Review & Measurement

[engmechs]

Hi all,

There is a new engineering management system starting soon this year & basically it was stated as a tool to improve employee’s efficiency. It is not official announced yet, but people started talking about it already. One rumor I heard about is that a “measurement” method on all of engineering team members.

This means that each person will be asked for some "improvement" questions to see how you can help to improve the department’s efficiency & effectiveness.
Also, a “percentage mark” will be assigned to each project based on quality, time, & engineering changes afterwards. Everybody was talking about this news lately, & I am a bit concerned in this, as from my experience, the company management has been a mess, & quite often, what the spec. today may not hold true tomorrow. That happens to my project several times. However, this was driven by customers’ requirements change. Yes, they don’t define what exactly they want in the beginning, only in vague terms. This doesn’t sound very professional but this is happening right now.

So, my question is: how do I deal with this situation? And also, how I should answer the project time line when a new project shows up? Maybe the time line is highly dependant on a number of factors?

Please advise & appreciated on any feedback.

engmechs

 

[dbaird]

check:
thread784-207403

David Baird

Sr Controls Designer
EET degree.
Journeyman Electrician.

 

[PSE]

My advice would be to reserve a percentage (15-20%) of your time for unplanned "walk-in" work. As for the rest, show your project involvement and apply percentages for each. You might want to add (if applicable) that much of your work is contingent upon input and interraction with others. Document your performance in terms of accomplished steps and note what side-tracks occurred and what caused them (requirements changed, new feature required etc.) The employee/department efficiency thing could be a rough patch as many of the "inefficiencies" tend to be due to managment itself. In my opinion, management as a whole does not really like to hear negative comments about their actions.

Regards,

 

[KENAT]

Take a look at the link from dbaird

Basically get your requirement defined up front. If your 'customer' (be it internal or external) wont do it you do it and get their agreement, or at least make it clear what you are agreeing to do. Make it clear that any changes to scope will require the timeline/cost to be revisited and possibly adjusted.

I do this even internally. If I get given a task, especially one that I think has scope for creep, then I'll send an email to my direct boss and if applicable the extended customer.

In this I'll state my understanding of what's to be done (explicitly listing deliverables in particular) and put the agreed deadline. I'll make it clear that changes to scope will require the deadline to be revisited.

It may sound like it could upset some managers but so far most of them actually like it. They aren't so keen a few weeks later when they change the scope and I point out this wasn't what we agreed to so the deadline will change etc. but so far they usually get over it.

It's not that this prevents project creep but it does give you a 'stick in the sand' so that you can say "that's not what we originally agreed to, the new completion date is X weeks later". Your scoring is now against this revised date.

KENAT, probably the least qualified checker you'll ever meet...

 

[IRstuff]

We can across an interesting concept called a Spec Interpretation Document. This is used to "fill-in" ambiguities and omissions in a customer requirements document. You then review the interpretations with the customer and have him sign off. Thereafter, changes are out-of-scope and separately billable.

TTFN

FAQ731-376

 

[TheTick]

Actually, it sounds fair to me. If you are going to be reviewed, you should have a good idea what the criteria are. Even better that the criteria are tailored to your position. This is infinitely better than some boilerplate form or manager's "best judgment".

 

[KENAT]

Good point IRstuff. I used to do that as part of my tender submissions. I'd ask them for clarification and/or state any exclusions or assumptions.

KENAT, probably the least qualified checker you'll ever meet...

 

[zuccus]

engmechs,

Be careful, if you don't have a baseline to measure where you were, how are you going to measure where your improving at. This is going to be a tricky situation that will involve a ton of politics and internal bickering.

 

[stores99]

My company just did something like that. They've been promising incentive bonuses since 2005 and just paid out the first one. They measured our work performance from October through December of 2007. Our department's goals were based on getting new parts completed in a certain amount of time (25%), outside complaints (25%), inside complaints (25%) and getting reviews (my job, I'm basically the main person doing this job) completed on time (25%). The person who works on new parts whines constantly about having too much work to do (yet she can sit in one of the manager's offices for hours (we've timed her) chatting)...there are two others in this department whose work didn't really factor in at all except to help her meet her goals, and me. I do about 75% of reviews and I calculated a 96 - 99% on time rate, depending on the month. The woman with all the helpers hit her goal with 100% on time, yet all of the complaints (both internal and external) were due to her errors.

My boss calculated my percents at 94%, 92% and 96% for those months. I just barely squeaked by with "acceptable" while she thinks she did a great job. My boss never once discussed this with any of us while other managers held meetings, keeping their people apprised of how they were doing.

We did get the bonus - barely - in my department. It amounted to about 2-3 days of pay.

My boss stands by his calculations and actually told me he thought I wasn't working as hard as I had in previous months.

Incentive bonuses and "productivity measurements" are only as accurate as the monkey holding the calculator.

 

[KENAT]

"actually told me he thought I wasn't working as hard as I had in previous months" Well that's an incentive.

An incentive to update your resume and get out of there!

KENAT, probably the least qualified checker you'll ever meet...

 

[MikeHalloran]

If the money were arriving in wheelbarrows, nobody would care about efficiency.

This sort of stuff starts appearing when the company starts circling the drain.

Get out before the first gurgle.




Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[engmechs]

Hi all,

Thanks very much for ALL of you putting your thoughts & comments on this issue. It is really great to hear different voices & perspectives on various sides.

