Project Management

If you didn’t already notice…

Effective Communication is among BLT’s highest goals

• Communication among ourselves
• Communication with our Clients
• Communication with our Vendors
• Establishing clear expectations between all parties is key to everyone’s satisfaction.

BLT knows that open effective communication takes time and takes work. This is just one more key element our Clients “buy” as part of any project.

The process of risk identification runs parallel with every planning and scheduling effort at BLT. We constantly ask: “What could prevent ‘this’ from taking place as planned?”

A healthy appreciation for Risk, Risk Management, and Risk Mitigation separates the Men from the Boys when it comes to project Management

A Mature Manager:

• Recognizes that things can and do go wrong
• Recognizes that no amount of planning or preparation can prevent the possibility of things going wrong
• Recognizes that an awareness of potential risks enhances one’s ability to mitigate the effects of things going wrong
• Responds rapidly and prudently to address deviations and gets things back on track

BLT’s project planning and our daily status meetings both continually address risk and risk mitigation. Depending on the needs of the client or the demands of the project, BLT takes an active and appropriate role in insuring the success of the project and the satisfaction of our Clients.

BLT encourages free and open communication both internally and with Clients combined with active solicitation of ideas from others.

No one would call the general atmosphere at BLT relaxed! In fact each of us is driven to exceed the expectations of each and every Client.

Operations at BLT consist of:

• Emails & phone calls with Client Engineering, Marketing, & Management.
• Maintaining an open door policy physically, intellectually, and emotionally.
• Brief Daily status meetings on each and every project to ensure:
  • The project is on track
  • Constant vigilance for technical and schedule threats
• Compiling and sending formal weekly status reports when due
• LOTS of hard work!

For each aspect of a project:

• Overall Project Logistics & Schedule
• Each PCB
• Each Firmware Task
• Each FPGA
• Integration and Test
• Project Documentation

The following topics are addressed:

• Overall Status
• Accomplishments Since Last Report
• Short Term Outlook
• Open Issues

Each weekly status report is also accompanied with a running summary of specification changes and additional tasks.

Going on its 14th year and hundreds of designs, BLT’s proprietary design checklist continues to help BLT’s Clients to avoid common mistakes that can add days, weeks or months to a schedule.

Going on its 19th year and hundreds of designs, BLT’s proprietary design checklist continues to be refined. Our Checklist helps us to streamline the specification, design, implementation, and debugging processes. With it, BLT avoids common mistakes that can add days, weeks or months to a schedule.

In addition to simply catching omissions, BLT’s checklist is often able to identify and avoid critical path issues long before they are able to affect project schedules and budgets. Our checklist addresses all aspects of System, PCB, FPGA, Firmware, Integration and Test, and Documentation issues.

Design Files are protected from loss and unauthorized access via a multi-tiered security process.

All aspects of Security are a major focus of Bottom Line.

Protection From Loss

• Daily Rolling Backup of all Design Source Files onto Engineer’s local drive
• Daily Backup of all Design Source Files onto external media
• Weekly Rotation of Backup Media to secure offsite location

Protection from Unauthorized Access

• Firm security access strictly enforced
• Physical security in place appropriate to needs
• Only encrypted files access is available from outside each design center

Client confidentiality is rigorously protected at BLT. “Keeping our Client’s Secrets” is a long-standing facet of our business.

Client Confidentiality is a major focus of Bottom Line

• BLT will not discuss anything to do with our Client or any projects for a Client with anyone, even within the Client’s own organization, without the direct approval of the Client’s management.
• BLT will not use Clients for references without prior permission from the Client’s management.
• At the end of a project, all design files are returned to the Client or Secured and Encrypted at BLT’s facilities for archival purposes.