Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1426508
10 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I NOVEMBER 2021 "It's all about managing your data." at's a refrain that we've been hearing from designers over the past few years—in surveys and conversations with designers and design engineers. When we started planning this issue, our most recent reader surveys pointed to data management as a perpetual problem for PCB designers. It's no wonder: schematics, foot- prints, BOMs, netlists, fab notes, assembly notes—millions of petabits of data are used to design and engineer PCBs, and readers cite mismanaged data as a constant source of heart- burn. Designers today must manage more data than ever before, while turning it into action- able information that they can use to do their jobs and put food on the table. ink how much of your job revolves around data—updat- ing, measuring, tracking, and ensuring that it's accurate and complete, because every time another human touches that data, there's a risk the data will be compromised. As more than one designer said, "Managing design data is a lot like herding cats." As a for- mer cat owner, I have scars that can attest to cats' opposition to being herded. Herding one cat was quite a job. (Sometimes it took me a half-hour to get my 24-pound Maine coon, Night, into a cat carrier when it was time to go to the vet.) is is how we picked our cover image for this month. In the past, we've dedicated issues of Design007 Magazine to specific steps for han- The Shaughnessy Report by Andy Shaughnessy, I-CONNECT007 Data Management: It's a Lot Like Herding Cats