Wiley Expert CAD Management: The Complete Guide
Contents
1. Overview of Tasks CAD managers must accomplish many tasks Any list I write is likely to omit some thing that you re responsible for already but I ll go ahead and throw out the more common CAD management tasks as a way to start our conversation Here s what I see CAD managers doing Supporting CAD software Supporting CAD hardware Providing user support Providing user training Facilitating timely work completion e Reporting status to management e Preparing budgets Writing CAD standards Performing staff development and review Identifying promising new technology If you have functioned as a CAD Manager for any length of time you re aware of these kinds of tasks You ve probably been confronted with many of them and have some degree of comfort in dealing with them The reason that I like to define the tasks involved with a CAD management job is so you have a list down on paper and you have a tangible job description to go by Note Take some time to write down your task list while the concepts are fresh in your mind You can use the TASKLIST XLS spreadsheet file provided with the book to capture your task list electronically By documenting your tasks in list form you can build a game plan for how you ll handle those tasks The more you think about defining your task list the more likely you are to come up with good methodologies standards and processes to help you achieve those tasks Convers2. It s not in the best interests of the company Even though the users want it buying the software isn t in the financial business inter ests of our company Now you should go back over your list of tasks and user and management expectations from a budgetary or money talks point of view Think about tasks that may be placed on your list either by your management or by your users that don t match up with the financial reality of your company By ranking these tasks or expecta tions in terms of financial feasibility you ll automatically re sort and reprioritize your CAD management responsibilities And by understanding what you can afford to do in the long term you ve gained perspective on which jobs you can tackle first second last or not at all List Items Sorting Method Results Sort Method Lowest Cost Resulting Order 3 2 5 1 then 4 Sort Method User Desire Resulting Order 5 1 4 2 then 3 Figure 1 5 Here we see how the prioritization of a list can change dramatically when the monetary filter is applied Evaluating Tasks Based on Finances The financial reality the money talks perspective becomes a useful reality check that you can apply to any task that s placed on your CAD management agenda I Il give you an example Management may come to you and say that they want you to implement a com pletely paperless web driven CAD environ
3. expected to accomplish You ve looked at that task list from different perspectives from your own per spective from the users perspective from management s perspective and from a money perspective Yov ve painstakingly processed and prioritized lists thinking about what is required to accomplish each task You ve developed a simplified multivariable equation that describes your job Now that you ve come this far you probably know more about doing your job than 90 percent of the CAD managers I ve ever talked to You have a good understand ing of what s expected of you in your environment and who expects it and you have a game plan to get there But one important thing is missing from your CAD management plan authority Your authority I see far too many CAD managers who are expected to do a lot but are given no power to do their jobs Many of these CAD managers will say their management team doesn t give them the power they need to do the job But I would argue that it s the CAD manager s responsibility to gain the power required to do the job Nobody is going to give you the power to go out and tell people how to work until you earn it Your senior management is the only group that can give you the power you need To gain that power you must earn your management s respect This is why I ve taken so much time in this chapter to help you develop your task list and think things through When management
4. questions you when they ulti mately want you to make recommendations and tell them why things should be done a certain way you ll be well prepared How do you take the task list and all the thought variables and equations you ve developed and distill them down so you can gain the power you need to do your job The process is somewhat detailed so PII tackle it step by step You must have clear documentation It s not enough to think about the tasks you need to accomplish It s not enough to think about what order they should be done in or how much they will cost You have to write it down In order for management to understand what you re doing you must have your prioritized list of tasks written in a brief executive summary format CAD managers frequently try to write their task list in great technical detail and they go to great lengths to talk about software versions RAM requirements and so forth even though most senior management staff won t understand that kind of information Your summary should be brief and business focused and should use money talks logic wherever possible After you ve written it down you have to be able to present it If you get a chance to present your ideas to senior management staff you ll probably have to go into a board room to do so It pays for you to have a clean professional PowerPoint presentation ready for such occasions You want to hit your high points communicating what you
