While theoretical learning is considered to be the basis of any professional education, moving from theory to practice is of primary importance; by doing so, students receive more opportunities to get valuable first-hand experience. Studying case studies acts as a converging point between these two approaches – trainees find out more about other people’s experience and get the possibility to use the examples later in their practice.
In his work, Atesmen focuses on the specific episodes from his career, shows what lessons he managed to learn from them, and gives recommendations to novice engineering project managers. This paper is aimed to highlight the main points that he covered in the Case Studies in Knowledge Management chapter.
The author starts by underlining the importance of both technical knowledge and knowledge management. Knowing how to collaborate with subcontractors and clients helps to find easier solutions to occurring issues on the way; there is a case study demonstrating how the author had to study bronze coating techniques before being able to reach a compromise on its thickness. Learning from one’s contractor and following up on the requests in short order contribute to the project’s success.
At the same time, keeping up with recent developments in technology and, more than that, training the staff on a regular basis should be among the manager’s top priorities. There was a situation when his engineers were willing to take a lot of additional courses at the same time, which would damage the project’s schedule and cost a sufficient sum of money (Atesmen 81). He convinced them to prioritize their choices, choose one most desirable course, noting that advanced training is welcomed and encouraged by the company.
It stands to mention that the writer dedicates much attention to emphasize the importance of close and productive cooperation with team members. For example, apart from attending technical conferences, it is necessary to encourage team members to track their new ideas and findings so that they could be patented later (Atesmen 86). He had a peculiar situation when an invention of one of his employees could not be accepted due to a lack of necessary prior verification by other coworkers. In addition to it, the team lead should be sure that the workers are ready to give their presentations to the customer; whether someone has family issues or is emotionally exhausted, as it was described in Case 3.3, the manager should be able to ask for a recess or change the speaker.
Coincidently, the author also concentrates on the personality of a good manager. It is significant to be an open-minded person, a good listener, and a liberal leader (Atesmen 96). It might not be a good idea to be biased against unexpected ideas from the outside (the so-called “not invented here” syndrome can deteriorate the company’s achievements). One of the lessons learned here is that it is essential to pay attention to details, for instance, to certification standards as they might vary in different countries.
The writer once believed a departing manager and did not check the standards himself; thus, the team encountered some problems because of that misunderstanding. This idea is developed further in the case study about generating design drawings. Atesmen specifies that the team manager often has to “bridge the gap between the designer and the user” (93), that is to say, to prevent misunderstanding of the requests and proposals.
Finally, it is noteworthy that the project supervisors are responsible for protecting the intellectual property of their clients, subcontractors, and the company itself. Moreover, to escape possible difficulties, all the guidelines should be discussed and confirmed at the start of any project. I agree with the writer’s recommendations described above; he provides a detailed description of what to do and what to avoid in order to succeed. Most of all I support the ideas of staying open-minded and constantly training the employees. In my opinion, the cases that the bookwright dealt with help the readers to escape many mistakes in their future career, and that is why it is necessary to take them into account.
Work Cited
Atesmen, Kemal. Project Management Case Studies and Lessons Learned. CRC Press, 2015.