The purpose of the Project specification and plan – we call it "Functional Specification" – is to define the content and scope of the Project. This starts with the anticipated business or engineering value and benefits for your end-user, and includes an analysis of how the ultimate application will fit in the day-to-day business or technical processes for the your end user. You will work with your end-user"s engineering and sales representatives to produce the following elements of the functional specification, which include:
SYSTEM SCOPE
The system scope includes a comprehensive definition of what features and functionality will be included in the Project. The goal is to include everything that is needed for initial, successful, production use of the application, without including extras that would add to the delivery time, cost, and risk for the Project.
SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE
The optimal solution may include integration with CAD products; analysis programs; Rules-based engineering configuration products; engineering Rules captured in the configuration system; user points of access (user interfaces); integration with corporate systems such as CRM, PLM, and ERP; and finally, a file management system and one or more databases. The solution architecture determines how the applicable systems will be coordinated and communicate with one another.
USER INTERFACE
The first step in building a UI is to determine all of the required inputs and their relationships and dependencies. After that, you will work together with your end-user"s engineers and sales personnel to Design the layout, flow, and style of the user interface. This may include sketches or mock-ups to gain understanding and consensus regarding the ultimate UI Design.
RULES
Engineering and Design Rules represent the core of the application. Your application consultants need to be adept at collecting and formalizing the Rules. You also need to gather such resources as standards books, catalogs, spec sheets, example jobs, interviews with experts. You may also have to apply and other techniques, such as storyboarding, brainstorming, and incremental refinement. All of this helps to determine the optimal Rules for Design and configuration of your end-user"s product.
CAD LIBRARIES
The geometric core of the application will likely be based on a library of CAD components and assemblies. You need to review any existing CAD Models and consider them along with new CAD model creation. The goal is to marry the power of parametric CAD with the power of an advanced Rules-based engineering Design automation tool — kBridge.
DATABASE
Every application is almost certainly going to be supported by a database for storing and maintaining various tables for component data, application data, etc. During the functional specification, you need to Design the database schema for maximum functionality and ease of long-term maintenance for the application.
INTEGRATION
Given the solution architecture, you will need to analyze which integration points can be implemented with out-of-the-box functionality and which need to be developed as part of the application. For each integration point, you need to determine the communication methodology and protocol, for example XML. Typical integrations include database, engineering analysis programs, CAD, ERP, CRM, PLM, and the like.
OUTPUTS
Capturing a clear understanding of the outputs is important. These may include pricing, BOMs, quote documents, engineering reports, sales drawings, manufacturing drawings, CNC output, renderings, virtual fly-throughs, etc. Developing a set of requirements based on ample examples and in-depth understanding of how these outputs will be used is critically important to the Project.
WHAT WON’T BE DONE
Sometimes, it is just as important to decide and document what won’t be done in a particular phase of a Project as it is to decide what will be done. This is because people’s perceptions and expectations may change over time. To make sure that everyone knows how changes and expanding scope may affect development time, it is important to document exactly what is in and what is out of the scope – and update that definition of the scope over time if there are changes.
PERSONNEL
The proper team of business and application consultant personnel will lead the Project to success. Determining the right mix of skills and personalities is usually done during the functional specification.
PROJECT PLAN
A list of individual tasks is created and, together with the personnel selection folded into a Project plan. This plan takes into account dependencies, review, testing, documentation, and so on, and sets a target schedule for implementation and delivery.
PROPOSAL
Ultimately, the result of the Functional Specification effort is to a formal proposal for an implementation of the Project. This will be the basis for the actual Project development work.
