The assessment tasks in this unit require students to develop a detailed design for a telecommunications project for a case study organisation.
This assessment is to be completed in the simulated work environment in the RTO.
Complete the following activities:
MILCOM is a training company that offers in class and distance education training programs.
Currently they conduct lessons either in classrooms within the campus or for remote students, an electronic course which compromises of study notes and a personal tutor available via email and, at specific times, via a secure chat service.
MILCOM business is increasing in regional areas, which means their distance education arm is growing and they need to enhance their operation to cope with the demand. They have identified the lack of face-to-face teaching as their biggest threat to success and have decided to add a live streaming service to their product offering to mitigate the risk of falling enrolments.
Assume you are a Telecommunication Project Consultant and you have been asked by the CEO, as well as the College’s Planning Committee to take on this project and to develop a detailed design brief.
Complete the following activity:
- Prepare a preliminary design brief
Carefully review the above information and the Project Brief and Plan provided to you. You are required to develop a preliminary design brief to discuss with the client (the CEO of MILCOM) at a meeting.
Your preliminary design brief should include:
- A summary of the project to confirm your understanding the client’s requirements as per the project brief and plan.
- An outline of legislation, codes and regulations that impact on the project and how they You should identify at least one of each.
- The enhancements that will need to be made to the existing networks based on the project brief and plan. You will need to explore this further at the meeting with the client.
- Your timelines for developing the design plan such that the project timelines can be met.
- A list of all the resources that you will need for the design brief.
Use Preliminary Design Brief Template. You will take your report to the initial meeting with the client.
- Meet with the client
You are now required to meet with the client to discuss your Preliminary Design Brief. You will be advised of the date and time of the meeting.
At the meeting, carefully go through your Brief explaining all aspects to the client. Consider any feedback from this meeting into your Design Options Report that you will complete in another activity.
During the meeting, you will need to demonstrate effective communication skills including:
- Speaking clearly and concisely
- Using non-verbal communication to assist with understanding
- Asking questions to identify required information
- Responding to questions as required
- Using active listening techniques to confirm understanding
- Gain access to the site
Following the meeting, the client has advised that you may access the campus to assist you in preparing your design drawings.
However, he has advised that prior to the site visit you are required to email the Building Manager to ensure that you can gain access as your visit may need to include a review of other offices located in the building.
Develop an email and send it to the Building Manager.
- Review the site.
Now that access has been approved you are to conduct your site visit. You are to conduct a physical inspection of the site which should include:
- A physical inspection of the main services cupboard, main electrical switchboards, vehicle access and materials storage.
- A review of any physical impediments that may affect the installation.
- Checking the existing ICT infrastructure including:
- A speed test to establish the speed of the connection.
- The number of workstations in the room and the resultant load when they are all in use.
- Asset registers to determine the age of the equipment.
- Assessing the switch to determine the type of switch and capability for expansion.
During the site visit and based on the features you can see, consider relevant heritage, environment and government legislation that will impact on the design. You will have already researched this as part of the Preliminary Design Brief too.
As you conduct the site visit, explain to the assessor the relevant legislation, as well as its impact. Your assessor will note down your answers.
Take notes and prepare drawings as you complete your site visit as you will use these to develop the final design.
- Follow up requirement
Prior to developing your Design Options Report, you are to take action to address the heritage issue.
You are to contact a heritage expert in your area or approach the local council about requirements. Send an email to an identified expert in your area or the applicable local council (the email should be sent to your assessor).
- Develop design option
Following the site visit and your meeting with the client you are now required to develop realistic design options.
Develop a design options report for discussion at a meeting with the client. Your report should include:
- An outline of at least two design options.
- An evaluation of the design option that you recommend and that aligns with the client’s timelines and budget.
- A summary of the client’s system compatibility and the modifications that you have made to the design based on this.
- Meet with the client
You are now required to meet with the client to discuss your Design Options Report. You will be advised of the date and time of the meeting.
At the meeting, carefully go through your Brief, advising of the options you have identified and your recommendations on the most suitable option.
You should also see the client’s feedback
During the meeting, you will need to demonstrate effective communication skills including:
- Speaking clearly and concisely
- Using non-verbal communication to assist with understanding
- Asking questions to identify required information
- Responding to questions as required
- Using active listening techniques to confirm understanding
- Prepare design plan
You are now required to prepare your detailed design plan. Your design plan should include:
- All relevant geographical and topological information
- Drawings
- Equipment and material requirements for your design
- Cost estimates for your design
- Testing requirements
- Maintenance requirements Use Design Brief
Submit your Design Brief to the planners and CEO via email and seeking approval for your design.
Learning outcomes
By the end of this unit, students will be able to have the skills and knowledge required to prepare a detailed design brief to realise a building and equipment provisioning project, including costing, vendor and technology choices, scheduling and resourcing.
Outcomes include:
- Evaluate design requirements
- Evaluate information to prepare design drawings
- Select design option
- Prepare design plan
Topic 1: Evaluate the Design Requirements
A Design brief is a document developed in consultation with a client.
A design brief clarifies the project task and defines the need to be addressed, or opportunity to be explored. It outlines the deliverables and scope of the project including products, timing and budget. It usually identifies users, criteria for success, constraints, and available resources and timeframe for a project and may include possible consequences and impacts.
