Lecture 5The Design Process:

Design Teams and Translating Plans into Design Criteria

William Tibben

SITACS

University of Wollongong

20 August 2002

Outline

• Translating the Plan into Design Criteria– The Design Document – what is in it?– Then a focus on Design Requirements

• Developing Teams– Leadership v Management– Team formation– Getting the best out of individuals

Design Document

• What function does the design document perform?– The design document is the primary tool by

which the detail and the vision of the project is communicated to a wider audience.

– The document promises to explain how the project will be executed in the best possible way

Four(4) Guiding Principles

• The task of writing the design document needs to be guided by the following– Functionality: will the end product work?– Scalability: is the network able to grow without

major problems– Adaptability: will the project be able to

incorporate new technologies in the future?– Manageability: can we monitor network

operations and make necessary changes easily?

Functionality

• Functionality: – does the network support each job function so

that strategic goals can be attained? – Does the network deliver end-to-end

connectivity that is both reliable and sufficiently fast

Scalability

• Any network design must allow for future growth.

• In physical terms, this means – allowing space in equipment racks for more equipment,

– spare connection points in main and intermediate distribution frames (MDFs and IDFs)

• In logical terms, well structured IP addressing schemes.

Adaptability

• Design Criteria should incorporate possible changes to design through the advent of new technology.

• Similarly the design should not have features that makes the future provisioning of new technology impossible.

Manageability

• The network should facilitates both monitoring and manageability

The Design Document

1. Executive Summary

2. Design Requirements

3. Design Solution

4. Summary

5. Appendices including network diagram and budgets/costings

Section 1: Executive Summary

• Purpose of the project in relation to strategic goals

• Implementation considerations: resources required, integration and transition issues, training

• Benefits of the solution – once again aligned to company’s strategic goals

Section 2: Design requirements

• Characterisation of existing network

• Accordingly, what is required in the new network

Section3: Design solution

• Proposed network typology

• Hardware resources for both LAN and WAN

• Addressing and naming scheme

• Protocols to be deployed

Section 4: Summary

• A statement that links design solution to the strategic goals of the company

Appendix

• Time line and project network• Cost: the reader needs to understand how

each cost is generated (hint: best if linked to individual activities detailed on project network. See next slide)

• Results of performance measurement tests• Addressing and naming scheme details• Management-operational-security policies

Linking Costs to Project NetworkCircuitboard

Designcost

account

Productioncost

account

Testcost

account

Softwarecost

account

Lowestelement

Organizatio

Units

DesignWP D-1-1 SpecificationsWP D-1-2 Documentation

ProductionWP P-10-1 Proto 1WP P-10-2 Final Proto 2

Test systemsWP T-13-1 Test

SoftwareWP S-22-1 Software preliminaryWP S-22-1 Software final version

BProto 1

5

DFinal

proto 24

ASpecifications

and documentation2

CPreliminary

software3

FFinal

software2

KTest

3

AD-1-1D-1-2

BP-10-1

DP-10-2

FS-22-2

KT-13-1

CS-22-1

Gray and Larson, 2000, p. 92

A Closer Look at Design Requirements

• Two important sources of information should be exploited

1. The Design Requirements section of your Design Document is a summary of requirements that have been developed during your strategic analysis phase.

2. It also draws on past experience by• Describing the existing network (legacy system)

• Lists current applications, protocols, users

• Describes the current performance of the network

A Closer Look at Design Requirements

• The Design requirements section brings together all the knowledge that will be used to develop next section, the Design Solution.

Characterising the Network

• Strategic objectives are used to:– Specify business goals, business processes, customers,

suppliers. This has implications for functionality.

– Define corporate structure. This has implications for LAN and VLAN design where networks servicing different workgroups need to be separated.

– Define geographic structure. This has implications for where workgroups, suppliers, customers are physically located. Mostly relevant to determining WAN typologies.

Legacy System Analysis

• Identify currently used applications. This information is necessary in determining how work is currently carried out in the organisation

• Information flows should be documented. This includes that which is transferred in hard copy, on discs or verbally.

• New designs have the potential to disrupt established information sharing relationships between people. This can be a major source of turmoil as people’s roles and responsibility’s are changed through new technologies

Legacy System Analysis

• Shared data sources should be identified (eg policy manuals, servers, intranets, bulletin boards)

• Determine network traffic and access. Identify the amount of data that travels within segments and between segments. Determine the volumes of data that are obtained externally from the Internet.

