Engineering Culture, Engineering Excellence, and Engineering Strategy
And why we don’t want to replace one with another. This is Part 2/3 of the Engineering Culture series. Here is Part 1 and Part 3.
Engineering excellence, engineering culture, and engineering strategy are all related to engineering but represent distinct concepts.
Engineering excellence refers to the high-quality work that engineers produce. It includes following best practices, ensuring accuracy and reliability, and using “state of the art” technologies and tools for day-to-day work.
This is HOW we do the engineering work.
On the other hand, engineering culture refers to the shared values, beliefs, and behaviors prevalent in an engineering organization. It includes things like the company’s problem-solving approach, attitude toward risk, and commitment to collaboration and teamwork.
This is WHY we do the engineering work.
While engineering excellence is focused on the individual work of engineers, engineering culture is focused on the organization's collective work as a whole.
Engineering strategy, meanwhile, relates to the overarching plan for how an engineering organization will achieve its goals. This includes things like setting priorities, allocating resources, and making decisions about which projects to pursue.
While engineering excellence and culture are essential components of engineering strategy, they are not the same. Engineering strategy concerns the big picture of how an engineering organization operates and achieves its goals.
This is the ORGANIZATION viewpoint on engineering work.
In contrast, engineering excellence and culture are more specific aspects of that overall strategy, planned and designed from the ENGINEER or TEAM viewpoints.
In summary, engineering excellence is about producing high-quality work, engineering culture is about an organization's shared values and behaviors, and engineering strategy is the plan for achieving organizational goals. While all three are related to engineering, they represent different concepts important for any engineering organization's success.
