Praxis
Dr Simon Dible, Software Engineer
Praxis High Integrity Systems Limited, Charnwood Wing, Holywell Park, Ashby Road, Loughborough LE11 3GT
Biography
Simon is a Systems Engineering Masters graduate from Loughborough University. After completion of his degree Simon went on to research shallow water sonar and obtained his PhD. In 2006 Simon took up the post of Research Associate at Loughborough University, were he worked on various underwater noise projects. In 2008 Simon joined Praxis where he works as a software engineer on mission critical embedded control systems for the avionics industry.
Employer
Praxis is a systems engineering company specialising in safety and mission critical applications. Praxis leads the world in specific areas of advanced systems engineering such as: ultra low defect software engineering, safety engineering for complex or novel systems, and tools/methods for systems engineering. Praxis offers clients a range of services including turn-key systems development, consultancy, training and R&D. Key market sectors are Aerospace, Defence, Air Traffic Management, Railways and Nuclear. The company operates internationally with active projects in the US, Asia and Europe. The UK Headquarters are in Bath with offices also in London, Loughborough and Paris. It is wholly owned by Altran Technologies which is a global leader in innovation engineering and employs 17,500 engineers across the world.
Name of organisation: Praxis
Number of employees: 130
Size: Medium
1. How many people are part of the project team with which you would typically work and what are their roles?
Project team size varies but typically includes Systems Engineers, Software Test Engineers, Quality Control Engineers, Project Manager, Technical Authority and Project Support.
2. In a typical week, what percentage of your time would you spend on project management and organisational tasks and could you give some examples of your work activities?
In my role as a software engineer, only approximately 40% of my time is taken up by management task, these can be things such as producing time sheets, and expense forms to team meeting to discuss progress and new ideas. In addition to this time documentation and design plans are also produced.
3. If you were interviewing for a new engineering project manager, what skills and personal attributes would you look for in a candidate?
• Commercially aware and able to manage projects through the full project lifecycle to meet complex client objectives.
• Experience of delivering to expectations using cost, time, quality and risk management techniques.
• Experience in client liaison / management, project requirements / scope definition and management of third parties.
• Have the ability to manage stakeholders with an interest in the project
• Good interpersonal and communication skills – confident and able to present to a wide range of management levels.
• Flexible and adaptable, capable of working in a variety of client cultures and organisational structures.
• An ability to think analytically, rigorously and creatively
• An understanding of the technical and commercial issues associated with delivery of complex systems.
• An ability to carry out detailed justified work to commercial and technical requirements and to be able to constructively criticise and assess others work.
• The ability to mentor, develop and motivate others.
4. What are the most common weaknesses you have seen in newly-qualified graduate engineers?
• Lack of understanding of the need to document all decision and activities that they take part in.
• Not taking the time to examine all possible solutions to a problem.
5. What training and development do new project managers require when they begin employment in your business area?
• Time management skills.
• Budgeting.
• Planning.
• Risk identification / management.
6. What is the single most important piece of advice that you would give to a new graduate engineer who is in charge of projects?
Don’t be afraid of taking your time, during the planning phase of a project, so that you obtain the correct solution the first time, whilst planning everything in advance. Problems are much easier to resolve when encountered earlier in the project.
7. Given the aims of the project, please make any additional comments or information that you feel is relevant.
Remember that once the development cycle is over, the product can be in service for a very long time, therefore document all your work and decisions so that if someone looks at the project in 20 years time they can understand what you have done and why.