• Determine network performance. Identify protocols in use. Using monitoring tools (protocol analysers, network statistic generators) to obtain information about network performance

Network Performance Guide(according in Taree, 1999)

• No shared Ethernet segment to be saturated (no more than 40% network utilisation)

• No shared Token Ring segments are saturated (no more than 70% network utilisation)

• No WAN links are saturated (no more than 70% network utilisation)

• Response time <100 milliseconds• No segment have more than 20% broadcasts/multicasts• No segments have more than one CRC (Cyclic

Redundancy Check) error per million bytes of data

Network Performance Guide (according in Taree, 1999)

• On Ethernet segments, less than 0.1 % of packets result in collisions

• On the Token Ring segments, less than 0.1% of the packets are soft errors not related to ring insertion

• On FFDI segments, there has been no more than one ring operation per hour not related to ring insertion

• Routers are not over-utilised (5 minute CPU utilisation no more than 75%

Network Performance Guide (according in Taree, 1999)

• The number of output queue drops has not exceeded more than 100 in any hour on any router

• The number of input queue drops has not exceeded more than 50 in any hour on any router

• The number of buffer misses has not exceeded more than 25 in an hour on any router

• The number of ignored packets has not exceeded more than 10 in an hour on any interface on a router

Design Requirements-rcap

• The Design Requirements section of your Design Document is a summary of requirements that have been developed during your strategic analysis phase.

• It also draws on past experience by– Describing the existing network (legacy system)

– Lists current applications, protocols, users

– Describes the current performance of the network

Creating Design Teams

• Different skills are required of project leaders through the life of a project.

• In the early stages, the emphasis should be one leadership

• In the latter stages, the emphasis should be on management

Leadership vs Management

Leadership and Management

• Leaders focus on– Vision– Selling what and why– Longer range– People– Democracy– Enabling– Developing– Challenging– Originating– Innovating– Directing– Policy

• Managers focus on– Objectives– Telling how and when– Shorter range– Organisation & structure– Autocracy– Restraining– Maintaining– Conforming– Imitating– Administering– Controlling– Procedures

Leadership and Management cont’d

• Leaders focus on– Flexibility

– Risk (opportunity)

– Top line

• Managers focus on– Consistency

– Risk (avoidance)

– Bottom line

– (Verma, 1996, p. 223)

• Verma, 1996, p. 224 – figure 7.5

• This figure is available as a handout during tutorials Week 6

• Verma, 1996, p. 225 – figure 7.6

• This figure is available as a handout during tutorials Week 6

4 Stages of Team Formation

1. Forming – • Team members polite, guarded and business like

• Team leader should emphasise directive behaviour

2. Storming• Team members confront each other

• Struggle for control

• Members either become entrenched or opt out

• Team leader should emphasise high directive and supportive behaviour

4 Stages of Team Formation

3. Norming – • Members confront issues instead of people• Establish procedures collectively and become team oriented• Team leaders should display high support and low direction

4. Performing• Members settle down to open and productive effort with

trust, flexibility and cohesiveness• Self direction is the consequence• Team leaders must be willing to delegate but must not

withdraw!

Team Composition- Getting the Best Out of Individuals

• It makes sense to develop a team with heterogeneous and complementary skills

• Try to match people’s skills and interests to the kind of tasks they will perform.

Everyone is different!Concrete Experience

Abstract Conceptualisation

Active Experimentation

Reflective Observation

Hans Mary

Ting

Xao

Will

Converger

Diverger

Assimilator

Accommodator

Everyone is Different!

• Converger – preference for active experimentation and abstract conceptualisation, strong in practical application of ideas

• Diverger – preference for concrete experience and reflective observation, strong in imaginative ability, generating ideas

• Assimilator –preference for abstract conceptualisation and reflective observation, strong in creating theoretical models, inductive reasoning

• Accommodator – preference for concrete experience and active experimentation, strong in getting things done, intuitive problem solving

References

• Cisco, 2001, Cisco Academy Networking Program: Second Year Companion Guide, Cisco Press Indianapolis.

• Teare, D. 1999, Designing Cisco Networks, Cisco Press Indianapolis.

• Verma, V. K. 1996, The Human Aspects of Project Management: Human Resource Skills for the Project Manager, Vol. 2, Project management Institute, Sylva, North Carolina.