Datasheet

9
■ BALANCING TASKS AND PERSPECTIVES
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 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. 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.
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