Professional Design and Practice

Dr Lisa Simmons, Senior Lecturer in Engineering

Project Management
John Dalton Room E351
Email: [email protected]
Today’s lecture topics
1. Where we are?

2. Project life cycles

3. Development of a business case

4. How to gather information

5. Development of a design specification

 1. Where we are?

What have we covered?

What should we have completed?

Where we are?
• What have we covered? • What should we have
• The definition of project completed?
• Roles within a team • Team contracts (if in a
• Communication team)
planning • Begun the
communication plan (if
in a team)
• Begun the professional
development portfolio
for 1CWK30
• Started to read around
plastics
Project Governance

Senior User(s) Executive Senior Supplier(s)

Change
Authority
Project
Manager

Project
Support
Team
Manager
 1. Project Lifecycles

What is a project lifecycle and what is its purpose?

What are the key components of a project life cycle?

Phases, gates, reviews and milestones
What is a project life cycle?

Definition: A framework used for structuring and controlling how a project

moves from conception to completion.
BS 6079 clause 8.1

Beginning Middle End

What is the purpose of the life cycle?

Start the project

Develop phases Continue investment

Clearly defined end

point
Risk Management
 Components of a project life cycle
• Phases
• Gates
• Reviews
• Milestones

BS 6079:2019 Clause 8.2.1

Components of a project life cycle: phases

A part of the project where defined and related activities are undertaken
For example:
• Recruitment of a project team
• Development of a feasibility study
• Testing of the product or components of the project

Starting the Organizing

and Execution Close
project
preparing
Phase relationships: Sequential

Phase must be completed before the other can begin

Useful for rigid control of the project and reduces uncertainty
Limited in its flexibility
Overlapping phase
Phases can work in parallel – fast tracking
Project managers must monitor allocation of resources
Risk is increased
 Components of a project life cycle: gates
Gates: a decision making point to move on to a new project phases, often called
Go/No Go

Required to Possible decisions

Confirm the project is still needed Terminate project
Confirm validity of the business case Postpone or suspend phase
Confirm end of previous phase criteria Continue with the next phase
have been met

Review and approve next phase

Confirm allocation of funding and
resources
Verify risks and issues
Components of a project life cycle: reviews
Formal and scheduled assessments of one or more aspects of the project,
whilst it is ongoing.

Reviews during projects maintain quality assurance standards, and will

reassure stakeholders that the project is being monitored for standards
and progress
Components of a project life cycle: milestones

Zero duration events due to their importance in the project.

• Each gate at the start of a project phase

• The start or end of significant reviews
• End of a project phase
• Key events
• Successful completion of activities
• Achievement of recognisable outcomes
What to consider when choosing a life cycle model

• What is known by the project team?

• How high is the risk?
• How is the project bound?
 Executive
Staring up a project

Initiating a Project
 2. Project life cycles

The linear life cycle

Phase to phase relationships

Phases in a project life cycle

Concept APM

Definition

Starting the project Deployment

Organising and Transition

preparing

Execution
PMI
Close
Typical phases in a life cycle

All projects involve the following activities:

• Deciding WHAT they are to deliver and WHETHER they should deliver
CONCEPT
• Planning HOW to deliver it
DEFINITION
• Actually MAKING the deliverables
DEPLOYMENT
• Checking they have done everything and HANDOVER
TRANSITION
Phase Definitions
Concept Development of an initial idea through initial studies and high-level
requirements management, and assessment of viability, including
outline business case
Is the project viable? Is it worth investing in?
Definition Development of a detailed definition, plans and statements of
requirements that include a full justification for the work
Creation of project management plan (coms, risk, issues,
stakeholders, PDS, WBS)
Deployment Implementation of plans and verification of performance through
testing and assurance to realise intended outputs and benefits
Introduction of gates and milestones
Transition Handover, commissioning and acceptance of outputs to the sponsor
and wider users, culminating in formal closure
Characteristics of life cycles
Approach Requirements Activities Delivery Goal

Linear Fixed Performed once for the Single delivery Manage Cost
entire project
Iterative Dynamic Repeated until correct Single delivery Correctness of
solution
AGILE Dynamic Repeated and reviewed Single or multiple Managing
uncertainty

Hybrid Dynamic Mixed Single or multiple Correctness of

solution

Extended Fixed Single Benefits realisation

Product Fixed Single delivery Cradle to grave

Question

Think about the projects that you have worked on.

How did you manage the lifecycles?
 3. Business cases

What is a business case and what is its purpose?

What is included in the business case?

Developing a Business Case
What is a business case?

• Provides justification for undertaking a project or programme

• It evaluates the benefit, cost and risk of alternative options and provides a
rationale for the preferred solution

What is the purpose of the business case?

