Your engineering and testing teams are at odds. How can you bridge the communication gap?
When engineering and testing teams clash, fostering a collaborative environment is key. Consider these strategies:
- Establish regular cross-team meetings to ensure alignment on goals and progress.
- Implement clear documentation practices for shared understanding of technical requirements.
- Encourage empathy by having team members shadow each other to appreciate different roles.
How do you enhance communication between disparate teams?
Your engineering and testing teams are at odds. How can you bridge the communication gap?
When engineering and testing teams clash, fostering a collaborative environment is key. Consider these strategies:
- Establish regular cross-team meetings to ensure alignment on goals and progress.
- Implement clear documentation practices for shared understanding of technical requirements.
- Encourage empathy by having team members shadow each other to appreciate different roles.
How do you enhance communication between disparate teams?
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This answer may not be to the highest professional standards expected today, but what worked for me in this situation some 40 years ago was simply bonding down the pub! Many large companies have groups of graduates or apprentices joining each year. There is an inbuilt camaraderie there. Foster that, down the pub or perhaps more acceptable venues! I found that direct contact between the FEA guys and the test guys was so useful. To hear the day to day stories and issues was so valuable. Later as a manager I tried to foster that type of relationship between the teams. Test and analysis are so intertwined, or should be, that this is essential. If each operates as a silo it is a real shame. The politically incorrect approach also works!
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Daily meetings should be conducted to approach the ongoing issue whether from the technical end or production end. To discuss the issues openly for a good integration to overcome the situation rather than bypassing the reality. Such activity will create a good coherence eventually will benefit the system and the surrounding environment.
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As a mechanical engineer, Promote collaboration through regular meetings, clear documentation, role shadowing, and fostering mutual respect between teams.
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Don’t expect either the test team or the engineering to be right, in some instances the engineering requirements can miss the purpose of the design. So the voice of the customer should be considered when reviewing the requirements and developing tests. There should be no boundaries between the teams, the team should be encouraged to at a one, listening to everyone’s input, and most importantly reviewing the expected test results relative to the end customer use and experience. Not everything is quantitative, sometimes results will need to consider subjective/qualitative aspects to the design. A design might provide a function, but the user finds it’s difficult to use, so a basic engineering requirement would pass, but fail for the customer.
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Some really good answers here, however I believe the problem is of a different nature. It starts one level up, there is ultimately a person responsible for managing these inter department interactions to ensure both departments understand the common goal or objective. If departments are clashing, the inherent priorities to achieve the common objective is not clearly defined or possibly misunderstood. When priorities are clearly communicated and understood, it usually results in effective, efficient and predictable interactions. Less questions, more rhythm.
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