Design briefs can change over time and are adjusted as the project scope evolves. They can also be used to evaluate the effectiveness of a design after it has been produced.
A design brief generally starts at the point at which the client has identified a problem in their enterprise and the limitations they have in solving that problem e.g. Time, money, and regulations.
The design team will develop a project brief that outlines the deliverables and scope of the project including equipment, processes, timing and budget. A typical brief includes a risk benefit analysis to support the solution being offered
The project brief will give the rational and the methodology for the project itself. The design brief will explain how the solution solves the problem and what it’s going to take to make it happen.
Topic 2: Select design option
Where are you going and what are you doing?
Scalability and adaptability are the two words you will probably hear the most. They represent the great unknown.
Clients are constantly asking how big we can get, and, what if… Almost every design option allows for expansion and interoperability.
From the project brief it should be clear what purpose the network serves and how it goes about serving it. Is it fibre to the node or a series of cell towers strung across the country? Is it HDTV playing out of a distribution centre or a university campus with remote affiliates?
Whatever the needs are they have to be measurable.
The client should have provided some solid data on network usage, fault and incident occurrences and some sort of productivity overview.
All this should be in the project brief as a reference document or appendix.
Use these as a guide to setting out your design options making it clear where there are benefits is in going down that path
The network analysis of medium sized institution might look like this
Data Types. The types of data served by the network: text, graphics, video, voice
Data Sources. Which software applications will be used to generate the data and which systems will be integrated?
Numbers of Users and Priority Levels. The maximum estimated number of users on the network at any given time. Nominate how priority levels will be supported: management (top priority), user (medium priority), and background (low priority).
Transmission Speed Requirements. Expectations indicate that an average throughput of xxx mbps per user within each LAN and xxx mbps per user between LANs will more than support the needed performance in most cases
Topic 3: Prepare design plan
Details matter
There are hundreds of templates available for writing design briefs. They vary greatly in style, application and language, but they can mostly be broken down into a fundamental set of building blocks:
- Background – a summary of the client’s current business What is their position in the market, how have they got this far, how big are they, what is their operational capacity, how are they achieving their goals?
- Objectives – what do they want to do next and how do they expect to do it? Are they looking to expand their market share, increase their operational capability, upgrade their equipment?
- The challenge – what barriers stand in the way? Is it a highly competitive market, a radical shift in technology, changes to the regulations, environmental factors, community opposition, budgetary constraints?
- Design inspiration – paint a clear picture of where the industry is at the moment, where it’s heading and how your design fits What factors have influenced your decisions in your design? Point out how these decisions are in line with the client’s objectives. Provide examples of elements of your design that have been used successfully elsewhere.
- Mandatories – either the client has specified a particular product or process, or you have identified areas that can’t be completed without their
- Deliverables – what are you going to deliver; products, service, efficiency, facility? Indicate when they will be delivered by setting targets for installation, testing, handing over, and the like. Identify who is responsible for approval and sign
- Timings – create a timeline of events that realistically reflects the scope and complexity of the work you are Identify areas that are dependent on other sources, departments or areas out of your control. Clarify the approval process at each stage. Note which deliverables are attached to which stage and indicate where targets are expected to be met.
- Budget – estimate the cost of each stage of the design plan. Break the stages down into categories with their own Materials, staff, equipment, construction, maintenance etc.
- Team – identify who is involved in the various stages and what their responsibility and level of engagement will Identify the heads of departments and indicate how many people they oversee, how long they are likely to be engaged for, where they are going to be and what channels they will use to communicate. Include a clear a reporting structure
- Documents – Drawings, plans, spreadsheets, reference material, maps, equipment specifications, regulations, Whatever other information is relevant to the design should be documented and attached to the plan.
Assessment Task 2
This document is Project Brief and Project Plan. It is part of the supporting resources
Project Brief and Project Plan
Client information
Company name: MILCOM
About the project
Our business is increasing in regional areas, which means their distance education arm is growing and they need to enhance their operation to cope with the demand.
The lack of face-to-face teaching is our biggest threat to success.
We would therefore like to integrate a live streaming service.
Project outcomes and Requirements
To build a small soundproof studio inside one of their existing campus classrooms.
The studio will have to be capable of two-way communication so students can hear the lesson and ask questions.
The current campus network is an open access system secured by a student id and password.
The live streaming service will need to be available to students on a variety of devices including mobile and the security to the internal campus system cannot be compromised as result of this enhancement.
The studio service should operate independent of the campus, require its own data storage capabilities and be protected against mains electrical supply failure.
The current campus runs on a mixture of PC and Mac based computers and there is no specification for the studio equipment at this stage. The need for reliable multiple connectivity of up to ten students at one time, a clear audio and vision signal path and an encrypted data transfer path is paramount to the success of the live service.
The room for the studio is on the east wing of the original building which has its façade heritage listed.
Project timelines
There is a 4-week window for the build, install, and test of the facility over a holiday period when internal traffic to the campus will be limited.
Project brief
The budget is capped at $100,000. The money is in a joint account managed by the campus administrators and MILCOM.
Project team
The team will consist of the following:
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Name
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Area of speciality
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Responsibilities
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CEO and Planning Committee
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Project management
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Oversee project team and liaise with Boutique Build’s project board (CEO and Operations Manager).
Develop project documentation. Procure resources. Determine training requirements.
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Student name
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Design Brief
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Develop design brief
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