The Project

This isn't me. I'm not a real project manager. But I'm one of those guys who will do anything if asked nicely enough, if there is a real need. And in this case, there was a real need. I'd been working as teacher for a couple years on an aviation program here, writing curriculum and training rooms full of software engineers on the latest technology so they could finish their projects and we could deliver the software that was so far behind schedule. My concern was not at the program level; it was to understand the concepts of the hardware and the software and the methods we were using to get the entire system to work, so that my students (the engineers) could do their jobs correctly. But when the cost and schedule were were blown out of the water and upper management was getting nervous and suddenly the "overhead' of training no longer seemed quite so necessary, I was asked to become a Verification Lead for a specific aspect of the program: the test hardware

Let's say you want to build a box. Nothing fancy. Just a box you can use around the house. To hold stuff. You know what a box is, right? Sure you do. It's square. Or rectangular. It's got sides, a bottom, maybe a top. You can put papers in it, or books, or fresh fruit, or even kittens. You can move it around, stack it here or there. So let's say you are a Project Manager, and your project is to build a box to put stuff in. That shouldn't be difficult, right? Easy-peasy. What's the first thing you need to do? Right. Define what the thing is for .  Because that will tell you how the thing needs to be built. How it is supposed to perform. How much stuff it will hold. What size it should be. What kinds of materials are best suited for the thing. Those are called the Requirements.  Sometimes the Requirements Specification. Don't worry if you aren't sure what those are yet. We'll get into the details later. For now, just remember that they are