Methods and tools to improve overview in engineering teams

In an increasingly specialized environment, the need for an overview in engineering teams is a fundamental requirement. Lack of this perspective can lead to inefficiencies and difficulties in coordination between different areas of expertise.

In this post we will explore the key skills and practical solutions needed to improve collaboration and understanding within teams.

1. What is meant by Overview

1.1 Widening perspective

When dealing with complex projects that require the technical skills of various professionals, the ability to understand the project as a whole and the interrelationships between the various phases is essential.

Engineers have a natural tendency toward sectionalism, having specialized in a very technical field, where specific expertise on a given topic is crucial.

This necessarily leads to the need for the technical team to be supported by others who coordinate the parties and also take care of the financial and administrative aspects of the projects, such as management engineers and project managers.

But there remains sometimes a problem of broadening one’s perspective: this can only be achieved by sharing a larger but still acceptable set of data and information, which is not overwhelming but gives a fair view of future developments and aspects beyond one’s area of expertise.

1.2 Communication

To exemplify what happens when communication is lacking let’s pose the case where the project manager requests from the engineering team a feasibility analysis useful to unlock a permit.

If not adequately informed of the purpose, the person responsible for the analysis may delay in the operation, for example, because of willingness to provide the maximum level of detail.

It may happen, however, that this level of precision, a fundamental quality for an engineer, is not necessary at that stage of the project. Instead, it is sometimes helpful to come to terms to advance the process, meet delivery schedules, unblock approvals, and make everything run more smoothly.

Such an example aims to show that when all parties involved in projects are aligned and informed about the goals of each project phase, work flows better.

It follows that effective communication is essential, not only within each technical area, but also between different disciplines.

1.3. Flexibility

When you communicate effectively and with the right ways and tools, then, you enable each team member to gain flexibility in their work.

Horizontal (between time phases) and vertical (between sectors) interaction is essential to fill technical skills gaps.

And so in engineering teams, as well as in all production sectors, knowing what happens in the later stages of the project and in all other areas involved helps to increase flexibility.

A flexible attitude is crucial to adapt to changes and evolving project needs.

It allows teams to respond quickly to new information or unexpected problems.

2. Solutions to Improve the Overview

As we have seen, modern engineering is characterized by high specialization, with traditional and management engineers working in distinct fields.

This separation can lead to a lack of long-range vision and difficulty in coordinating the different phases and figures involved in the project.

The first rule is to start with a good project management plan and then decline it according to business needs using the right tools.

In summary, a good management plan consists of the following operations:

• Identifying short- and long-term goals

• Outlining the scope of action and how it will be carried out

• Developing a schedule of timelines

• Planning for risk management

• Selecting the team involved and defining its hierarchical composition

• Developing an internal and external communication plan

Let us now look at the best tools for accomplishing these tasks, with some practical solutions for broadening the team’s perspective in project execution and achieving better and more effective interaction among involved parties.

2.1 Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and Gantt chart

The WBS is a tree structure that allows the project to be divided into phases and micro-phases.

This approach has the advantage of meeting the need for specificity and detail while fostering a broader understanding of the project.

In a second step, the WBS can be easily turned into a Gantt chart, allowing correlations between different activities to be visualized, even if they pertain to different sectors.

Twproject is a project management software that has equipped its Gantt chart with dynamic and interactive features, making it an essential collaborative tool, and not merely a theoretical timeline.

With Gantt, the entire engineering team can easily synchronize and align on essential project information and phase timelines.

Reasons for slowing down, i.e., bottlenecks, can be easily identified thus limiting efforts and keeping projects healthy.

One of the many useful functions is for example the sharing of documents directly via the Gantt view in Twproject. This function, together with quick assignments and the possibility to comment by tagging team members, facilitate interaction focused on project dynamics.

Again, when managing several projects simultaneously, the visualisation of the project Portfolio helps to set priorities and formulate a broader strategic plan.

2.2 Communication techniques: Scrum methodology and use of alerts

There are a number of techniques for improving communication within the team and here we consider two that are particularly suitable for engineering teams.

• Use of the Scrum methodology: this working method can improve communication and collaboration. It involves setting clear objectives, allocating resources and scheduling agile meetings to monitor progress.

With the Scrum methodology in Twproject, productivity is maximised with sprint planning adapted to the workload of the resources. It is a very useful methodology for managing teams that need to improve their flexibility, as it encourages them to adapt quickly to changes.

• At the same time, it is good to equip oneself with tools that provide alerts to prevent possible unforeseen events.

Alerts and notifications are a great way to keep control of the project, but if not handled properly they can become overwhelming.

For this reason, it is crucial that the project management software allows customisation of notifications according to the needs of the company, the project and the timeframe.

Twproject allows you to set the types of notifications and also who and when will receive them, enabling the project manager to define a strategic plan on the responsibilities of the various figures involved in the project.

2.3 Integrated project management tools

Making the team aware of various aspects of the project through various sharing tools is therefore crucial.

One area that should never be ignored, even by those who do not deal with it themselves, is the financial aspect of projects.

Anyone who heads a team of engineers certainly has a clear understanding of the need for reliable and professional tools for financial management.

But if these tools do not communicate with the project management systems, some important information remains with administrative managers only.

On the contrary, the advantage of using integrated platforms, which combine project and resource management with financial management, is the greater agility in transferring data and the possibility of sharing it with the whole team.

With Twproject, authorisations to view and interact with financial data can be defined, making it possible, for example, to entrust the management of the economic aspect of individual steps to some managers and the macro aspect to others.

In addition, the cost management tool in Twproject makes it possible to differentiate between estimated and actual costs and income. In parallel, this also applies to timing, which can be calculated into estimated and actual.

Detailed and integrated cost and time analyses combine technical and management aspects, facilitating collaboration.

3. Best Practices

Implementing these solutions allows fundamental best practices to settle and consolidate in engineering teams.

We can summarise them as follows:

• Making the whole team aware of the overall aspects of the project

• Definition of objectives for individual steps and sharing with parties involved

• Setting a prospective strategic plan, considering possible future developments following the achievement of objectives

• Constant communication, either direct or indirect, of the occurrence of problems related to timing or overruns

• Sharing experiences and results for process improvement

Twproject ha gli strumenti giusti per la gestione dei progetti in un team di ingegneria

Improving the overview in engineering teams requires an integrated approach that fosters communication, flexibility and the use of appropriate tools.

By implementing the solutions and best practices discussed, teams can meet the challenges of specialisation and work more synergistically, contributing to the success of projects.

The use of project management and project monitoring software is common practice in engineering teams, but if these are sectoral and limited to a specific area, they are not, in our opinion, effective in achieving the results outlined here.

On the contrary, an integrated tool such as Twproject – which at the same time offers incredible accuracy in every aspect: from the planning to the finance to the technology – allows for a broader overview.

If you want to find out how Twproject connects your work team, increasing their productivity and collaboration, you can take a 15-day free trial, during which our support team will always be at your disposal.