AUGIWorld Magazine - September/October 2008 - (Page 6)

your office? You should be planning what you buy and where you take CAD in the future. You should be determining when you upgrade software. You do this by consulting others, talking to management, seeking advice from outside your firm, and listening to the chatter on the Internet about the next release. Planning does not happen in a vacuum, but you should be coalescing all of this input into a plan. If this is what you are doing, then your impact quotient may be high. You have input into or actually select all software that touches CAD, design, or graphics related to contract deliverables. Does your influence extend beyond CAD? I am sure that others also select software and hardware, but you are included in the process. If you are the one who defines soft- ware tools beyond CAD, that is great! You should be defining the IT infrastructure in conjunction with IT as it relates to the CAD environment. IT staffers do not always know what the needs of the CAD users are. They should always give you the respect for outlining the requirements in the CAD environment. In some firms, CAD touches everything. This means that the CAD manager is involved with just about every software and hardware decision that is made. If you are, then your impact on your environment goes way up. You set policy and procedure for production. By developing the standards and guidelines, you are defining the processes that all users will follow. No one should be defining them apart from you. You will gather ideas and input from anywhere you can find it, but you will be the one to document and enforce the standards. No one can deviate from the standard unless you allow it. You monitor quality and have authority to require compliance. You can require users to stay within the guidelines. You have final accountability for CAD output quality. This is your responsibility and you can review and report on problem projects. By having the overall responsibility you gain impact—as long as others know this. They must know that you are responsible and you must embrace this responsibility. Your boss must know that you embrace it and agree that it is your responsibility.. You should not be ducking out on it, or blaming others, or not caring. With responsibility and accountability, comes impact. You oversee CAD training. The effectiveness is increased by developing curriculum, class schedules, and reporting on user skill levels via testing and surveys. Training impacts the student (hopefully). The trainer gains impact by passing on information to another. The impact of training is defined by the teacher and the curriculum. The one who defines these ensures great impact. If you want to change things, start training others. Seven distribution centers nationwide Industry experienced customer service Improving your impact Next business day shipping Easy online ordering By taking stock in how many of the above items define your role, you can start to assess your impact level. Some items in this list are not defined by you. You cannot choose your boss, for example, but you can step up and teach CAD, or seek to have more input into hardware purchases. By increasing your areas of responsibility and accountability, you will be given greater and greater levels of trust. Impact comes from increasing your value to the firm. Impact declines if you step back from taking ownership of issues. If a majority of these items define your level on involvement, then your impact level is high. The higher the number, the easier it will be to make things happen. Mark W. Kiker is president of the AUGI Board of Directors. He is a National CAD Standards Project Team Member and team member of the National BIM Standard. Mark is general editor of BLAUGI and also publishes caddmanager.com, the CADD Manager’s journal, as well as the caddmanager.com blog. He is a returning faculty member at Autodesk University. He is currently chief information officer for HMC Architects in Ontario, California, USA. w w w. A U G I . c o m For quick and easy CAD-related orders, go with a supplier who knows their cursor from their chamfer. Call MasterGraphics. We have more than 3,000 products, from bond paper, toner, and inkjet cartridges for all brands of printers and plotters including Xerox, HP and Océ, to quality drafting supplies and furniture. Trust us to understand your needs. Your equipment. And most importantly, your language. MasterGraphics | Making Design Data Work To order, visit our online store at http://estore.masterg.com/augi or call (800) 873.7238 today. (800) 873.7238 http://estore.masterg.com/augi 6 http://estore.masterg.com/augi http://caddmanager.com http://caddmanager.com http://www.augi.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of AUGIWorld Magazine - September/October 2008

AUGIWorld Magazine - September/October 2008 Contents The CAD Manager 2008 Salary Survey Save Time with Impression Blocks In the Family Way Structural Stairs Autodesk University 2008 Preview Action Recorder How to Embrace Third-Party Data On the Back Page

AUGIWorld Magazine - September/October 2008

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