[Elecraft] K3 on motorboat.

[Don Wilhelm]

Barry,

Sometimes we have to put on the Scientists hat, but when the rubber 
meets the road and we have to come up with a product, we have to put on 
the design engineers hat and say that how much compromise is required to 
meet 1) customer demands, 2) budget constraints, 3) speed to first 
customer shipment, 4) adherence to the initial specifications that have 
been published.
If you can meet 2 of the 4 above, you have done OK, 3 is better, but 
takes more effort.

I worked both as a design engineer and as a Product Assurance Test Team 
Leader whose efforts were to test the product to conform to the 
specifications or fix it - an alternative was to change the 
specifications, which usually did not sit well with me, but was reality.

73,
W3FPR

On 6/10/2020 7:55 PM, Barry wrote:
> Don,
>     I worked as a design engineer and then transitioned to system 
> engineering/project management. In those latter days, I would receive 
> a requirement set from which I needed to make sense. I also had 
> budgetary issues that were built in, more requirements than money.  
> And, there might have been other conflicts. So, I know what e had to 
> do, maximize the number of requirements satisfied with in the set.
>
>     Yes. We engineers were pretty well trained, but when making 
> decisions on what had to go or be included it wasn't always a 2+2 = 4 
> which is precise. Mathematicians are precise and there may be only 
> answer to the equation, but that wasn't the world I was living in; I 
> could have many different solutions based on the requirements. This is 
> the point I was trying to make.
>