowledge Age, the Opportunity Age? | p. 434 |
After The Knowledge Age, the Solving Wicked Problems Age? | p. 435 |
Additional Views of the World Stage | p. 436 |
Implications for You | p. 437 |
How to Lead Change | p. 438 |
Encounter a Leadership Gap | p. 438 |
Move Beyond Being the Thermometer: Also be the Thermostat | p. 439 |
Define the Situation: What, Why, Who, How, and When? | p. 439 |
Recognize Widespread Resistance to Change | p. 440 |
Practice Paradigm Pliancy: Prevent Paradigm Paralysis | p. 442 |
Appreciate the Movers-Movables-Immovables Structure | p. 446 |
Work Effectively With theMovers,Movables, and Immovables | p. 447 |
Expect the Awareness-Understanding-Commitment-Action Cascade | p. 448 |
Test Drive Terminology | p. 449 |
Learn Why Change Efforts Fail | p. 450 |
Adopt Change Principles and a Change Process | p. 451 |
Concluding Thoughts about You and the Future | p. 451 |
Cited Sources | p. 452 |
Annotated Bibliography | p. 453 |
Exercises | p. 454 |
Engineering your Future Supports ABET Basic Level Criterion 3 | p. 455 |
Engineering Your Future Supports ABET Program Criteria for Civil and Similarly-Named Engineering Programs | p. 457 |
Engineering Your Future Supports the Civil Engineering Body of Knowledge | p. 459 |
Index | p. 461 |
About the Author | p. 469 |
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The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.
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