Page 22 - Anatomy of a Robot

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PROJECT MANAGEMENT 7
STARTING A PROJECT
Management currently identifies the need for a robot and determines the general
requirements. This information usually comes to PMs verbally. A PM is assigned to
manage the project. This assignment is for the duration of the project and is therefore
temporary. In practice, a good PM is very valuable, so success in a project generally
brings further appointments and further projects. However, failures will happen since
the skills required to be a good PM are not the same skills possessed by even the best
engineers. Being a good PM takes training, skill, and talent, and even the best PMs will
trip up now and then. It is most important that you remember this. If you are a PM and
sense you are in trouble, report it to your manager. This is the best course of action for
many reasons and management should encourage it.
That said, let’s assume you are the newly appointed PM of a new project. Please real-
ize you have a large vertical management responsibility now. It spans sales, marketing,
business, management, engineering, production, and service. Run the project like it’s a
business unto itself. The “business” is the best tool you have to help you succeed in your
project. Use the support available for your mission: resources, space, equipment, guid-
ance, personnel, and all other resources needed to succeed. But you have to tell man-
agement (as far in advance as possible) what is needed and what must be done. Provide
all the initiative.
A further word of advice: Try to do things in the order of the following checklist. You
can start portions of the project in parallel (like starting development before the plan or
specification is drafted), but the risk (and potential waste) rapidly mounts. Insist on
doing things in order.

RECORD KEEPING

For the moment, use the checklist to record the location of all files (documents) that are
mentioned on the checklist. Keep a labeled, three-ring project notebook containing the
documents and put the checklist in the first flyleaf.

PROJECT PROPOSAL

When management brings you a robot project, it generally is given in a verbal assign-
ment. Your first task will be to write a project proposal, schedule the review meeting,
circulate the proposal to the reviewers a day in advance, and preside over the review
meeting. The purpose of the proposal is to crystallize thinking and estimate the costs
and complexities involved. Interview the managers that commissioned the robot, sen-
ior engineers, marketing, and all other pertinent associates to obtain their opinions on
all aspects of the proposal submission.