S5 Solutions | LabVIEW, ATE, Test Engineering Services
  • Services
    • LabVIEW Software Development >
      • Insource or Outsource
    • Automated Test Equipment (ATE)
    • Product Development
    • ———————————
    • On-Site or Remote
  • Case Studies
    • Medical
    • Aerospace
    • Industrial & Automotive
  • Knowledge Base
    • ATE >
      • What is ATE?
      • ATE Basics
    • LabVIEW & TestStand >
      • LabVIEW Basics
      • TestStand Basics
      • Learning LabVIEW
      • Getting Started with OOP
      • Seattle LabVIEW Developers Conference
    • ALOHA
    • MLA >
      • MLA Introduction
      • MLA Tutorial
    • Blog
  • Contact Us
    • FAQs
    • About Us
    • Contact Us

"Shoot the Engineer"

8/30/2021

0 Comments

 
Engineering is never “done”. Engineers gonna engineer. You have probably never heard an engineer say “That’s perfect. There’s nothing more I would change. Ship it.” More likely, you hear “You know what this toilet seat needs is BlueTooth and a phone app.” 

Having well-defined criteria for completion is important to knowing when your product is ready. And that is functional criteria, not a list of engineering tasks. Minus that, the engineers will continue engineering endlessly.
Picture
My first boss out of college always said “There comes a point in every project where you have to shoot the engineer.” A bit harsh, perhaps. And just to be clear, he never actually did that to my knowledge. The point was well taken and I have made an effort during my career to focus on the business case for the project, not just the engineering perspective.
​

Rather than shooting them, I have a better suggestion: distract them with the next shiny engineering challenge. Buy them a dev kit from SparkFun so they can play around with something new. Or ask them if they know anything about ______ (literally any piece of technology). That should keep them busy long enough for you to ship your product.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Categories

    All
    Events
    GUI
    LabVIEW
    Maker
    Project Success
    Special Interest

    RSS Feed

Seattle Area HQ
​

425.298.7447
​[email protected]
S5 Solutions

Contact Us
Case Studies
Services

Custom LabVIEW Development
Automated Test Equipment (ATE)
Product Development

Products
​

​ALOHA
​MLA


National Instrument Alliance Partner
Custom Software Development Alliance
© 2025  S5 Solutions, Inc.    - Privacy Policy -   Employee Site
  • Services
    • LabVIEW Software Development >
      • Insource or Outsource
    • Automated Test Equipment (ATE)
    • Product Development
    • ———————————
    • On-Site or Remote
  • Case Studies
    • Medical
    • Aerospace
    • Industrial & Automotive
  • Knowledge Base
    • ATE >
      • What is ATE?
      • ATE Basics
    • LabVIEW & TestStand >
      • LabVIEW Basics
      • TestStand Basics
      • Learning LabVIEW
      • Getting Started with OOP
      • Seattle LabVIEW Developers Conference
    • ALOHA
    • MLA >
      • MLA Introduction
      • MLA Tutorial
    • Blog
  • Contact Us
    • FAQs
    • About Us
    • Contact Us