System Integration

Dedicated to the dissemination of System Integration information

As engineers within a certain field the technicalities of the system are usually well known and understood.  The problems we are likely to encounter are well known and can be planned for, i.e. technical contingency planning will be carried out either explicitly or implicitly.

 

As engineers within a certain field we tend not to think of the practicalities of a work system and are caught out when they take affect.  We also tend not take account of the technical practicalities of life.

 

When you are planning a delivery do you take account of the fact that sickness rates vary with the season? i.e. more people are off sick in the winter than in the summer.  Are your delivery dates always in the winter?  Are the milestone deliveries always in the winter?

 

Do your deliveries tie up with when people tend to take holidays?  In the UK more holidays are taken in the summer months than in the winter months.  It is also the case that a lot of holidays are taken as the holiday year ends, if the holiday year ends on the 31st of December more holidays will be taken in December than in other winter months.

 

On a more technical note do you have the correct basic test equipment and tools?  I have seen many projects hindered for the lack of some quite basic tool or piece of test equipment.  The very technical tools and test equipment have been thought of but then the process falls over for the lack of a screwdriver.

 

The above factors are just two examples of the many practical factors that affect System Integration, there are many more, they need to be predicted and planned for. 

 

The above factors are also at a quite low level, i.e. they are what I would call ‘coal face’ factors, the practicalities of life are also a factor at the higher levels, i.e. at senior executive level. 

 

Such things as whether an individual company, or department within a company, always delvers late.  If they do they are not likely to get any important work or, at the very least, not as much as what they could have.

 

There are lot of practical factors that are relevant at various levels, they all need to be considered and factored into the design and planning process.

 

Practicalities and System Integration