Project Management Techniques For Engineers

I recently noticed a junior engineer in one of my teams taking the initiative to refactor a module, and I genuinely appreciate their proactive approach. Seeing team members embrace ownership and contribute to a healthier codebase is inspiring. Suppose you think a module, a feature or a component of the codebase can be improved for performance/reliability or readability. In that case, you should do it without seeking permission if it is not a breaking change. Waiting for a dedicated code cleanup sprint rarely happens. Cleaning code often doesn’t provide immediate business benefits compared to feature development. Hence, technical debt accumulates, leading to a challenging codebase. So, it’s better to take action now rather than later. if you think the module can be improved, do it while collecting data to support your claims, which you can then present in the code review/ PR review. This way, you cultivate an ownership and accountability mindset essential for every software engineer, enhancing personal growth and team efficiency.

🚧🚧🚧 Project running late? Don’t panic. Every planner, engineer, or PM has faced this moment: 👉 The deadline is slipping. 👉 The client is asking tough questions. 👉 You need a rescue plan—fast. Good news: you’ve got two weapons in your toolkit. ⏱️ Fast Tracking or 💸 Crashing. But the trick is knowing when to use which. 🔹 Fast Tracking ✔️ Run activities in parallel instead of sequentially ✔️ No extra cost, but you risk rework ✔️ Perfect when time is the top priority and scope is stable ✔️ Example: Overlapping design & construction phases 🔹 Crashing ✔️ Throw in extra resources to speed things up ✔️ Cost goes up, but time goes down ✔️ Best for critical path activities where resources are available ✔️ Example: Adding shifts or doubling manpower on key tasks 🧠 Pro Tip: Don’t just throw money or effort at the schedule. 👉 Always analyze the critical path first. Otherwise, you’re just “crashing” non-critical work while the delay stays untouched. 📌 Bottom line: Fast Tracking = Time over Risk Crashing = Cost over Time Choose wisely. That’s the difference between a controlled recovery and a budget disaster. #ProjectManagement #Construction #PrimaveraP6 #Scheduling #DelayAnalysis #Planning #ProjectControls #PMO #ProjectEngineer #CareerGrowth #FromSiteToOffice #ConstructionLife #PlanningEngineer #EngineeringJourney #RealTalk #KeepLearning #ProjectManagement #SiteToProject #pmp #pmi

𝟳 𝗗𝗲𝗽𝗹𝗼𝘆𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗦𝗲𝗮𝗺𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗦𝗼𝗳𝘁𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗥𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗲𝘀 Effective deployment strategies are critical for maintaining stability, minimizing downtime, and ensuring a smooth user experience. Whether you're rolling out new features or updating existing ones, the right approach can make all the difference. Here’s a quick look at the top deployment strategies and their use cases: 1. 𝗖𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝗥𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗲𝘀    - Roll out new versions to a small, select group before a full launch.    - 𝗣𝘂𝗿𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗲: Early issue detection with minimal impact. 2. 𝗕𝗹𝘂𝗲/𝗚𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝗗𝗲𝗽𝗹𝗼𝘆𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀    - Run two identical environments in parallel, seamlessly switching between them.    - 𝗣𝘂𝗿𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗲: Zero-downtime releases and immediate rollback options. 3. 𝗙𝗲𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗧𝗼𝗴𝗴𝗹𝗲𝘀    - Enable or disable features dynamically with feature flags.    - 𝗣𝘂𝗿𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗲: Phased rollouts and risk mitigation by toggling features without redeployment. 4. 𝗔/𝗕 𝗧𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴    - Test different versions of a feature with real users to gather data-driven insights.    - 𝗣𝘂𝗿𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗲: Understand user preferences and optimize features based on behavior. 5. 𝗗𝗮𝗿𝗸 𝗟𝗮𝘂𝗻𝗰𝗵𝗲𝘀    - Release features in production without exposing them to users immediately.    - 𝗣𝘂𝗿𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗲: Validate new features while minimizing user impact and risk. 6. 𝗥𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗗𝗲𝗽𝗹𝗼𝘆𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁    - Gradual updates across servers, ensuring continuous availability.    - 𝗣𝘂𝗿𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗲: Incremental, controlled deployment for reduced downtime and disruption. 7. 𝗣𝗵𝗮𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝗥𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘂𝘁    - Deploy in structured phases to progressively larger user groups.    - 𝗣𝘂𝗿𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗲: Controlled exposure to monitor performance and address issues gradually. Each strategy serves a unique purpose and provides flexibility to adapt to different deployment scenarios, helping teams balance stability, risk, and user satisfaction. This cheat sheet can serve as a handy guide for anyone managing or planning deployments. Which strategy has been most effective for you?

