Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1494346
MARCH 2023 I DESIGN007 MAGAZINE 9 instructor Kris Moyer explains the road signs that lead him to questionable data, and why you should ask experts to cite their sources. Alun Morgan lays out the need for better docu- mentation for PCB materials. Our columnists had quite a bit to say about tribal knowledge and their opinions varied. Michael Ford says it's almost always negative. Tim Haag believes tribal knowledge can be good, bad, accurate, or inaccurate. Martyn Gaudion discusses how to create an "informal information culture," and John Watson explains why every designer needs to be ready to step up and help counter bad information. Kelly Dack relates the tale of the "Five CAD Monkeys," and Joe Fjelstad shares a personal view of his expe- rience with undocumented data. On other topics, we have columns from Barry Olney, Matt Stevenson, and Vern Solberg. Anaya Vardya wraps up his series on final finishes. Don't miss our IPC APEX EXPO special section, including interviews with IPC Design Competition contestants, as well as Kris Moyer, who explains the reasoning behind this year's more complex design and how he'll approach the competition next year. See you next month. DESIGN007 Andy Shaughnessy is managing editor of Design007 Magazine. He has been covering PCB design for 23 years. To read past columns, click here. language, and no one really understands what you do all day. A CAD manager shared this illustrative tribal knowledge story with me: One of his senior designers started designing boards in the '80s, and his mentor had told him that every board needed at least 100 decoupling capacitors. e designer diligently sprinkled decaps like pixie dust on every board for 30 years. When the manager asked why he put so many decaps on every design, the designer said, "at's how I was taught." He kept decap distributors in business for years. Tribal knowledge is present in every orga- nization, no matter the size. Tribal knowledge isn't necessarily bad; all the processes that Bell Labs pioneered in the '60s and '70s started out as tribal knowledge. But there's a lot of bad tribal knowledge floating around out there. How do we distinguish tribal knowledge from documented facts? In this issue, our expert contributors will provide readers with the tools and method- ologies needed to identify tribal knowledge, as well as when to question such information, and how to document and transform tribal knowledge into a process. We begin by interviewing Tamara Jova- novic, a designer who recently completed her master's degree in electrical engineering. She discusses how she identifies tribal knowledge, and when it's time to dig deeper when pre- sented with suspect information. Next, IPC