5. re trying to accomplish and why Brevity is key If you think you ll have 15 minutes to present your agenda to the board build a PowerPoint presentation that takes five minutes to run through and assume that you ll have 10 minutes for questions I ve found this three to one rule pretty effective over the years If you create a 15 minute PowerPoint for a 15 minute meeting you re not leaving any time for interaction When you re presenting you must be conversant I ve encouraged you to diligently define your job so that you ll have thought through everything not once or twice but many times from different perspectives This thought and preparation will to pay off when you re presenting your ideas to senior management staff When they question you you ll have the answers handy and will seem on top of the material without being nervous or struggling You ll know exactly what to answer because you ll have thought about the subject ad nauseum already You must ask for authority If everyone nods and says you have a good plan that s the time to strike You must now ask Will you give me the authority to do this or Will you give me the budget approval to accomplish these tasks If you re at the point that management likes your planning and reasoning they already know you need funding or authority to do the job They re waiting for you to close the deal Don t dis appoint them go ahead and ask Ask respectfully W
6. your users feel well supported Do your users feel they need additional training to succeed Do your users feel that you the CAD manager are concerned with their pro ductivity and ability to get work projects done efficiently This exercise is tough because it forces you to think critically about how your users perceive you When you think through these questions consider things you ve heard from users and be prepared to confront some negatives Remember that the point of the exercise is to identify the users perspective whether positive or negative Now the challenge is to take what you ve learned from gauging the users per spective and figure out what if anything you need to change to achieve a positive perception from your user base For instance if the overwhelming user perspective is that more training is needed you should either add training or find the root cause of why more training seems to be needed and eliminate the cause Always remember that if you allow a negative user perspective to linger or fester then you ll have to deal with not only angry users but most likely angry management as well Ignore the users perspective at your peril Management s Perspective Your senior management has its own perspective on the CAD manager s position and that perspective is curiously bipolar in nature Because management understands that CAD work is done by CAD users they have a vested interest in CAD users bein
7. What s Involved Defining the Position What s involved with being a CAD manager That s a reasonable question In order to do any job well you need to define the position and understand the tasks that you re expected to accomplish And make no mistake if you don t define your CAD management job other people will define it for you Being a CAD manager requires proactive manage ment of your work environment By this I mean that you should define what the tasks are and how you hope to accomplish them Without a firm idea of how to define your job you ll find yourself in reactive mode There s no way you can be a proactive mission accomplished CAD manager when you re trying to live up to every one else s expectations NOLLISOd JHL ONINIAAC GHATOANI S LVHA E CHAPTER 1 WHAT S INVOLVED DEFINING THE POSITION E N The burden is on you to define how you re going to do your job given the reali ties of the mandatory job responsibilities you must tackle Therefore in this chapter I want to acknowledge the various tasks pressures and expectations that CAD managers must deal with in a constructive analytical way At the end of the chapter you should have a clear idea of how you ll define your job how to approach it and how to keep all parties in your company happy Figure 1 1 Sometimes it seems like the CAD manager has to manage everything The good news is you can manage the load with careful planning
8. a longer term view How do you balance management s longer term view with your users shorter term view We ll get into that in a moment Balancing Tasks and Perspectives You ve arrived at a point in defining your CAD management position where you real ize that you have many tasks in front of you that your users and management probably don t fully understand but expect you to accomplish You have to somehow take into account the users perspective and upper management s perspective and expectations as well This is starting to look like a complicated job and to be honest the CAD man ager s job can become as complicated as you let it The good news is that there is a methodology you can use to approach these sometimes conflicting tasks and perspec tives to make sense out of the CAD manager s position To me CAD management is like solving an extremely complex equation You can either flounder trying to solve an equation with way too many variables or you can simplify the equation by eliminating variables and making it easier to solve Therefore the balancing act of taking all the different tasks and perspectives into account is about thinking through CAD management for your particular company and breaking tasks into manageable chunks that reinforce each other Let s do the exercise in the following section to see how this works Simplifying Your CAD Management Equation I ve already recommended that you inventory all th
