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, GDs,
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 every
single 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 worlds language of the 21st

century. Most of the worlds 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.

IMPORTANCE OF ENGLISH COMMUNICATION

FOR ENGINEERING STUDENTS

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.

During the job seeking process in interviews,

GDs, 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 WBS

ORGANIZED BY PRODUCT

SAMPLE INTRANET
ORGANIZED BY PHASE

INTRANET WBS IN TABULAR FORM

1.0 Concept
1.1 Evaluate current systems
1.2 Define Requirements
1.2.1 Define user requirements
1.2.2 Define content requirements
1.2.3 Define system requirements
1.2.4 Define server owner requirements
1.3 Define specific functionality
1.4 Define risks and risk management approach
1.5 Develop project plan
1.6 Brief Web development team
2.0 Web Site Design
3.0 Web Site Development
4.0 Roll Out
5.0 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 tasks 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 dependencies
between tasks. The bolded tasks are on the critical path. If any tasks on the
critical 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 software

to 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

definition
Activity sequencing
Activity duration estimating
Schedule development
Schedule control

ACTIVITY DEFINITION

Project schedules grow out of the basic

document that initiate a project
Project charter includes start and end dates
and budget information
Scope 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

dependencies
Mandatory

dependencies: inherent in the nature of

the work; hard logic
Discretionary dependencies: defined by the project
team; soft logic
External 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 duration
Thick black bars: summary tasks
Lighter horizontal bars: tasks
Arrows: 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.
start

A=2

B=5

C=2

E=1

6
D=7

F=2

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?

finish

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 same
The 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