4.4 Project Engineering and Management

Project management is an important part of an FPGA design effort.Design team members will encounter many design decision points and can be counted on to collect information detailing the benefits and issues associated with different design approaches, but one individual must generally make critical design decisions rather than allowing the chaos of “design by committee.”

Management should work to provide the team with clear, common and complementary goals and objectives. Management should be aware of factors affecting design productivity including available resources, tool issues, training issues, distractions, roadblocks and work to minimize their effects.Design requirement changes and “churn” should be minimized.Nonstop changes to schedules, proposed functionality, task assignments, and requirements will wear down the motivation and enthusiasm of the design team.

If changes are required, roll them out in an organized manner. Communicate changes to the entire team. Verify that design change effects and ramifications have been considered, analyzed and incorporated into the design schedule and budget. Roll changes together into larger releases rather than rushing out each individual change.Establish a design change (both requirements and functional implementation) process.There should be a clear chain of command and team members should know who has the authority to make key design decisions. No individual or group within the design team should be allowed to make autonomous design changes without peer input and notification. The changes may be necessary, but even minor changes can have significant impact on other areas of a design.

Keep the team focused on results by measuring progress toward clearly defined common goals.By measuring key project task progress, design issues can be identified early that need to be addressed to maintain schedule. The adage “what gets measured gets done” is true. Supporting team communication, design team communication and coordination is critical. These both take time and effort and will only become priorities if management leads by example and sets clear expectations.

Table 4.1 lists the important topics associated with effective project management.

Table 4.1

4.4工程开发和管理

工程管理是FPGA设计工作中重要的一部分。设计团队成员会遇到许多设计决策点，他们可以收 集具体信息以支持不同设计方案的益处和存在的问题，但是必须委任一个人制定关键的设计决策，从而避免出现“委员会式设计”的混乱。

工程管理应该起到给设计团队提供清晰的、共同的和互补的目标的作用。工程管理应该注意到影响设计生产 力的各项因素，包括可用资源、工具问题、培训问题、各种干扰和阻碍因素，并力争最小化这些因素产生的不良影响。应该尽量减少设计 需求变更和“搅和”（churn）。对进度计划、功能提议、任务分配和设计需求不断的变更，会使设计团队的动力和激情消磨殆尽。

如果需要变更，那么有条不紊地推出它们。向团队全体成员传达变更。确认对设计变更产生的影响和后果进 行了考虑和分析，并纳入了设计进度和预算之中。把各项变更集中在较大的发布中一起完成，而不是匆忙地逐个完成和发布。建立一个设 计变更（包括需求和功能实现的变更）过程规范。在一个清晰的指挥系统中，团队成员应该知道谁有权做出关键的设计决定。设计团队中的任何个人或小组 都不得在不经过团队评审和不通知其他团队成员的情况下，自作主张地对设计进行变更。做出这样的变更可能是必要的，但是即使是微小的变更也可能对设计的其他 部分产生显著的影响。

向着清晰的共同的目标衡量项目进展，以保持团队专注于结果产出上。通过衡量项目中关键任务的进展，设 计中影响进度计划的问题可以尽早地被发现并解决。“所测即所得”（what gets measured gets done），此言不谬。 在支持团队与设计团队之间交流项目进展情况并协调工作计划是至关重要的。只有管理者以身作则和设定明确的期望，这些费时费力的工作才会成为团队优先考虑的 事情。

表4.1