06_Class Notes: Thurs. (event date 3/9/15)

Rule #2: Have passion for your work/design project.

- engineers look for new information for application / scientists look for new information

- science is a quest for knowledge for the sake of knowledge / engineering is an application of science and knowledge to solve problems

Engineering Method: strategy for causing the best change in a poorly understood situation within the available resources

Analysis: the process of breaking a complex topic or substance into smaller parts to gain a better understanding of it

Synthesis: the process which combines two or more pre-existing elements and results into something new

Rule #3: empathize with the customer (user); the customer(user) isn’t always right, but the customer is the customer

- observe people using similar products/tasks

- interview potential users

- create personas which describe the customer and your product will be used

- role play

- review prototypes with the users

Rule #4: expect the best, plan for the worst

- informal oral status reports

- two week cadence (mostly)

- one page/slide documentation

- group based (most of the time)

- all groups observe

     - recognize and define important problems

     - solve them

     - learn from the problem solving

     - share the learning with others

               resume skills entry: “A3 Problem Solving”

     P = Plan the Improvement or change

     D = Do (make the change happen)

     C = Check the results (what was learned, what went wrong)

     A = Act (adopt change, abandon, or recycle)

Objectivity

Standard Story

Results and Process

Synthesis, Distillation, And Visualization

Alignment: places high value on agreement about decisions; “3D” communication, up/down the hierarchy, horizontal comm., 

Coherency, Consistency: coherence from one step to the next

Systems Viewpoint

- forces deeper understanding to express concisely

- greater efficiency

- better distribution and likelihood of reading

- facilitates dialog