Thinking of entering defence? Good. But read this first, or get crushed. You’re not building a startup. You’re entering a war zone with Excel sheets instead of bullets. And here’s the first landmine: Defence doesn’t care about you. Not until you matter. And by the time you matter, it might be too late. So here’s your brutal, field-tested playbook 👇 🔻 1. Run a Dual-Use Strategy or Die Trying Don’t “pivot into defence.” Don’t “add military as a target customer.” Build something with teeth in both markets — or you’ll starve while waiting 24 months for a MoD reply. Dual-use = survival. Omni-use = dominance. 🔻 2. Your Actual Competitor? Paper. You're not fighting primes. You're fighting outdated workflows, 94-page requirement PDFs, and evaluation committees who’ve never used the tech. You’re not selling innovation. You’re selling the idea that innovation should exist. 🔻 3. Never Ask for Feedback — Ask for Budget Lines Everyone will “love” what you’re doing. They’ll invite you to panels, workshops, incubators. None of that pays your team. Ask: “Which budget pays for this in Q4?” If they can’t answer, walk. 🔻 4. Find a Uniformed Insider, or You’re Screwed No matter how good your pitch is, you need a believer inside the system. Someone who speaks procurement and can say, “This solves my mission.” Without that: enjoy limbo. 🔻 5. If You’re Not Testable, You’re Not Real Defence doesn’t buy PowerPoints. You need a testable MVP fast. No test = no traction. No traction = no procurement route. No route = you're just theatre. 🔻 6. The First Deal Will Break You It’s slow. It’s painful. It’ll take months, maybe years. But once you break the wall once, you become “pre-approved.” Then the real business begins. 🔻 7. Ignore All of This If You're Building Slideware This advice is only for builders. For founders ready to live in uncertainty, raise from niche VCs, and get 50 no’s before one test flight. If you're not all-in: stay in SaaS. This is the most misunderstood opportunity of our time. Europe is waking up. The U.S. is doubling down. And the next industrial revolution will wear camouflage. Startups who learn the terrain will dominate. Speed. Testability. Dual-use. Insider access. That’s your survival kit. Use it. #DefenceStartups #DualUse #InnovationInDefence #OmniUse #MilitaryTech #InsiderIntel #BoldMovesOnly #WakeUpEurope

Quality management and process improvement efforts, while remaining scientific, must always take into account the human factors, especially culture! If there is a culture of not following standard procedures, even the most optimized processes won't work as well as they should. Culture is stronger than process. It's stronger than everything!! I come across lots of organizational processes that are actually quite solid...always room for improvement of course... but the biggest problem is often that the process is not followed as documented. You might think that it's best to dive straight into improving the process...after all, it's probably the process that needs improvement if it's not being followed...right? Well...not always. Sometimes the culture needs to change first, or at the same time. So, before jumping into process improvement activities, it's a good idea to examine whether the existing processes are being followed as intended and to understand the reasons for any deviations. It's part of overall process management. This involves ✔ checking how well people understand the existing current process ✔ figuring out what makes it difficult to follow the process ✔ understanding what happens when process is not followed If you are a leader tasked with process improvement, you will probably be using visual management tools to map out the process... I do this too and along with process mapping, VSM and other Lean tools, I add in some scoping questions to help me understand people's behaviours and attitudes towards the process. I have added mine below. When I use them, I quickly get a sense of the culture when I hear the answers (And so does the organization). It helps us to understand the issues that might lie in how processes are created, communicated, implemented, monitored and reviewed. It helps us to understand the people development needs as well as the process improvement opportunities. As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this topic. What else should we be asking to understand the culture in relation to processes? Leave your comments below 🙏

