“Can XYZ project be done?”

Before you can answer, you have to ask yourself, does XYZ break any of the laws of nature? If not, it can be done. If so, it cannot be done. The only real consideration is whether the resources are available for doing the project. Projects require resources such as time, money, computational power, manpower, etc. Lacking a single resource to complete a project can lead to overall failure. 

This brings to mind the famous iron triangle of project management—the balance between cost, schedule, and quality (see image). Frequently, you get to prioritize two and must sacrifice one for a given project. 

The iron triangle affects engineers and customers differently. Having a large budget for design is desirable for the engineer but undesirable for the customer. The same is the case for schedule. Quality requirements typically benefit the customer and challenge the engineer. 

It is important to understand the priority of cost, quality, and schedule as a design engineer so that your design criteria align with those of the stakeholders. I have worked on projects where the priorities were high standards for quality, moderate schedules, and shoestring budgets (see the purple triangle). This taught me to think creatively, develop many technical skills at once, thoroughly prototype, and lean heavily on the expertise of external experts. I’ve also experienced a moderate standard for quality, minuscule schedules, and massive budgets (see the blue triangle). This forced me to leverage in-house fabrication, learn niche manufacturing techniques, and find vendors that can deliver parts in less than one week.

Each employer (and sometimes each project) will have a unique priority of cost, quality, and schedule—you should consider how to make the most of your employer’s position on the iron triangle and how it might push you to develop new skills. 

I believe the young engineer will learn to master these three items sequentially, starting with quality, proceeding to cost, and ending with schedule. Quality is mostly a matter of whether the project works as it needs to—this is paramount. Schedule and budget matter little if the project is ineffective. Early in your career, you will develop the technical intuition, skills, and tools needed to deliver projects that meet the respective quality requirements. To rapidly build up your technical intuition, skills, and toolkit, utilize your early-career networks. Ask colleagues for the most useful reference materials, bookmarks (I have over 600 curated bookmarks for engineering use), procedures, and checklists—use them and ask questions as needed.

The learning curve for cost is slightly steeper than for quality. The communication, organization, and project management skills that are required to quote and procure a project will take years to become proficient at. To rapidly build up your procurement and price estimation skills, ask your colleagues for their best practices—use them and ask questions as needed. Document your estimated manufacturing price before obtaining the actual figures. You will learn your bias and grow over time. 

Estimating project durations is a skill that comes with experience. You need many reps of doing a specific task to know how long it will take you, not to mention estimating the time it will take others to complete a task. To rapidly build up your schedule estimation skills, similarly, document your estimated timeline before getting too far into a project. You will also learn your bias and improve over time. 

One of the many marks of a good design engineer is an understanding of the iron triangle. Mastering this skill will display “thinking like an owner” to your employer and save you from many costly mistakes. I will discuss how to tactically manage the quality, schedule, and cost of projects in future blog posts.

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