Importance of English Communication for Engineering Students

and Its Remedies

Importance of English communication for engineering students and the problems faced by them during

academic as well as professional life and its possible

remedies.

Majority of the students in engineering colleges are from rural areas.

They do possess intelligence necessary for getting admission for

higher education but they lag behind in the English communication

competence.

So, during academics and career they face a lot of problems.

To be successful in studies and campus interviews, GD’s, it is important to achieve English communication

competence.

English is the current language of the international business, technology,

aviation, diplomacy,banking, computing, medicines,

engineering and tourism.

About one fifth of people all over the world know more or less about English.

It is spoken by 1.8 billion people in the world and the number still increasing.

Almost everysingle university in the world are

conducting scientific studies in English. Total 60% of radio programs are

broadcast in English, more than 70% of the content or address of mailing letters

are written in English.

English plays an important role in the world.

English is becoming the world’s language of the 21st century. Most of the world’s population, about 70%

speak English or know it. More than 80% of all stored information in the world is written in English or translated into it. Foreign language skills, and in

particular the English are a good tool in work, school, on vacation, when building a career or promote your

own business.

The man who speaks fluent in English will not get lost in the world where there

are people.

Engineering is the biggest field of study in the world.

First of all English is a tool that significantly affect engineering students in academic

life. While most of the theories in engineering are taught in English, it

requires to have good English communication competence.

IMPORTANCE OF ENGLISH COMMUNICATION FOR ENGINEERING STUDENTS

During the job seeking process in interviews, GD’s, it is of crucial

importance to achieve mastery in English proficiency.

After securing the job they are required to work in groups since their task

seldom be solved by an individual.

So, being an Engineer requires to co-operate and communicate with

different people from different part of the world.

English is used as the working language to a large extent.

In order to co-ordinate with the colleagues, Engineers have to speak

fluent English.

PROBLEMS FACED BY ENGINEERING STUDENTS

In our country ,about 75% students of the engineering are from rural areas and

most of them are coming through regional language medium schools.

No doubt that as they have entered into the engineering colleges,they do possess intelligence i.e. necessary qualification for

higher education and bright future.

But, at every walk of life and career English becomes an obstacle in

their way of career.

So, let us examine the reasons which make English as a souring grape for students even today in

this modern era.

BASIC PRINCIPLES FOR CREATING WBSS*

1. A unit of work should appear at only one place in the WBS.2. The work content of a WBS item is the sum of the WBS items

below it.3. A WBS item is the responsibility of only one individual, even

though many people may be working on it.4. The WBS must be consistent with the way in which work is

actually going to be performed; it should serve the project team first and other purposes only if practical.

5. Project team members should be involved in developing the WBS to ensure consistency and buy-in.

6. Each WBS item must be documented to ensure accurate understanding of the scope of work included and not included in that item.

7. The WBS must be a flexible tool to accommodate inevitable changes while properly maintaining control of the work content in the project according to the scope statement.

SAMPLE INTRANET WBSORGANIZED BY PRODUCT

SAMPLE INTRANET ORGANIZED BY PHASE

INTRANET WBS IN TABULAR FORM1.0 Concept

1.1 Evaluate current systems1.2 Define Requirements

1.2.1 Define user requirements1.2.2 Define content requirements1.2.3 Define system requirements1.2.4 Define server owner requirements

1.3 Define specific functionality1.4 Define risks and risk management approach1.5 Develop project plan1.6 Brief Web development team

2.0 Web Site Design3.0 Web Site Development4.0 Roll Out5.0 Support

INTRANET PROJECT WITH GANTT CHART

INTRANET WBS AND GANTT CHART ORGANIZED BY PROJECT MANAGEMENT PROCESS GROUPS

SAMPLE MIND-MAPPING APPROACH

SAMPLE GANTT CHART

The WBS is on the left, and each task’s start and finish date are shown on the right using a calendar timescale. Early Gantt Charts, first used in 1917, were drawn by hand.

SAMPLE NETWORK DIAGRAM

Each box is a project task from the WBS. Arrows show dependenciesbetween tasks. The bolded tasks are on the critical path. If any tasks on thecritical path take longer than planned, the whole project will slip unless something is done. Network diagrams were first used in 1958 on the Navy Polaris project, before project management software was available.

SAMPLE ENTERPRISE PROJECT MANAGEMENT TOOL

In recent years, organizations have been taking advantage of softwareto help manage their projects throughout the enterprise.

