Establishing the criteria that determine when to appoint an engineering manager
- Authors: Whalley, Geoffrey Llewellyn
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: Engineers - Employment , Engineering - Management , Project management
- Language: English
- Type: Masters (Thesis)
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/284166 , uj:30682
- Description: M.Ing. (Engineering Management) , Abstract: When determining the required members to be a part of a project team, the decision to appoint an engineering manager can be a difficult one. To try and make this decision easier, and the criteria around this decision clearer, specific factors were sought that could be used to assist in making this decision. Historic project data from an engineering company was used as the basis against which a set of criteria were assessed to determine their impact. The major factors assessed were the types of projects based on their industry type, client type, project duration, project value, and project complexity. For the engineering industry projects it was found that all of the above factors contribute to the decision making process; also that they are all intrinsically connected and cannot be separated or isolated from one another. The decision needs to be taken by considering all the contributing factors and each project needs to be reviewed on its own merits; however the general trend observed was that engineering managers added more value to the projects that they were a part of than the additional cost required to have them on the project team. Their contribution is also best realized when they are included in the initial phases of the project, and incorporated in the team as early on as possible. A greater number of projects should make use of engineering managers, but more specifically the correct engineering manager with the relevant experience is crucial to the success of projects in the engineering industry.
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Engineering students’ visual metaphors for mentorship : implications for the candidacy period
- Authors: Simpson, Zach , Janse van Rensburg, Nickey , Benecke, Dalien René
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: Engineering education , Mentoring , Mentoring in the professions , Engineers - Employment , Engineers - Training of
- Language: English
- Type: Conference proceedings
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/226828 , uj:22943 , Citation: Simpson, Z., Janse van Rensburg, N. & Benecke, D.R. 2017. Engineering students’ visual metaphors for mentorship : implications for the candidacy period.
- Description: Abstract: Mentorship is important to engineering activity. Yet, little attention is paid to this process within the engineering domain. This paper seeks to remedy this by analyzing the metaphors for mentorship produced by engineering students employed to work as mentors to young adults tasked with training residents in their communities regarding specific digital skills. Metaphors are used because they provide unique insight into the underlying conceptions that individuals hold about a topic or issue. The paper shows not only that metaphors are useful in garnering understanding as to how students conceive of the mentor-mentee relationship, but also that there is scope for using these understandings to provide more focused mentoring during their future candidacy period.
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