Reliability engineering includes delivering bad news. This piece of equipment will fail soon, this design won’t survive outdoor use.

We start early with engineering judgment on design weaknesses. Continue by organizing groups to evaluate and comment on what will likely fail. We test, prod, poke and force failures to occur. Then we tally the actual performance and compare that to the what we hoped.

We are the bearers of bad news all too often.

So how do you avoid the stigma attached to that bad news?  [Read more…]