“There is a place where we IMAGINE THE IMPOSSIBLE…” 🚀 I’m leading an innovation session today inspired by SKUNK WORKS and the work IBM is doing with Lockheed Martin.   Lockheed Martin are now integrating IBM’s “Granite” large language models into the tools used in their AI factory by over 10,000 developers and engineers. It's a really impressive partnership.   Building impossible projects like Granite, the SR-71 Blackbird or the F-35 Lightning II is not easy. Especially when you have impossible deadlines, tight budgets, limited resources and bureaucracy.   At Skunk Works – it comes down to “MISSION CRITICAL COMMUNICATIONS”.   In 1939 Skunk Works founder Kelly Johnson wrote a set of rules which laid the foundations for how Lockheed Martin consistently outperform their competitors.   They're interesting because many of these rules are as relevant to PROJECT MANAGEMENT today as they were back then. (I like no. 3!)   1. The Skunk Works® manager must be delegated practically complete control of his program in all aspects. 2. Strong but small project offices must be provided both by the military and industry. 3. The number of people having any connection with the project must be restricted in an almost vicious manner. Use a small number of good people (80-90% less than usual). 4. A very simple drawing and drawing release system with great flexibility for making changes must be provided. 5. There must be a minimum number of reports required, but important work must be recorded thoroughly. 8. The Skunk Works inspection system should be used on new projects. Push more basic inspection responsibility back to subcontractors and vendors. Don’t duplicate so much inspection. 9. The contractor must be delegated the authority to test his final product in flight. He can and must test it in the initial stages. If he doesn’t, he rapidly loses his competency to design other vehicles. 10. The Skunk Works practice of having a specification section stating clearly which important military specification items will not knowingly be complied with and reasons therefore is highly recommended. 11. Funding a program must be timely so that the contractor doesn’t have to keep running to the bank to support government projects. 12. There must be mutual trust between the organization and very close cooperation and liaison on a day-to-day basis. This cuts down misunderstanding and correspondence to an absolute minimum. 13. Access by outsiders to the project and its personnel must be strictly controlled by appropriate security measures. 14. Because only a few people will be used in engineering and most other areas, ways must be provided to reward good performance by pay, not based on the number of personnel supervised.   “We are defined not by the technologies we create but the process in which we create them.” – Kelly Johnson, Skunkworks

Being able to manage up, down and out is one of the most valuable skills you can develop. Because the actual executing of projects is often the least complicated part of it all. If we are being honest with ourselves, successful projects are about 40% pure execution and 60% managing expectations. Managing expectations comes in many forms - including perceptions, assumptions and emotions. And it can look like: Understanding stakeholder motivations and priorities. And being able to articulate your understanding of these back to your stakeholders to breed confidence. It’s sharing understanding. It’s making sure that as revelations come to light, that the initiative is taken to get everyone on the same page in real time. Transparency builds trust. It’s working visibly - via documentation, timelines, education, and statuses. Storytelling WHAT we are doing and WHEN we are doing it makes the work real. Process and delivery have to be SEEN to be understood. It’s anticipating needs and ensuring there are few surprises by creating the right moments and levels of communication. It’s proactively mapping not just our current step, but our next five and assessing how current state will need to evolve to get us there. And then making sure everyone has what they need to take those five next steps in unison. Managing expectations is what unblocks execution.

𝟱 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗖𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗕𝗲𝗮𝘁𝘀 𝗚𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 (𝗔𝗻𝗱 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗶𝘁) Architects love to talk about standards, models, and operating structures. But here’s a truth: A standard helps once a quarter. A healthy culture helps every day. Governance creates compliance. Culture creates momentum. And the best architecture? It only works when the culture supports it. A healthy engineering culture isn’t an accident. It is built intentionally. Every single day. 𝗦𝗼 𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗰𝘁’𝘀 𝗹𝗲𝗻𝘀, 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝗮 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘁𝗵𝘆 𝗰𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲? 1️⃣ Psychological safety ≫ Mandates People escalate risks early when they trust the room → delivery accelerates, not slows. 2️⃣ Recognition for foundational work Celebrate teams who reduce debt & complexity, not just those who ship features. 3️⃣ A rhythm of Architectural Clarity No surprises. No hidden decisions. Just shared understanding of why this, why now. 4️⃣ True partnership between Architecture × Engineering × Product Not governance. Not policing. Co-design. Co-decide. Co-deliver. 5️⃣ Growth paths that create architects, not gatekeepers Upskilling, pairing, patterns, and openness. A culture where more people can make good architectural decisions. 𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗶𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀 Because culture is the execution engine. • Teams who feel valued → raise risks early. • Teams that trust architects → adopt patterns faster. • Teams who collaborate → reduce rework, drift, and complexity. Culture isn’t “soft.” Culture is multiplicative. 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀, 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗻𝗼𝘁𝗲: A healthy engineering culture isn’t optional. It is the first domino in every transformation. Here’s the real question: What are you doing today to build a culture that accelerates architecture instead of resisting it? --- 🚀 Join 𝐀𝐫𝐜𝗵𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐬’ 𝐇𝐮𝐛 – our newsletter and community for architects leveling up! Subscribe 👉 https://lnkd.in/dJSgTTVW ➕ Follow Kevin Donovan 🔔 ♻️ Repost | 💬 Comment | 👍 Like