9. appy Figure 1 4 Management tends to measure things financially rather than technically So remember that the same level of technical vigor you apply to CAD programs is exactly the way your management thinks about money iSMIVL AJNON ATONV SSANISNG AHL M CHAPTER 1 WHAT S INVOLVED DEFINING THE POSITION E Management will now come back to you with another question along the lines of Well what do you think we should do As soon as this question is asked you have an opportunity to resolve the conflict using financial reasoning rather than techni cal reasoning The key is to have your recommendation ready and to format it using business metrics from the point of view of what s best for the company s business position A Quick Example Let s say you have a user revolt on your hands because the users want the latest version of the software but this software is expensive and the business isn t doing well enough to afford the expenditure at present This is the budget reality that the CAD manager understands but the CAD users don t The CAD users are complaining loudly and the issue has come to upper management s attention The dialogue of this meeting might go something like this Management There s a lot of user discord and they re telling us that we need to go up to the new CAD System Revision 30 whereas we re running on CAD System Revision 28 right now What s the problem CAD manag
10. be done is to sort through your list of CAD tasks and decide where management based tasks must take precedence over user based tasks Remember that management is more concerned about strategic use of the resources you have while users tend to focus on making this more optimal for themselves Resolving the two sometimes competing areas of interest can be a tough balancing act At the end of this possibly laborious process you ll know the following things about your CAD management job equation You ll know which variables drive the equation the ones with highest priority You ll know which variables are interlinked thus giving you the extra economy of solving multiple problems at once You ll know which variables are less important than you may have thought and which ones are more important than you thought You ll have a thorough understanding of how to solve your CAD management job equation from both user and management perspectives and how to achieve balance between the two Take whatever time you need to refine your list now even if it means closing the book and coming back later You may need to do this exercise away from the office late at night when it s quiet and the phone s not ringing so you can focus Few things are always true but I ve come to believe that CAD managers who plan prioritize sort analyze and optimize their task lists are the ones who achieve optimal success The Business Angle M
11. e perceived tasks you re expected to perform and that you break these tasks down into the real tasks that lie behind them If you haven t built your task inventory do so now so that you can analyze it using the following steps In this exercise you are encouraged to really think and capture all the information you need to describe your work tasks and analyze them It may seem easy at first but when you really start analyzing what you do you ll be amazed at how complex it can all become So get out a few sheets of paper and get ready to really analyze your job 1 Write down each task you do in list form and figure out which items are more in line with your users expectations and which ones are more focused on the needs of upper management 2 Rank all the tasks in terms of priority with users priorities in one list and man agerial priorities in another You probably won t get your priority order perfect but with some careful thought you should get close Reshuffle as much as you need to before continuing because this prioritization is the basis for the rest of the exercise 3 If at any point you feel that you need to expand or contract your task list do so After you ve made your changes go back to step 2 and reshuffle 4 Repeat steps 2 and 3 as many times as required SHAILOddSUdd ANV SASVL ONIONVIVd E o CHAPTER 1 WHAT S INVOLVED DEFINING THE POSITION E amp 5 Now the fun really begins Sort through your lists
12. e we see graphically how the actual tasks you manage are quite different from the perceived task s your management sees The perceived task Provide ongoing user training The real tasks Identify areas that require training Create custom training materials Coordinate external training resources and providers e Deliver training seminars The topic of training illustrates how many skills you need to juggle to deliver on what seems like a single task Your management thinks you need to be a good trainer to pull off this task right But in order to develop and deliver user training you need a complete understanding of what your users already know where the gaps in their skill sets lie and where to spend your training time to get the maximum return Here we have what sounds like a relatively simple task providing ongoing user training that is actually a series of dependent tasks some of which have nothing to do with delivering training The perceived task Provide ongoing user support The real tasks Answer user questions Catalog user questions and feedback to training processes Determine root causes for user support needs It sounds simple to say Provide ongoing user support Although answering user questions is indeed part of support the larger tasks of figuring out why yov re having to support users and how to minimize user support questions are how the best CAD managers approach the task of user sup
13. ely if you don t define your task list and think about the best way to approach it you ll inevitably be surprised by unexpected tasks Being sur prised puts you into reactive mode where you lose control of your work environment The Real Tasks For every task on your CAD management list at least one and possibly many more real tasks lurk in the background and only you can identify them What do I mean by this That s a reasonable question one best answered by example I ll use the topic of CAD standards to illustrate the point because almost all CAD managers have this responsibility The perceived task Let s say that your management expects you to manage CAD standards and so they ve placed a task called maintain CAD standards in your job description Simple enough or at least that s what your management thinks The real tasks As a CAD manager you know that maintaining CAD standards includes at least the following real tasks e Define CAD standards e Document CAD standards e Train users to follow CAD standards e Deal with those who don t follow standards SASVL 10 MJIANJAO E w CHAPTER 1 WHAT S INVOLVED DEFINING THE POSITION E gt This example is useful because it illustrates the concept that you can t accom plish a task without understanding it and proactively managing how that task will be accomplished A little thought on the matter leads to the following conclusions To document CAD s
14. er Our users feel that we should be using the most modern and available technology They re tired of using technology that s two years old and they feel that we should make the move Management Well why don t we make the switch then CAD manager Going to CAD System Revision 30 would cost us 1 000 per seat and with 20 users in our operating environment that s a 20 000 software cost that we didn t budget In addition it would cost us close to 2 000 per user to get them trained and through the ramp up and productivity curve that always occurs when we install new software I m looking at a total fee of about 60 000 to get this new software implemented You and I both know that s not in the cards budgetarily over the next six months This is why I ve said no to new software If your management team knows that 60 000 isn t available to upgrade soft ware and if you present the argument just as I ve articulated it here they will respect your judgment and be impressed that you ve taken the initiative to handle the financial aspect of the problem Management s opinion of you will only go up as they come to understand that you re technical and financial and that you ve combined those skills to look out for their business Management also knows that you d probably like to get your hands on the new software as much as your users but you have enough discipline to say We can t afford to do that now
15. g well supported This places management on the user centric side of the ledger On the other hand management is also worried about longer term factors like budgets technology adoption the cost of software training and a host of other issues that users typically don t deal with CAD managers find themselves sandwiched between the seemingly conflicting user and management perspectives Figure 1 3 Management views things from a strategy point of view not unlike a chess game So how well do you manage the resources you already have to play the CAD management chess game most effectively AIAILOAdSVAd S LNANAOVNVAW E N CHAPTER 1 WHAT S INVOLVED DEFINING THE POSITION E There s probably no one right answer to what upper management s perspective on the CAD manager s role should be but I ve noticed that the following views are widely held by corporate management The CAD manager should enable CAD related productivity The CAD manager should strive for user efficiency and more profitable opera tion of the company The CAD manager should remove complexity and make things simple because making things simple usually makes things go better The CAD manager must keep CAD technology on budget and realize that there are no blank checks for software or hardware In my 17 years of CAD management experience I ve found that CAD managers who don t subscribe to these views have rocky relationships with their managemen
16. ght Most CAD managers however were not basic users but power users The power user is a more self sufficient individual who takes pride in not needing to ask for help Most of us became CAD managers precisely because we were the power users who could solve software or hardware problems independently Consequently most CAD managers possess a can do take action I m going to fix this mind set that can be intolerant of those who require lots of support Be keenly aware of whether you have this perspective because being dismissive of user problems inevitably leads to user dissatisfaction Consider your users and how they think Try to identify all your users in terms of their learning styles and the needed level of support Over time I ve come to accept that users care about a narrower set of issues than the CAD manager does and that they judge their CAD manager based on how they feel about the following parameters Does their hardware work Does their software work Can they get support when they need it Is CAD management a tool that helps them achieve work objectives or a barrier that makes their job harder To gauge how your users feel about their working environment you need to put yourself in their shoes and ask the following questions as honestly as you can How much of your support do your users really need Would your users say their CAD environment hardware and software is great adequate or poor Do
17. hen you make a presentation to senior management they judge you on many different levels They try to see how effectively you present how effectively you think and how well you can answer questions They re also asking themselves these questions Can this person really make this work Can this person do what they say they can do By asking nicely for the resources required you show that you understand not only the issues not only the variables but also that it will take author ity and budget to accomplish the job The last benefit is that when you deal with management in a tactful thoughtful way they like you better as a person There s no reason not to have that advantage adolf UNOA OC OL UAMOd AHL ONINIVD BG CHAPTER 1 WHAT S INVOLVED DEFINING THE POSITION E Making It Happen At this point I hope you ve gained some thorough preparation and a framework of understanding of all the variables tasks and perspectives that the CAD management job entails Yes it s a complex job Yes you must consider many variables to do it But the more you think the more you prepare and the better you can handle the give and take and the questions the easier it ll be Probably more than other positions the CAD manager has to balance technical and managerial factors That s why the preparation you ve gone through in this chapter is so critical Demonstrating the ability to judge juggle balance and prioritize is exactly wha
18. how you need to do it than have you barnstorm forward The time you spend here will pay you back tenfold in the future believe me In Chapter 2 we ll talk about taking stock of your current situation and how to put the definition of your position into practice within your company
19. ment However you know that the budget over the next 12 months will allow for only 5 000 worth of investment in software It therefore becomes easy to determine that the task is not realistic because the money isn t available Don t assume that management understands the amount of money and time required to implement a proposed task it s up to you to make that determination and inform management of the task s financial feasibility By vetting each task by looking at what it will cost to do something and priori tizing your task list based on that money talks viewpoint you ll be able to defend your choices and priorities based on financial arguments And when everything is financially based you ll find that management will question you less and respect your decisions more and more as time goes by Make no mistake Management knows whether you understand the financial picture because that is a core part of what they manage It s easier to gain respect from management by being financial than technical as counterintuitive as that may seem w iSMIVL AANOW ATONV SSANISNd AHL M CHAPTER 1 WHAT S INVOLVED DEFINING THE POSITION E 3 vis Note Ifyou want to get management attention look at your job from the business angle Gaining the Power to Do Your Job At this point in defining the CAD management position you ve completed the follow ing analytical steps You ve analyzed the tasks that you re
20. of user based and management based tasks and look for any tasks that are similar For example a user based task may be to provide training whereas a management based task of make users more productive may involve training It always helps to look for win win scenarios when combining tasks for example users may feel they ve received great training while at the same time management thinks they ve received a more productive work force If both users and management are happy then you ve completed two tasks for the price of one 6 Unify your task lists to reflect any symbiotic relationships between tasks You might for instance combine provide user training with make users more productive to make a single raise user productivity through effective training task on your simplified list 7 Repeat steps 5 and 6 as many times as required and keep looking for tasks that have interdependencies 8 Finalize your new simplified task list Put it aside for a day or two and then come back and review it to make sure you haven t missed anything Exercise Conclusions and Expansion You may have spent several hours on this exercise but it was time spent in quality thought You should have a single reduced or simplified list of tasks the variables in your CAD management equation and should now be able to manage the tasks more easily because there are fewer variables to deal with The only thing that remains to
21. oney Talks You ve done your analysis of all the tasks and the user and management perspectives and you ve tried to get your CAD management position simplified into the most basic equation possible but it still seems complex doesn t it No matter how much you think about your position and no matter how you try to simplify the tasks you need to accomplish a lot And no matter how thoroughly you think things through you know a case will come up that involves competing priorities right It s reasonable to ask How do I resolve these situations In the business world the uniform answer to this question is that you have to make the decision that s best for the company and this is why I say Money talks A key to framing issues from the money talks perspective is to understand how competing priorities reach the attention of your management If an issue causes enough discord management will hear about it and when they do they re going to wonder why you haven t handled the problem Remember you re the CAD manager and you re supposed to be facilitating optimal productivity so why do you have unhappy users At this point management will ask you Why was this problem ele vated up to us Why haven t you handled it And your immediate comeback must be Because I have different people with different perspectives They have different things that they want and need or expect and I can t make everybody h
22. port Task List Conclusions I hope this section has raised your awareness that the hardest task you face is under standing your task list Only by analyzing your job will you understand what you need to work on I ve talked to far too many CAD managers who are constantly blindsided by unexpected tasks because they never took the time to analyze their task lists I recommend that you make a list of perceived job tasks and the real tasks you need to tackle to meet the perceived needs Doing so will automatically force you to think more about what you re trying to do which will lead to better results Go ahead and close the book now and write your list of perceived and real tasks There s probably nothing else you ll do today that will pay you back as handsomely SMSVLAO MAIAVVAAO E u CHAPTER 1 WHAT S INVOLVED DEFINING THE POSITION E Understanding the Users Perspective Obviously CAD managers have to support and serve CAD users After all if there were no CAD users there would be no CAD managers You have to be cognizant of what your users think and need and how you ll meet their requirements Simply stated you must step outside yourself and consider the users perspective This wouldn t seem to be too much of a stretch because most of us got our start in this field as CAD users If you can get yourself in the mental state of being a regular user and remember how you felt at the time you should be in good shape ri
23. t teams Conversely if you live these ideals on a daily basis your management probably has a great opinion of you and your users probably like you as well When people work efficiently and you don t spend too much money everybody is happy You re Never Done Though One glaring difference between the perspectives of your users and your management is that management expects constantly improving efficiency what I like to call the good enough isn t mentality If you do a great job facilitating productivity making things simple and staying on budget as you go you re just setting the bar that much higher for next year So what types of questions does your management ask about improving efficiency Here are some examples How can we get the same work done in less time How can we get more jobs done with the same number of people What s our CAD manager doing to make CAD processes work better six months from now A year from now Two years from now Although your users may achieve a state of satisfaction when their hardware and software systems are harmonized and productive management feels no such satisfaction Whenever you feel particularly good about the state of your CAD environment pat yourself on the back and savor the feeling for a little while But don t pause for too long because management expects more from you In today s hypercompetitive business environments the effective CAD manager must embrace
24. t gives you the basis to gain the power to do your job As you plan how to attack your CAD management job keep the following gen eral truths in mind If management thinks that all you do is serve the user perspective they ll form the opinion that you re a great technical person but not management material If you serve only the managerial perspective your users will feel under supported and their impression will ultimately get back to management Handling the tough decisions using financial money talks logic trumps all other decision making metrics because the company s financial well being is your ultimate concern Gaining the power to do your job is a matter of making management under stand that you ve mastered the concepts I ve discussed What I hope we ve accomplished in this chapter is to prod you into thinking about all the different aspects and facets of the CAD manager s job Before you read any further in the book make sure you ve accomplished the following tasks since they ll form the basis for everything you ll do e Get all your tasks down in list form Analyze the list based on the approaches outlined Think think and think some more Rework your list any time you think of a new task you must manage Obviously this is a difficult process but nobody said this job would be easy right d rather you spend more time here in Chapter 1 really thinking about what you need to do and
25. tandards you have to define them first To define CAD standards you have to know what users and customers need CAD standards are ineffective if users don t understand them CAD standards are pointless if nobody follows them It becomes apparent that in order to accomplish the perceived task maintaining CAD standards in this case you have to think about how that task will actually be done in your work environment There s no way in this particular case that I could tell you how to write a CAD standard I could give you some guidelines but the only way yov ll write a bulletproof CAD standard is to consider what you ll control how the standard will be used in your environment how you ll train your users and how you ll follow up to make sure the standards are enforced Note As with most things CAD management I ve found that user centric tasks like training and standard izing work processes are the most complicated parts of the task More Examples Pll give you two more examples of common CAD management tasks common man agement perceptions of those tasks and what the real tasks supporting those perceived tasks typically are Along the way I ll provide some insight What Senior What the CAD Management Sees g Manager Sees I l l Task 1 Task 1 in Theory Sub Tasks Reality l Task N Task N in Theory Sub Tasks i Reality Perception _ Disconnect Figure 1 2 Her
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