Page 20 - Anatomy of a Robot

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How This Works When
It’s Implemented Right PROJECT MANAGEMENT 5

In no particular order, these are some of the results and understandings that should come
out of the proper application of this process.

The User’s Manual for the “Boss”

The following words of advice pertain to the management of your robot development
effort. If you are a lone robot hobbyist or operator, you are the management as well and
should heed these general rules. This also applies to employees of a company involved
in such a project.

PROJECTS ARE SHORT
Projects should be kept under six months. Ideally, most projects should be three to four
months long at most. This means that any very long term robot projects should be bro-
ken up into a series of smaller projects. Divide the project up into functional blocks like
power, chassis, control systems, and so on. This automatically engenders a complete
review of all aspects of a long project at periodic intervals. By default, this includes the
choice of PM, all project plans, all project resources, and so on. The following is a list
of benefits that will accrue if short projects are the norm.

PMs don’t delay the project work while they get a long plan worked out. They can
afford to make some mistakes over a shorter time period. These mistakes will be
corrected in the next leg of the project.
Long-term goals can be accomplished using a series of short-term goals and mak-
ing corrections along the way.

PMS RUN THE PROJECTS

The PM is responsible for all aspects of the project after kickoff. “Management” might
spawn the project and set the major goals, but it is the PM that runs with that informa-
tion, makes a project proposal, makes a project plan (including the schedule, budget,
resources, and so on.), finds the resources, executes the plan, builds the robot, and
reports on a regular basis.