Cadalyst - July 2008 - (Page 34)

cadmanager autonomy from your senior management staff. Don’t try to rush the management side of things until the user community is under control, but do become more managerial the moment you achieve control. Budgeting Advice for the CAD Manager Robert Green has examined budgeting and return on investment topics in several columns. Please check the following past columns for more advice. “Making Big Changes,” May 2007 Independence Comes from Management I talk with many CAD managers who say that their bosses don’t understand what they do. Some say this in a negative way, but others seem to grudgingly accept it. My take on this phenomenon is that when my boss doesn’t have to understand what I’m doing, then he or she will leave me alone to do my job as I see fit. In other words, your boss really doesn’t want to do your job. He or she would love for you to handle it on your own, but you have to be up to the task first. Would you like to control your CAD agenda on your own without a lot of management oversight? Would you enjoy more autonomy? Do you feel like you could better serve your users if you could set your own priorities? To gain this level of autonomy you’re going to have to convince your boss that you should have it, because only your boss can grant it. Therefore, independence is something that requires you to understand your boss’s needs and petition your boss for that independence. If independence is derived from your boss, what can you do to hasten it? Here are a few things that I’ve observed over the years that always seem to work: Transparent user support. It all starts with support. The reality is that all CAD managers provide user support, but some do it with more grace and less grunt — and those CAD managers score major points with their management. When your users get the support they need without having to raise a fuss, your boss never hears about problems because there aren’t many problems to hear about. When you do have a problem, handle it quickly and accurately so it doesn’t escalate. If your boss has no idea of how much user support you provide, then you’re doing a great job! Note that your boss’ perspective on support is very different than that of your users. Manage projects, not tools. If your boss trusts you to handle the day-to-day CAD support issues, then the next challenge is to achieve trust for longer timeframe tasks such as project milestones. The way to achieve this trust is to manage CAD projects, not tools. Tackle technical problems in the context of project deadlines, and you’ll start working on the right topics at the right time and avoid problems with project timelines. For example, don’t worry about how to convert DGN files from a subcontractor to DWG files for your users because it is a cool technical problem; worry about it because it will be a required function for an upcoming project. When you report to your management, make sure to tell them not just what you’re working on, but why you’re doing so and what project the work will benefit. When your management understands that you’re project focused, they’ll trust you more and will start to grant you independence to the extent that projects continue to function well. Budget well. Forecast your software needs, anticipate training requirements, plan for new hardware, and never 34 www.cadalyst.com/0507CADManager “Justifying CAD Expenditures with ROI Metrics,” April 2006 www.cadalyst.com/0406CADManager “Basics of Budgeting,” August 2005 www.cadalyst.com/0805CADManager get surprised by a big-budget item you didn’t include — you’ll start to look like a genius, right? However, this scenario won’t all happen by accident, you’ll need to plan for it. If you’d like some pointers about how to handle budgeting and return on investment justifications for big-budget items, please see “Budgeting Advice for the CAD Manager.” Having your budget in order shows your boss that you can think a year ahead and keep all the details straight. After he or she understands, the trust transformation will be complete and you will attain operational independence. Management Conclusions Management, be it CAD or any other sort, is really just the art of dealing with problems as they arise and, hopefully, learning from those negative experiences so that you won’t repeat them. So if you manage your CAD resources in a way that problems don’t pop up, or they at least are infrequent, you must be a pretty good manager, right? On the other hand, if your boss has to field complaints from other departments about CAD-related problems, then you must not be managing things well. Welcome to your boss’ mind! By tackling the short-, medium-, and long-term management challenges of user support, project management, and budgeting, you’ll show your management that you deserve all the independence in the world. The reason your boss will grant you that independence is because you’ve demonstrated the ability to handle it. Robert Green performs CAD programming and consulting throughout the United States and Canada. His new book, Expert CAD Management: The Complete Guide is now available. Reach him via his Web site at www.cad-manager.com. Read More at Cadalyst.com CAD Manager’s Newsletter archives www.cadalyst.com/CADManagerNewsletter CAD Manager’s Toolbox/Q&A www.cadalyst.com/CADManagerToolbox CAD Managers Discussion Forum http://forums.cadalyst.com/ www.cadalyst.com cadalyst July 2008 http://www.cadalyst.com/0507CADManager http://www.cadalyst.com/0406CADManager http://www.cadalyst.com/0805CADManager http://www.cad-manager.com http://Cadalyst.com http://www.cadalyst.com/CADManagerNewsletter http://www.cadalyst.com/CADManagerToolbox http://forums.cadalyst.com/ http://www.cadalyst.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Cadalyst - July 2008

Cadalyst - July 2008 Editor’s Window CAD Central FIRST Robotic Beasts Draw Students to Engineering Power! Speed! Action! — Mighty Mobile Workstations are Packed and Ready for Adventure! Vico Virtual Construction Suite 2008 AMD ATI FireGL V8600 and FireGL V8650 — 1-GB and 2-GB Graphics Cards Gaining Independence and Influence The Current State of MCAD Rewriting the Rules of PDM BIM Goes Residential CAD Cartoon Issue Indexes Pleasures of Customization

Cadalyst - July 2008

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