Welcome to the engineering-matters.com blog, published by Chad Jackson from Lifecycle Insights. Here you see a tag cloud created from wordle.com that gives you the basic idea of what is discussed here at this site.
But there’s a lot more to it than that. And before you get started looking around, I thought some information about this blog would be helpful. Read on for more details.
When it comes to this blog, it’s all about engineering.
The title here really says it all. This blog will cover the issues that engineering stakeholders face on a day-to-day basis. What exactly do I mean by engineering? A definition I’ll be referencing time and again at this blog comes from the mechatronics entry at wikipedia that describes products with mechanical, electrical and software aspects to it. At this blog, the content will focus on engineering disciplines needed for that development: systems engineering (wikipedia entry), mechanical engineering (wikipedia entry), electrical engineer (wikipedia entry) and embedded systems (wikipedia entry) engineering.
Personally relevant discussions for today’s engineering stakeholders.
If you work in an engineering organization, then this blog is all about you. Many sites, blogs and publications produce content that is organizationally relevant. By that, I mean the content specifically talks about the advantages and benefits to the organization, not necessarily about you personally. This blog, instead, will cover many of the same issues but focus on the implications that are personally relevant.
The Topics: Engineering Strategies, Talent Management and Software
What exactly about engineering will be discussed at this blog? There’s three core areas that will be covered.
- Engineering Initiatives, Strategies and Tactics: This area will cover issues including modularity/platform design, lean engineering, follow-the-sun initiatives (24-hour design) and offshoring/outsourcing.
- Engineering Talent Management: This area will cover topics such as the engineering graduate shortfall, talent management issues like recruitment, retention, development and succession as well as women’s participation in engineering fields.
- Software Systems and Applications: Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), Product Data Management (PDM), Software Configuration Management (SCM), Simulation Lifecycle Management (SLM), Computer Aided Design (CAD, Mechanical & Electrical), Computer Aided Engineering (CAE, Mechanical & Electrical), Integrated Development Environments (IDE) and Visual Programming
This isn’t meant to be a broadcast. It’s meant to be a discussion.
Blogs can certainly be a platform for broadcasting someone’s thoughts. However, we all gain far more value from a interactive discussion in this community on these issues than a listening to one undisputed voice. Keep the following in mind as you jump into discussions.
- Find the right blog section: Because a personally relevant perspective of an issue varies by engineering role, the blog has been organized into role-specific sections. You’ll find several different categories that focus on different aspects of engineering. Whichever one most accurately describes what you do will offer the most relevant content.
- Keep discussions professional: We want to hear your voice, but comments should be constructive and focus on the merit of the content presented, not on the individual that contributed or commented on the issue.
Lifecycle Insights, engineering-matters.com and Chad Jackson
As a last note, this blog is Lifecycle Insight’s channel to both publish results of its studies as well as engage in a discussion with the community about ongoing research. As such, please keep a few things in mind.
- Disclaimer: The engineering-matters.com blog is owned and published by Lifecycle Insights, a research and advisory firm. The content published here represents the perspective of the firm at time of publication.
- Copyright reminder: Please contact Chad Jackson at chad.jackson@lifecycleinsights.com or (512) 284-8080 if you would like to reuse any content from the engineering-matters.com blog. The content is copyrighted.
