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Elementary Mr. Watson: PCB Design—It's a Team Sport

During the struggle with COVID, the situation was driven by the fear of not knowing how long things would be affected, how bad things would get, or even what the new normal would look like after it was over.

As a result, we re-invented the way that we worked. Kitchen tables became our offices. Our entire industry had to re-invent the way we did things. It's during the difficult times that the most valuable lessons are learned. Now that things are beginning to open up and move forward, we see what can only be described as a Brave New World unfolding. We don't know what the new normal will ultimately be, post-COVID, but welcome to it.

One of those hard lessons was about the value of the team and collaboration. I have repeatedly heard how many of us have a newfound respect and appreciation for the teams we work with inside our companies. Out of necessity, we had to find new ways to collaborate.

"No Man is an Island," a poem by John Donne, could not be truer today. This principle is especially true when it comes to the PCB design process. Since no single person is involved in PCB design, I would contend that to succeed, PCB design must be a team sport.

I can hear a few designers saying, “My team is me, myself, and I.” I fully understand your situation. For you, it's not an individual doing specific tasks but rather a single person doing all the different roles to finish the PCB design. Sometimes you put on the component librarian hat, other times the electronics engineer hat, and other times you may be the purchaser or the project manager. Although it is just you doing everything, there are still underlying principles of collaboration needed to finish the project successfully.

Importance of Collaboration
Collaboration refers to specific individuals working together as a team in an intellectual endeavor or directly working together to perform a particular task.

During a typical PCB design process, we have multiple people working on a single design, sometimes simultaneously. It becomes rather challenging to mesh the PCB data with a specific role. If not handled correctly, data management could turn into a real problem. That is all done while you manage what each person is doing while keeping anything from falling through the cracks.

There are endless advantages to developing collaboration within your team. But collaboration needs development; it is not something that just happens. Some designers tend to be islands who like to handle things on their own. Nevertheless, the growth of your team and the collaboration between team members is one of the critical ingredients of a successful company.

Leveraging Your Talent
Everyone has strengths and weaknesses, and joining forces helps develop the overall team. As the saying goes, "Iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend."^[1] During this process, the hope is that we can learn from each other. However, what are we talking about sharpening? Abrasion is a process of wearing down through friction. When people with various personalities work together and do things differently, there is going to be friction. That tension can make us better and provide a chance to grow and learn, or it can destroy the team entirely.

Developing Better Communication
The key to good collaboration is communicating effectively. Individuals on your team need to connect to other individuals in order to get across a certain point. Working together requires us to share ideas, which allows each of the individuals to learn new things and grow. Often preceding a team’s breakdown is the collapse of communication. There are various reasons why communication breaks down in a team; it is essential to identify those causes and remove them as quickly as you can.

Expediting Projects
Time is usually a prominent driver in any PCB project. The big question for managers and sales teams is “When?” Fortunately, the addition of even one designer to the team multiplies the work effort and, fortunately, the results.

The real key to successful collaboration is to assure that one designer's work does not overwrite the other’s efforts. That will involve using advanced tools and techniques. A good strategy is to arrange for each designer to work within certain zones or areas. For example, you can have specific people routing a section of the design and then consolidate those changes into a master design.

A primary tool that I would consider a requirement on any PCB design team is the version control system (VCS) design repository such as an SVN or GIT system. When multiple people work on a single design, after the first person commits the design back to the VCS, the others must conduct a compare and merge of the changes. But the VCS will manage the workload and document the progress by saving a version of the PCB project at a specific moment in time.

Roles and PCB Data
There is a sort of symbiotic relationship between the PCB data and the roles involved. Understand these roles; it is not mainly about individuals or positions but the tasks and stages in the process.

As we now all know, PCB design begins with the electronic component. Within that component is the unified data model, which holds all the data necessary to create a PCB. The first role involved in the PCB design process is the librarian. I have always believed that the librarian holds one of the most critical positions and roles. The first rule is to be best friends with your component librarian.

A little review is in order when we break down that component. It has two major categories: the information and the models. First, there is the general component information of name, description, the specific component parameters, and sourcing information. On the other side are the component models, consisting of schematic symbols, footprint, 3D models, and sometimes (if you can get them) simulations or IBIS models. Each of these items in the unified data model plays its part at a specific design process point. Depending on what role you have, it is the particular information of importance to you.

For example, the mechanical engineer focuses on the 3D model because he is concerned with how the PCB will go together mechanically. When you take a deep dive, break up the component, and tie it to specific roles, you begin to see the importance of providing all the information inside the component. Furthermore, the stronger the provided information, the better support it gives to a specific role. Therefore, it is better to give too much information than not enough.   

In Table 1, we see the breakdown of the component and how it provides the required information for a specific role.

Conclusion
Think of the saying, "Many hands make light work." An enormous task is made easier with many working together. In the face of a daunting task, we come together as a team and solve the problem.

COVID turned our industry upside-down. But, let's not forget the vital lessons we learned that we are a part of a team. It's not about the individual parts but rather the strength we exude when we join together—with our strengths and our weakness. There was a motto that we heard repeatedly throughout the pandemic: "We are all in this together." Let's hope that never changes. 

References

1. Proverbs 27:17

This column originally appeared in the September 2021 issue of Design007 Magazine.