I chose to look at “Making Changes to the work of another Engineer”,  Case No. 09-6. I chose this subject because it is something I deal with  daily at work and wanted a better understanding of the issue so as to  avoid ethical issues in the future.

The question presented in this Case was, “Was it unethical for  Engineer A to makes minor changes to design documents prepared and  revised by Engineer B without consulting?”, (NSoPE, 2010)

In this case the NSPE Board of Ethical Review did find that, “It was  not ethical for Engineer A to make minor changes to design documents  prepared and revised by Engineer B without conferring and gaining the  approval of Engineer B.”, (NSoPE, 2010)

In my professional career, I am currently an Electromechanical  Technician II and work in Engineering R&D I am responsible for cable  and harness design and mechanical design work which includes  documentation of the design in CAD and Altium (an electrical design  program) as well as maintaining revision-controlled documents.  In doing  so I am answerable to my direct manager who is an Engineer as well as  the Responsible Engineer on any given project, both within the  Electrical and Mechanical Disciplines.

In doing my work as assigned, especially within a project, there have  often been times when I have run into design conflicts with what I am  trying to accomplish and what another is trying to accomplish with  interacting parts in the design.

First, and I feel very strongly about this, it is not only unethical  and dangerous but also rude to simply make changes to another person’s  design without consulting them and presenting your findings and reaching  a mutual agreement that the changes you are proposing to their design  are justified and the best solution. There may be reasons they designed  it that way that you do not understand.

Now, in the case that the other individual does not have the time to  rework his design, they are on to another part of the project, etc., to  meet a solution that you both mutually agreed upon we handle it with  revision control. If the other individual designed to REV AB I would  then revise it to REV AC and in the title block we capture that I am the  author of the change, the responsible Engineer reviews and approves my  changes and they are indicated on the title block as the approver and  the dates are shown and all changes and agreements to the change are  further documented, in our case we use JIRA as change control to  document this work.

If there were an issue that ever arose from the design of that part,  it is then clearly documented who is responsible for the design and any  changes made to the design.

The bottom line however is that it is just common courtesy, when  possible, to discuss any changes to another person’s work and just good  practice in developing good working relationships. Respect reciprocates  respect.

REFERENCES: 

 NSPE. (2010) Making Changes to the Work of Another Engineer, Case No. 09-6 TITLE:  Making Changes to the Work of Another Engineer Case No.  09-6____________________________________________________ (nspe.org)