Overview

As you will learn in this course, the foundations of engineering project leadership are communicating a project vision and applying tools and techniques to ensure the engineering team achieves its vision. An engineering team without a vision and a common goal cannot work effectively as a unified and cohesive team. Once the vision is established, the engineering project leader can choose the organizational structure suitable for the objective of the project and the corporate environment, and for maximizing team communication. Finally, the tools and techniques for monitoring the team’s progress are the foundational project elements of cost, schedule, and requirements, and their interrelationships.

In this first part of the final project, you will reflect on best practices for effectively leading and organizing diverse engineering teams to achieve common goals. Specifically, you will need to analyze key project management principles and supply concrete examples from the course, your research, or your own professional experiences to illustrate and justify your leadership perspective. The results of your inquiry will be compiled in an engineering leadership paper that articulates and defends your approach to effective engineering management.

The final project represents an authentic demonstration of competency because you will need to analyze key project management principles and supply concrete examples from the course, your research, or your own professional experiences to illustrate and justify your leadership philosophy of engineering management. The project has one milestone to scaffold learning and ensure quality final submissions. This milestone will be submitted in Module Five. The final project leadership paper will be submitted in Module Eight.

In this assignment, you will demonstrate your mastery of the following course outcomes:

 Articulate best practices for effectively organizing diverse engineering teams to realize shared visions and achieve common goals

 Analyze key project management principles as foundations for successfully managing highly technical and cross-functional engineering projects

PROMPT

Your engineering leadership paper should address each of the following critical elements:

I. Introduction: In this section, explain the purpose and thesis of your paper. How would you describe your overall philosophy of leadership? Specifically, be sure to address the following:

A. Articulate the role of vision in your overall philosophy of leadership. In your view, what does it mean to have vision? Include examples from the course, your own research, or relevant professional experiences where clear vision was established or not established, and describe the outcomes of each.

B. Articulate the importance of scope in your overall philosophy of leadership. Why is it important to the success of the engineering team to be clear and transparent about the full scope of a project? Include examples from the course, your own research, or your relevant professional experiences.

II. Organizational Structures

A. Analyze the organizational structure of integrated project teams (IPT) by illustrating their characteristics, including its advantages and disadvantages, using specific examples.

B. Explain why integrated project teams are the ideal structure for engineering projects. Cite specific examples and evidence from the course, your own research, or your professional experiences to support your claims.

III. Project Management Principals

A. Analyze the three foundational elements of project management—cost, schedule, and requirements. Why are each important? What are their interrelationships? Specifically, discuss the impacts to the other two variables if any one of the three is constrained. Use specific examples and evidence from the course, your research, or your professional experiences to illustrate your response.

B. Additionally, examine the specific nature of project management within an engineering environment. What are the unique systems engineering challenges and implications of managing projects that are highly technical and cross-functional in nature? Provide specific evidence from the course, your own research, or your professional experiences to illustrate your claims. For example, this is where you might consider why it is important to have strong customer support and comprehensive technical requirements to ensure project success.

C. Using your analysis, articulate your strategies for appropriately balancing each project management element in an engineering environment. For example, what reports would you require from your staff to ensure the project is on track to meet your vision and goals? Which project management tools would you employ? How would you prevent scope creep? Provide specific examples and evidence from the course, your own research, or your professional experiences to support your approach.

IV. Conclusion: Draw your paper to a close by restating your thesis and underscoring the most important guiding principles discussed in your paper. Be sure to connect the principles with your future professional goals, including your plans for implementing these ideas into your professional practice.

!!!!!USE THE FILE PROVIDED AS REFERENCE!!!!!

Guidelines for Submission: Your engineering leadership paper should be 5 pages with double spacing, 12-pt. Times New Roman font, one-inch margins, and citations in APA format.