Design007 Magazine

PCBD-Apr2016

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16 The PCB Design Magazine • April 2016 by Andy Shaughnessy Steve Hageman has been designing elec- tronics since elementary school. An engineer by trade, he has decades of experience performing PCB design and layout. He spent years at HP, Agilent and Calex before hanging out a shingle for his engineering company, Analog Home. As someone who wears engineer and designer hats, Steve was a natural for this month's issue. I asked Steve to give us his opinion about the divide between some PCB designers and their engineers, and what can be done to solve this problem. Andy Shaughnessy: Steve, tell us a little bit about your company and how you operate. Steve Hageman: I have experience working for companies of 50 people, to working for a com- pany with 10,000 employees, to working as an individual contributor solving my specific cus- tomers' problems. As most engineers will agree, solving specific customers' problems is perhaps the most rewarding. Shaughnessy: A recent survey of our PCB designer readers found that there's often friction between PCB designers and engineers. Some designers say their EEs are their biggest challenge. Why do you think there's such disconnect? Hageman: I remember a quote by David Pack- ard: "Follow the advice that Abraham Lincoln gave himself: 'If I don't like this man, I have to get to known him better.'" I have found that to be very true. Mr. Packard also knew that to get along with others you had to understand what they face as challenges. Taking the time to see the other person's point of view is very hard to - day with the crush of schedules that we all have. I think the biggest disconnect is the sched- ule compression that happens. We all know how this goes: The design takes longer than expected, so the PCB start date is pushed out, but the PCB delivery date is not changed, hence the poor guy that is last on the schedule has his schedule compressed beyond belief. By then, everything is rushed and things fall through the cracks. And what falls through the cracks typi- cally is the EE design constraints. The Roles of the Designer and the Design Engineer feature intervieW

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