What I learned from a PLM at Nortel

Continuing on from last week, I am happy to share another lesson this week. I am going to share a lesson from a PLM (Product Line Manager) at Nortel this week.

If you ASSUME to make an ASS of U & ME

It was just my second or third week at Nortel and I was in the thick and thin of an RFP (Request for Proposal) response for one of our key customers, Bharti Airtel. I came fresh from Power Grid, where I was holding a Customer role and was defining the key specifications of the products. Some of the features seemed so fundamental to me that I assumed that the Nortel Equipment will support by default. I completed the solution document and was reviewing that with PLM when he flagged that the equipment proposed does not support a specific protection mechanism that was asked by the customer, while my solution document assumed that Nortel equipment supports the feature.

I was taken aghast, I could not believe that we do not support a fundamental protection mechanism, I retorted to the PLM that I did not find any reference to the denial of support for that feature in the documentation and as such, I assumed that it was supported.

The PLM said, “JP, do you know that we have not written that our equipment cannot swim, so does that mean it does?”. He clearly told me that if something is not clearly written, we must assume to the contrary or in the least “Doubt” the support and reach out for clarifications.

My suggestions to all engineers are to raise all “doubts” as early as possible and never “assume” to the contrary of evidence. No question is a stupid question, but if you do not ask the question in time you may look stupid later on.

Stay tuned for another lesson next week.