• Every project needs to contribute to the business strategy and deliver
benefits
• In most businesses there is competition for funds
• To demonstrate why a particular project should be chosen over others

It is the first thing that people read!

Include:
An overall summary of the
project (can be written last).
• A mission statement
• Information about the
company/client
• Relevant business
highlights
• Financial summary
• Future goals of the
project (post
completion)

Benefits the project will

bring. Targets for benefits
(qualitative or quantitative).
How are you going to make
decisions in your design
process?
Option appraisals inform
decisions based quantitative
analysis – there are lots of
methods.
We are going to look at:
• Feasibility
• Desirability
• Viability
 Criteria Priority values Normalised values

Criteria 1 10 0.31

Criteria 2 6 0.19
Options appraisal
Criteria 3 5 0.16

Criteria 4 8 0.25

Criteria 5 3 0.09

totals 32 1.01

Criteria Normalised value Idea 1 NR Idea 2 NR Idea 3 NR

N R R R
Criteria 1 0.31 2 0.62 10 3.1 5 1.55

Criteria 2 0.19 3 0.57 6 1.14 2 0.38

Criteria 3 0.16 4 0.64 10 1.6 1 0.16

Criteria 4 0.25 7 1.75 5 1.25 3 0.75

Criteria 5 0.09 1 0.09 1 0.09 1 0.09

3.67 7.18 2.93

Risks will be managed through a risk
management plan, however, highlight key
risk in the business case.
4. Defining the problem

How do we define a problem to start the design process?

Getting to a product design specification

Defining the problem
Now we know what a business case looks like how can we develop it?

• Who are my customers?

• What does the customer want?
• How can the product/solution satisfy the customer while generating a profit?

Customers are “anyone who receives or uses what an individual or organization provides”
Gatheringinformation
The need for information is crucial at all stages of the design process/ project
development.

In the early stages it is need to achieve a creative concept solution

Types of information:
Data – a set of discrete, objective facts about events

Information – data that has been treated in some way that is conveys a message

Knowledge – broader, deeper than information because it is harder to define

(experience, values, contextual information and expert insight)
Gatheringinformation
data information knowledge

Data becomes information when the creator adds meaning to it.

Contextualised – we know what for what purpose the data was gathered
Categorised – we know the units of analysis or key components of data
Calculated – the data have been analysed mathematically or statistically
Corrected – errors have been removed from the data
Condensed – the data have been summarised in a more conciseform

Information becomes knowledge through human endeavour/judgement

Comparison – how does this situation compare to other situations we have known?
Consequence – what implications does the information have for decisions and
actions?
Connections – how does this bit of knowledge relate to others?
Conversation – what do other people think about this information?
Types ofinformation
Customer Manufacturing Technical standards
• Surveys and feedback • Capabilities of processes • ISO
• Marketing data • Capacity analysis • BSI
• Manufacturing sources • Company specific
• Assembly methods
Related designs
• Specs and drawings for previous versions of Cost
the product • Cost history
• Similar designs of competitors (reverse • Current material and manufacturing cost
engineering)
Life cycle issues
Standard components • Maintenance/service
Analysis methods • Availability and quality of vendors feedback
• Technical reports • Size and technical data • Reliability/quality
• Specialised computer programs
data
• Warranty data
Materials Governmental regulations
• Performance in past designs • Performance based
• Properties • Safety
 DesignSpecification
In PDP you are working across several documents/objectives in parallel:

You are here Communications Plan Communication plan feeds into

Business Case

Business Case
Literature review informs the
Literature review business case and design
(information gathering) specifications

Design specifications
Design specifications inform
option appraisal criteria
Options appraisals
Design specifications
• The Design Specification is the start of the process of
converting an idea into information from which
something can be made
• It controls the scope of the design
• Without satisfactory scope, design can only result by
accident
• “The most important part of the design process.
Mistakes made at the beginning of the design are often
carried through to production” Hollins and Pugh
Why a Design Specification?
• It can provide a legal basis which both the customer
and designers can refer to in any dispute
• States the objects and constraints in a design
• Too tight a DS will restrict design solutions – too slack
will waste time and effort
• A good DS will set the requirements for the design
without necessarily implying what form it should have
Characteristics of a Design Specification
• Biggest danger in writing a PDS is that it becomes full of

pre-conceived ideas – based upon assumptions and

prejudice

• The DS is a dynamic document that will change through

the design process (but not the project)– There is a

need to be careful of completely moving the goalposts

• The DS is a control document – it represents the

specification that you are trying to achieve – not the

achievement itself

• The DS is a user document – for use by you and others.

It should therefore be written succinctly and clearly

Categories in a Design Specification
• Can be anything related to the design

• Not limited to what is in the template given,

similarly not all sections will be relevant to your

work
Product Breakdown Structure