Working with stakeholders — client, operator, regulator, supplier — until the need is unambiguous, then baselining it under formal change control. The output: a requirements specification that can be used to contract a designer or constructor.
Produced the Client Requirements Document Satisfaction Report for TRU Digital, the ETCS resignalling of the Transpennine Route.
If you can't answer these questions, get ready for contract variations in the delivery phase.
As a minimum, verification must be done at the end of detailed design, before starting construction, and after construction, to prove it was built right.
Failing to verify the detailed design against the requirements leads to exponentially more expensive rework once metal has been cut and concrete has been poured. In the worst cases, non-compliances are simply too expensive to fix, your customers are furious, and your company's reputation is in the dirt.
But a compliant design doesn't automatically give you a compliant construction. Deliberate or accidental deviations from the design can have unintended but serious consequences for the safety, functionality and performance of the emergent system. Verifying the construction against the requirements — by inspection, test, demonstration and analysis, against agreed acceptance criteria — is a crucial input to assurance before the system can go into service.
Built and ran the V&V function for Ottawa's Light Rail Transit System, supporting its C$60M and C$202M milestone payments.
Mistakes are made, opportunities arise, risks materialise, technology advances, people move on, budgets are cut (rarely increased). Engineers and project managers face these challenges on a daily basis. How they deal with them makes or breaks careers.
Change must be acknowledged and controlled within the engineering discipline as well as co-ordinated with project management, commercial departments and suppliers. In practice, this means clearly identifying change proposals, having an efficient decision-making process to quickly approve or reject them, and working with contract managers to vary supplier contracts as necessary.
Implemented a Requirements Change Request process on TRU Digital, detailed within the Scope Management Plan.
Structuring everything requirements and V&V have produced against a recognised standard, so an independent assessor can trust the conclusion without redoing the work — built in through stage-gate reviews, not bolted on at the end.
Ensured TRU Digital was compliant with UK ETCS standards under the GB Generic Requirements Suite.
Stakeholder and system requirements, captured at source.
Structured and under formal change management in DOORS.
Matrices confirm the design meets every requirement.
Confirmation, in the real environment, that it's what was needed.
Evidence compiled into a case that stands up to scrutiny.
Most programmes need more than one. A short call will tell you where the risk sits.