For engineers who intend to broaden their horizon on the profession, apply experience in an engineering project management job. Engineering project management requires the combined application of hard and soft skills to streamline the processes utilised during the development of any new product or process. Moreover, this move would attract diverse opportunities associated with managerial roles in architecture, construction, and finance.
What is Engineering Project Management?
Engineering project management would be the management of the technical projects associated with designing, developing, and implementing processes or technologies. These projects may be executed in civil, mechanical, software, or electrical engineering: designing buildings, developing new devices, or implementing manufacturing automation systems.
Engineering project management would clearly cover the coordination of all projects' stages as well as control in the engineering domain. There is no denying that to successfully deliver an engineering project, project management and engineering approaches must both be applied. On the one hand, engineering project management steps are the same as projects for other world industries: planning, scheduling, allocating resources, managing stakeholders, monitoring, etc. However, in this field, project management should focus on the technical sides of projects as well as compliance with regulatory standards. To be an excellent engineering project manager, be a part of the British academy for training and development’s engineering project management courses.
Project Management vs. Engineering Management
The differentiation that goes in between project management and engineering management is a gigantic one. Project management requires planning and executing projects along with coordinating all related activities: managing resources, project schedules, budgets, monitoring, and controlling, and so on. In whatever domain, project management aims toward completing projects on time, with given budgets, and to the expectations of stakeholders.
On the other hand, engineering management is a systematic study that links together the technical aspects of engineering with those of business and management. Its main purpose is to make sure that engineering companies are able to run efficiently along the lines of engineering team management, strategic planning, problem solving, overseeing engineering projects' completion, and ensuring the achievement of the goals of engineering organizations.
So, on that basis, engineering project management can just be called a subdomain of engineering management. The latter field is responsible for managing all aspects of an engineering organisation (or department), while the former, engineering project management, focuses on completing individual engineering company projects.
Difference between project manager and engineering manager
The project manager controls the project execution, keeps an eye on the activities that need to be completed on time, within the approved cost, and under prescribed scope. A project manager does not necessarily need an extensive technical background.
The engineering manager is a technical person whose responsibility is to manage all technical activities, as well as engineering teams and related professionals.
Now since we have established a difference between project management and engineering discipline let's consider what methodologies engineering project managers use.
Engineering project management skills
Engineering project management skills encompasses a very broad-based knowledge of engineering practices and technologies, which helps in the formulation and execution of projects as these project managers understand the work, resources, and personnel needed to implement tasks. Engineering project managers not having the engineering background often rely on project engineers and other members of the team in proffering necessary technical support throughout the project.
Apart from engineering specialization, these people usually possess project management skills such as:
1. Project Planning
Part of project planning is to understand each stage of action in the project life cycle and skills of delegating tasks to respective team members. During earlier stages, engineering project managers will also conduct risk assessments, mitigate potential hindrances, and establish budgets.
2. Contract Authoring
Certain engineering project managers put together contracts to initiate work in a project. They may negotiate with clients to determine beneficial terms to the organization and set precise expectations, thus reducing the need for discussions during the progress survey.
3. Analysing Productivity
An engineering project manager observes productivity levels of project engineers and other associated persons by observing how the work progresses for the project. This skill may also slightly have the scope of changing or transferring to some other tasks in terms of work for improving productivity.
4. Leadership
Engineering project managers hold project meetings by harnessing their leadership skills in mobilising team members. They also make very important project deadline decisions and approve components before the team advances with its task.
5. Problem solving
Using problem solving skills, engineering project managers identify challenges and innovate solutions. Creativity and the ability to consider an issue from all sides enable engineering project managers to prioritize innovation for the organization and compromise.
6. Communication
From planning through implementation, engineering project managers are in constant communication with engineers assigned to a project, managers, and clients. They explain tasks, answer queries, and provide updates about progress in plain words using their communication abilities.
General Problems of Project Management in the Engineering Field
Engineering is a very complicated field and involves very complicated processes, dependencies, technologies, regulations, and other factors that can never remain aloof from engineering project management. Let us see some of those challenges that normally face engineering project managers.
1. Scope Creep.
Scope creep is unauthorised expansion of scope of a project and then it continues without altering the time schedule and costs and without putting more resources on the overall project. Most of the time, it happens due to a lesser management of project requirements within a project, which can eventually delay a project, overruns the budget, and in worst conditions end up in project failure. Scope creep in an engineering project may even come from conflicting stakeholder requests because of rapidly developing technologies as well as the dynamic nature of engineering projects, where unforeseen challenges will appear.
2. Technical Complexity.
Engineering projects have a lot of technical complexity. To start with, one of the defining properties of its multidisciplinary nature-mechanical, electrical, software engineering, civil engineering, etc-is that each engineering field follows a certain amount of principles, technologies, and methods for its operation. Furthermore, a large number of engineering projects also rely on newer technologies (AI, robotics, advanced materials and so forth) that are probably yet to mature or may be rapidly evolving. As such, poor coordination, errors and delays may arise. It makes it necessary for the employees to obtain expertise and adaptability in the fast changing environment in engineering.
3. The vulnerability to risk.
Engineering projects have a multitude of risks that can sometimes be hard to find and prohibit. They are firstly vulnerable because there are problems due to external factors, such as supply chain disruption or legislative changes. Equipment failures are also affecting the engineering project while running the program which delays the program brings on a project budget exceedance. Applications that require advanced technologies in engineering projects are also highly risky and full of uncertainties: unexpected outcomes normally result in delays or even project failure. The list of possible risks goes on, which indeed proves the necessity of having proper risk management in projects of this kind.
4. Resource management challenges.
Here are some of the causes of common significant resource management challenges faced by engineering project managers:
1. Unavailability of specialised skills among employees: Engineering projects require specific valuable knowledge about engineering and information about the digital universe. Not many of these experts exist in most sectors, making it impossible to assign the right people at the right time.
2. Sharing resources among different projects: This is especially felt in large companies that run engineering projects at the same time. Sharing people, equipment, and tools has resulted in the conflict of resources and has made the efficient allocation of resources difficult.
3. Workforce retention: New workforce in such transfer includes employees rotating in a long duration engineering project that can delay the project's seamless operations.
4. Management of global distributed teams: Most of the engineering companies hire workers from across the globe. This can consume so much time to manage these distributed teams, coordinate their efforts, and assign them onto project tasks effectively because of cultural and communication barriers, different time zones, and a lack of visibility on team members' skills, capacity, and availability.
5. Complete projects on time and in the required budget: Hence, on time and on budget delivery of engineering projects amidst several other things depends on the technical complexity of engineering projects; uncertainties; risks associated with the equipment; workforce problems; supply chain management issues.
The factors mentioned here can affect the timelines of any project. The list of such factors is not limited to this, changing market demands, regulatory changes, etc., which contribute to the delay in a project and ultimately increase costs.