On Sat, 02 Mar 2013 12:54:52 -0700, wrote:

One of the failures of many design engineers.

I think you may mean the failures of many industrial design, human
factors, usability, and marketing. These days, the circuit design
engineers have little say in the how a product looks or works.

I had similar problems
decades ago with test engineers writing test procedures assuming an
advanced knowledge of electronics. A previous lead tech would have
his best tech vet the test procedures before accepting them. I added
a further step - I had the newest tester try to follow the procedure.
Any step he did not understand had to be rewritten. It irritated the
test engineers, but ensured the procedure actually worked as written.

Guilty as charged, but had a good excuse. Since I was the designer of
the product, having me write the test procedures guaranteed that I
would make some assumptions as to the operation of the product. When
I wrote procedures for my own products, they were universally
considered confusing and presumptive. Far too many missing steps. So,
I made a deal with one of the other engineers and we traded products.
It worked fairly well, and lower management accepted the idea. It
also provided an education on other products, as well as generated
many original ideas.

Then, upper management found out and announced its displeasure. I
don't recall their exact logic but it had something to providing a
single point of contact in engineering for the customers. When I
pointed out that this also creates a single point of failure, the
non-negotiable edict to cease the practice arrived in a memo.

I also had another problem. Some of the test techs were not the
brightest on the planet. A few were able to follow even the most
boring test procedure, repetitively, unerringly, and without protest.
This was great if the procedure worked, but if there were any changes,
the test techs would falter. They could tolerate boredom, but not
change. So, I grabbed anyone NOT involved in the actual testing of
the products, to help me debug the procedure. Just watching someone
inexperienced fumble through the procedure was often sufficient to
inspire massive reorganizations and rewrites.

--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558