Bill is a careful and attentive listener. His education and experience give him a broad understanding of scientific, technical, human and business considerations. Engaging in thoughtful dialog with business management at the beginning of his involvement in a project, Bill assures the establishment of proper policy and procedural guidelines for the project.
Clearly articulated and communicated declarations of goals, policies and procedure guidelines enable a project team to continually answer the question, "Are we progressing in the right direction?" While each project is a unique and individual situation, the following questions and items represent typical topics which are identified and agreed on during Goal Identification.
Often a new design is a close cousin to a prior design and it is sufficient that seasoned staff knows from experience that the new effort will be able to succeed.
At other times a new design is "pushing the envelope" in some way so it is wise to make use of analysis methods right at the beginning.
Such methods involve modeling and calculations to answer the question, "Will this thing work?"
If the answer to that question is found to be, "No" then the business has only invested some time and paper which is
generally much less expensive than an entire development effort which will probably go all the way through early
prototyping before the problem is recognized.
Bill Grace is experienced in analytical methods including electrical circuit performance analysis
and mechanical three-dimensional modelling in AutoCAD.
An example of the value of such analysis is seen in the power subsystem produced for a major flight
simulator provider (see the case study "More Power for a Flight Simulator").
One of the main functions of this subsystem was DC power distribution in a novel configuration which included
longer distances than usual and switching components not typically used.
As a straightforward step of feasibility determination Bill created a model of the proposed circuit and performed a current
capacity and voltage drop analysis.
The results of this analysis showed that the proposed distribution would cause a slight under-voltage condition.
It was determined that the power supply vendor could make an adjustment in the power supplies to compensate and the
project went ahead to successful completion.
In some instances a new design will clearly require covering entirely new ground and pre-risk analysis is not an option. In this case it must be agreed that the business benefit of the hoped-for result is sufficiently great to justify risking the possibility that the project may end in failure. The risk can be minimized in these cases by carefully establishing milestone points where the progress and feasibility can be measured and evaluated. In this way the business resources being put at risk can be limited. Also, the question of whether or not the benefit sought is worth the next increment of risk can be re-considered.
Some companies have established methods for documentation. When this is the case Bill follows such methods so that all documentation will be compatible with the company's documentation system during and after the project.
When there is no pre-existing company pattern for documentation, Bill drafts an appropriate Reference Specification document. All product descriptions and behaviors, project constraints, etc. are written out in this document and it becomes the working blueprint for the product development project. Typically other documents such as user guides and technical support documentation are eventually generated from the Reference Specification.
The Reference Specification embodies all the details needed to successfully implement the policies, priorities and procedures laid out in the Goal Identification process. Just as that process enables the project team to answer the strategic question, "Are we progressing in the right direction?", the Reference Specification allows answers to more tactical questions such as "What's the next step?" and "Is it working right so far?".
Frequently there are changes to the product definition during a typical project. Such changes can come about from engineering necessity or in response to marketing requests for product feature variations. All changes are reflected in the Reference Specification and a corresponding revision history is maintained.
Areas covered in the Reference Specification are product specific but typically include:
Bill Grace has years of experience in company operation and project management resulting in a wide range of skills and procedural techniques for costing, budgeting and scheduling. These include: