What’s Involved: Defining the Position What’s involved with being a CAD manager? AL That’s a reasonable question. In order to do any RI job well, you need to define the position and TE understand the tasks that you’re expected to accomplish. And make no mistake, if you don’t MA D will define it for you. TE Being a CAD manager requires proactive management of your work environment. By this I mean how you hope to accomplish them.
The burden is on you to define how you’re going to do your job, given the realities 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.
• 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.
This example is useful because it illustrates the concept that you can’t accomplish 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 standards, 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.
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. • Deliver training seminars. The topic of training illustrates how many skills you need to juggle to deliver on what seems like a single task.
Understanding the Users’ Perspective CHAPTER 1: W H AT ’ S I N V O LV E D : D E F I N I N G T H E P O S I T I O N ■ 6 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 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.
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: CHAPTER 1: W H AT ’ S I N V O LV E D : D E F I N I N G T H E P O S I T I O N ■ 8 • The CAD manager should enable CAD-related productivity. • The CAD manager should strive for user efficiency and more profitable operation of the company.
Balancing Tasks and Perspectives Simplifying Your CAD Management Equation I’ve already recommended that you inventory all the 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.
CHAPTER 1: W H AT ’ S I N V O LV E D : D E F I N I N G T H E P O S I T I O N ■ 10 5. Now the fun really begins! Sort through your lists of user-based and managementbased 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.
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: Money Talks! Figure 1.4 Management tends to measure things financially rather than technically.
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 technical 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.
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 expectations 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.
Note: If you want to get management’s 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 following analytical steps: CHAPTER 1: W H AT ’ S I N V O LV E D : D E F I N I N G T H E P O S I T I O N ■ 14 • You’ve analyzed the tasks that you’re expected to accomplish.
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.
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 giveand-take and the questions, the easier it’ll be. Probably more than other positions, the CAD manager has to balance technical and managerial factors.
