User:JamesTrev

Engineering Practice, What Engineers Really Do
Many people think that engineers build things, or at least design machines, aircraft, cars and other artefacts to they can be made by other people. Others think that the main job of engineers is to solve technical problems or perform analysis and calculations. Engineers sometimes do all of these, but most of the time you will see them at meetings, talking on the phone, writing or reading e-mails, and occasionally out on a construction site or in a factory walking around or just chatting with other engineers, technicians, a tradesman or even visitors.

The work of professional engineers is predominantly intellectual and social. They conceive technical and commercial solutions in response to client needs, and organize predictable production and service delivery to satisfy clients, end-users, and the wider community. To do this, engineers design alternative solutions requiring least resources, accurately predict technical and commercial performance, make appropriate allowances for all kinds of uncertainties and risks, help the client make appropriate choices, and then organize production of the chosen solution so that it meets the predictions. Engineers arrange the necessary regulatory approvals and ensure that social and environmental consequences can be managed appropriately through the expected life of the solution, including closure, removal, re-cycling and re-use. All this has to be done with finite resources and limited time: engineers help to decide which issues are the most significant.

Early career professional engineers spend 50-70% of the time communicating. , 20-30% on checking, reviewing, testing, design and development, and the rest on searching for and handling information.

Engineering relies on expertise, much of it unwritten or tacit, distributed in the minds of the participants at all levels, from finance to practical trades. Engineers engage the willing cooperation of all these people to contribute their expertise and skill. Nearly all the results of an engineer’s work are delivered through the skilled work of other people over whom they have limited or no authority. Around 20-40% of an engineer's work is coordinating all these contributions from other people.

Professional engineers take responsibility for a project by ensuring that all aspects are soundly based on fundamental principles. They often need to work across discipline boundaries. At the same time, engineers are responsible for coordinating the contributions of everyone involved with the project so that the work is performed safely within an agreed schedule and resource budget, and in accordance with appropriate standards.

Many professional engineers establish their own companies or move into senior management roles in engineering and related enterprises.

In the technical domain, engineers are concerned with the advancement of technologies and their applications through innovation, creativity and change. They may conduct research concerned with advancing the science and practice of engineering, and also extend and adapt standards and codes of practice.

Professional engineers interpret technological possibilities to society, business and government. As far as possible they ensure that policy decisions are properly informed by such possibilities and that the costs, risks, consequences and limitations are also properly understood.