
The February 8, 2019 online edition of MD+DI magazine features Five Reasons Your Project Might be Underestimated by StarFish Mechanical Engineering team Lead, Nigel Syrotuck. Subheaded “Here are some tips on how to stay on course when developing a product,” the article addresses issues that happen despite the best possible plan and information available at the time versus systemically underestimating effort and time.
Syrotuck notes, “One of the key benefits of being a part of a medical device consultancy is seeing numerous programs through from start to finish. I see how the project predications correlate to actuals, where the common pitfalls occur, and how those pitfalls are typically avoided by expert project managers to maximize success.”
He offers up “five issues I see project managers face and what you can do to prevent them” and concludes “Keep vigilant against these five issues to prevent program budget and schedule underestimation. Be sure to manage optimism creep, create an accurate program plan, and help stakeholders distinguish tempered optimism from a lack of commitment or ability. A larger-than-desired program estimate might mean a difficult conversation with your investor or boss up front, but stable projects that stay on track and meet their milestones inspire excitement from their contributors and trust from their stakeholders. These will pay off in spades in the long run.”
Nigel Syrotuck is a StarFish Medical Mechanical Engineer Team Lead and frequent contributor to the StarFish blog and guest blogger for medical device media including MD+DI, Medical Product Outsourcing, and Medtech Intelligence. He injects humour and imagination into projects big and small and blogs on everything in-between.