Engineering Management_ Past_ Present_ and Future

Abstract: This article contributes a description of the engineering management field. The article’s intent is to continue and add to the body of knowledge about the evolution of the engineering management discipline. Seven strategic issues and associated questions about the evolution of engineering management are identified by understanding the past, present, and future of the profession. The history and evolution is described. The current state is described in terms of the contributing disciplines, professional societies, journals, and conferences. The future is described by emerging trends, challenges, knowledge roles, and stakeholder needs of the profession. From this article, an engineering manager can better understand how different disciplines and professional societies could help improve understanding of their chosen profession. Keywords: Engineering Management Discipline, Engineering Management Professional Societies EMJ Focus Areas: Engineering Management: Past, Present, Future, Developing Engineering Management Professionals (2) Hiring, managing, and retaining a highly qualified and trained staff of engineers, scientists, and technicians in a rapidly changing technological environment; and, (3) Demonstrating a high level of capability maturity. Engineers often enter the job market not as traditional engineers but as project managers, technical salespeople, and lead systems engineers (especially within the defense and information management arenas) involved with conceiving, defining, architecting, designing, integrating, marketing, and testing complex and multi-functional information technologycentric systems (Abel, 2005). Within five years, for most this has become their primary job function. Combined with the fact that the modern engineering enterprise is now characterized by geographically dispersed and multi-cultural organizations, engineering management (EM) is more relevant than ever. Because of the blurring of boundaries between technical and management roles, engineers must continue to redefine their roles in order to remain relevant in the modern economy. This article was written in order to raise strategic questions for the evolution of the EM discipline. As a first step, we review the history of EM. Like all technical professions, EM has evolved dramatically because of the information age and the interdisciplinary nature and complexity of modern systems; therefore, we will present a definition that is relevant for the 21st-century, practicing engineering manager. As a second step, we describe the current state of the profession. We also present relevant professional organizations that should be viewed as a source of additional information. In the third step, we present emerging trends, roles, and stakeholder needs for the profession. From these three steps we then present the set of strategic issues and questions facing the discipline. The intent of this article is
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ith the globalization of the manufacturing base, outsourcing of many technical services, the efficiencies derived from advances in information technology (and the subsequent decrease in mid-management positions), and the shifting of our economy to being service-based, the roles of the technical organization and engineering manager have dramatically changed. The 21st century technical organization must be concerned with: (1) Maintaining an agile, high quality, and profitable business base of products or services in a fluctuating economy; About the Authors
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Timothy Kotnour, PhD, is an associate professor within the Industrial Engineering & Management Systems Department at the University of Central Florida. He is actively engaged in research activities with NASA and other leading technical organizations. He conducts research in strategic management, science and technology planning, project management, and change management. He has a BSIE from Bradely University and PhD in industrial and systems engineering from Virginia Tech. He is the editor of EMJ. John V. Farr, PhD, PE, is currently professor and founding director of the Department of System Engineering and Engineering Management at Stevens Institute of Technology. Previously, he served for eight years in the Department of Systems Engineering at the United States Military Academy, West Point, New York. His education includes a BS in civil engineering (CE) from Mississippi State University, MSCE from Purdue University, and PhD in CE from the University of Michigan. He has authored over 80 technical publications, including one textbook, on a wide variety of civil engineering and engineering management topics. His research interests include data analysis, modeling and simulation, and infrastructure management. He is a Fellow and former President of ASEM and a registered Civil Engineer. He also serves on the Army Science Board and serves on several corporate and academic advisory boards. Contact: Timothy Kotnour, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Industrial Engineering and Management Systems, 4000 Central Florida Blvd., University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL 32816-2450; phone: 407-823-5645; tkotnour@mail.ucf.edu
Engineering Management: Past, Present, and Future
Timothy Kotnour, PhD, University of Central Florida John V . Farr, PhD, PE, Stevens Institute of Technology
Engineering Management Journal
ISSN: 1042-9247 (Print) 2377-0643 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/uemj20
Engineering Management: Past, Present, and Future
Timothy Kotnour & John V. Farr
To cite this article: Timothy Kotnour & John V. Farr (2005) Engineering Management: Past, Present, and Future, Engineering Management Journal, 17:1, 15-26 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10429247.2005.11415273
Published online: 18 Apr 2015.
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