Re: The joys of having a non technical manager.

In article <i5de949e15r0etd1cavbgs2kfcdc9vomlp@xxxxxxx>,
jeffl@xxxxxxxxxx says...
On Sat, 2 Aug 2008 12:09:34 -0700 (PDT), sfisher@xxxxxxxxx wrote:

My non technical manager thinks that our (very) complex electronic
products shouldn't have prototype stages in the project plan because
electronics engineers should aim to 'get it right first time'. This
guy has had 20 highly successful years of managing the production of
speakers, and treats every little design problem as a sign of
incompetance (and I do mean little).

Has anyone else had this kind of experience and how did you cope?

The "get it right the first time" sounds very much like the "zero
defect" programs of the early 1970's. They didn't quite work in the
1970's and are still with us today. The idea is to improve quality by
reducing mistakes.

....and "Six Sigma", "Quality is Free", and any number of other
ridiculous annual programs.

The problem is that the victims of such programs
spend their time minimizing their mistakes, instead of maximizing
their successes.

IME, they sit around inventing metrics they can meet. With an
arbitrarily high denominator the defect "rate" can be arbitrarily
low.

Fear of making a mistake sets in rather quickly,
which seems to be exactly what your new manager is practicing. The
next stage is finger pointing, where nobody wants to accept
responsibility for a mistake. I've attended meetings where the
assignment of the blame took precidence over fixing the problem.

As have I. "Ok, it's *MY* fault. Now that we have that out of the
way, let's fix it."

Methinks you might be headed for trouble if this is your new managers
doctrine. I don't have any brilliant suggestions on how to convince
the manager that his approach is wrong. The best I can offer is that
he should consider the possible effects of his policies dragged to its
logical extreme. If every little problem results in excessive
criticism, then people are just not going to report problems. (I've
also seen that happen). The result is that he'll get reports from his
staff indicating that everything is just wonderful, when nothing is
working. It's so much easier to lie and fix the problems quietly,
than to admit that there's a problem, and incurr the wrath of this
manager. Such over-reaction might also cause designers to refuse to
"take ownership" or responsibility for their decisions, resulting the
previously mentioned blame game. If someone coming to this manager
for help with a problem also gets blamed for the problem, then it's
highly likely that nobody will ask for help. This manager is headed
for "isolation".

Yep, because everyone will walk.

The managers production background is also interesting. Production
and QA people are usually involved in Zero Defect or Six Sigma
programs in order to improve quality. A questions whether these
programs can effectively be applied to development, where they tend to
stifle creative solutions and promote excessive paperwork.

As for the necessity of doing prototypes, I'm undecided. It's been 20
years since I've done a major project. We tried it both ways, but
never reached a decision. I favored build fast and furious, and found
myself spending my time fixing problems. Others favored a more
careful, step by step, carefully calculated approach, which tended to
extend the project duration, but resulted in much less
troubleshooting. Of course, the longer the duration, the more
oportunity for marketing to change the specifications. With todays
short product cycles, prototyping and even thorough testing of the
final product can becomes luxuries. When there are two or three
generations of new products in development at any given time, nobody
will be interested in fixing the "old" products.

No one has the budget to fix old products. If it sorta works...

--
Keith
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: The joys of having a non technical manager.
    ... products shouldn't have prototype stages in the project plan because ... spend their time minimizing their mistakes, ... which seems to be exactly what your new manager is practicing. ...
    (sci.electronics.design)
  • Re: The joys of having a non technical manager.
    ... products shouldn't have prototype stages in the project plan because ... The "get it right the first time" sounds very much like the "zero ... spend their time minimizing their mistakes, ... which seems to be exactly what your new manager is practicing. ...
    (sci.electronics.design)
  • Re: My News -
    ... The store manager said this is the first time some one ever gave him notice ... Just this week I quit a job for the first time in my ... CAPS pre-season vs Philly on Friday. ...
    (rec.crafts.textiles.needlework)
  • Re: My News -
    ... The store manager said this is the first time some one ever gave him notice ... Just this week I quit a job for the first time in my ... CAPS pre-season vs Philly on Friday. ...
    (rec.crafts.textiles.needlework)
  • Re: The joys of having a non technical manager.
    ... products shouldn't have prototype stages in the project plan because ... guy has had 20 highly successful years of managing the production of ... spend their time minimizing their mistakes, ... which seems to be exactly what your new manager is practicing. ...
    (sci.electronics.design)