Engineering Your Future: The Professional Practice of Engineering

Table of Contents:
Preface to the Third Edition xix Acknowledgments xxvii List of Abbreviations xxix Chapter 1 Introduction: Engineering and the Engineer 1 The Playing Field 1 Definitions of Engineering 3 The Seven Qualities of Effective Leaders 8 The Engineer as Builder 19 Concluding Thoughts: Common Sense, Common Practice, and Good Habits 20 Cited Sources 22 Annotated Bibliography 23 Exercises 24 Chapter 2 Leading and Managing: Getting Your Personal House in Order 27 Start with You 27 Employment or Graduate School? 46 The New Work Environment: Culture Shock? 49 The First Few Months of Practice: Make or Break Time 51 Managing Personal Professional Assets: Building Individual Equity 59 Concluding Thoughts: Getting Your Personal House in Order 67 Cited Sources 68 Annotated Bibliography 69 Exercises 70 Chapter 3 Communicating to Make Things Happen 73 Five Forms of Communication 73 Three Distinctions between Writing and Speaking 75 Listening: Using Ears and Eyes 77 Writing Tips: How to Write to Make Things Happen 80 Speaking Tips: How to Speak to Make Things Happen 97 Concluding Thoughts about Writing and Speaking 118 Cited Sources 118 Annotated Bibliography 120 Exercises 121 Chapter 4 Developing Relationships 123 Taking the Next Career Step 123 Personality Profiles 124 Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs 125 Theories X and Y 127 Delegation: Why Put Off Until Tomorrow What Someone Else Can Do Today? 129 Orchestrating Meetings 135 Working with Technologists, Technicians, and Other Team Members 145 Selecting Co-Workers and “Managing Your Boss” 150 Caring Isn’t Coddling 151 Coaching 152 Teamwork 153 Effective Professional Meeting and Conference Attendance 158 Concluding Thoughts about Developing Relationships 163 Cited Sources 164 Annotated Bibliography 165 Exercises 166 Chapter 5 Project Management: Planning, Executing, and Closing 167 Project Broadly Defined 167 Project Management Defined 168 The Centrality of Project Management 169 Relevance of Project Management to the Student and Entry-Level Technical Person 172 Planning the Project 173 Executing the Project 188 Closing the Project 190 Closure: Common Sense and Self Discipline 192 Cited Sources 192 Annotated Bibliography 193 Exercises 194 Chapter 6 Project Management: Critical Path Method and Scope Creep 195 This Chapter Relative to the Preceding Chapter 195 The Critical Path Method 196 Scope Creep 210 Cited Sources 227 Annotated Bibliography 228 Exercises 228 Chapter 7 Quality: What Is It and How Do We Achieve It? 231 Everyone Is for It! 231 Quality Defined 232 A Caution for Engineers and Other Technical Personnel 235 Quality Control and Quality Assurance 236 Suggestions for Developing a Quality Seeking Culture 237 Tools and Techniques for Stimulating Creative and Innovative Thinking 250 Closure: Commit to Quality 264 Cited Sources 264 Annotated Bibliography 266 Exercises 267 Chapter 8 Design: To Engineer Is to Create 269 The Root of Engineering 269 This Chapter’s Approach 270 Design in the Context of Major Engineering Functions 271 The Disproportionate Impact of the Design Function 274 Design in Terms of Deliverables 274 Design as Risky Business 278 Design as a Personally-Satisfying and People-Serving Process 279 The Words “Engineer” and “Create” 280 Closing Thoughts About Design 281 Cited Sources 281 Annotated Bibliography 282 Exercises 282 Chapter 9 Building: Constructing and Manufacturing 283 The Engineer as Builder 283 Constructing 285 Manufacturing 290 Differences between Constructing and Manufacturing 294 Closing Thoughts about Constructing and Manufacturing 294 Cited Sources 295 Annotated Bibliography 295 Exercises 296 Chapter 10 Basic Accounting: Tracking the Past and Planning the Future 299 Relevance of Accounting to the Engineer 299 The Balance Sheet: How Much Is It Worth? 300 The Income Statement: Inflow and Outflow 304 Personal Income Statement 305 Business Income Statement 306 Relationship between the Balance Sheet and the Income Statement 308 Accounting for Your Future 309 The Impact of Time Utilization Rate and Expense Ratio on Profitability in the Consulting Business 314 The Multiplier 319 The Income Statement as Part of the Business Plan for a Consulting Firm 320 Project Overruns: Implications for Profitability and Personnel 321 Concluding Thoughts about You and Accounting 324 Cited Sources 324 Annotated Bibliography 325 Exercises 325 Chapter 11 Legal Framework 329 Why Law for Engineers? 329 Legal Terminology 332 Changing Attitudes: Forewarned is Forearmed 334 Liability: Incurring It 334 Liability: Failures and Learning from Them 336 Liability: Minimizing It 339 Maintaining Perspective on Liability Minimization 344 Legal Forms of Business Ownership 344 Concluding Comments about the Legal Framework 347 Cited Sources 347 Annotated Bibliography 349 Exercises 349 Chapter 12 Ethics: Dealing with Dilemmas 353 Inevitable Ethical Dilemmas and Decisions 353 Defining Ethics 355 Teaching and Learning Ethics 356 Legal and Ethical Domain 359 Codes of Ethics 362 Dealing with Ethical Dilemmas: Using Codes and Other Resources 370 Ethics Codes 371 Case Study: Discovering a Major Design Error after Construction Is Complete 374 Concluding Thoughts: Seeing Sermons 376 Cited Sources 377 Annotated Bibliography 378 Exercises 379 Chapter 13 Role and Selection of Consultants 381 Consultant Defined and Why You Should Care 381 Why Retain a Consultant? Let’s Do It Ourselves! 383 Characteristics of Successful Consultants 385 Consultant Selection Process 387 Price-Based Selection: Three Costs to the Consultant 397 Conclusions about the Role and Selection of Consultants 400 Cited Sources 401 Annotated Bibliography 401 Exercises 402 Chapter 14 Marketing: A Mutually-Beneficial Process 403 Consider Your View of Marketing: Are You Carrying Some Baggage? 403 Chapter’s Scope 404 The Economic Motivation for Marketing Professional Services 405 Marketing and Selling: Different but Related 406 Marketing Techniques and Tools 412 What Works and What Doesn’t Work 426 Marketing Concluding Comments 427 Cited Sources 428 Annotated Bibliography 429 Exercises 429 Chapter 15 The Future and You 431 What Does the Future Hold? 431 The World You Will Work In: Same Role but New Stage 432 How to Lead Change 438 Concluding Thoughts about You and the Future 451 Cited Sources 452 Annotated Bibliography 453 Exercises 454 Appendix A: Engineering your Future Supports ABET Basic Level Criterion 3 455 Appendix B: Engineering Your Future Supports ABET Program Criteria for Civil and Similarly-Named Engineering Programs 457 Appendix C: Engineering Your Future Supports the Civil Engineering Body of Knowledge 459 Index 461 About the Author 469

About the Author :
STUART G. WALESH, PHD, PE, is an independent consultant who provides management, engineering, and education/training services to private, public, academic, and volunteer sector organizations. With over forty years of engineering, education, and management experience in the government, academic, and private sectors, Walesh has worked as a project manager, department head, discipline manager, author, marketer, sole proprietor, professor, and dean of an engineering college.