WHAT IS THE BASIC APPROACH IN SOLVING ENGINEERING PROBLEMS?

We should start by admitting that engineering is applying physics and science to real "problems".
Physicists study the world and how stuff works, while engineers use knowledge acquired by scientists in order to find cutting-edge, innovative and tailored solutions to engineering applications.
An engineer must have a strong background in his/her field of expertise in order to use it when needed.
Having a strong level of knowledge, makes one confident on his decisions, innovative in difficult projects and effective when asked to.
Moreover, experience is a basic quality, essential when problem solving.
Experience gives an engineer the advantage to know how to act in strange situations, estimate risks, costs and manage time.
Finally, knowing how to use the right tools (cad, cae, project management tools, etc) and can be time effective and provide mistake-free calculations.
I think a combination of those three are essential and a good approach when solving an engineering problem.

Engineering is essentially all about problem solving, and the approach is just so sensible: 1.
Establish what you want to know.
Write it down.
2.
Figure out what you know.
Write it down.
3.
Figure out the bits in between that you don’t know, can’t know, or are missing.
Make reasonable assumptions about those bits.
Write them down.
4.
Use the analytical tools (equations, models, software) that you have to put it all together in a sensible and reasonably efficient way.
5.
Take a look at your results, and put them in context.
Do they make sense? Is this a reasonable answer? If not, cycle back.
Re-examine your assumptions.
Check your arithmetic.
Rethink whether or not those were the correct tools to use.
6.
If it makes sense to do so, validate your results with data.
No approach is perfect, of course, but this is just so orderly and lovely, and I think the world would be a better place if we were all to re-examine our assumptions more often and more thoughtfully.

Scientific