PROJECT TIME MANAGEMENT PROCESSES

Project time management involves the processes required to ensure timely completion of a project. Processes include:Activity definitionActivity sequencingActivity duration estimatingSchedule developmentSchedule control

ACTIVITY DEFINITION Project schedules grow out of the basic

document that initiate a projectProject charter includes start and end

dates and budget informationScope statement and WBS help define

what will be done Activity definition involves developing a

more detailed WBS and supporting explanations to understand all the work to be done so you can develop realistic duration estimates

ACTIVITY SEQUENCING

Involves reviewing activities and determining dependenciesMandatory dependencies: inherent in the

nature of the work; hard logicDiscretionary dependencies: defined by the

project team; soft logicExternal dependencies: involve relationships

between project and non-project activities You must determine dependencies in

order to use critical path analysis

PROJECT NETWORK DIAGRAMS Project network diagrams are the

preferred technique for showing activity sequencing

A project network diagram is a schematic display of the logical relationships among, or sequencing of, project activities

SAMPLE ACTIVITY-ON-ARROW (AOA) NETWORK DIAGRAM FOR PROJECT X

PRECEDENCE DIAGRAMMING METHOD (PDM)

Activities are represented by boxes Arrows show relationships between

activities Better at showing different types of

dependencies

TASK DEPENDENCY TYPES

SAMPLE PDM NETWORK DIAGRAM

ACTIVITY DURATION ESTIMATING

After defining activities and determining their sequence, the next step in time management is duration estimating

Duration includes the actual amount of time worked on an activity plus elapsed time

Effort is the number of workdays or work hours required to complete a task. Effort does not equal duration

People doing the work should help create estimates, and an expert should review them

SCHEDULE DEVELOPMENT

Schedule development uses results of the other time management processes to determine the start and end date of the project and its activities

Ultimate goal is to create a realistic project schedule that provides a basis for monitoring project progress for the time dimension of the project

Important tools and techniques include Gantt charts, PERT analysis, critical path analysis, and critical chain scheduling

GANTT CHARTS

Gantt charts provide a standard format for displaying project schedule information by listing project activities and their corresponding start and finish dates in a calendar format

Symbols include:A black diamond: milestones or significant events

on a project with zero durationThick black bars: summary tasksLighter horizontal bars: tasksArrows: dependencies between tasks

GANTT CHART FOR PROJECT X

GANTT CHART FOR SOFTWARE LAUNCH PROJECT

MILESTONES Milestones are significant events on a

project that normally have zero duration You can follow the SMART criteria in

developing milestones that are: Specific Measurable Assignable Realistic Time-framed

SAMPLE TRACKING GANTT CHART

CRITICAL PATH METHOD (CPM)

CPM is a project network analysis technique used to predict total project duration

A critical path for a project is the series of activities that determines the earliest time by which the project can be completed

The critical path is the longest path through the network diagram and has the least amount of slack or float

FINDING THE CRITICAL PATH First develop a good project network

diagram Add the durations for all activities on

each path through the project network diagram

The longest path is the critical path

SIMPLE EXAMPLE OF DETERMINING THE CRITICAL PATH Consider the following project network

diagram. Assume all times are in days.

2 34

5

A=2 B=5C=2

D=71 6

F=2

E=1

start finish

a. How many paths are on this network diagram?

b. How long is each path?

c. Which is the critical path?

d. What is the shortest amount of time needed to complete this project?

DETERMINING THE CRITICAL PATH FOR PROJECT X

MORE ON THE CRITICAL PATH

If one or more activities on the critical path takes longer than planned, the whole project schedule will slip unless corrective action is taken

Misconceptions:The critical path is not the one with all the critical

activities; it only accounts for time. There can be more than one critical path if the

lengths of two or more paths are the sameThe critical path can change as the project

progresses

USING CRITICAL PATH ANALYSIS TO MAKE SCHEDULE TRADE-OFFS

Knowing the critical path helps you make schedule trade-offs

Free slack or free float is the amount of time an activity can be delayed without delaying the early start of any immediately following activities

Total slack or total float is the amount of time an activity may be delayed from its early start without delaying the planned project finish date

A forward pass through the network diagram determines the early start and finish dates

A backward pass determines the late start and finish dates

CALCULATING EARLY AND LATE START AND FINISH DATES

PROJECT SCHEDULE TABLE VIEW SHOWING FREE AND TOTAL SLACK