If you're serious about mastering the complexities of supply chain and operations, I can't recommend Manufacturing Planning and Control for Supply Chain Management by F. Robert Jacobs, William L. Berry, D. Clay Whybark, and Thomas E. Vollmann enough Manufacturing Planning and Control for Supply Chain Management. This breakdown can help you focus your reading or use it as a study guide, especially if you're preparing for the CPIM exam or applying it in your organization. Key Chapters & Core Topics (Deep Dive). 1.-Introduction to Manufacturing Planning and Control (MPC). Overview of MPC systems in modern supply chains. Strategic vs tactical vs operational planning. Importance of demand-supply alignment. 2.-Demand Management. Forecasting techniques (qualitative & quantitative). Customer order servicing strategies. Collaborative Planning, Forecasting, and Replenishment (CPFR). 3.-Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP). Balancing demand and supply at the volume level. Cross-functional planning processes. Aggregate planning and rough-cut capacity planning. 4.-Master Production Scheduling (MPS). Transitioning from volume to mix. Priority setting, time fences, and ATP (Available to Promise). Stability and flexibility in MPS. 5.-Material Requirements Planning (MRP). BOM (Bill of Materials) structures. Netting, lot sizing, and lead time offsets. Regenerative vs net change planning. 6.-Capacity Planning. Capacity Requirements Planning (CRP). Rough-Cut Capacity Planning (RCCP). Load vs capacity analysis. 7.-Production Activity Control (PAC). Shop floor control systems. Sequencing, dispatching, and monitoring. Lean scheduling methods. 8. Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS). Real-time planning systems. Constraint-based scheduling. Integration with ERP systems. 9.-Just-in-Time (JIT) and Lean Manufacturing. Pull systems, kanban, and takt time. Waste elimination and continuous flow. Cultural and organizational enablers. 10.-Distribution Requirements Planning (DRP). Planning for finished goods distribution. Inventory positioning across the network. Multi-echelon supply chains. 11.-ERP Systems and Supply Chain Integration. Role of ERP in MPC. Data structures and integration across functions. Real-time visibility and decision-making. 12.-Strategy and Performance Measurement. Aligning MPC with corporate strategy. KPIs for planning and execution. Continuous improvement through metrics.

The fastest way to fail a massive, ambiguous project? Act like you know the answer. I see this all the time at work: a senior leader drops a vague, massive idea - the classic "future-of-X" project. The immediate reaction is panic. Teams scramble to produce a hundred-page one-pager ( 😉) defining every detail before the core idea is even solid. Why? Because we think defining the scope equals control. Here’s what I learned leading complex initiatives: You don't earn credibility by knowing the plan; you earn it by defining the right questions. Ambiguity is the universal signal that it's time to stop managing tasks and start leading thought. For years, I was the one trying to solve every vague ask solo. Now, I use a simple 5-point method to force the right conversation with senior stakeholders. This method shifts the focus from managing complexity to collapsing it down to the five critical decisions that unlock 80% of the project's path. It turns an impossible problem into five manageable, senior-level ownership points. 1️⃣ Stop Defining the Scope, Define the Exit Criteria: Agree with your principal stakeholders: what is the single, non-negotiable metric that if broken, forces the project to pause or pivot? 2️⃣ Translate the Vague into Team Trade-Offs: Never go to the team with an ambiguous question. Instead, frame the ask as concrete, strategic options. Your job is to facilitate the choice, not present the solution. 3️⃣ Find the Sacred Cow: Every ambiguous project is built on one risky assumption. Find it. Challenge it. Publicly. 4️⃣ Audit the Information Gaps (Not People): Do not ask, "Who owns this piece?" Ask, "Who has the data (or context) we need to move forward?" Then, make the introduction. 5️⃣ Secure One 'Yes': Your first goal isn't securing the whole budget. It's getting a key sponsor to agree to the next single question you must answer. This creates momentum without over-promising. This is the scaffolding that elevates your role from excellent operator to strategic leader. It shows you're not just executing the plan, you're architecting the path. – I share actionable frameworks and real-world stories for tech leaders. 👉 Follow me, Rony Rozen, to get them in your feed.