A design brief is a comprehensive written document for a design project developed jointly by the person representing the business need for the design and the designer. It outlines the aims, objectives and milestones of a design project.
The document should essentially focus on the results and outcomes of the design as well as the business objectives of the design project. It should never attempt to deal with the aesthetics of the design; that responsibility is left for the designer.
An articulate and thorough design brief is an extremely vital component of the design process. The main purpose of this document is for it to serve as an essential point of reference for the designers consequently forming the focus of their work. It not only ensures that the client focuses on exactly what he wants to achieve, but also facilitates the development of trust and understanding between the client and the designer.
A good design brief is one that ensures that the client gets a design that is of high quality, one that exactly meets his needs provided he had the right design to start with. Topics that are supposed to be included in a design brief include corporate profile which is basically a summary of the business and a brief history.
The company’s market position detailing the evaluation of the company’s products and services relative to what is being done by the competition should be included as well in a design brief. The on going activities within the company intended to meet the project’s needs should be included.
Communication background depicting the company’s present and previous communication activities such as advertising and public relations should also be included. Very specific objectives outlining what the client wants to achieve should be included. The target market as well as a realistic timescale should also be included.
Definition of value management
Value management refers to a structured analytical process for developing innovative holistic solutions to complex problems.
Che Mat, (2004) noted that “value management is the rigorous, systematic and innovative methodology with multi disciplinary approach to achieve better value for projects, products, facilities and systems without sacrificing the required performance level”. It is a creative way of working together in achieving a client’s and stakeholder’s requirements.
The Australian department of defense reference book DRB 37 defines value management as the systematic effort directed at identifying the functions of systems, equipment, facilities, procedures and supplies for the purpose of achieving the essential functions at the lowest cost consistent with the needed purpose, performance, reliability and maintainability.
Value management has got the following characteristics:
- A specific methodology.
- It is based upon a creative problem approach.
- Involves key stakeholders in managed team approach.
- It focuses on a function.
- It focuses on achieving value-added solutions.
- It is based upon integration.
- It is focused on project learning.
An organization can reap maximum benefits from value management when it is focused on deriving the most benefits from a total system. What sets value management apart from other approaches to improving value is the systematic analysis of functions.
Value management studies are supposed to be carried out at optimal points in the project lifecycle and designed to meet objectives which are relevant to that stage of the project. Application of value management to projects includes;
- Establishing and analyzing project objectives.
- Analyzing project briefs.
- Optimizing design solutions.
- Conflict resolution.
- Improving communication.
- Developing and analyzing various options to be considered by the executive.
Conventionally, all the parties involved in a project work independently in realizing the proposed project. Value management provides a very effective tool to integrate the diverse range of parties to work as a unit on a common goal while adopting a well structured and elaborate method.
Function analysis is about identifying what things actually do, or what is supposed to be done to achieve the project’s objective. Function analysis allows identification of wastage, duplication of duties and over expenditure thus facilitating the process of value addition.
Apart from enabling value management from exploring the project brief, function analysis also allows for needs and assumptions by the author of the brief to be tested.
Among the significant contributions of value management are that value management promotes systematic thinking hence all activities are carried out methodically. Value management allows for the establishing of customer’s needs.
After the needs have been identified they are prioritized and working on achieving them. Value development helps in promoting team building among those involved in carrying out a project. All participants participate in generation of ideas and feel that they played a part in achieving the goals of the organization.
Definition of six sigma
Six sigma came about as set of practices that were structured to improve the manufacturing process as well as getting rid of defects. It turned out to be extremely successful and within no time its applications were extended to other types of businesses.
Simply put, six sigma refers to any processed output that does not correspond with customer specifications or that could lead to the creation of output that does not meet the client’s specification (Chroeder, 2006).
Motorola’s executive secretary’s criticism of Motorola’s poor quality led to the formulation of six sigma. The company discovered the existence of a relationship between increase in quality and reduction in the cost of production. Conventional wisdom at the time had it that quality was costly. Actually, the opposite was true; increase in quality was much cheaper. Total costs were driven down by reducing costs of repair and control.
Six sigma asserts that it is vital for a company to continuously strive to achieve predictable process result. It affirms that business processes not forgetting manufacturing have distinctions that are both quantifiable and controllable. It also asserted that in order for a company to achieve sustainable quality improvement, everyone who works for that organization has to apply themselves wholeheartedly more so the top level management.
Six sigma can be distinguished from preceding improvement initiatives in a number of ways. Firstly, there is the importance of accomplishing an established fiscal return that can be measured and a second characteristic is that six sigma increases the weight on having a sturdy management system as well as support. The last feature is the obligation to derive an appropriate conclusion having looked into information that is confirmed.
Six sigma refers to a measure of quality that strives for near perfection. It is a disciplined, data-driven approach and methodology for getting rid of defects in any process- from manufacturing to transactional and from products to service. It is a methodology that has its roots in statistics and mathematics.
The objective of six sigma is to lower process output variation over a long period, this will result in no more than 3.4 defects part per million opportunities.
For processes that have got specification limit either lower or upper, it will result in six process standard deviation between the mean of the process and client’s specification limit while for the processes that have two specification limits, both upper and lower, it will result in over six process deviation between the mean and each specification limit in a way that the whole defect rate is consistent with the equivalent of process standard deviation.
References
Chapman, R., 1997. Cost Estimating, Principle Based Project Management. Web.
Che Mat, M., 2004. Improving Project Planning & Implementation Through Value Management. Kuala Lumpur.
Chroeder, R., 2006. Six Sigma: The Breakthrough Management Strategy Revolutionizing the World’s Top Corporations. Sydney: Currency.
Energy World, 2009. SAUDI ARAMCO-DOW – Ras Tanura Integrated Refini. Saudi Arabia. Web.
Janet,T., Means, H., & Tammy, A., 2007. Facilitating the project lifestyle. Project management institute.
Leading Project, 2007. Concept Draw Project. Planning Project Structure. Web.
Martin, J. Loosemore, R. & Tom, U., 2006. Essentials of construction project management. Project management institute.
Sebastian, N., 2009. Definitive guide to project management. Project management institute.