During the execution of an international project, there are many tasks for which the project manager can never see light at the end of the tunnel. It feels like all the moons have to align so that the task mountain can be conquered. As the project manager, you have to promote practical solutions to difficult issues that come up during the execution of a project. Practical solutions can relieve pressure from the team members and save money and time for the project.

For example, during the ground-up design of a rotary engine, cooling fluid flow simulation through engine water passages were planned by using finite element methods (FEM). The FEM process was timely and costly, needed fast and large computer-processing capacity, and did not simulate the cavitating regions well. The project team brainstormed the situation and decided to build engine body models from plexiglass and simulate water-flow behavior in the engine water passages at a university fluids laboratory. This type of visual simulation gave faster results, and the cavitating regions were eliminated by iterating the design with confidence.

Another example of being practical is in communication. A German bus body builder s engineers and project manager for an electric bus project did not have good grasp of English. They made obvious mistakes in understanding the fine points of the specifications and in daily communications. For example, the electric bus ground clearance during travel was going to be high, and the bus level was going to be lowered to its...