Regarding KENAT & PSE comments:
Thanks for your input on initiatives regarding the given tasks, by laying out the constraints for deliverables. This rings the bell.

Thetick:
You are quite right on your comments, on building a baseline so that output can be measured. My concerns is that during the course from start to finish, there may have a few side tracks incidents, & how to convey the message & get managers to buy in. People tend to stick to a date during meeting time, without considering the post/goal is shifted !

Stores99:
Thanks for sharing your experience on a similar situation. Quite agree with your last statement, very true indeed. As well, favouritism always happen.

Regards,
engmechs

 

[Noway2]

In follow up to Kenet's comment, I had a similar experience. In my first job out of school, I was tasked with repairing this one particular vending machine conroller. Overall, I had about 50% more throughput in repaired controllers than the person I took over for, in additon to providing phone based tech support for the company 25% of the time (we rotated weeks).

Come review time, I was critized that the quantity of my work was substandard. Motivation to work harder? Hardly. I can't post the thoughts that went through my head. That review had an overall negative effect on my attitude and subsequent performance. Thankfully, I got promoted to a better position in another department where I had the best boss I have ever worked for. I still recall getting my first review from the new boss and how badly I wanted to shove it in the face of the old boss and say, "See the problem is YOU not me". Of course, I didn't.

Way too many managers know far too little about HOW to manage people and especially how to motivate them. To me it seems that many of them don't even stop to think of the consequences of their actions, including their words, and the effect it will have on their employees and overall productivity.

 

[IRstuff]

Of course not. But, that's not surprising, is it? How many managers are former engineers? How many of them, or you, got formal education on management? I'd guess it's pretty much bupkiss.

I've had exactly ONE course on actual management given by a company in 30 yrs. While that management was pathetic, as was the class, they at least made the effort.


TTFN

FAQ731-376

 

[Noway2]

In my schooling it was required that we took about a few managerial courses. At least one of them was specifically geared towards how to effectively manage people. Some of the others were more about business processes.

Besides the schooling, I have several years of experience working in retail management during my college years, while I was getting my engineering degree. That experience was invaluable and I call it the Management School of Hard Knocks. I had both sucessess and failures with people quitting because of me and following me out the door claiming that if I weren't going to be there that they didn't want to either. It was during that time that I gained a lot of experience learning how management is about people and how to motivate them.

The classes on managment were a lot more theory about the types of power that a manager has at their disposal (positional, personal, and coercive) and how important it is to earn the respect of your employees, in other words managing through personal power. Another thing that many managers forget is that having your employees respect doesn't mean you have to be their friend.

 

[Comcokid]

. . .the company management has been a mess, & quite often, what the spec. today may not hold true tomorrow. . .

I think this statement in you OP is the key. I my 28 years of experience, the most dysfunctional companies go for the most dysfunctional or unproductive management methods. The most productive and fastest-moving companies I've worked for had the most flexible or simplest 'metrics' in place.

The 'problem' where you work is most likely in the management, but they're not likely to apply any metric to themselves - the focus is always on making the bottom ranks 'more productive'.

My suggestions is to put your resume in shape and begin looking for a new job.

Management by objective works - if you know the objectives. Ninety percent of the time you don't. - Peter Drucker

 

[Kwan]

I remember this story of a company measuring the engineers and thought it is appropriate in this thread. It's very difficult to "measure" engineer's efficiency.

The management (bean counters) decided to measure engineering output by counting their keystrokes (keyboard). The engineers eventually figured out that this metric was being used and someone developed a simple program that generates thousands of keystrokes..... Imagine the bean counters falling out of their chairs with amazement. Look at the productivity! We are making money now!!!!!!

In reality it just created despair and resentment.

 

[MikeHalloran]

No automation needed. I can touch-type. It keeps my arthritis at bay.



Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[KENAT]

Mike, me too. I often get accused of working on a novel by those around me when I'm actually preparing an email or even responding here on Eng-Tips.

Back to the OP. We’re having our reviews at the moment. My immediate boss has an extremely (artificially/ridiculously?) high opinion of me, to the point I have to be careful not to take advantage of it. Anyway, this year unlike last, he didn’t put any areas of improvement for me in his draft review. When I asked him about what he'd identified last time he said I'd improved (see if you care thread731-179040). Well his boss has now said that everyone has to have an area of improvement.

Point being, no matter how well you think you’ve got your bases covered if management want to move the goal-posts they will/can. Having evidence to prove they’ve done this, or at least pointing it out too strongly, may not work out for you.


KENAT, probably the least qualified checker you'll ever meet...

 

[graybeach]

Counting keystrokes?? I though my agency's performance measures were bad. The Dilbert Department at the state owned utility I work for has implemented performance measures based only on whether the project was completed on schedule and intermediate milestones are met. This way no one needs an actual brain to figure out if the work is any good. We receive a merit bonus each year based on our performance. To me this borders on being unethical. Each engineer has 8 to 10 projects going on at any one time plus emergency situations that might come up. The incentive is to work on the ones with upcoming milestones rather than the ones that really need attention - like maybe public safety is at stake. Personally I do my best to meet schedules, but I refuse to compromise my ethics just because the bean counters are dangling a couple thousand bucks in my face. Luckily, most of the engineers here are on the same page.